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North Korean leader Kim Jong Il regains leadership in the annual rankings the best dictators in the world. The experiments with uranium helped and the fact that the Juche Country is still famous for "the freest society" in the world. The list of 20 most the best totalitarian dictatorships, compiled with the support of human rights organizations, several new names. At the same time, the CIS presidents are rapidly losing their positions.

The American magazine Parade continued the tradition started in 2003 and published a list "the best dictators in the world." The magazine draws up its anti-rating based on materials from human rights organizations (including Freedom House, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders).

By the word "dictator" the magazine understands the following: "this is a living head of state who has practically unlimited power over the inhabitants and cannot legally be removed from his post."

Some of the leaders on the list have noticeably sagged over the year. Not because, however, that they began to rule "more democratically" - but it's a pity, however. It's just that competitors have become even more bloodthirsty.

However, the composition of the first three has not changed for 6 years: it is the "beloved leader" of North Korea Kim Jong Il, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and the head of the military junta in Myanmar, General Tang Shwe.

However, last year and the year before, al-Bashir was "more terrible" than Kim Jong Il. Apparently, the massacre organized by the president in the province of Darfur has managed to be forgotten. In addition, the usual reports of public executions for violating "Sharia law" were virtually non-existent from Sudan last year. A British teacher's death sentence for allowing children to name a teddy bear Mohammed has been overturned.

It is surprising only the third place of General Than Shwe. Fortunately, the media last year were full of reports of the brutal suppression of the uprising of Buddhist monks in Myanmar.

On the fourth step perched the ruler of almost the last absolute monarchy on the planet - King of Saudi Arabia Abdullah ibn Abdulaziz al-Saud. This lover of camel racing and falconry tops, among other things, the list of the richest rulers in the world according to Forbes magazine.

On the eve of the Beijing Olympics, Hu Jintao, Secretary General of the Communist Party of China, took the fifth position (last year it was sixth, earlier it dropped to seventh). This may be due to the fact that, following the results of the last CPC Congress, Comrade Hu noticeably strengthened his position in the PRC party elite.

Finishing sixth was Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, the oldest leader on the list (he is 84 years old). Note that the Zimbabwean has noticeably dipped over the years - a few years ago he even claimed bronze. A lot has happened in these few years. For example, inflation in Zimbabwe has become one of the highest in the world, and the incidence of AIDS has beaten all conceivable indicators.

All this does not detract from the past "merits" of Mugabe. So, he has long turned the reserves in the country into hunting farms, took away all property from the "white occupiers", and allowed members of his tribe to kill members of all other tribes with impunity.

The seventh, eighth and ninth places on the list are occupied respectively by Iranian spiritual leader Syed al-Khamenei, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Uzbek President Islam Karimov.

The latter managed to be re-elected for a third term prohibited by the constitution and offer the same to Vladimir Putin. In addition, Karimov still cannot be forgiven for the events in Andijan, when fire was opened on the participants of an anti-government rally.

Nevertheless, Karimov is losing his positions. So, in 2005 he was even fifth (however, three years ago - 15th). But Pervez Musharraf, thanks to the introduction of a state of emergency in the country and the dispersal of the Constitutional Court, immediately took off by 8 positions. However, having gained positions, the retired general, as you know, is now at risk of losing power.

The spiritual leader of Iran in glasses also noticeably improved, although he was in the shadows all year: instead of him, the head of the executive branch of the Islamic Republic, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, flashed on the screens. They recalled al-Khamenei, perhaps the nuclear program and missile tests.

In 10th place was a newcomer to the top ten - Isaias Afwerk, president of Eritrea, one of the poorest countries in the world. Mr. Afevork managed to join the ranks of the “most cruel” due to the fact that Saparmurat Turkmenbashi Niyazov dropped out of the list for obvious reasons.

There are at least four more African leaders in the rating, whose names will not tell anything to the average layman. These are the president of the oil-producing Equatorial Guinea Teodoro Obiang Nguema (in 13th place), King Mswati III of Swaziland (14th), Prime Minister of Ethiopia Meles Zenawi (15th) and President of Chad Idris Deby, who is now unsuccessfully trying to overthrow (20th -th place). Everyone except Debi is not new to this anti-rating.

On the 11th line, noticeably quieter in last years the leader of the Libyan revolution, Muammar Gaddafi (however, in August, together with Mugabe, he tried to establish the United States of Africa). On the 12th - Syrian President and US allergen Bashar al-Assad. But the 16th position went to the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, who himself knows why he is so disliked.

Line 17 was a surprise. It was perched on by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who has been managing one of the most beloved resorts by Russians for more than a quarter of a century with an “iron fist”.

Another newcomer in 18th position. This is Fidel Castro's brother Raul, who rules Cuba due to the Comandante's illness. However, on Tuesday, Fidel officially resigned, and Raul has every chance of being on the next year's list no longer on the bird's rights.

Closes the twenty, as it was said, the President of Chad, and the General Secretary of the People's Revolutionary Party of Laos Chummali Sayason rose a step above him.

It is noteworthy that, year after year, Parade readers ask for contributions to list of best dictators world leader of Venezuela Hugo Chavez and US President George W. Bush, but their requests remain unheeded.

Sheikh Hasina has the honor, though rather dishonor, of being the only woman on this list. Accused of murder, corruption, extortion, and as a result was repeatedly expelled from her own country.

The defiant activities further tarnished and destabilized Bangladesh. During her absence, the deputy government sought to change everything, but corruption only increased.

In four years, Pol Pot killed from one to 3 million Cambodians, which is equal to almost a quarter of the population of the entire country. It included forced labor camps, ethnic cleansing and irregular fighting -" irregular actions" imply the undisciplined and merciless actions of the Khmer.

