₦airaland Forum

As part of the cease-fire agreement with the UN, Iraq was prohibited from producing or possessing chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. Numerous sanctions were leveled on the country pending compliance, and those caused severe disruption of the economy. Saddam’s continued refusal to cooperate with UN arms inspectors led to a four-day air strike by the United States and Great Britain in late 1998 (Operation Desert Fox). Both countries announced that they would support efforts of the Iraqi opposition to unseat Saddam, whose regime had grown increasingly brutal under UN sanctions, but the Iraqi leader barred UN weapons inspectors from entering his country. In the interim it became clear that Saddam was grooming one of his sons—Uday or Qusay—to succeed him. Both were elevated to senior positions, and both mirrored the brutality of their father. Moreover, Saddam continued to solidify his control at home, while he struck a profoundly defiant and anti-American stance in his rhetoric. Though increasingly feared at home, Saddam was viewed by many in the Arab world as the only regional leader willing to stand up to what they saw as American aggression.
In the wake of the September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001, the U.S. government, asserting that Saddam might provide terrorist groups with chemical or biological weapons, sought to renew the disarmament process. Though Saddam allowed UN weapons inspectors to return to Iraq in November 2002, his failure to cooperate fully with the investigations frustrated the United States and Great Britain and led them to declare an end to diplomacy. On March 17, 2003, U.S. Pres. George W. Bush ordered Saddam to step down from office and leave Iraq within 48 hours or face war; he also indicated that, even if Saddam left the country, U.S. forces might be needed to stabilize the new government and search for weapons of mass destruction. When Saddam refused to leave, U.S. and allied forces launched an attack on Iraq on March 20.
The opening salvo of the Iraq War was an assault by U.S. aircraft on a bunker complex in which Saddam was thought to be meeting with subordinates. Although the attack failed to kill the Iraqi leader, subsequent attacks directed against Saddam made it clear that eliminating him was a major goal of the invasion. Always obstinate in his tone, Saddam exhorted Iraqis to lay down their lives to stop U.S. and British forces, but resistance to the invasion soon crumbled, and on April 9, the day Baghdad fell to U.S. soldiers, Saddam fled into hiding. He took with him the bulk of the national treasury and was initially able to evade capture by U.S. troops. His sons, Uday and Qusay, were cornered and killed in Mosul on July 22, but it was not until December 13 that Saddam was finally captured. The once dapper leader was pulled, disheveled and dirty, from a small underground hiding place near a farmhouse in the vicinity of Tikrīt. Although he was armed, Saddam surrendered to U.S. soldiers without firing a shot.

Saddam Hussein, also spelled Ṣaddām Ḥusayn, in full Ṣaddām Ḥusayn al-Tikrītī, (born April 28, 1937, Al-ʿAwjah, Iraq—died December 30, 2006, Baghdad), president of Iraq (1979–2003) whose brutal rule was marked by costly and unsuccessful wars against neighbouring countries.
Early life

Saddam, the son of peasants, was born in a village near the city of Tikrīt in northern Iraq. The area was one of the poorest in the country, and Saddam himself grew up in poverty. His father died before he was born, and he went at an early age to live with an uncle in Baghdad.


He joined the Baʿath Party in 1957. In 1959 he participated in an unsuccessful attempt by Baʿathists to assassinate the Iraqi prime minister, ʿAbd al-Karīm Qāsim; Saddam was wounded in the attempt and escaped first to Syria and then to Egypt. He attended Cairo Law School (1962–63) and continued his studies at Baghdad Law College after the Baʿathists took power in Iraq in 1963. The Baʿathists were overthrown that same year, however, and Saddam spent several years in prison in Iraq. He escaped, becoming a leader of the Baʿath Party, and was instrumental in the coup that brought the party back to power in 1968. Saddam effectively held power in Iraq along with the head of state, Pres. Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr, and in 1972 he directed the nationalization of Iraq’s oil industry.
Presidency

Saddam began to assert open control of the government in 1979 and became president upon Bakr’s resignation. He then became chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council and prime minister, among other positions. He used an extensive secret-police establishment to suppress any internal opposition to his rule, and he made himself the object of an extensive personality cult among the Iraqi public. His goals as president were to supplant Egypt as leader of the Arab world and to achieve hegemony over the Persian Gulf.

