There have been many rulers in the history of Russia, but not all of them can be called successful. Those who were able expanded the territory of the state, won wars, developed culture and production in the country, and strengthened international ties.
Yaroslav the Wise
Yaroslav the Wise, son of St. Vladimir, was one of the first truly effective rulers in Russian history. He founded the fortress city of Yuryev in the Baltic states, Yaroslavl in the Volga region, Yuryev Russky, Yaroslavl in the Carpathian region and Novgorod-Seversky.
During the years of his reign, Yaroslav stopped the Pecheneg raids on Rus', defeating them in 1038 near the walls of Kyiv, in honor of which the Hagia Sophia Cathedral was founded. Artists from Constantinople were called to paint the temple.
In an effort to strengthen international ties, Yaroslav used dynastic marriages and married his daughter, Princess Anna Yaroslavna, to the French king Henry I.
Yaroslav the Wise actively built the first Russian monasteries, founded the first large school, allocated large funds for translations and rewriting of books, and published the Church Charter and “Russian Truth”. In 1051, having gathered bishops, he himself appointed Hilarion as metropolitan, for the first time without the participation of the Patriarch of Constantinople. Hilarion became the first Russian metropolitan.
Ivan III
Ivan III can confidently be called one of the most successful rulers in Russian history. It was he who managed to gather the scattered principalities of northeastern Rus' around Moscow. During his lifetime, the Yaroslavl and Rostov principalities, Vyatka, Perm the Great, Tver, Novgorod and other lands became part of a single state.
Ivan III was the first of the Russian princes to accept the title “Sovereign of All Rus'”, and introduced the term “Russia” into use. He became the liberator of Rus' from the yoke. The stand on the Ugra River, which happened in 1480, marked the final victory of Rus' in the struggle for its independence.
The Code of Laws of Ivan III, adopted in 1497, laid the legal foundations for overcoming feudal fragmentation. The Code of Law was progressive for its time: at the end of the 15th century, not every European country could boast of uniform legislation.
The unification of the country required a new state ideology, and its foundations appeared: Ivan III approved the double-headed eagle as the symbol of the country, which was used in the state symbols of Byzantium and the Holy Roman Empire.
During the life of Ivan III, the main part of the architectural ensemble of the Kremlin that we can see today was created. The Russian Tsar invited Italian architects for this. Under Ivan III, about 25 churches were built in Moscow alone.
Ivan groznyj
Ivan the Terrible is an autocrat whose rule still has a variety of, often opposing, assessments, but at the same time his effectiveness as a ruler is difficult to dispute.
He successfully fought with the successors of the Golden Horde, annexed the Kazan and Astrakhan kingdoms to Russia, significantly expanded the territory of the state to the east, subjugating the Great Nogai Horde and the Siberian Khan Edigei. However, the Livonian War ended with the loss of part of the lands, without solving its main task - access to the Baltic Sea.
Under Grozny, diplomacy developed and Anglo-Russian contacts were established. Ivan IV was one of the most educated people of his time, had a phenomenal memory and erudition, he himself wrote numerous messages, was the author of the music and text of the service for the feast of Our Lady of Vladimir, the canon to the Archangel Michael, developed book printing in Moscow, and supported chroniclers.
Peter I
Peter's rise to power radically changed the vector of Russia's development. The tsar “opened a window to Europe,” fought a lot and successfully, fought with the clergy, reformed the army, education and tax system, created the first fleet in Russia, changed the tradition of chronology, and carried out regional reform.
Peter personally met with Leibniz and Newton, and was an honorary member of the Paris Academy of Sciences. By order of Peter I, books, instruments, and weapons were purchased abroad, and foreign craftsmen and scientists were invited to Russia.
During the reign of the emperor, Russia gained a foothold on the shores of the Sea of Azov and gained access to the Baltic Sea. After the Persian campaign, the western coast of the Caspian Sea with the cities of Derbent and Baku went to Russia.
Under Peter I, outdated forms of diplomatic relations and etiquette were abolished, and permanent diplomatic missions and consulates were established abroad.
Numerous expeditions, including to Central Asia, the Far East and Siberia, made it possible to begin a systematic study of the country’s geography and develop cartography.
