Throughout history there have been many people famous for being brutal dictators being responsible for the deaths of thousands up towards millions in their lust power or trying to create a "perfect society". People like Vlad the Impaler, Kim Jong-Il, Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler and many more left their marks on history. Who would you say was the most oppressive and who had the biggest impact on society?

Looking forward to hear your guys thoughts on this.

Vlad the Impaler lived in an era where most of the emperors were absolute tyrants. So yeah, you can label him as one of the most brutal or oppressive, but he wasn't on such a different level from other emperors of his era.

Adolf Hitler surely left an impact on society at large. Being Spanish, I fully know what his partners in ideology (like Franco was) are capable of. However, I don't think Hitler should be in this list. True, he was the head of the nazi party, but it was more the head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, who committed most of the atrocities we remember from that time. Also, Hitler threw the world at war, so while he wasn't that brutal with his own people, he planned on being overly brutal once he conquered the world. 

Stalin was far worse, and the people who continued his legacy made sure there weren't any doubts about his brutality. After all, the Berlin Wall was built after Stalin died. If a man can build this kind of legacy, imagine how could he be when alive.

Maybe we should include Pinochet in that list? It's the only other one I can think about right now... talking about modern era, that is.

I'm going with Chairman Mao. Not only did he just randomly kill people who were against the state, he led starvation tactics to destroy who knows how many millions of people in China. I put him as oppressive or brutal over Genghis Khan and other men who conquered huge amounts of land and wiped people out because he did it to his own nation. I think he has an edge over Stalin because Stalin had a way of getting rid of people who just disappeared but Mao was a big fan of publicly, violently executing people and being extremely out in the open about it. Mao was very systematic with destroying humanity, even as he elevated women in society, and build modern-day China. That makes him worse. He fought wars and the state murdered its own people in numbers well about the Russians.

When I saw this thread title, I immediately thought of Mao Zedong. Sure, Hitler and Stalin come to mind as well, as they killed so many people, but I think Mao was the worst of them all. He instituted the "Great Leap Forward" plan and killed several million people with the famines that resulted from it. He is pretty much beloved by most of the Chinese population, but the rest of the world sees him differently. Hitler was a cruel person and all, but he didn't quite kill nearly as many people as Stalin or Mao. To be honest, the fact that the Chinese still adore him probably shows that Mao was a very strict dictator. He didn't want anyone to dislike him or his views and silenced any who did, violently. 

Ghostbear1111 :
RDay13 :

I agree with you guys in Mao being one of the most brutal and oppressive dictators. If we're talking about dictators who killed their own people though my vote would probably go to Pol Pot. He outright ordered a genocide against his own country. He also had a much more severe impact since the 2 million he executed or worked to death made up about 25-30% of the entire Cambodian population. Meaning though purely in terms of numbers he killed far less and his rule didn't impact the world in the same way since he ruled over less, he had a much more severe impact on his nation. In my opinion being the most oppressive of the three.

As many deaths as Mao was responsible for his rule also in some aspects helped advance China economically and strengthen the country (though not saying that to defend his actions in the slightest). Similarly is the case with Stalin who helped make Russia a superpower. Pol Pot's rule had no positive effects whatsoever on the country as a whole even at the time. All he did was effectively run his people and country into the ground. He delibaretly shut it off from the outside world. When it was already in a pretty bad state to begin with. 

EX Palen : To clarify I wasn't really making a list or anything since there are many dictators who fit the bill I described that I didn't include. Just mentioning some well known examples from the top of my head.

I'd say that Kim Jong-Il is the most brutal one. I mean, i've seen a documentary for his country North-Korea, and i heard North-Korea is the most severe country in the world. The following is what i could remember from it, as i saw it a few months ago: Mobile phones were forbidden for every single person, once you got in the country you had to identify a lot from yourself, North-Korea is the only(?) country that doesn't interact with other countries and stuff, everywhere needs to be a poster of the 'great' leader, blind people are forced to get a surgery. I know that these surgeries for seeing again isn't bad, but all poor people were blind there, and a surgery is like the death of your wallet. So... And those surgeries had another bad result which i can't remember anymore.