Saddam launched an invasion of Iran’s oil fields in September 1980, but the campaign bogged down in a war of attrition. The cost of the war and the interruption of Iraq’s oil exports caused Saddam to scale down his ambitious programs for economic development. The Iran-Iraq War dragged on in a stalemate until 1988, when both countries accepted a cease-fire that ended the fighting. Despite the large foreign debt with which Iraq found itself saddled by war’s end, Saddam continued to build up his armed forces.

In August 1990 the Iraqi army overran neighbouring Kuwait. Saddam apparently intended to use that nation’s vast oil revenues to bolster Iraq’s economy, but his occupation of Kuwait quickly triggered a worldwide trade embargo against Iraq. He ignored appeals to withdraw his forces from Kuwait, despite the buildup of a large U.S.-led military force in Saudi Arabia and the passage of United Nations (UN) resolutions condemning the occupation and authorizing the use of force to end it. The Persian Gulf War began on January 16, 1991, and ended six weeks later when the allied military coalition drove Iraq’s armies out of Kuwait. Iraq’s crushing defeat triggered internal rebellions by both Shiʿis and Kurds, but Saddam suppressed their uprisings, causing thousands to flee to refugee camps along the country’s northern border. Untold thousands more were murdered, many simply disappearing into the regime’s prisons.

SANI ABACHA

Sani Abacha, (born September 20, 1943, Kano, Nigeria—died June 8, 1998, Abuja), Nigerian military leader, who served as head of state (1993–98).


Abacha received his formal military training at Nigerian and British military training colleges. He rose through the ranks in the Nigerian military and by 1983 had achieved the rank of brigadier when he assisted Ibrahim Babangida in overthrowing Shehu Shagari, who had been elected to his second presidential term in 1983. Muhammad Buhari became Nigeria’s leader, but just two years later Babangida overthrew Buhari and installed himself as leader with Abacha second in command. Elections were held in 1993 and were won by Moshood Abiola, a candidate supposedly supported by Babangida, who, however, annulled the elections and set up a civilian interim government, which Abacha quickly overthrew.

Although Abacha promised a return to democracy, his actions were anything but democratic. He banned political activity of any kind, fired a large portion of the military, controlled the press, and assembled a personal security force of some 3,000 men. While he supported the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and its military arm, ECOWAS Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), in sending troops to restore democracy in Liberia and Sierra Leone, he brutally suppressed dissent at home. Abiola and Olusegun Obasanjo, a former military leader of Nigeria (1976–79), were jailed for treason. Wole Soyinka, Nigeria’s Nobel laureate, was also charged with treason, although he had voluntarily left the country. Perhaps Abacha’s most brutal act was the imprisonment, trial, and subsequent execution for treason of writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and other Ogoni activists who were concerned with the environmental exploitation of their region by multinational petroleum companies.

Abacha’s sudden death in June 1998 moved along the process of returning the country to civilian rule. His military successor, Abdusalam Abubakar, oversaw the return to an elected civilian government in 1999. After Abacha’s death, it was rumoured that he and his family had enriched themselves by some $3 billion, most of it held in European banks. In 2002 a settlement, which returned most of the money to the government in exchange for dropping criminal prosecution, was reached between the Obasanjo government and the Abacha family.