Catherine II
The main German on the Russian throne, Catherine II was one of the most effective Russian rulers. Under Catherine II, Russia finally gained a foothold in the Black Sea; lands were annexed, called Novorossiya: the Northern Black Sea region, Crimea, and the Kuban region. Catherine accepted Eastern Georgia under Russian citizenship and returned the Western Russian lands seized by the Poles.
Under Catherine II, Russia's population increased significantly, hundreds of new cities were built, the treasury quadrupled, industry and agriculture rapidly developed - Russia began to export grain for the first time.
During the reign of the Empress, paper money was introduced in Russia for the first time, a clear territorial division of the empire was carried out, a secondary education system was created, an observatory, a physics laboratory, an anatomical theater, a botanical garden, instrumental workshops, a printing house, a library, and an archive were founded. In 1783, the Russian Academy was founded, which became one of the leading scientific bases in Europe.
Alexander I
Alexander I is the emperor under whom Russia defeated the Napoleonic coalition. During the reign of Alexander I, the territory of the Russian Empire expanded significantly: Eastern and Western Georgia, Mingrelia, Imereti, Guria, Finland, Bessarabia, and most of Poland (which formed the Kingdom of Poland) came under Russian citizenship.
Not everything went smoothly with Alexander the First’s internal policy (“Arakcheevshchina”, police measures against the opposition), but Alexander I carried out a number of reforms: merchants, townspeople and state-owned villagers were given the right to buy uninhabited lands, ministries and a cabinet of ministers were established, and a decree was issued about free cultivators, who created the category of personally free peasants.
Alexander II
Alexander II went down in history as the “Liberator”. Under him, serfdom was abolished. Alexander II reorganized the army, shortened the duration of military service, and corporal punishment was abolished under him. Alexander II established the State Bank, carried out financial, monetary, police and university reforms.
During the reign of the emperor, the Polish uprising was suppressed and the Caucasian War ended. According to the Aigun and Beijing treaties with the Chinese Empire, Russia annexed the Amur and Ussuri territories in 1858-1860. In 1867-1873, the territory of Russia increased due to the conquest of the Turkestan region and the Fergana Valley and the voluntary entry into vassal rights of the Bukhara Emirate and the Khanate of Khiva.
What Alexander II still cannot be forgiven for is the sale of Alaska.
Alexander III
Russia spent almost its entire history in wars. There were no wars only during the reign of Alexander III.
He was called “the most Russian Tsar”, “Peacemaker”. Sergei Witte said this about him: “Emperor Alexander III, having received Russia at the confluence of the most unfavorable political conditions, deeply raised the international prestige of Russia without shedding a drop of Russian blood.”
The services of Alexander III in foreign policy were noted by France, which named the main bridge over the Seine in Paris in honor of Alexander III. Even the Emperor of Germany, Wilhelm II, after the death of Alexander III, said: “This, indeed, was an autocratic Emperor.”
In domestic politics, the emperor’s activities were also successful. A real technical revolution took place in Russia, the economy stabilized, industry developed by leaps and bounds. In 1891, Russia began construction of the Great Siberian Railway.
Joseph Stalin
The era of Stalin's reign was controversial, but it is difficult to deny that he “took over the country with a plow and left with a nuclear bomb.” We should not forget that it was under Stalin that the USSR won the Great Patriotic War. Let's remember the numbers.
During the reign of Joseph Stalin, the population of the USSR increased from 136.8 million people in 1920 to 208.8 million in 1959. Under Stalin, the country's population became literate. According to the 1879 census, the population of the Russian Empire was 79% illiterate; by 1932, literacy of the population had risen to 89.1%.
The total volume of industrial production per capita for the years 1913-1950 in the USSR increased 4 times. The growth in agricultural production by 1938 was +45% compared to 1913 and +100% compared to 1920.
By the end of Stalin's reign in 1953, gold reserves had increased 6.5 times and reached 2050 tons.
Nikita Khrushchev
Despite all the ambiguity of Khrushchev’s domestic (return of Crimea) and foreign (Cold War) policies, it was during his reign that the USSR became the world’s first space power.
After Nikita Khrushchev’s report at the 20th Congress of the CPSU, the country breathed a freer breath, and a period of relative democracy began, in which citizens were not afraid to go to prison for telling a political joke.