Pol Pot ruined the lives of people living in the countryside. City dwellers were moved to villages, especially if they were educated. In his killing fields, Paul ordered the officers not to waste bullets. Decision? Force the prisoners to bury themselves alive.

Bashar al-Assad was studying ophthalmology very hard in England when his brother died. Then his father reminded him of his homeland in Syria, and offered to take his place as a dictator.

Bashar dropped hundreds of bombs on people who decided to overthrow him by force of arms. However, despite the enormous support from abroad, they did not succeed, and Bashar is still the permanent head of Syria. He also tortured dozens of foreigners on suspicion of espionage. In a number of countries, there are a lot of stereotypes about him, in particular, that he lied to the inspectors and carried out acts of ethnic cleansing.

However, at the same time, he became the person who stood in the way ISIS. His army almost single-handedly fought the Sunni terrorist " state" for many years.

At one of the official dinners, Bashar announced that his country and North Korea - " among the few countries that have true independence". He also stated that the book " 50 shades of grey"is the second masterpiece of literature after Shakespeare, and elephants are beavers in disguise. Okay, in fact, the last statement is a lie, although it sounds as strange as other gossip that has shaped the image of a bloody dictator.

Joseph Stalin took over the leadership of the Soviet Union after Lenin's death, winning the political race. He turned agriculture into a communist way and killed peasants who refused to rent land.

He kept the state in a tight grip and increased influence through the secret services. They were allowed to kill, imprison, follow anyone. Stalin even authorized citizens to follow and report on each other in order to rid the Union of unwanted persons.

Stalin ordered the execution of Leon Trotsky, who nicknamed him " comrade file cabinet". The nickname refers to Joseph's inability to memorize speeches. Stalin can be found among 8 dictators who were worse than Hitler.

As punishment, Genghis Khan would kill your family, your family's family, and even your family's family's family if you betrayed him. And this is not the worst.

The worst thing is that he was very smart. He was able to win an unimaginable number of battles in which the army was outnumbered. A trick helped to do this: one of the most famous tricks is to put stuffed animals on horses so that the enemies think that he has more strength.

Genghis Khan was incredibly ruthless. For example, he brutally killed his stepbrother when he refused to share food. In general, he killed about 10% of the population of the empire at that time.

Guy Julius Caesar, known by the nickname Caligula, was a psycho, and perhaps this is the reason for his many ... eccentricities.

Here are some examples of such eccentricities":

• appointed a horse as a priest;
• spoke to Luna, or at least tried to;
• executed thousands of people for no reason, usually for fun;
• built a 3-kilometer floating bridge (of course, on a dare).

Not surprisingly, he was killed by a Roman senator after deciding to leave Rome permanently and move towards Egypt, where he planned to put himself forward as a living god.

Dictators do not come to power without their own narrow circle of advisers, and Raphael wisely created one. Although, if you think about it, not so wise - he chose his 3-year-old son as a colonel. Trujillo took over in the Dominican Republic after training with the US Marine Corps.

He orchestrated the killing of thousands of civilians, many of whom were Haitians. Apparently, he considered it a means of quenching the thirst for blood. Many of the murders were determined by the victim's pronunciation test " R" to determine if they are " real Dominicans". Well, what a sadist ...

Responsible for the deaths of 300,000 citizens, tens of thousands of white missionaries and the collapse of the Ugandan economy after all these events, as well as the expulsion of the entire Asian population, Idi Amin cannot be called a cool guy. He was mentally unstable and showed signs of bipolar disorder. In one minute he could look very joyful and happy, but after a moment he turned into a maniac and a cannibal - there was a rumor that he ate people.

Amin lied to the country, saying that he conquered Great Britain after she broke off diplomatic relations with him. After the announcement of the victory, his self-proclaimed title " His Excellency, President of Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Dr. Idi Amin Dada, Lord of All the Animals on Land and All the Fish in the Water, Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular"It got a little longer.

Movie " Dictator"was inspired by outlandish style and despotic tendencies, which shows how ridiculous and merciless Gaddafi is. In 1969, he led a coup that gave him power, and later blackmailed all the oil producers in the country to give him even more money.

Being with money, he underwent plastic surgery in hopes of becoming younger, built a mansion, and traveled around living in a bulletproof tent. Apart from his two wives, he was rumored to have close relationships with several bodyguards who were (ironically) virgin girls.

Vladimir Lenin was expelled from an educational institution for participating in protests against the tsar. Unlike other protesters, he succeeded, all thanks to the establishment of the Bolshevik regime after the October Revolution. Lenin said that he adored Marx.

This love led to a decrease in the population of Russia by almost half a million, through the so-called Red Terror. His opponents, in turn, responded with the White Terror, which led to an even greater reduction. Lenin was assassinated several times.

Roberg Mugabe is a former teacher, which partly explains one of Zimbabwe's highest literacy rates. But he, unfortunately, like many dictators, is a vile liar. Mugabe persecuted and expelled white people from the country in 2000, having previously made some constitutional amendments that allowed this. After these events, the country plunged into poverty, and the people were starving, as many white people in Zimbabwe were plantation owners.

Those who like the comparison of Mugabe with Hitler are complete psychos. And Mugabe is one of them. Mugabe said: I am the Hitler of this time. I pursue only one goal: justice for the people, sovereignty for the people, recognition of the independence of the people and their right to their own resources. If it's Hitler then let me be Hitler ten times".

Saparmurat Niyazov is slightly less guilty of atrocities than the rest of the dictators on the list, but he deserves a place on it. Countless absurd rules and changes in daily routine would make the entire Turkmen people despise him, if only he did not threaten them for such actions. He also provided the people with free food, which softens his leadership a little.