Heinrich Himmler


Heinrich Himmler, (born Oct. 7, 1900, Munich, Ger.—died May 23, 1945, Lüneburg), German Nazi police administrator who became the second most powerful man in the Third Reich. He joined the Nazi Party in 1925 and rose to become head of Adolf Hitler’s SS. He was put in command of most German police units after 1933, taking charge of the Gestapo in 1934, and established the Third Reich’s first concentration camp, at Dachau. He soon built the SS into a powerful network of state terror, and by 1936 he commanded all the Reich’s police forces. In World War II he expanded the Waffen-SS (Armed SS) until it rivaled the army; after 1941 he organized the death camps in eastern Europe. Shunted aside by Hitler’s entourage, Himmler, hoping to succeed Hitler, had negotiations with the Allies in the final months of the war over Germany’s surrender or its alliance with the Western Allies against the Soviet Union. Hitler ordered his arrest, but when he attempted to escape he was captured by the British and committed suicide by taking poison.

Vlad III – the Vigilante

Vlad III is usually described as a very cruel and violent man, enjoying killing and torturing his enemies. At least, this is his worldwide reputation, and the connections with the bloody Count Dracula are just maintaining this idea. But Vlad III had a much complex personality, and this image of a merciless warrior is just one piece of the puzzle. In fact, Romanians remember him as a fair leader, brave and very intelligent so, despite his cruel methods of punishment, he was truly respected by his people. We must not forget that being a prisoner of the Ottomans for so many years and seeing lots of horrible things as a young boy changed dramatically his character and his way of seeing life in general. But one thing is sure; he loved justice and used whatever means possible to discourage any kind of crimes.

There are many stories about how safe Walachia was during his command. He undertook a vast campaign of “cleaning” the country of all the thieves, murderers, rapists and beggars, and even if the methods used were quite extreme, they worked and so, Vlad III become one of the most feared-loved rulers of all times. The most representative story in this regard is that of the famous gold cup from a public fountain that was freely used by everyone but never stolen during Vlad’s leadership. There is also a legend telling how Vlad wanted to test the honesty of one of his noblemen, so he ordered someone to rob him of 50 gold coins. The next day, as expected, the nobleman came to Vlad to complain, but he said he was robbed of 100 gold coins instead of 50. So, this way, Vlad figured out immediately of how greedy and liar was actually the noblemen, so he sentenced him to death through impaling.
Under Vlad III's governance, Walachia registered great economic progress even if the country witnessed many battles. Between Walachia and Transylvania, there were also many commercial routes, but the Saxon merchants from Transylvania, supported by Mathias Corvine, the King of Hungary, wanted to be tax-free in Vlad’s country. This was obviously in detriment of the Romanian merchants, so Vlad decided to continue taxing the Saxons, so he could support his own people to prosper. This caused, of course, a lot of complaints, and the Saxons refused to respect Vlad’s rules, so as habit, anyone not obeying the low was immediately impaled.
So far, it seems that Vlad only used the impaling method to punish and not to please himself. In fact, the method was largely used throughout entire Europe, so there was nothing so extraordinary in it. But still, Vlad III got his Impaler nickname for nothing, didn’t he?
If you want to discover even more about the legend of Dracula, and how the connection between the Wallachian voivode and the vampire lord was created, book a day trip to Bran Castle and take a tour of the real-life Castle of Dracula.

The Ottoman war started when Vlad refused to pay tribute to the Sultan. The Ottoman Empire was furious because a prince raised by them grew rebellious, so Sultan Mehmed II decided to put an end to it. He delegated two of his most loyal men to go to Wallachia and plan Vlad's assassination, but Țepeș found out and impaled them and their armies. And thus, the fierce reputation of Vlad the Impaler as a ruthless ruler began.
Vlad's court chroniclers noted the ruler's personal records very precisely. In Oblucitia and Nevoselo, 1.350 Ottomans were impaled, 6.840 in Dirstor, Catal, and Dripotrom, 630 at Turtucaia, 6.414 in Giurgiu, 1.460 in Rahova, 749 in Novigrad and Šištovica, and 210 in Marotiu, of both sexes and all ages.
The beginning of the war couldn’t have been better for Vlad.