This period saw a rise in Soviet culture, from which ideological shackles were removed. The country discovered the genre of “square poetry”; the whole country knew the poets Robert Rozhdestvensky, Andrei Voznesensky, Evgeny Yevtushenko, and Bella Akhmadulina.
During the reign of Khrushchev, International Youth Festivals were held, Soviet people gained access to the world of imports and foreign fashion. In general, it has become easier to breathe in the country.
Let's choose the best ruler of Russia over the past 100 years.
No, I'm serious. It is important. After all, every nation has exactly the rulers it deserves. And a hundred years in the modern world is more than enough time to eliminate the factor of chance and bad luck. Consequently, based on our leaders, it will be possible to draw conclusions about our entire God-bearing people.
Again, many note the amazing portrait resemblance between Nikolai Romanov and Dmitry Medvedev. I'm sure this is not a coincidence either.
So, in chronological order.
1. Nicholas II (ruled 23 years)
Pros: noble origin.
2. Vladimir Lenin (ruled 7 years)
Pros: conducted an important scientific experiment, advanced political science, sociology and mummy science far forward.
Cons: plunged the country into a state of civil war, which, however, he won. He was sick a lot, because of which he could not govern the country normally.
3. Joseph Stalin (ruled 29 years)
Pros: won the Great Patriotic War. Significantly expanded our territory. Restored the economy destroyed by wars and revolutions. Created an atomic bomb.
Cons: created an inhumane “vertical” that turned many millions of destinies into blood.
4. Nikita Khrushchev (ruled 11 years)
Pros: launched Gagarin into space.
Cons: Almost started the third world war. Showed himself to be an ignorant homophobe.
5. Leonid Brezhnev (ruled 17 years)
Pros: for the first time in the entire thousand-year history of Russia, it raised the standard of living of ordinary citizens to a truly high level. He patched up relations with the West, thereby removing the threat of world war.
Cons: he was seriously ill during the second half of his term, thereby driving the country into an economic impasse.
6. Andropov (ruled 1 year)
Cons: Died too quickly.
7. Chernenko (ruled 1 year)
Cons: Died too quickly.
8. Mikhail Gorbachev (ruled 6 years)
Pros: started long overdue reforms.
Cons: I fell in love with a great country.
9. Boris Yeltsin (ruled 8 years)
Pros: carried out a number of important, albeit extremely painful, reforms.
Cons: started the war in Chechnya.
10. Vladimir Putin (ruled 8 years)
Pros: stopped the war in Chechnya, continued reforms, restored GDP and living standards almost to Soviet levels, gave Russia a decade of free Internet.
Cons: failed to diversify the economy.
11. Dmitry Medvedev (ruled for 3 years so far)
Pros: won the military conflict with Georgia, continued reforms
Cons: has not yet completed his term in office.
Just in case: in the pros and cons of the rulers, I put what seems important to me personally. You will probably have your own opinion about their advantages and disadvantages.
In any case, please write which of these 11 people you consider the best ruler for Russia. And be sure to explain who you admire in absentia, “from a distance,” and who you would happily elect as President of the Russian Federation even tomorrow - to live under his wise leadership.
11.04.2013
Many rulers in history have shown absolute indifference to the suffering and misfortune of other people, some cruel rulers received satisfaction from such suffering and tried in every possible way to humiliate and discriminate against certain social groups; some kings had. Ten the most brutal rulers in history who left their mark on history and influenced our “today” are presented below.
10. Oliver Cromville
Oliver Cromville was a political and military leader of England in the 17th century. He is known for his hatred of the Catholics of Scotland and Ireland. In Ireland, Cromville's troops killed about 3,500 people, including Catholic priests. In Wexford, another 3,500 people were killed on his orders. Overall, approximately 50,000 people were killed or displaced during the entire Irish campaign. In Scotland, in the city of Dundee, he destroyed the city's harbor and killed 2,000 people.
9. Maximilian Robespierre
Maximilian François Marie Isidore de Robespierre was a politician, orator, lawyer and, in general, a very important figure in the French Revolution and is not for nothing included in the list the most cruel rulers. He ruled France during the "Age of Terror", which claimed the lives of approximately 40,000 people. Many aristocrats, clergy and representatives of the middle class and peasantry were destroyed under his leadership. Robespierre was beheaded without trial in 1794 for numerous acts of "disorderly" justice.
