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  ALMANAC   Top Ten Lists    Worst Genocides of the Twentieth Century

 
 
Worst Genocides of the Twentieth Century
The ten worst genocides of the 20th century listed by dictators responsible; ranked by number of deaths

1
Mao Zedong   27 - 73 million Chinese deaths (1945 - 1976)

Mao Zedong was a Chinese Marxist military and political leader, who led China's communist revolution after decades of foreign occupation and civil war in the 20th century. Following the Communist Party of Chinas military victory over the Kuomintang in the Chinese Civil War, Mao announced the establishment of the Peoples Republic of China on October 1, 1949 in Beijing.
 

2
Joseph Stalin   4 - 60 million polictical purges (1922 - 1953)

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin , alternatively transliterated Josef Stalin, was the de facto leader and dictator of the Soviet Union from 1922 to his death in 1953. Stalin held the title General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , a position that did not originally have significant influence, but through Stalin's ascendancy, became that of party l
 

3
Adolf Hitler   15 - 50 million civilian deaths by democide and by deaths in concentration camps (1939 - 1945)

Adolf Hitler was Chancellor of Germany from 1933, and Fhrer of Germany from 1934 until his death. He was leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party, better known as the Nazi Party. Hitler gained power in a Germany facing crisis after World War I, using charismatic oratory and propaganda, appealing to economic need of the lower and middle classes, nationalism and anti-Semitism to establish a totalitarian
 

4
Hideki Tojo   6 million - 30 million deaths of Chinese civilians during World War II

Hideki Tojo was a General in the Imperial Japanese Army, an ultranationalist thinker, and the 40th Prime Minister of Japan; he served as prime minister during much of World War II, from October 18 1941 to July 22 1944. He was executed on December 23, 1948 after being sentenced to death for war crimes.
 

5
Pol Pot   2 - 3 million deaths in Cambodia in the 1970s

Saloth Sar , better known as Pol Pot, was the ruler of the Khmer Rouge and the Prime Minister of Cambodia from 1976 to 1979, having been de facto leader since mid-1975. During his time in power Pol Pot instigated an aggressive policy of relocating people to the countryside in an attempt to purify the Cambodian people as a step toward a communist future.
 

6
Kim Il-sung   More than 1.6 million political purges and deaths in concentration camps (1946 - 1994)

Kim Il-sung was the leader of North Korea from its founding in 1948 until his death, when he was succeeded by his son Kim Jong-il. He held the posts of Prime Minister from 1948 to 1972 and President from 1972 to his death, although his real power came from his position as General Secretary of the Korean Workers' Party where he exercised dictatorial power.
 

7
Mengistu Haile Mariam   1.5 million deaths by democide in Ethiopia in the 1970s

Mengistu Haile Mariam
 

8
Ismail Enver   1.2 - 1.5 million deaths of Turkish civilians (1914-1916)

Ismail Enver (November 22, 1881 in Istanbul - August 4, 1922), known to Europeans during his political career as Enver Pasha or Enver Bey was a Turkish military officer and a leader of the Young Turk revolution. Due to his contributions for the revolution, he was given the nickname "The Hero of Liberty"(Hrriyet Kahramani).
 

9
Yakubu Gowon   Over 1 million deaths in Nigeria in (1966-1975)

General Yakubu "Jack" Dan-Yumma Gowonwas the head of state of Nigeria from 1966 to 1975. Yakubu is Ngas from Lur, a small village, in the present Kanke Local Government Area of Plateau State, Nigeria. His parents, Nde Yohanna and Matwok Kurnyang left for Wusasa Zaria as Church Missionary Society missionaries in the early days of Yakubu's life.
 

10
Leonid Brezhnev   over 900,000 Armenian deaths (1979 - 1982)

Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev ; – November 10, 1982) was the effective ruler of the Soviet Union from 1964 to 1982, though at first in partnership with others. He was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964 to 1982, and was twice Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet , from 1960 to 1964 and from 1977 to 1982.
 
 
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