In addition to declaring himself the father of all Turkmens and president for life, Niyazov demanded daily obeisance from the people in a variety of unthinkable ways. He renamed days of the week, months, entire cities, even the word " bread and family members. His face was present on all the country's banknotes, channel news, almost on every corner, so that people know who their leader is.

Here are just some of the strange changes, ideas and practices:

• rewrote the anthem to praise his name;
• created a new alphabet for the country;
• banned makeup, recorded music, and metropolitan dogs;
• forced foreigners to pay for marriage with Turkmen women;
• all cases of shooting at someone were on national television;
• wanted to build an ice palace... in the desert.

Niyazov won every election, putting political rivals in jail. He demanded to write a book that would say how good he is. Niyazov stayed at the post" president"Turkmenistan from 1985 until his death in 2006.

Mao Tse-tung is considered a dictator who killed most of his people. Most of them were killed ostensibly by accident, by introducing ridiculous ideas. For example, he said that he was well versed in agriculture, and crops needed to be planted closer to each other. Closer planted - more harvest, right? Not right. His " ingenious The plan to grow cereals led to the death of 40 million people from starvation.

Kim Jong Il was incredibly narcissistic and crazy. Having come to power, he lived in luxury, while the country was starving, and thousands of people were thrown into concentration camps. The true depths of madness, despotism are unknown to the world because of the deep secrets of the country.

However, some facts of his uncertainty are known. He wore platform shoes while performing and spread the word that his style was being copied all over the world. Kim also revealed incredible false facts about himself to his people:

• he does not defecate;
• he could control the weather;
• he invented the hamburger;
• he had the best round of golf in the world.

When he died, he was replaced by a carbon copy of himself, which perfectly showed that he was a small copy of his father. Kim Jong Il ruled North Korea from 1997 until his death in 2011.

Hitler is so terrible that his name has become synonymous with the word " devil". All because he is the perpetrator of a huge genocide. Responsible for the Second World War and the Holocaust, Hitler is perhaps the worst person in history. Pay attention to 10 amazing facts about Adolf Hitler.

Hitler was obsessed with himself and the idealized vision of white people. He just wanted to climb to the top of the wave in the pose of a poster boy, painting his beautiful self. What a pity that he draws badly. If he had not been kicked out of art school, the story would have been different.

In this video, we present you the 10 most cruel rulers in history.

The political system of many countries of the world is far from ideal. More than 40 states live at the whim of cruel rulers who do not consider the population and crave only unlimited power. The ruthlessness of dictators is the root cause of economic crises, the division of territories, human deaths. We present to your attention 23 rulers who profit by plundering the state treasury, replenishing accounts in foreign banks, having plenty of fun and turning a blind eye to the sometimes plight of the working people.

Kim Jong Il, North Korea (in power - 17 years)

He is compared to Stalin because of the policy of deification. When Kim Jong Il was at the helm, the personality cult of a single ruler reigned in North Korea. Any criticism against him was not only suppressed, but also punished by imprisonment in a concentration camp (today, after his death, about 200 thousand people still languish in the dungeons). The great helmsman, writer, architect, composer ... Songs and poems are composed in his honor, fireworks are arranged, and the leader's birthday is a public holiday in North Korea. This usurper dictator put his people in harsh conditions of survival, keeping them in constant fear (public executions, torture, slavery) on the verge of starvation and poverty.

Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe (30 years old)

The former leader of the liberation movements, who gradually turned into a bloody tyrant. Mugabe repeatedly ordered the arrest and torture of members of the opposition, brought the economy of his country to collapse and a billion-dollar deficit, managed to make a small fortune for himself by manipulating exchange rates and using offshore accounts.

Tan Shwe, Myanmar (18 years old)

The heartless militarist Shwe actually destroyed the opposition, refused to accept foreign humanitarian aid for his people after the devastating Cyclone Nargis in 2008, actively supports the country's "black" market, which sells off the country's main wealth - natural gas.

Omar Hassan al-Bashir, Sudan (21 years old)

A religious fanatic with delusions of grandeur, Al-Bashir, is accused by the International Criminal Court of committing a number of war crimes, religious and ethnic genocide, and the slave trade. Omar al-Bashir, according to the American magazine "Parade", for 2005 ranked first in the ten worst dictators of our time.

Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedov, Turkmenistan (4 years)

The successor to the eccentric Saparmurat Niyazov, he continued the path of his predecessor, explaining his authoritarian actions by his "extraordinary outward resemblance to Niyazov." Berdymukhammedov is ranked fifth out of the 23 worst dictators in the world by The Foreign Policy magazine. Today, his reforms in Turkmenistan can only be called superficial and incomplete, and the strengthening of the president's control over all aspects of life in the republic is becoming more and more clear. He hangs his portraits all over the country, manipulates the constitution to gain a foothold in power, and keeps more than half of the country's population below the poverty line despite all of Turkmenistan's oil and gas wealth.

Isaias Afewerki, Eritrea (17 years old)

Having led the liberation war for the independence of Eritrea from Ethiopia, Afewerki became a leader and usurped power by rejecting the electoral system, in fact destroyed the media, banned the national press, and limited democratic freedoms. Violations of human rights are manifested in the policy of arbitrary arrests and brutal torture against their own citizens, in the introduction of indefinite military service. Appalling prison conditions, forced labor and severe restrictions on freedom of movement, expression and religion.