8. Ivan the Terrible
Ivan the Terrible, also known as Ivan IV Vasilyevich, is a Russian Tsar, in fact the founder of modern Russia on the scale as we see it today. The conquest of Siberia, Kazan, the centralization of power and the creation of a new collection of laws are just a few things for which he is known. But even more famous is his cruelty. For example, the “siege” of Novgorod. When the Tsar suspected the treachery of the townspeople and their conspiracy with Poland, he built a wall around the city and every day the troops randomly selected 1,500 people and killed them. And he's the eighth cruel ruler.
7. Vlad III
Vlad the Third is the ruler of Wallachia, to whom violence and murder seemed to bring real pleasure. The number of his victims varies between 40 and 100 thousand! His cruelty reached such a level that the Turkish army, which came to war against the city and, having encountered 20,000 decaying bodies, returned back without reaching its goal.
6. Go Amin
Idi Amin Dada is a Ugandan dictator who came to power in a 1971 coup. The regime he established is characterized by severe economic decline, corruption, ethnic strife, indiscriminate killings, political repression and the complete destruction of human rights and freedoms. During the bloody period of his reign, between 100,000 and 1,500,000 people were killed. Amin constantly suspected those around him of betrayal and espionage from Israel, the USSR, and Western powers. He died in exile in Saudi Arabia.
5. Pol Pot
Pol Pot or Saloth Sar - Cambodian politician, leader of the Khmer Rouge and head of the government of Democratic Kampuchea from 1975 to 1979 is in fifth position in the top 10 the most cruel rulers in history. On his hands is the bloody genocide of the Cambodian people, classified as “intelligentsia” and “bourgeoisie”. In just 4 years of rule, he exterminated 20% of the Cambodian people or 1.5 million people.
4. Leopold II
Leopold II was the second king of Belgium and ruler of the Congo. He took the throne after his father Leopold I in 1865 and managed to retain power. His reign in the Congo became one of the most scandalous in history. Leopold captured African territories 76 times the size of modern Belgium. More than 3 million Congolese citizens died under his regime.
3. Adolf Hitler
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A man who needs no introduction is the ruler and central figure of Nazi Germany. Created a dictatorship known as the Third Reich. Millions of people died under the leadership of his politicians. In Russia alone, 20 million civilians and 7 million soldiers died during World War II.
2. Joseph Stalin
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According to studies, more than 3 million people died from his brutal regime. 800,000 people were executed for political and “criminal” reasons, 1.7 million people died in camps (GULAG), about 400,000 people died during the resettlement, 6 million people died from starvation.
. 1. Mao Zedong
Despite the fact that during his administration of China this cruel ruler, population growth amounted to 350 million people, Mao Zedong was responsible for the deaths of millions. During the early periods of his reign, several feudal lords were taken from their villages and executed, ultimately leading to the death of 700,000 people. 6 million people were sent to labor camps. A few years later, as a result of famine and other conditions of the Great Leap Forward, according to various estimates, from 15 to 46 million people died. But the suffering of the Chinese people did not end there. In the 1960s, about 100 million people suffered during the Cultural Revolution.
Probably only the Old World can boast of such an abundance of outstanding rulers. Some of them were talented commanders, others were bold reformers, and others skillfully combined both virtues.
Geiseric (428-477)
Gaiseric conducted politics as if he were playing a game of chess.
In 429, he and his army landed on the North African coast, which belonged to Rome. Taking advantage of the confusion (the uprising of the Roman commander, the encroachments of the Berbers), the king managed to significantly expand the borders of his kingdom. Soon the Byzantine army appeared on the North African coast. Geiseric made peace with the empire: the Vandals and Alans received the status of federates in exchange for protecting the borders.
In 439, Geiseric captured Carthage and acquired a navy. By occupying Sicily, the king forced the Western Roman Empire to agree to a peace treaty. The Vandals threw off their federal status and in fact became independent.
An uprising of the Vandal aristocracy broke out. Geiseric forever deprived the tribal aristocracy of influence and banned public meetings.
For universal recognition of him as a great king, Geiseric needed to capture Rome. In 455, Emperor Valentinian III fell at the hands of conspirators, and chaos began in Rome. Vandals occupied the Eternal City.
