Compiling ADDucation’s list of the worst dictators and tyrants of all time hasn’t been easy nor fun but we think it’s important to learn from the past. History may recognize a handful of “benevolent dictators” but most dictators are also tyrants who oppressed the populations under their control.
Worst dictators and tyrants list compiled by Joe Connor, last updated 16 Feb 2021.
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Name of Dictator 🦹
Country / Group
Born
Died
Age on Takeover
From
To
🦹Dictator is Responsible for…
Estimated Victims
al-Assad, Bashar
🇸🇾 Syria
1965
–
34
2000
2022
During the ongoing civil war in Syria since 2013 Bashar al-Assad is responsible for the bombing of his own population. He stands accused by the UN of war crime for the chemical weapons attack which killed 1,400 people in Damascus suburbs in 2013.
130,000+
al-Assad, Hafez
🇸🇾 Syria
1930
2000
41
1970
2000
Hafez al-Assad created a cult of personality around himself and his family and maintained control of the one party state by putting state security and intelligence services in the hands of the Shia Islam Alawites.
10,000
bin Laden, Osama
Al-Qaeda
1957
2011
37
1994
2011
Osama bin Laden was involved in the 1988 Gilgit Massacre in Kashmir and eventually admitted responsibility for the September 11th attacks in tapes aired by Al Jazeera in 2006.
4,000
Castro, Fidel
🇨🇺 Cuba
1926
2016
33
1959
2008
Fidel Castro jailed innumerable critics and dissidents and eventually handed power to his brother Raúl Castro in 2008, due to illness.
1,000
Ceaușescu, Nicolae
🇷🇴 Romania
1918
1989
47
1967
1989
Dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu consolidated power by jailing thousands of political opponents and sending many others to psychiatric hospitals. He suffered from paranoia and anointed himself “Conducător” and oppressed the Romanian people.
60,000
Chiang Kai-shek
🇨🇳 China
1887
1975
41
1928
1975
Chiang presided over purges, political authoritarianism, martial law and is named as responsible for the February 28 (2/28) massacre in 1947 (disputed by some scholars).
10,000
Duvalier, Jean Claude “Baby Doc”
🇭🇹 Haiti
1951
2014
19
1971
1986
Dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier was responsible for the persecution of political opponents, founding of the brutal “Tontons Macoutes” militia.
30,000
Franco, Francisco “El caudillo”
🇪🇸 Spain
1892
1975
46
1939
1975
Dictator Francisco Franco established a totalitarian one party state after the Spanish Civil War 1936-39, which claimed half a million lives. Franco’s Spain was responsible for political purges, torture, forced labor and executions in concentration camps.
1,200,000
Gadaffi, al Muammar “Colonel Gadaffi”
🇱🇾 Libya
1942
2011
27
1969
2011
As Libyan dictator Muammar al-Gaddafi was responsible for crimes against humanity including the infamous terrorist attack on Pan Am flight 103 in 1988 which resulted in the Lockerbie disaster in Scotland leaving 270 dead from 20 different countries.
5,000
Hirohito, Emperor (Tenno)
🇯🇵 Japan
1901
1989
25
1926
1989
Hirohito was not only one of the worst dictators but also one of the worst Emperors ever. He was Emperor during the second Japanese-Chinese War (1937-1945) and responsible for the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 which bought the USA into World War II. Historians argue over the extent of Emperor Hirohito’s involvement in Japanese war crimes which killed millions of people.
10,000,000
Hitler, Adolf “Führer”
🇩🇪 Nazi Germany
1889
1945
43
1933
1945
Adolf Hitler was undoubtedly one of the worst dictators that has ever lived. He was responsible for the persecution and extermination of Jews, Roma (Gypsies), communists, socialists, trade unionists, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, common criminals and others in concentration camps during Word War II.
55,000,000
Hussein, Saddam
🇮🇶 Iraq
1937
2006
42
1979
2003
As dictator Saddem Hussein was responsible for massacres of Shiites and Kurds and the first Gulf War against Iran between 1980-1988.
1,300,000
Idi Amin
🇺🇬 Uganda
1928
2003
43
1971
1979
Ugandan dictator Idi Amin was responsible for the persecution and murder of intellectuals, officers and judges and the brutal destruction of entire villages.
300,000
Ivan the Terrrible
🇷🇺 Russia
1530
1584
16
1547
1584
Ivan VI carried out mass executions and murdered thousands of people. Ivan the terrible was choleric, a sadist, and had a violent temper.
up to 220,000.
Kim il-sung
🇰🇵 North Korea
1912
1994
36
1948
1994
Korean War against South Korea between 1950 and 1953.
3,500,000
Kim Jong-il
🇰🇵 North Korea
1941
2011
53
1994
2011
Torture, public executions, reign of terror. Accused of Human rights violations by the UN General Assembly in 2011 which have continued uder Kim Jong-il.
3,000,000
Kim Jong Un
🇰🇵 North Korea
1983
–
29
2012
In 2014 UN investigation recommends making Kim Jong-un accountable for crimes against humanity.
unknown
Kambanda, Jean
🇷🇼 Rwanda
1955
–
39
1994
Jean Kambanda was president of a caretaker government in Rwanda and responsible for the 1994 Rwandan Genocide when the from Hutu to Tutsi.
