In my opinion, Idi Amin is the most cruel 'ruler' of the world history.

https://m.dailyhunt.in/news/india/english/news+crab-epaper-newcrb/the+ugandan+dictator+who+killed+millions+of+people+used+to+eat+human+flesh+and+used+to+make+beautiful+girls+victim+of+his+lust-newsid-144608278

There are many cruel rulers. Some observed and enjoyed eating of his close relative by hungry dogs with a glass of wine in hand, some killed @ four crores of his countrymen by created famine ( with an order to convert farmers to steel producer and factory workers to farmers), some used one atom bomb to destroy one city and kill lakshs of innocent people including children of a country who already admitted her defeat before, some killed all of his relatives to stay free in power without any challenge and so on. Many of such persons are worshipped in their country and even in history.

But still there are/were many cruel rulers with many typical type of cruelty which are not less fearful than horror movies!

I want to listen from our RG colleagues about them and their activities.

Not sure how you can categorise suffering into a league table? Whose to say that a victim of the Holocaust suffered more or less than a victim of Idi Amin or Genghis Khan? Khan did take pleasure in raping the female relatives of his victims (often before he killed them) and it is claimed more people alive today in Asia are linked genetically to him than any other historical figure

The only qualification I would want to make is that Amin and Khan took pleasure in having ‘hands on’ to the killings, where as Hitler didn’t and worked hard to make sure that he wasn’t directly linked (via documentation) with the killings undertaken by his regime. I’m sure the victims in all cases knew where the blame really laid though

Dear Colleagues, what about the living killers of the present day?

Adolf Hilter you can see his expansionism in post world War 1 ..

I am glad people are interested in such questions. First of all, all rulers will be understood better if they are looked at in the context of their times. Rather than looking at statistics of kills and variety of tortures, it helps if the mentality behind political killings and their outcomes are examined. Ghenghis Khan and Adolf Hitler are separated in time and space by 6 centuries and two continents. So, a comparison based on statistics of kills and methods of torture is a rather narrow view of things.

Interestingly enough this has been a question I observed when working for Staffordshire LEA as an adviser. It was posed to pupils in Y9 history of the 20th century as to who was the worst dictator of the 20th century? Candidates included Mao Tse Tung, Stalin, Hitler, Idi Amin and Pol Pot. Most students favoured Pol Pot but only marginally. It all depends on the criteria you use. How many people did they kill? What percentage of their population did they kill and those of others? What technology was available to them? To look at this invites questions such as what is meant by cruelty plus the above that students have all raised in this activity. Stalin and Mao probably top the poll if you just go on numbers. There are many variables, such as disease unleashed because of government policy, plus the perspectives applied depending on ethnicity and culture. Why are you asking the question?

In my own opinion and drawing from the above definition of cruelty "above" Joseph Stalin's 30 years in Russia was a load full of cruel leadership, although many justify his harsh rule to bringing industrialization in Russia, but the masses suffered according to books signing of death lists where like what he stand to enjoy the most, his oppositions he send to Gulags with hard working labors and unfavorable environment, some parts of Russia like had more cemeteries than houses. These he did for cruel 30 years of his reign. From my own thoughts I believe stalin is the most cruel

History is not a court, and is not interested to judge if a man is cruel or not. We can only try to calculate who killed the hightest number of men. if Hitler is responsible of the deaths of II world war, he is the killer n° 1, otherwise the recordman is Stalin. In percentage, the winner is Cain, who killed the 25% of human kind.

Being cruel is to be heartless, brutal, mean and so on. These characteristics of cruelty can be found in the history of the mongolians. As a result of this, they were called "People from hell". Adolf Hitler fought and kill for genuine reasons like a kind of patriotism unlike Genghis khan. Is this situation, I choose Genghis khan as cruel ruler in world history.

No one can match Hitler, then Stalin and Mao in their scale of cruelty and the global impact. Those like Pol Pot and the Rwandans count at the more nation-specific sense. Targeting entire groups of people by killing in supposedly an already civilized world of the 20th century with international laws and rights already existing to protect people is the ultimate cruelty.