Theodoric the Great (470-526)
Theodoric's first military feat was the defeat of the Sarmatians and the capture of their main city - Singudun. After this, eighteen-year-old Theodoric began to consider himself the true ruler of the Ostrogoths.
The Byzantine Emperor Zeno, in order to appease his aggressive neighbor, granted him the title of consul. On orders from Zeno, Theodoric invaded Italy. He was opposed by the “official gravedigger of Rome” Odoacer, who was supported by many Germanic tribes. Theodoric and his army managed to inflict several serious defeats on Odoacer and even capture his capital, Ravenna. After this, peace was concluded, according to which the two rulers divided power in Italy. But Theodoric was not satisfied with this.
Just a few days later, during a feast, he personally killed Odoacer. All of Italy was under the control of the Ostrogoths.
As soon as Theodoric managed to drive the Vandals out of neighboring lands and spread influence into southeastern Gaul, Byzantium appointed the king of the Ostrogoths as the legal ruler of the Western Roman Empire.
Clovis I (481/482-511)
Clovis took the throne at the age of fifteen. He gained power over a small part of the Franks with his capital in Tournai. To increase his authority and political weight, the king became a Christian. To hide the cynicism, a beautiful legend was invented:
“During the battle, the Franks wavered, and Clovis asked God to give him victory - suddenly, the enemy king fell dead and his soldiers fled.”
Having become a Christian, Clovis annexed Aquitaine to the Visigoths. His next goal was the unification of all Frankish tribes. He persuaded the son of the king of the eastern Franks, and he killed his own father, after which he died from Clovis’s mercenaries. So the king of the Franks deprived his opponents of both the ruler and the heir.
It was under Clovis that the Salic Truth (code of laws) appeared, and Paris became the capital of the Frankish state.
The power and popularity of Clovis in Europe was also noticed in Byzantium. Ambassadors visited him and presented him with insignia - a mantle, a purple tunic and a diadem - in recognition of his greatness.
Charles I the Great (768-814)
The King of the Franks accepted the title of Emperor from the hands of the Pope for the first time in 400 years (since the fall of the Roman Empire). Charles annexed Italy, the lands of the Saxons and Bavarians to his kingdom, and also significantly advanced deep into Muslim Spain.
The pagan Saxons who suffered the most were the pagan Saxons, whom Charles forcibly forced to convert to Christianity. Refusal of the new faith was punishable by death.
During the suppression of one of the uprisings, Charles ordered the execution of more than four thousand captured pagans. This event went down in history under the name “Verdun Massacre”.
The uprising was suppressed, the Saxons surrendered, and their leader, Vidukin, himself converted to Christianity.
Charles's military successes were ensured by innovations. Firstly, the massive use of cavalry in attacks. Secondly, well-thought-out schemes for the siege of fortresses and the use of well-organized logistics.
Charles's empire reached the peak of its power by 800. Pope Leo III promoted the Frankish ruler to emperor, giving him the nickname “Father of Europe.”
William I the Conqueror (1066-1087)
Being illegitimate, but the only child of the ruler of Normandy, Duke Robert II the Magnificent, William became heir to the throne. Although the French nobility gave him the nickname Bastard (illegitimate).
A difficult childhood left a certain imprint on his character and affected his education. Wilhelm could not read, was a secretive, suspicious and domineering person.
In 1066 he conquered England and was crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey.
In 1086, William ordered an inventory of all lands under his control, as well as a census of the population, which would streamline the taxation system. Before Wilhelm, no one even thought about this.
William died on September 9, 1087 in the French monastery of Saint-Gervais. A severe wound to the stomach, received during the campaign against France, took its toll. As soon as the king gave up the ghost, his entourage removed all the jewelry from him. Only one knight remained loyal to William. He transported his body to the Church of St. Stephen in Cana. As soon as the coffin was in the city, a fire broke out. When the fire was over, it turned out that Wilhelm’s body did not fit in the grave. But attempts to “compact” it there led to such a stench that even incense did not help.
Frederick I Barbarossa (1152 – 1190)
Frederick took the throne of the Holy Roman Empire in 1152. First of all, he carried out army reform. Frederick had an army of thousands at his disposal, consisting of heavy knightly cavalry.
Frederick struck at the rich city-states of Northern Italy. He wanted to receive the crown directly from the hands of the Pope.