But by far the most famous battle between Vlad III the Impaler and Mehmed II took place in 1462 when a great Ottoman army of more than 250,000 people was defeated by Vlad’s army of no more than 30,000 men including young boys.
Vlad harassed the Ottomans with many unexpected night attacks and constantly destroyed their possible food sources and poisoned the water wells, thus leading to a demoralized Ottoman army.
On the night of June 16, Vlad the Impaler, together with a handful of men, organized a night attack on the Ottoman army. They entered the enemy camp disguised as Turks and attempted to capture or assassinate the Sultan. Even though they didn't succeed, the Turks started killing each other because of the confusion created by the disguise of Vlad's force.

The Ottoman army continued their march towards Târgoviște, but when they arrived there, to their surprise, the town was deserted. Instead of a Wallachian army, they found a forest of 20.000 impaled corpses of men, women, and children. This determined Sultan Mehmed II to retreat, saying that "it was not possible to deprive of his country a man who had done such great deeds, who had such a diabolical understanding of how to govern his realm and his people."

So, Mehmed II retreated, and left Radu the Handsome, Vlad's younger brother, to fight for the throne of Wallachia.
There were many battles between the two brothers, and even though Vlad defeated Radu several times, impaling over 30.000 Ottoman soldiers, Radu gained the support of the noblemen.
A very unfavorable political context sealed the end of Vlad’s leadership, and he was imprisoned by Matthias Corvinus. His imprisonment caused unrest among Pope Pius II and the Venetians, who had financed Vlad's campaigns against the Ottoman Empire, so Matthias Corvinus forged a series of letters allegedly written by Vlad Tepes. According to these, Vlad Tepes agreed to work together with Mehmed II in order to defeat the Hungarian army, under the condition that he will return to the throne.

After 14 long years spent in imprisonment, Matthias Corvinus recognized Vlad as the lawful prince of Wallachia and freed him, but without providing him with military assistance to recapture his principality.
In 1476 on July 26, Mehmed II invaded Moldavia and defeated Stephen the Great at the Battle of Valea Alba. But in response, Vlad Tepes together with Stephen Batory, attacked Moldavia and forced the sultan to renounce his siege of the Neamt Citadel. Later that year, Matthias Corvinus, the King of Hungary, ordered the Saxons of Transylvania to support Stephen Bathory's invasion of Wallachia together with Stephen the Great.

In October, Vlad Tepes and Stephen the Great confirmed their alliance, and they forced Basarab Laiota, who was the Voivode of Wallachia, to flee to the Ottoman Empire, by occupying Bucharest.
In December, Basarab Laiota invaded Wallachia with support from the Ottoman Empire, and Vlad was killed in battle. According to the letter written by Stephen the Great, Vlad the Impaler's body was chopped into pieces, and his head was sent to Mehmed II.

One of Vlad the Impaler's main fortresses was Poenari, from where he ruled for several years. The impressive Poenari Citadel had a very strategic position, which made it very difficult to siege, not to mention conquer.


The fierce reputation of Vlad III grew each day, and his preference for impaling got him the famous nickname of "the Impaler." This method had an enormous impact on people's morale, as the victims did not die immediately. Surprisingly, impaling was quite an art, as there were only a couple of ways of doing it without damaging the victim’s vital organs, so they could still live several days in great pain, writhing and twitching.
* Where does Count Dracula's name come from?
Vlad the Impaler was a member of the Order of Dragon, a monarchical chivalric founded by the King of Hungary in 1408. The symbol of the Order was a dragon, and at that time, "Dracul" (devil) meant dragon. Vlad's father had been a member of the order as well and was called Vlad Dracul; therefore, his son, Vlad III was called similarly Vlad Dracula.
Vlad III - the Despot