800,000
Khomeini, Ruhollah
🇮🇷 Iran
1902
1989
77
1979
1989
Ayatollah Khomeini fought the First Gulf War against Iraq (1980-1988) and is responsible for the execution of thousands of political prisoners and war criminals. Khomeini founded the Islamic Republic of Iran.
50,000
Kony, Joseph
🇺🇬 Uganda
1961
–
26
1986
Tyrant Joseph Kony founded the brutal rebel group LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) including around 66,000 child soldiers.
100,000
Leopold II, King
🇧🇪 Belgium
1835
1909
30
1865
1909
King Leopold II of Belgium is not only one of the worst dictators but also one of the worst monarchs ever. He was responsible for brutal atrocities (the “Congo Horrors”) against the population of the Belgian Congo.
2,000,000+
Mao Zedong
🇨🇳 People’s Republic of China
1893
1976
56
1949
1976
Mao Tse-tung aka Chairman Mao initiated the Cultural Revolution which banished most of the intellectuals from universities to the countryside to be re-educated and perform manual labor.
20,000,000
Marcos, Ferdinand
🇵🇭 Philippines
1917
1989
48
1965
1986
Ferdinand Marcos ruled as a dictator under martial law from 1972 through to 1981 during which time Amnesty International states 70,000 people were imprisoned, 34,000 were tortured and 3,240 were killed.
3,240
Mengistu, Haile Mariam
🇪🇹 Ethiopia
1937
–
40
1977
1991
Fall of Emperor Haile Selassie 1974; “Red Terror” against regime opponents; imprisonment and torture.
1,500,000
Milosevic, Slobodan
🇷🇸 Serbia, Yugoslavia
1941
2006
48
1989
2000
Balkan conflicts in Yugoslavia; Serbia vs. Croatia (1991-95); vs. Bosnia (1992-95); vs. Kosovo (1998-99).
200,000
Mubarak, Husni
🇪🇬 Egypt
1928
2020
53
1981
2011
Autocratic reign in a virtually military state, suppressed opposition, brutally crushed the “Arab Spring” uprising in 2011 but he was eventually aquitted of conspiring to kill protesters.
none proven
Mugabe, Robert
🇿🇼 Zimbabwe
1924
2019
63
1987
As dictator Robert Mugabe was responsible for persecution, imprisonment, torture and famine in Zimbabwe. The Gukurahundi massacres, between 1982 and1987, were carried out by Mugabe’s Fifth Brigade of the Zimbabwe National Army resulting in the death of at least 10,000 Ndebele mostly civilians.
10,000
Mohammed, Omar
🇦🇫 Afghanistan Taliban
1960
2013
36
1996
2001
Tyrant Mullah Mohammed Omar was co-founder and leader of the Taliban, radical Islamic terrorist group, responsible for massacres and the September 11 attacks (9/11) in 2001 terrorist attacks against the USA.
100,000+
Mussolini, Benito “Il Duce”
🇮🇹 Italy
1883
1945
39
1922
1943
Benito Mussolini took Italy into an alliance with Adolf Hitler and Germany in World War II. Responsible for anti-Semitic racial laws.
1,200,000
Nyýazow, Saparmyrat
🇹🇲 Turkmenistan
1940
2006
51
1991
2006
Saparmyrat Nyýazow was a totalitarian dictator and megalomaniac (he even renamed January after him), electoral fraud. His successor Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow has continued as a totalitarian leader and may well be added to this list.
unknown
Omar, (also Umar) al-Bashir
🇸🇩 Sudan
1944
–
45
1989
In 2008 dictator Omar al-Bashir was accused, by the International Criminal Court (ICC), of responsibility for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Dafur since 2003.
100,000+
Pinochet, Augusto
🇨🇱 Chile
1915
2006
58
1973
1990
Augusto Pinochet was dictator of Chile following the violent coup against President Salvador Allende and responsible for torture and murder.
3,200
Pol Pot
🇰🇭 Cambodia Red Khmer
1925
1998
50
1975
1979
During the guerrilla warfare in Cambodia dictator Pol Pot was responsible for genocide of the population.
1,200,000
Stalin, Joseph
Soviet Union
1878
1953
43
1922
1953
Joseph Stalin is one of the worst dictators ever. He was responsible for systematic executions; forced labor in Gulag labor camp; deportation of entire ethnic groups across Europe.
25,000,000
Suharto, Haji Mohammed
🇮🇩 Indonesia
1921
2008
46
1967
1998
Muhammad Soeharto was responsible for the mass murder of around half a million people between 1965 and 1966 following a failed coup attempt and human rights abuses including widespread torture, massacres of alleged communists and war crimes in Aceh, East Timor, Papua and the Moluccan islands.
1,200,000
Taylor, Charles
🇱🇷 Liberia
1948
–
49
1997
2003
Massacres among own population and creation of a brutal rebel group, civil war in Sierra Leone.
300,000
Tito, Josip Broz
Former Republic of Yugoslavia
1892
1980
53
1945
1980
Authoritarian government; founded “real socialism” dictatorship; mass arrests after the “Croatian Spring” in 1971.
100,000
Videla, Jorge Rafael
🇦🇷 Argentina
1925
2013
51
1976
1981
Jorge Rafael Videla was dictator of Argentina until after they lost the Falklands war in 1982. In 2010 Videla accepted responsibility for the actions of his military junta which, according to APDH (Assembly for Human Rights), were responsible for the deaths or disappearance of 12,261 people.