Islam Karimov, Uzbekistan (20 years)

The ruthless criminal Karimov banned all opposition parties and sent more than 6,000 "political criminals" to prison. He labels anyone who dares question the legitimacy of his rule as an "Islamic fundamentalist." The Karimov regime is infamous for its use of horrendous torture (in particular, boiling water boilers) and the forced treatment in a psychiatric hospital of those who disagree with his political line. However, the president's troops are also wreaking havoc outside of prisons, including the massacre of peaceful demonstrators in 2005 after minor social unrest in Andijan.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran (5 years)

Provocateur, stubborn and traitor to the liberation idea of ​​the Iranian Islamic revolution. To spite the West and contrary to international law, Ahmadinejad continues to actively develop his nuclear program. He is responsible for numerous crimes, most recently the dispersal of rallies protesting against the dubious 2009 elections, which many believe Ahmadinejad lost.

Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia (19 years old)

The "successor" of the dictator he overthrew, Zenawi, has surpassed him in authoritarianism, systematically destroying his opposition and openly rigging the results of national elections. Like any ambitious leader, Zenawi does not forget about his own pocket, transferring millions of dollars to his foreign accounts, spending them, in particular, on acquiring estates in the US and London in the name of his wife. The source of the lion's share of this money is Ethiopia's annual humanitarian aid.

Hu Jintao, China (7 years)

Despot Jintao smiles graciously at foreign investors and severely punishes any manifestation of political disobedience. A true Chinese politician, cunning and cunning, having learned the lessons of the past, used all means in the struggle for power. Hu Jintao's costs of creating a "harmonious society" were very high. Despite the fact that a very impressive amount was spent on internal security, the number of mass incidents, large-scale protests and riots against the regime has increased significantly. During the 10-year rule of Hu Jintao, the Chinese economy became unstable. Labor costs have risen, natural resources have been depleted, the quality of goods leaves much to be desired, and the environment is deplorable.

Muammar al-Gaddafi, Libya (age 41)

An eccentric egomaniac who earned himself a not very respectable reputation both for his angry, meaningless speeches and for his highly controversial political course. Al-Gaddafi leads a police state, which he runs according to his Green Book code, which spells out ways to solve the "problems of democracy." Having once overthrown the monarchical regime with the support of the people, he managed to subjugate the entire country. If at the beginning of his political career he stood up for social justice, people's freedom, opposed corruption and bureaucracy, then he subsequently abolished the presidency, the government, the premiership, the parliament, and local authorities in Libya, and instead of all this he introduced the Jamahiriya - the state masses, where people's committees of different levels ruled.

Bashar al-Assad, Syria (10 years)

The ambitious despot al-Assad has spent billions of dollars on Lebanese and Iraqi projects, while virtually ignoring the needs of his own people. However, bloated security agencies help him maintain a distance from his citizens. Terror is the basis of the autocrat's domestic policy. More than 5,000 Syrians die in the country every month. The International Criminal Court accuses Bashar of a number of war crimes.

Idris Deby, Chad (20 years old)

Having overthrown the unscrupulous dictator-predecessor, Debi is now sinning unrepentantly himself: he is investing huge amounts of money not in social programs, but in strengthening his army, building security structures.

Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, Equatorial Guinea (31 years old)

In fact, Nguema and his family members are the main shareholders of the economy of Equatorial Guinea. Thanks to the country's rich oil resources, its GDP is comparable to that of many European countries, but in reality all the funds go into Nguema's pocket while his people are forced to drag out an extremely miserable existence. Oil proceeds are considered a "state secret".

Hosni Mubarak, Egypt (29 years old)

A paranoid autocrat who seeks to retain power by any means. The emergency legislation signed by him excludes even the possibility of the existence of an opposition. Mubarak is preparing his son Jamal to continue his work.

Yahya Jammeh, Gambia (16 years old)

An eccentric warlord sworn to rule for over forty years and claims to have invented a cure for hepatitis and AIDS. Narcissistic Jammeh considers himself a great magician, able to control human destinies. Only frightened by the popular protest and accusations of the International Criminal Court, he abandoned his intentions to execute all criminals sentenced to death.

Hugo Chavez, Venezuela (11 years old)

He concentrated all power, depriving the opposition movements of any independence, extended the terms of presidential rule and banned all independent media.

Blaise Compaore, Burkina Faso (age 23)

A despot consolidating his power. The ruler and the Minister of Defense of the country in one person hastily left his native city, saving his own skin from the raging military.

Yoweri Museveni, Uganda (24 years old)

After the popular liberation uprising he led won in 1986, Museveni declared that "in Africa, no head of state should govern for more than ten years." Twenty-four years have passed, and he is still at the helm. And although the electoral process itself cannot be faulted in any way, its emphasized legality does not fit in with the ban on political meetings of even small groups of people.

Paul Kagame, Rwanda (10 years)

The liberator who saved the Wathutsi people from destruction in 1994 has turned into a brutal tyrant who promotes ethnic apartheid. His Rwandan Patriotic Front holds all the levers of power in his hands: law enforcement, civil services, courts, banks, universities and public corporations. Anyone who opposes the will of the president is labeled as a hate-monger or separatist and arrested.

Raul Castro, Cuba (2 years)

Brother Castro, who suffers from astigmatism, unfortunately does not understand that the "revolution" he led after his predecessor retired has long been seen as a terrible failure. He blames Cuba's problems on foreign instigators, whose activities, he says, justify the need for extremely brutal repression.

Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus (16 years old)

"The last dictator of Europe" Lukashenko, former chairman of the collective farm, the first and only president of the Republic of Belarus. As a result of his policies, the country is becoming more and more authoritarian, the opposition is being suppressed, and independent media are being banned. Lukashenko has created a personal dictatorship by monitoring potential threats through his own version of the KGB.

Paul Biya, Cameroon (28 years old)

Constantly getting into the rating of the worst dictators in the world, he openly declares that, despite the restrictions in the constitution, he will rule the country for life. He closed all opposition media, and put his former political rival in jail forever. For all the time of his reign, he managed to put together a capital in the amount of two hundred million US dollars. The overly self-confident bandit has repeatedly extended the term of his rule by law.