Also, North-Korea doesn't allow people recording much with a camera-like object. The same thing happened for the reporter for National Geographic Channel, when they made this documentary. They had an exception for it, i thought.

Next should be Adolf Hitler, who didn't have to kill the Jewish people (This detail is for me the worst. Why killing innocent people?), because he was being raised with the thought 'Jewish people are bad'. They weren't bad, they're still really innocent. But Adolf's father got fired by his Jewish boss. And then came that though. But Hitler didn't need to be the leader at all, as i was reading somewhere that Hitler was dreaming to be an artist for making art. But he got the chance to be the leader of Germany, and he took it immediately.

But it's half clear that first comes Kim Jong-Il and then Hitler. That's basically it, as i don't know the other dictators.

Did you know that Hitler was from Austria?

My worst dictators would be Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Kim Jung Un, and Pol Pot. All killed millions of their own people to push their selfish ideals on whoever they didn't execute.

I'm a bit surprised that no one has mentioned Genghis Khan. He may not have slaughtered too many of his own people compared to how many he killed via military conquest but this guy was ruthless in that manner.

It is estimated that Genghis Khan's military conquest killed about 40 million people which was approximately 10% of the world's population in the 1200's AD. He also ruled from China all the way to Eastern Europe (or his son's ruled that at the end of the conquest).

Pretty impressive and a bit surprising that no one thought of him.

MrBeingcool1 : Does that make him the most brutal, though? Plus you do know that kim jong-un is now north korea's dictator, kim jong-il is dead.

Anyway, for brutal, there are a few that come to mind, pretty much all that user mentioned.

For one that left the biggest impact on society, etc. its adolf hitler. Do I really need to say why?

Joseph Stalin (Holodomor famine, free train rides to Siberia). (ayy l)Mao Zedong (Famines). Pol Pot (Lists on the Internet about ruthless dictators).
Here's a joke.

geeogree : I think most people know of him but just don't consider him the most oppressive or brutal. There's still a debate about if he should be considered an evil dictator at all (though generally more are for) or be treated similarly to someone like Alexander the Great. He didn't really commit atrocities towards his own people either not on the same level as the other people mentioned. That said I'm not defending him and certainly wouldn't have wanted to be on his bad side.

If going purely in terms of brutality I'd go with Vlad. While his brutality may have been exaggurated in the western world (honestly not sure). Death by being impaled is one of the slowest and most excruciating ways you can die. Having to endure days of excruciating pain. Probably THE worst way you could die at the time. He not only used it as a form of torture but enjoyed doing it regularly as well. A true sadist if there ever was one.

imamonster :
MrBeingcool1 :

I think people often forget Kim-Il-Sung. He is in  my opinion the worst of the North Korean dictators simply because he was the one who started the whole development that lead it to where it is today. To actually come up with a plan like that and put it into action takes another degree of sickness in my opinion. The ones that followed him probably actually buy into themself being of divine descent to some extent and is acting based on their predecessors.

Zlinqx : Yup, I'll be honest I DID forget, but I do agree with you. I don't know why people tend to forget him.

and MrBeingcool1: Yes I did know he was from austria, and I also know that austria wanted his birthbuilding destroyed or something like that.

tornadocam : Actually, Nero is rarely ever brought up. I myself forgot about him. I'm unsure if there's any truth to the story, but I had heard that he would round up Christians, dip them in oil and use them for human candles. On the other hand, I had also heard stories of Vlad not only impaling people, but that he only used a sharp spear if he liked you, and he typically doubled you over and hung you from the ceiling for days. There's also a story about some people having an audience with him refusing to remove their turbans, and he had them nailed to their heads. IMO, anyone who makes a habit out of and enjoys using human beings as decoration and tiki torches is a special kind of evil.