Vlad ruled in Walachia three times. His first reign was in 1448 and lasted only six months because he didn’t had strong support from the nobility and was rapidly banished by the previous ruler, Vladislav II. Vlad had then only 17 years old. The second reign, however, it is the most important as it lasted the most, six years, between 1456 and 1462. This is the period when Vlad affirmed himself as a fearless and merciless leader. Fourteen years later, he succeeded to regain his throne but, unfortunately, only for a short period of time as he was killed during a battle. Even if he did not reign for many years, his actions and his powerful personality have left a strong mark in the minds of the entire population. Undoubtedly, he was remembered as cruel, violent, and sadistic and this fame of his lasts even today.
But was Vlad indeed a despot? According to many historians, he surely was. Apart from all his measures taken in order to protect his country and punish the criminals, he used many dreadful means of torture. He often ordered people to be skinned, boiled, decapitated, blinded, strangled, hanged, burned, roasted, hacked, nailed, buried alive, or stabbed. He also liked to cut off the victim’s nose, ears, genitals, or tongue. These methods were clearly used to impress, to gain the respect of both his people and his enemy and no doubt, there were usual for that time. But Vlad was also paranoiac and revengeful.

He never forgot that his father and his elder brother were killed with the help of certain noble families, so he took care to revenge their death and also, he took drastic measures to assure its own safety. The elimination of the mistrustful nobles was done successively during his reigns. He managed to kill through impaling over 500 noblemen along with their entire families. Also, he selected the bravest soldiers for his personal army and maintained their loyalty by offering them not only money but lands and houses and gold.

Weakening the power of the nobility was an important step in assuring a long undisturbed reign and also was an efficient way of telling the world that he doesn’t obey anyone. But his cruelty was also seen as a weakness. The vengeful Saxon merchants and later, their descendants, took care to portray Vlad in horrifying postures that disgusted entire Europe. Vlad was described as a sadist who used to drink the blood of his enemies, which amused torturing people or enjoyed serving the meals watching dead bodies hanged in spires. He was also accused of eating human flesh, which was a huge insult for an Orthodox Christian ruler like him. Even if all those writings meant to discredit Vlad, no one could tell for sure if they are completely false or not.

Vlad the Impaler



It's really hard to imagine what Romania would have looked like without Vlad the Impaler. Even though he is famous for being a source of inspiration for Bram Stoker's Dracula, we assure you that his life story is far more interesting, and many Romanians view him as a national hero. He was one of the most respected rulers of Wallachia, a true defender of Christianity, a great warrior, and a brilliant politician. And despite being one of the cruelest rulers in Romania's history, we must not forget that he was also a man who loved and was loved, who cared for his family and his country and lived in a time of great uncertainties, war, and conspiracies.
Did you know: There is little evidence to support the fact that Vlad Tepes ever set foot in Bran Castle. Bran Castle was never in his possession, and it was used as a fortification, not as a castle for nobility.

The early life of Vlad the Impaler
Born in 1431 in the Sighisoara Citadel, Vlad III - later known as Vlad the Impaler, Vlad Țepeș was the son of Vlad II Dracul, who was the illegitimate son of Mircea I of Wallachia, commonly known as Mircea the Brave. There is some uncertainty regarding who his mother is, but many historians identify her as being a daughter of Alexander I of Moldavia.
Young Vlad Tepes spent the first years of his life in the Saxon town of Sighișoara, together with his family. When he was 11, his father refused to support the Ottoman invasion of Transylvania of March 1442, and Sultan Murad II ordered him to come to Gallipoli to prove his loyalty. He departed together with Vlad and his brother, Radu, and once they arrived, they were all imprisoned.


By the end of the year, their father was released, but Vlad and Radu were kept as hostages to secure the loyalty of Vlad II Dracul.
The two brothers were trained by the Ottoman Empire to become skilled warriors in the harsh conditions of the dry Anatolian Plateau, at the Egrigoz Citadel. The goal of the Ottoman Empire was to form these two princes according to their culture, so when the time would come for them to rule Wallachia, they would not rebel against the Empire. In time, Radu, who came to be known as Radu the Handsome, grew very close to Sultan Mehmed II, with some people suggesting that they were having an intimate relationship.