On the other hand, Genghis Khan was the leader of the Mongol horde at a time when the marauding tribes did not have any idea of the concept of rights and were simply driven by an urge towards empire-building. Other tribes in Eurasia must have had similar practices. It does not excuse killing at any point in history, but those leaders of the 20th century who advocated atrocities still do not fail to shock in their barbarism at a supposedly more humane time.

In my opinion, Adolf Hitler brought a lot of pain and suffering to humanity.

It is enough to remember the concentration camps, the death of millions of human beings, the lowest price for non-German ethnic groups, the ambition to take over the world.

How can we come to the conclusion that either Chengiz or Adolf alone have a cruel nature. History saw so many cruel rulers or administrators. It depends upon what was the cause made them as cruel persons.

Dear Colleagues,

The main or only reason for the killing of a huge number of human beings is perhaps "POWER".

To get more and more power, to stay in power was/is the strongest driving force for such cruel activities.

More power means more money, more slaves, more ladies to keep in the harem, and so on.

Thanks.

Supreme power that is sovereignty given to the sovereign by people. People can change everything . Example: French Revolution

When wars break out, one can only be "cruel", at any time and in any place and regardless of the "leading figures" of the moment.

Certainly, it is difficult to measure the cruelty of many rulers in history. It depends on the historiographic approach, the historical context, the points of view, criteria etc.

My opinyin, all the rulers are cruel, and every one of them was cruel to a group of people, and history is not fair to the people

One of them is still alive!

Dear Babak Jamshidi,

Do you identified only one living super cruel person? I donot agree with you. Please search in your mind, you will get many names.

Thanks.

In this question, i can simple say that alprevious rulers were cruel in different ways but i can mention Idolf Hittler, the particuler reason for the circumstance is that we do all remember he was an extremelly cruel, he killed many innocent people.

In some point i can point my finger to him, along the lines of his bad doings towards human beings and i think he is the who killed a lot of people and he a racist too as we do remember that he killed lot of jewish people for the exact purpose of they failed to complay with his regulation and beliefs. There was an incident called "the night of broken glass" where by all jewish stores were bulliahed and it's where the rights jews were manipulated.

Stalin?

"Anybody else", Prof. Shibabrata Pattanayak

I elaborate, Narco Dictador "Nicolas Maduro Moros" started to rule with iron hunger Venezuela in 2014 by rigged elections (population estimated in 2014: ~ 33,000,000)

Today 2021, the Venezuelan population estimate is ~ 27 million, but there are no official statistics since Chavistas began to rule (1999), they destroyed the National Institute of Statistics (now owned by G2 Castro Spies).

So 6 million fled the country. Now, I personally (P. Contreras, 2021 * ) estimate that ~ 2,500,000 have been killed by hunger and lack of medicines (most of them, the elderly) between 2014 - 2020 & before CoV started.

* My estimate is based on several qualitative assumptions as to the number of elderly killed in my neighborhood by the Maduro hyperinflation, or conversations with community priests, who tell me that most elderly didn´t go to church anymore because they died of hunger & lack of medicines.

So ~ 10 % of the Venezuelan population was probably exterminated by Maduro and his cronies between 2014 & 2020. However, Narco Genocider Nicolas Maduro Moros is a member of the Human Rights Council of the Lobbyist organization called United Nations (UN), so how many more dictators as Nicolas Maduro are covered today by RRSS and world organizations as being a piece of cake when they are human butchers?

Best Regards, from the unwanted land of Venezuela.

Estimado Sr. Contreras, estoy plenamente de acuerdo con Ud.

Dear Sir, I completely agree with you

Gracias, Prof. Jesús Angel Espinós

Me baso en lo que veo cada día en las calles que debo caminar para conseguir algo de comida, en un país que tiene desde Nov 2016 una hiperinflación descomunal y donde un pensionado recibe menos de un dolar al mes. Ancianos en el piso muriendo de hambre o recogiendo la basura que sacan los chavistas después de las fiestas CoV.

I just rely on what I see every day on the streets that I have to walk to get food in a country by rampant hyperinflation since Nov 2016 and where the salary is less than a dollar monthly. Elderly people on the floor dying of hunger or picking up the garbage that the Chavistas take out after the CoV parties.

Best Regards.