Throughout human history, many evil and infamous leaders have fought for power. While many politicians wanted to improve the lives of the people, others pursued only their own interests.

Their selfish goals led to gross abuses of power that resulted in the death of many people. We present to your attention the 25 most brutal dictators in the history of mankind.

1. Herod the Great

Herod the Great is the same Herod mentioned in the Bible. He slaughtered many male children when he learned that the messiah was born into the world - Jesus Christ, who was named king. Herod could not stand the competition, so he ordered the babies to be killed, but Jesus was not among them.

The ancient historian Josephus recorded his other sinful deeds, including the murder of his three sons, his most beloved of 10 wives, the drowning of a priest, the murder of his legitimate mother, and, as the legend says, many Jewish leaders.

When the Roman emperor Nero came to power after the death of his stepfather, he gradually orchestrated the carnage. First, he killed his mother, Agrippina the Younger, and then he killed two of his wives. Finally, he decided to burn the whole of Great Rome just to watch it burn and then rebuild it. After things calmed down, he blamed the fire on the Christians and they were persecuted, tortured and killed. In the end, he committed suicide.

3. Saddam Hussein

Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein ruled the country with an iron fist. During his reign, he deliberately invaded Iran and Kuwait. By the time Saddam became president, Iraq was a booming country with one of the highest living standards in the Middle East. But the two wars that the new leader provoked brought the Iraqi economy into a state of acute crisis and decline. By his order, all his friends, enemies and relatives were killed. He gave orders to kill and rape the children of his competitors. In 1982, he murdered 182 Shiite civilians. On October 19, 2005, the trial of the former Iraqi president began. Especially for him, the death penalty was reintroduced in the country.

4. Pope Alexander VI

The Vatican papacy showed us long ago that some popes are very evil and cruel rulers, but the most evil of them was Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia). He was not a devout Catholic, but only a secular pope who used power to achieve his goals.

In his youth, he did not constrain himself with vows of chastity and celibacy. He had many mistresses. And with one of them, the rich Roman woman Vanozza dei Cattanei, he was in touch for many years and had four children from her, the most famous of which are Cesare Borgia and Lucretia - ambitious, unprincipled, power-hungry and voluptuous young people. By the way, the Pope cohabited with his beautiful daughter Lucretia and, according to rumors, it was he who was the father of her son.

He staged orgies and confiscated money from the rich to finance his riotous lifestyle. On August 18, 1503, the Pope died in terrible agony from poison.

5. Muammar Gaddafi

Muammar Gaddafi did everything he could while he was the political leader of Libya. He liquidated all political opposition, declaring it illegal. Banned entrepreneurship and freedom of speech. All books that did not suit him were burned. Despite the huge economic potential of Libya, many economic experts have recognized the decline of the country, as Gaddafi squandered most financial resources. His reign is considered one of the most brutal and totalitarian eras in North African history.

Muammar Gaddafi was killed on October 20, 2011 near the city of Sirte. His convoy, while trying to leave the city, came under attack from NATO aircraft.

6. Fidel Castro

Before the reign of Fidel Castro, Cuba was a prosperous country with a rich economy, but as soon as Castro overthrew Fulgencio Batista in 1959, all this collapsed under the yoke of despotic communist rule. Over 500 political opponents were shot in two years. According to experts, during the 50 years of Fidel Castro's rule, thousands of people were executed. Newspapers were not printed at that time. Priests, homosexuals and other people objectionable to the new government served time in camps. Freedom of speech has been abolished. The people had no rights. 90% of people lived below the poverty line.

7. Caligula

Gaius Julius Caesar or Caligula, whose name has become synonymous with cruelty, madness and evil, is known throughout the world. He declared himself God, slept with his sisters, had many wives, which he was very proud of, and did many other immoral things. Caesar was spending money on luxurious things while his own people were starving. Caligula terrorized ancient Rome with his unbridled madness, talked to the moon and tried to appoint his horse as a consul. The biggest evil he did was to give the order to saw innocent people in half during one of his sumptuous feasts.

8. King John

King John the Landless is considered one of the worst kings in British history. He is best known for being first landless and then a king without a kingdom. Sensual, lazy, lustful, cruel, treacherous, immoral - this is his portrait.

When his enemies came to him, John threw them into the castle and starved them to death. In order to build a huge army and navy, he taxed England heavily, took land from the nobles and imprisoned them, and tortured the Jews until they paid him the right amount. The king died of a terrible fever.

9. Empress Wu Zetian

Wu Zetian is one of the few female leaders in ancient history and history in general. Her life is very remarkable. Becoming the emperor's concubine at the age of 13, she eventually became empress herself. After the death of the emperor, the heir to the throne, realized that he could not do without the faithful Wu Zetian and introduced her to his harem, which became a sensation for that time. Some time passed, and in 655 Gaozong officially recognized Wu Zetian as his wife. This meant that now it was she who was the main wife.

She was a mean schemer. On her orders, they killed, for example, her husband's uncle. Anyone who dared to go against her was immediately killed. At the end of her life, she was overthrown from the throne. She was treated better than she herself had dealt with her enemies, and was allowed to die a natural death.

10. Maximilian Robespierre

The architect of the French Revolution and the author of The Reign of Terror, Maximilian Robespierre, constantly spoke of the overthrow of the king and the uprising against the aristocracy. Elected to the Committee of General Salvation, Robespierre unleashed a bloody terror, which was marked by many arrests, the murder of 300,000 alleged enemies, of which 17,000 were executed by guillotine. Soon the Convention decided to prosecute Robespierre and his supporters. They tried to organize resistance in the Paris City Hall, but were captured by troops loyal to the Convention, and executed a day later.