Vlad was profoundly disgusted by the relationship his brother had with Mehmed II, and as his hate of the Ottoman Empire grew constantly, he found a refuge in learning the arts of combat. Thus, he became an expert in handling the yataghan and the lance. Seeing all those years how the Ottomans destroyed his family, his youth, and how cruel they were in battle, determined him to do whatever was possible to become ruler of Wallachia and destroy the Ottomans.
He was set free in 1447, after the death of his father and his elder brother Mircea (which is said to have been buried alive) at the order of Iancu of Hunedoara. Finding out that their deaths were also influenced by the decisions of some noble families, Vlad promised himself that, as the ruler of Walachia, he would revenge these atrocities, and this is exactly what happened later. This was, undoubtedly, one of the most significant moments of the life of Vlad Tepes.
About the rest of Vlad the Impaler's personal life, there is little information known. Most experts say that he was married twice, while others claim that he had three wives. But what is certain is that he cared a lot for his children, even for the ones who were illegitimate. Also, it is said that he had a single true love for beautiful Katharina Siegel, the daughter of the weaver’s guild leader. Their love lasted more than 20 years until Vlad’s death, having five children, but they never had the chance to get married. But she is, undoubtedly, the one who unconditionally supported him along his way as ruler and defender of Walachia. His eldest son was born in 1462 and was named Mihnea, his second son was killed before 1486, and his third son, Vlad Drakwlya, was the forefather of the noble Drakwla family.

Joseph Stalin and World War II
In 1939, on the eve of World War II, Joseph Stalin and Germany’s Nazi Party dictator Adolf Hitler signed the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact. Stalin then proceeded to annex parts of Poland and Romania, as well as the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. He also launched an invasion of Finland.
Then, in June 1941, Germany broke the Nazi-Soviet pact and invaded the USSR, making significant early inroads. (Stalin had ignored warnings from the Americans and the British, as well as his own intelligence agents, about a potential invasion, and the Soviets were not prepared for war.)
As German troops approached the Soviet capital of Moscow, Stalin remained there and directed a scorched earth defensive policy, destroying any supplies or infrastructure that might benefit the enemy. The tide turned for the Soviets with the Battle of Stalingrad from August 1942 to February 1943, during which the Red Army defeated the Germans and eventually drove them from Russia.
As the war progressed, Stalin participated in the major Allied conferences, including the Tehran Conference (1943) and the Yalta Conference (1945). His iron will and deft political skills enabled him to play the loyal ally while never abandoning his vision of an expanded postwar Soviet empire.

Later Years
Joseph Stalin did not mellow with age: He initiated a reign of terror, purges, executions, exiles to labor camps and persecution in the postwar USSR, suppressing all dissent and anything that smacked of foreign–especially Western–influence.
He established communist governments throughout Eastern Europe, and in 1949 led the Soviets into the nuclear age by exploding an atomic bomb. In 1950, he gave North Korea’s communist leader Kim Il Sung permission to invade United States-supported South Korea, an event that triggered the Korean War.



How Did Joseph Stalin Die?
Stalin, who grew increasingly paranoid in his later years, died on March 5, 1953, at age 74, after suffering a stroke. His body was embalmed and preserved in Lenin’s mausoleum in Moscow’s Red Square until 1961, when it was removed and buried near the Kremlin walls as part of the de-Stalinization process initiated by Stalin’s successor Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971).
How Many People Did Joseph Stalin Kill?
By some estimates, Joseph Stalin was responsible for the deaths of 6 million to 20 million people during his brutal rule, either though political executions or indirectly as a result of Stalin’s policies. The killings first began in the 1930s, as a wave of executions swept the Soviet Union during Stalin’s Great Purge.
“In some cases, a quota was established for the number to be executed, the number to be arrested,” said Stanford University history professor Norman Naimark in a 2010 interview. “Some officials overfulfilled as a way of showing their exuberance.”
Millions more were killed in the horrific famine that struck Ukraine in 1932-1933 and the Kazakh region from 1930 to 1933, partly the result of Stalin’s bungled efforts at collectivization of agriculture. Estimates vary, but about 4 million men, women and children are believed to have starved to death during the Holodomor (a combination of the Ukrainian words for “starvation” and “to inflict death”