In 1143, the Germans dug in near St. Peter's Basilica, and Pope Adrian IV crowned Barbarossa.
On the same day, the inhabitants of Rome attacked and tried to expel the Germans, but their attack was repulsed.
A protracted war between the Germans and Italian cities began. The new Pope Alexander III excommunicated the emperor from the church. However, Frederick managed to take control of Rome. Soon a plague epidemic broke out in his army. Italian cities rebelled. The confrontation ended in 1174. Because of the defeat, Frederick agreed to recognize Alexander III as the sole Pope and returned to him the power of the Tuscan Margrave and the prefecture in Rome. The Pope, with a curtsey, canceled the excommunication.
Gustav II Adolf (1611-1632)
Gustav became king when he was not yet seventeen years old. He “inherited” two wars (with Denmark and Poland), as well as intervention in Russia. The Swedish army was in a deplorable state; not everything was in order with the state and finances.
Having dealt with the Danes and Poles, Gustav took on Russia. The result was the conclusion of the Stolbovsky Peace in 1617 on terms favorable to Sweden. Gustav annexed Karelia, part of Ingria, cutting off Russia from access to the Baltic.
For his valor, courage and brilliant mind, Gustav was called the “Lion of the North”, and also the “Father of modern strategy”. He created the most powerful army on the continent, which became the most formidable force in the then raging Thirty Years' War.
Many of Gustav Adolf's innovations are still relevant today. For example, the use of maneuverable light artillery, linear formation of mixed types of troops, aggressive offensive tactics. It is believed that the Swedish king personally invented the world's first paper cartridge.
Louis XIV (1643-1715)
The French monarch reigned longer than anyone else in European history - 72 years. Before Louis, no other French monarch had waged so many wars.
First he annexed Flanders, then Alsace, Lorraine, Franche-Comté and some lands of Belgium. After – Strasbourg, Casale, Luxembourg, Kehl and other territories.
First of all, the king abolished the position of first minister. Under Louis XIV, his diplomats became the main ones in any European court. The monarch introduced strict etiquette for the first time, and Versailles became the capital of European social life.
Louis's main mistake was the War of the Spanish Succession. Very quickly, ordinary citizens of France became poor, and famine reigned in the country. The monarch managed to make peace with the British on very equal terms. France emerged from the war, albeit without acquiring new territories, but without losing practically anything.
It was Louis who is credited with the famous phrase: “The State is me!” The reign of this monarch is considered to be the Great Century of France.
William III of Orange (1672-1702)
Initially, William was the ruler of the Netherlands. In 1685, the English king Charles II died without leaving a direct heir, and the unpopular (due to the desire to restore Catholicism) James II ascended the throne.
In mid-November 1688, William and his army landed in England. Residents of Foggy Albion greeted the guests enthusiastically. At the beginning of 1689, William and his wife became the legal rulers of England and Scotland.
He was one of the first to adopt the “Act of Tolerance.” The persecution of dissidents in England ceased.
The new king supported the initiative to create the Bank of England and approved the emergence of a united East India Company. During the reign of William of Orange, literature, science, architecture and navigation began to rapidly develop in England. He contributed in every possible way to the large-scale colonization of North America.
It was under William that the tradition of limiting the power of the ruler to the laws of the “Bill of Rights of English Citizens” arose.
Frederick II the Great (1740-1786)
Frederick's father, Wilhelm I of the Hohenzollern dynasty, accustomed him to the life of a soldier from childhood. The Crown King of Prussia spent a lot of time in the barracks.
Under him, the number of Prussian troops was about two hundred thousand people, about two-thirds of the total budget was allocated for their maintenance. The state began to resemble a military camp.
Having concluded an alliance with England, Frederick attacked Saxony, which triggered the Seven Years' War (1756-1763). Neither the Austrians nor the French could stop the Prussian army. Frederick could not resist the Russian army.
Frederick went down in history as a brilliant tactician and strategist. His main innovation was complex maneuvering, which consisted of cutting off the enemy army from its own supply bases or fortresses. The result was a kind of exhaustion tactic without large-scale battles.
One man's hero is often another man's tyrant. This aphorism is often remembered today, not to mention the past - it was very, very ambiguous in the politics of many countries. Everyone knows that history is written by the victors, and even the most cruel of them could be rehabilitated by time and the right ideology.