11. Go Amin

General Idi Amin deposed elected official Milton Obote and declared himself President of Uganda in 1971. He imposed a brutal regime on the country that lasted eight years, expelled 70,000 Asians, slaughtered 300,000 civilians, and ultimately brought the country to economic ruin. He was overthrown in 1979 but never answered for his crimes. Idi Amin died in Saudi Arabia on 16 August 2003 at the age of 75.

12. Timur

Born in 1336, Timur, known to many as Tamerlane, became a tyrant and bloodthirsty conqueror of Asia in the Middle East. He was able to conquer some corners of Russia and even occupied Moscow, led an uprising in Persia, being several thousand kilometers away. He did all this by destroying cities, exterminating the population and building towers from their corpses. In India or Baghdad, wherever he was, everything was accompanied by massacres, destruction and thousands of people killed.

Genghis Khan was a ruthless Mongol warlord who was successful in his conquests. He ruled one of the largest empires in history. But, of course, he paid a high price for this. He was responsible for the deaths of 40 million people. His battles reduced the world's population by 11%!

14. Vlad Tepes

Vlad Tepes is better known by a different name - Count Dracula. He notoriously became famous for his sadistic torture of enemies and civilians, among which the most terrible is the piercing of the anus. Dracula impaled living people. Once he invited a lot of vagabonds to the palace, locked them in the palace and set them on fire. He also nailed caps to the heads of the Turkish ambassadors, which they refused to take off in front of him.

The grandson of Ivan the Great, Ivan the Terrible brought Russia to Unity, but during his reign he received the nickname Grozny for the many reforms and terrors carried out. From childhood, Ivan had a bad temper, he really liked torturing animals. After becoming king, he carried out a series of peaceful political reforms. But when his wife died, he fell into a deep depression, and then the era of the Great Terror began. He seized land, created a police force to fight dissent. Many nobles were blamed for the death of his wife. He beat his pregnant daughter, killed his son in a fit of rage, and blinded the architect of St. Basil's Cathedral.

Attila - the great leader of the Huns, who highly valued gold. All his raids were accompanied by robberies, destruction and rape. Desiring absolute power, he killed his own brother Bled. One of the great invasions of his army is the city of Naisus. It was so terrible that for many years the corpses blocked the road to the flow of the Danube River. Once Attila stabbed deserters through the rectum and ate two of his own sons.

17. Kim Jong Il

Kim Jong Il is one of the most "successful" dictators along with Joseph Stalin. When he came to power in 1994, he was left with an impoverished North Korea with a starving population. Instead of helping his people, he spent all his money on building the world's fifth largest military base, while millions of people were starving to death. He deceived the United States by not giving them his nuclear developments. According to him, he has created a unique nuclear weapon and is terrorizing South Korea with threats. Kim Jong Il supported the American bombing of Vietnam, where many South Korean officials were killed and civilians were massacred.

18. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Lenin was the first leader of revolutionary Soviet Russia, adhering to the ideology of overthrowing the monarchy and turning Russia into a totalitarian state. His Red Terror - a set of punitive measures against class social groups - is known throughout the world. Among the social groups there were many repressed peasants, industrial workers, priests who opposed the Bolshevik government. In the first months of terror, 15,000 people died, many priests and monks were crucified.

Leopold II, King of the Belgians, was nicknamed the Butcher of the Congo. His army captured the Congo Basin and terrorized the local population. He himself had never been to the Congo, but on his orders 20 million people were killed there. He often showed his military the hands of the rebellious workers. The period of his reign was marked by the devastation of the state treasury. King Leopold II died at the age of 75.

Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge movement, is put on a par with Hitler. During his reign in Cambodia, which is less than four years, more than 3,500,000 people were killed. His policy was as follows: the path to a happy life lies through the rejection of modern Western values, the destruction of cities that carry a pernicious infection, and the re-education of their inhabitants. This ideology marked the beginning of the creation of concentration camps, the destruction of the local population in the regions and their actual eviction.

21. Mao Zedong

The head of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, Mao Zedong, took over China with the help of the Soviet army, founding the PRC, and until his death was its leader. He carried out many land reforms, which were accompanied by the theft of large plots of land from landowners through violence and terror. Critics always came across his path, but he quickly cracked down on dissent. His so-called "Great Leap Forward" led to a population famine from 1959 to 1961 that killed 40 million people.

22. Osama Bin Laden

Osama bin Laden is one of the most notorious terrorists in human history. He was the leader of the al-Qaeda terrorist group, which carried out a number of attacks on the United States. These included the 1998 bombing of the US embassy in Kenya, where 300 civilians were killed, and the September 11 air attacks on the World Trade Center in America, which killed 3,000 civilians. Many of his orders were carried out by suicide bombers.

23. Emperor Hirohito

Emperor Hirohito was one of the bloodiest rulers in Japanese history. His most important crime against humanity is the massacre in Nanjing, which took place in the second Sino-Japanese war, where thousands of people were killed and raped. In the same place, the emperor's troops carried out monstrous experiments on people, as a result of which more than 300,000 people died. The emperor, despite his power, never stopped the bloody lawlessness of his troops.

24. Joseph Stalin

Another controversial figure in history is Joseph Stalin. During his reign, all large land plots were under his control. Millions of farmers who refused to give up their plots were simply killed, which led to a great famine throughout Russia. During the era of his totalitarian regime, a secret police flourished, calling on citizens to spy on each other. As a result of this policy, millions of people were killed or sent to the Gulag. More than 20,000,000 people were killed as a result of his brutal tyrannical rule.

