This is a post I've been meaning to get around to for a while: events in Libya and Syria have made it arguably more relevant.
In this post, I will examine the causes of the worst mass murderers in the 20th century actually leaving their office. Where multiple causes contributed to their departure, I will add one in each column.
The five groupings I have done are:
Lower-level authoritarian figures are more likely to go as a result of popular pressure (the collapse of the Soviet bloc for example); there's no long-term habit of mass repression ingrained in them or the military. Killing one person is generally pretty hard; once you've done it a few times, it becomes a lot easier - in many cases, professional soldiers will say no. If they say yes, then a tyranny generally forms. Stalin terrorised people into submission; Gorbachev was unwilling to do so and the USSR collapsed.
It doesn't fill me with optimism for people power, that's for sure.
In this post, I will examine the causes of the worst mass murderers in the 20th century actually leaving their office. Where multiple causes contributed to their departure, I will add one in each column.
The five groupings I have done are:
- Military intervention (MI)
- Natural causes i.e. dying in office (NC)
- Popular revolution (PR)
- Internal overthrow (IO)
- Suicide (S)
- Josef Stalin (USSR: 1924-53) - NC and IO. While Stalin died as a result of stroke, there are reasonable grounds to suspect the delay in getting him medical attention was deliberate.
- Adolf Hitler (Germany: 1933-45) - MI and S. Self explanatory really.
- Mao Zedong (China: 1949-76) - NC.
- Chiang Kai-shek (China: 1928-49) - PR.
- Enver Pasha (Turkey: 1913-18) - IO and MI, due to his removal by the Sultan facing defeat in the First World World War.
- Hirohito (Japan: 1926-89) - NC. Does he really count though?
- Hirota Koki (Japan: 1936-37) - Other as he resigned.
- Ho Chi Minh (North Vietnam: 1945-69) - NC
- Kim Il Sung (North Korea: 1948-94) - NC. Same with his son actually.
- Lenin (USSR: 1917-24) - NC.
- Leopold II (Belgium: 1865-1909) - NC.
- Nicholas II (Russia: 1894-1917) - IO linked to a PR so both.
- Pol Pot (Cambodia: 1975-79) - MI, from Vietnam.
- Saddam Hussein (Iraq: 1969-2003): MI. Undoubtedly.
- Tojo Hideki (Japan: 1941-44) - IO following military failure. It's hardly MI when he started the Pacific War.
- Wilhelm II (Germany: 1888-1918) - PR resulting from MI. More the former as Germany wasn't that defeated, so to speak.
- Yahya Khan (Pakistan: 1969-71) - PR
- Idi Amin (Uganda: 1971-80) - MI that provoked an IO.
- Ion Antonescu (Romania: 1940-44) - IO linked to one massive MI.
- Ataturk (Turkey: 1920-38) - NC
- Francisco Franco (Spain: 1939-75) - NC.
- Gheoghe Gheorghiu-Dej (Romania: 1945-65) - NC
- Yakubu Gowon (Nigeria: 1966-76) - IO
- Radovan Karadzic (Serbian Bosnia: 1991-96) - MI
- Babrac Kemal (Afghanistan: 1979-87) - Other, being essentialy removed by the USSR.
- Le Duan (Vietnam: 1976-86) - NC
- Haile Mengistu (Ethiopia: 1974-91) - IO
- Benito Mussolini (Italy: 1922-43) - MI leading to IO.
- Ante Pavelic (Croatia: 1941-45) - MI
- Antonio de Salazar (Portugal: 1932-68) - NC, removed due to ill-health.
- Hadji Suharto (Indonesia: 1967-97) - PR
- Tito (Yugoslavia: 1945-80): NC.
- Military intervention or defeat: 9
- Natural causes: 13
- Popular revolution: 5
- Internal overthrow: 3
- Other: 2
Lower-level authoritarian figures are more likely to go as a result of popular pressure (the collapse of the Soviet bloc for example); there's no long-term habit of mass repression ingrained in them or the military. Killing one person is generally pretty hard; once you've done it a few times, it becomes a lot easier - in many cases, professional soldiers will say no. If they say yes, then a tyranny generally forms. Stalin terrorised people into submission; Gorbachev was unwilling to do so and the USSR collapsed.
It doesn't fill me with optimism for people power, that's for sure.
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