These rulers and politicians of the past - long ago and not so long ago, built their states at the expense of the lives of many people. And it doesn’t matter how they did it - they were sent to crazy wars or used as labor. In both cases, we can talk about merciless tactics to achieve goals. It is these rulers who are included in our list of the 12 most cruel rulers in human history.
Caligula - Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus
Reign: 37-41 AD
Caligula was very popular because he first freed citizens who had been unjustly imprisoned and freed them from a cruel sales tax. But then he went crazy and was never the same again. Caligula eliminated political rivals with sophisticated cruelty, went on wild rampages with people and animals, and generally behaved unrestrainedly.
Genghis Khan
Reign: 1206-1227
Genghis Khan's father was poisoned when the boy was nine. He spent his childhood as a slave, but was able to unite the Mongol tribes and conquer a huge chunk of Central Asia and China. Genghis Khan is called the most cruel ruler because of his massacres, when not just groups, but entire peoples or classes were slaughtered.
Thomas Torquemada
Reign: 1483-1498 (as Grand Inquisitor)
Torquemada was appointed Grand Inquisitor during the Spanish Inquisition. He established tribunals in several cities, drew up a system for other inquisitors, and made torture the main tool for extracting confessions. Historians believe that Torquemada was responsible for two thousand people burned at the stake.
Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible)
Reign: 1547-1584
Ivan IV began his brutal reign by reorganizing the central government and limiting the power of hereditary aristocrats (princes and boyars). After the death of his first wife, Ivan began a reign of terror, eliminating the main boyar families. He also beat his pregnant daughter and killed his son in a fit of rage.
Queen Mary I (Bloody Mary)
Reign: 1553-1558
The only child of King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, Mary became Queen of England in 1553 and soon established Catholicism (after previous Protestant rulers) as her main religion and married Philip II of Spain. During her cruel reign, Protestants burned at the stake like dry branches, and Mary herself became Bloody.
Countess Elizabeth Bathory
Reign: 1590-1610
This cruel ruler lured young peasant women to her castle, promising them jobs as maids, after which she cruelly tortured them to death. According to the popular version, she tortured and killed about 600 young women.
Mehmed Talaat Pasha
Reign: 1913-1918
Historians believe that Talaat Pasha was the most brutal ruler and the leading figure in the Armenian genocide. As Minister of the Interior, he was responsible for the deportations that ultimately led to the deaths of 600,000 Armenians. He was killed in Berlin in 1921. A history buff, Adolf Hitler sent his body back to Istanbul in 1943, hoping to persuade Turkey to cooperate.
Joseph Stalin
Reign: 1922-1953
Stalin became the most brutal ruler in the 1930s, which coincided with mass famine, the imprisonment of millions in Gulag labor camps, and the "Great Purge" of the intelligentsia, government and military.
Adolf Gitler
Years of reign: 1933-1945
By the end of 1941, Hitler stood at the head of the Third Reich, an empire that included almost every country in Europe plus most of North Africa. He became one of the most brutal rulers in human history, developing a plan to create a perfect race by eliminating Jews, Slavs, Gypsies and political opponents, forcing them into concentration camps where they were tortured and worked to death.
Mao Zedong
Reign: 1949-1976
Communist leader Mao founded the People's Republic. Under his leadership, industry was brought under state control and farmers were organized into collectives, following the example of Soviet collective farms. Any opposition was quickly suppressed. Mao's supporters point out that he modernized and unified China and turned it into a global superpower. However, others point out that his policies led to the deaths of as many as 40 million people from starvation, forced labor and executions.
Go Amen
Years of reign: 1971-1979
Amin overthrew the elected government in Uganda with a military coup and declared himself president. Then he brutally, for eight years, exterminated all opposition. Amin completely expelled Asians from Uganda: Indians, Chinese and Pakistanis.
Augusto Pinochet
Years of reign: 1973-1990
Pinochet overthrew the Chilean government in 1973 with a US-backed military coup. Researchers say many people simply "disappeared" while another 35,000 languished in the camps. Pinochet died before he could stand trial on charges of human rights violations.
He introduced free market economic policies that led to lower inflation and even an economic boom in the late 70s. Notably, Chile had one of the best-performing economies in Latin America from the mid-80s to the late 90s.