25. Adolf Hitler

Hitler is the most famous, evil and destructive leader in human history. His speeches full of anger and hatred, his senseless invasion of European and African countries, the genocide of millions of Jews, his murder and torture, rape and execution of people in concentration camps, plus countless other known and unknown atrocities, make Hitler the most cruel ruler of all times and peoples. . In all, historians attribute the deaths of the Nazi regime to more than 11,000,000 people.

The American magazine "Parade" published an annual list of the most ferocious dictators of our time. This kind of hit parade has been maintained by the journalists of the publication since 2003. This year the list has been expanded to 20 positions. The "list of honor" of the odious top officials who trample on human rights includes not only the traditional "world scoundrels", but also the presidents of some republics of the former USSR.

The data on which Parade staff base their list is provided primarily by human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, Reporters Without Borders and Amnesty International. When drafting, violations of such human rights as freedom of the press, the right to disseminate information and freedom of assembly and rallies are taken into account. Attention is also drawn to how the ruler treats the opposition.

"Parade" defines the concept of "dictator" as follows: a head of state who arbitrarily controls the lives of his citizens and cannot be removed from power by legal means. It is worth noting that this statement is not true of all those whom "Parade" considered dictators. The monarchs of Saudi Arabia or Swaziland can really be removed from the throne only with the help of a coup, but the presidents or prime ministers of some other states can formally leave their post, for example, by losing elections or resigning. Another thing is that they win the elections, they win confidently, but they cannot retire, because they, tearfully begging the head of state, do not let go of the reins of government. And dictators, reluctantly, stand at the helm of the state until the very end.

The summary table of dictators from 2003 to 2006 according to "Parade" is as follows.

1	Kim Jong Il (DPRK)	Kim Jong Il (DPRK)	Omar al-Bashir (Sudan)	Omar al-Bashir (Sudan)
2		Than Shwe (Burma)	Kim Jong Il (DPRK)	Kim Jong Il (DPRK)
3	Saddam Hussein (Iraq)	Hu Jintao (PRC)	Than Shwe (Burma)	Than Shwe (Burma)
4	Charles Taylor (Liberia)	Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe)	Hu Jintao (PRC)	Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe)
5	Than Shwe (Burma)	King Abdullah (Saudi Arabia)	King Abdullah (Saudi Arabia)	Islam Karimov(Uzbekistan)
6		Teodoro Obiang Nguema (Equatorial Guinea)	Muammar Gaddafi (Libya)	Hu Jintao (PRC)
7	Saparmurat Niyazov (Turkmenistan)	Omar al-Bashir (Sudan)	Pervez Musharraf (Pakistan)	King Abdullah (Saudi Arabia)
8	Muammar Gaddafi (Libya)	Saparmurat Niyazov (Turkmenistan)	Saparmurat Niyazov (Turkmenistan)	Saparmurat Niyazov (Turkmenistan)
9	Fidel Castro (Cuba)	Fidel Castro (Cuba)	Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe)	Ayatollah Khamenei (Iran)
10	Alexander Lukashenko (Belarus)	King Mswati III (Swaziland)	Teodoro Obiang Nguema (Equatorial Guinea)	Teodoro Obiang Nguema (Equatorial Guinea)

Top three

As can be seen from the table, tyrants and stranglers, who occupied the first three places in 2005, did not give up their positions. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who has been in office since 1989, is considered the world's main dictator for the second year in a row. He first made the list in 2004 (7th place) and skyrocketed, displacing others from first place. According to human rights organizations, Sudan is currently on the verge of a humanitarian crisis. With the sanction of Bashir in the west of the country in 2003, the persecution of citizens on ethnic and religious grounds began. Fighting between government troops and rebels claimed the lives of 180 thousand people, another 2 million fled the war. Now the conflict in Darfur has formally ended, but the situation in the province remains extremely difficult, as the state has stepped up pressure on the refugee camps.

"Silver medalist", the head of North Korea Kim Jong Il, can rightfully be called a favorite - he has been in the top three since 2003. The regime he established in North Korea is considered one of the most brutal on the planet. There is no freedom of speech in the country, and other political and civil liberties for the citizens of the Land of the Morning Calm are still an unrealizable dream.

Third place goes to General Than Shwe, who has ruled Burma since 1992. The country ranks first in the world in the number of children who are used as soldiers, as well as free labor, including in clandestine state-sponsored drug factories. In addition, political opposition is being severely suppressed in Burma - Nobel Peace Prize winner Ang Su Kee has been under house arrest for a long time. Lesser known Burmese oppositionists are serving long terms in concentration camps.

African dictator, absolute monarch and authoritarian president

Robert Mugabe, president of Zimbabwe for over a quarter of a century, is number four on the charts. Compared to 2005, this is a leap forward - last year, the permanent leader of this African country was in 9th place. His rating has risen, not least because in 2005, a former school teacher and professional revolutionary, followed by a complete collapse.

Inflation in Zimbabwe has topped 600 percent, out of a population of 12 million, 4 are starving and 80 percent are unemployed. In terms of the rate of growth of AIDS in Africa, Zimbabwe is second only to neighboring South Africa. Mugabe still tolerates opposition, but does not forget to put a spoke in her wheels.

The list also includes a monarch who has been in the top ten tyrants since 2003. This is King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, who has actually ruled the country since 1995, when his brother Fadh had a stroke. According to Reporters Without Borders, Saudi Arabia in terms of freedom of the press can only be compared with the DPRK. In addition, the kingdom is an Islamic state, and, accordingly, violates the right to freedom of religion. However, Abdullah is included in the list of dictators rather by tradition - after all, Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy, which means that it simply cannot be a democratic country in fact. And where there is no democracy, according to Western human rights activists, tyranny will immediately triumph.