Sepa que en España somos muchos los que somos perfecta (y dolorosamente) conscientes de la lucha cotidiana que el noble pueblo de Venezuela ha de afrontar cada día para conseguir su sustento. Tengo amigos de su entrañable tierra, tierra que tan bien nos acogió hace décadas en momentos difíciles de nuestra historia. Lo que ocurre es que las dictaduras de izquierdas a no pocos intelectuales de salón les resultan perdonables y "progresistas", pero en el fondo (y en la superficie) no dejan de ser repugnantes dictaduras

Muchas Gracias, Prof. Jesús Angel Espinós, las cosas siguen empeorando, sin una solucion real externa o interna que nos ayude a para la hiperinflación y el hambre, y a recuperar nuestros trabajos.

Thank you, Prof Espinos, we appreciate it. The situation is getting even worse without any help from abroad or inside to stop at least hyperinflation, mass starvation, and that eventually would help us to recover our jobs.

Best Regards.

In the old days, they thought they would get away from punishment, but today to rule with an iron fist like Maduro, the Belarus strongman and the Junta in Myanmar are probably the worst.

Joseph Stalin. On the conscience of Stalin, according to rough estimates, more than 20 million ruined lives. This stems from the Stalinist repressions, executions and dispossession, millions died from hunger.

What about the whites in general (Catholics and Protestants) who destroyed all natives in the Americas for instance? King of Spain, of Portugal, of England etc......

And Romans in Spain and all over the ancient world?

For instance...

No comparison

But if you look for a real specialist in the field I would say that Charlemagne is not so bad

What about Napoleon Bonaparte? Can't we say that he had a primary role during and after the French Revolution? Both Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussain immitated him in slaughtering people. The same brutality and cruelty are recorded in history.

I do not like him at all, but this is my personal view!

As per my idea, the KILLING figures are likely to be the following:

1.Genghis Khan killed @ 4.0 Crores of people.

2. Taimur long killed @ 2.0 Crores of people

3. Adolf Hitler killed @ 3.8 Crores of people

4. Ma ze dong killed @ 4.5 Cores of people by his created famine through the "Great leap Forward".

5. Taliban are trying to compete. They have already attained a figure of 50,000 plus.

ALL THE TIME ONLY THE COMMON PEOPLE ARE SUFFERED TO SUPPLY FUEL TO THE RULERS!!

@Shibabrata Pattanayak. Ideally, these figures should be as per sources and not as per any individual's ideas. Kindly share the source from which you have picked out these numbers. Otherwise, these figures very closely resemble whatsapp forwards. I believe this forum can be better than that.

Dear Subir Dey,

All these figures you will get in internet, most easily in Wikipedia articles which contain original references below the article.

Start searching.

Usually the onus of providing accurate references lies with the scholar who is making an assertion. That has been the civil way of debate and discourse. So, it is rather funny that you are asking me to search. However, I went through the thread of the answers and your profile. It is not surprising that in your field of research, references will be found in peer reviewed papers that you yourself have published and that have been cited. However, when it comes to history, most common assumption of all is that INTERNET (most important non-specialist sites like WIKIPEDIA) is reliable and enough.

I also do see that you are not here to actually learn anything about history but to test whether your ideas and views derived from INTERNET searches and your pre conceived assumptions about history can find some traction. I do not see value in any such discourse where the conclusions and frameworks are already fixed and the search is for facts and figures convenient to those.

Dear Mr. Subir De,

Perhaps you missed the category of the present question. It is under"DISCUSSION" and not research.

But to supply you the source and links of all these information, I have put some labour. I shall try to do it if I can manage time. But these information are not prepared by me and these are not hypothetical. I read them from internet sources (all research articles we get also mainly from that source, not from printed books or printed journal nowadays). So, everybody, like me, can get these information.

Thanks.

Pol Pot, but this cannot be answered by statistics only.

Every human life is precious.

Dear Stephen I. Ternyik,

I totally agree with you. NO person is having ANY right to KILL any other person.

Thanks,

A ruler, kind of emperor during the middle ages who was reported to have eleminated 12 of his bothers (killed them) out of fear they might threaten his thrown. this is cruality. Criminality is something else, here, leaders or instigators who colonized continents and exterminated their original people merit high consideration to be classified withen the worst !