Hu Jintao, President of China since 2002, is, like his fellows on the list, a favorite target for Human Rights Watch. Human rights activists believe that China holds between 250,000 and 300,000 political prisoners. In addition, China still cannot be forgiven for the forcible annexation of Tibet, the execution on Tiananmen Square, as well as the brutal pacification of the national outskirts, in particular the suppression of the Uighur separatists from Xinjiang. Freedom of speech in China, from the point of view of the West, is in its infancy: there are no private radio stations in the country, and the media, including the Internet, are tightly controlled.

New faces and tinned veterans

A new person on the list, compared to previous years, was the spiritual leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei. He fell into the company of world outcasts, in all likelihood, because of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The latter in 2005 managed to become famous all over the world. Since the actual power in the Islamic Republic of Iran belongs to the Board of Trustees, consisting of 12 members, headed by Khamenei, human rights activists have every reason to believe that Ahmadinejad's words and deeds are led by a stern ayatollah. In Iran, freedom of speech is not encouraged, women's rights are violated, and the political opposition is forced to hide outside the country - at least, human rights activists believe so.

But another person with good reason can be called a long-liver of the hit parade. This is the permanent president of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema. He has ruled the country since 1979. As usual in Africa, Nguema brought all the opposition to the root, took all the media under total control, and brought the country to extreme impoverishment. At the same time, Equatorial Guinea is a country in which the richest oil deposits are located. However, all proceeds from its sale go into the pocket of the president personally. In addition to the traditional violation of freedoms, Equatorial Guinea is known in Africa as a state with the most terrible prisons - such a concept as the rights of prisoners has simply never been heard in the country.

The 2006 list includes two leaders of the former Soviet republics. However, if the first, Saparmurat Niyazov, is constantly in the top ten tyrants, then the second, Islam Karimov, was honored to be in the company of the most sinister dictators for the first time.

Karimov, like some of his colleagues in post-Soviet rule, has been in charge of the country since 1990. The West almost always blamed the Uzbek president for turning the country into a large concentration camp. However, the appearance of Karimov in the hit parade is due to what happened in May 2005. Then, according to various estimates, from 200 to 700 people died. World human rights activists consider the events in Andijan to be anti-government demonstrations and accuse the Uzbek authorities of hiding the truth about the executions of demonstrators. Another circumstance that makes it possible to enroll Karimov as a dictator is the adoption in 2003 of a law according to which the president and his family are exempted from any prosecution for all the acts they have committed.

The father of the nation, the supreme ruler of Turkmenistan, philosopher and author of the book "Rukhnama", sacred for the population of the country, Saparmurat Niyazov has been firmly registered in the list of the "Parade" magazine since 2003. The West compares Turkmenistan to the Stalinist USSR - a cult of personality flourishes in the country, a repressive judicial system operates, and laws are written in accordance with the wishes of Turkmenbashi. In Turkmenistan, according to human rights activists, culture is being destroyed - national parks, rural libraries and the opera house are closed. In addition, in Turkmenistan, according to the opposition, fantastic high level unemployment, and any dissatisfaction with the status quo is regarded as high treason and severely punished.

Second echelon

This year the list of "Parade" has been expanded to 20 positions. The second ten included rulers whose authoritarian style of government is not in doubt, but, compared to the leaders in the Top 10, they are considered less ferocious. For example, the permanent head of the Libyan Jamahiriya, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, took 11th place, and in 2005 he was in 6th position in the top ten. It may have played a role that Libya abandoned the development of weapons of mass destruction and opened its oil fields to foreign companies.

The leader of Libya is followed by King Mswati III of Swaziland, the only absolute monarch in Africa. In fact, Mswati did not stain himself with bloody crimes, but world public opinion does not like the fact that the monarch makes a personal fortune, while 70 percent of his subjects live on $ 1 a day. And of course, the fact that Swaziland is perhaps the only country in Africa that does not have a constitution at all.

The 13th and 18th places are "sworn friends": Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki and Ethiopian leader Meles Zenawi. These two countries have been at war with each other for many years over a patch of rocky desert. In both countries, protests by opposition supporters are brutally suppressed, the constitution is violated en masse, but international organizations can do nothing about it. Eritrea recently expelled UN peacekeepers from the country. Both countries are the poorest in North Africa.

The 14th place was given by the editors of "Parade" to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. He is called the last dictator of Europe, accusing him of persecuting political opponents and building a totalitarian state in which. The "Father" is followed by the most important political long-liver Comandante Fidel Castro, who has ruled Cuba for 47 years, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf.

The reasons why they were included in this list are understandable. Without Castro, whom the United States accuses of all mortal sins except, perhaps, the creation of nuclear weapons, such a list is simply unthinkable. Bashar al-Assad is the ruler of Syria with an iron fist. Musharraf, on the other hand, is not liked by human rights activists for his military manners. The general does not hesitate to restrict freedom of the press and does not stand on ceremony with terrorists - instead of catching them and bringing them to court, as it should be in a democratic state, the Pakistani army prefers to simply exterminate the militants.

Closes the second ten most, perhaps, the most mysterious authoritarian rulers - there is little information about what is happening in their countries, and what is there is a bizarre vinaigrette from official reports and human rights bulletins. In 19th place is the head of Laos, Bunnan Vorachit. Power in his country belongs to the Communist Revolutionary Party of the Lao People. There is practically no freedom of speech, assembly and religion in the country. 75 percent of the population lives on $2 a day.

The 20th place was taken by the orthodox communist Tran Duc Luong from Vietnam. In his country, tight control is established over the media and the Internet, and criticism of the actions of the Communist Party is prohibited. 29 articles of the civil and criminal code of Vietnam provide for the death penalty for various crimes.