JOSEPH STALIN


Joseph Stalin was the dictator of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1929 to 1953. Under Stalin, the Soviet Union was transformed from a peasant society into an industrial and military superpower. However, he ruled by terror, and millions of his own citizens died during his brutal reign. Stalin became involved in revolutionary politics, as well as criminal activities, as a young man. After Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin died, Stalin outmaneuvered his rivals for control of the party. Stalin aligned with the United States and Britain in World War II but afterward engaged in an increasingly tense relationship with the West known as the Cold War. After his death, the Soviets initiated a de-Stalinization process.


Young Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin was born Josef Vissarionovich Djugashvili on December 18, 1878, or December 6, 1878, according to the Old Style Julian calendar (although he later invented a new birth date for himself: December 21, 1879). He grew up in the small town of Gori, Georgia, then part of the Russian empire. When he was in his 30s, he took the name Stalin, from the Russian for “man of steel.”






Stalin grew up poor and an only child. His father was a shoemaker and an alcoholic who beat his son, and his mother was a laundress. As a boy, Stalin contracted smallpox, which left him with lifelong facial scars. As a teen, he earned a scholarship to attend a seminary in the nearby city of Tblisi and study for the priesthood in the Georgian Orthodox Church.
While there he began secretly reading the work of German social philosopher and “Communist Manifesto” author Karl Marx, becoming interested in the revolutionary movement against the Russian monarchy. In 1899, Stalin was expelled from the seminary for missing exams, although he claimed it was for Marxist propaganda.
After leaving school, Stalin became an underground political agitator, taking part in labor demonstrations and strikes. He adopted the name Koba, after a fictional Georgian outlaw-hero, and joined the more militant wing of the Marxist Social Democratic movement, the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin.
Stalin also became involved in various criminal activities, including bank heists, the proceeds from which were used to help fund the Bolshevik Party. He was arrested multiple times between 1902 and 1913, and subjected to imprisonment and exile in Siberia.

Outbreak of World War II


In March 1936, against the advice of his generals, Hitler ordered German troops to reoccupy the demilitarized left bank of the Rhine.
Over the next two years, Germany concluded alliances with Italy and Japan, annexed Austria and moved against Czechoslovakia—all essentially without resistance from Great Britain, France or the rest of the international community.
Once he confirmed the alliance with Italy in the so-called “Pact of Steel” in May 1939, Hitler then signed a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union. On September 1, 1939, Nazi troops invaded Poland, finally prompting Britain and France to declare war on Germany.



Blitzkrieg
After ordering the occupation of Norway and Denmark in April 1940, Hitler adopted a plan proposed by one of his generals to attack France through the Ardennes Forest. The blitzkrieg (“lightning war”) attack began on May 10; Holland quickly surrendered, followed by Belgium.
German troops made it all the way to the English Channel, forcing British and French forces to evacuate en masse from Dunkirk in late May. On June 22, France was forced to sign an armistice with Germany.
Hitler had hoped to force Britain to seek peace as well, but when that failed he went ahead with his attacks on that country, followed by an invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor that December, the United States declared war on Japan, and Germany’s alliance with Japan demanded that Hitler declare war on the United States as well.
At that point in the conflict, Hitler shifted his central strategy to focus on breaking the alliance of his main opponents (Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union) by forcing one of them to make peace with him.

As Soviet troops entered the heart of Berlin, Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945, in his underground bunker. Although there is some speculation about the manner of his death, it is widely believed that he shot himself. Eva Braun, whom he had recently married, also took her own life. According to his wishes, both bodies were burned and buried. Almost immediately, however, conspiracy theories began. The Soviets initially claimed that they were unable to confirm Hitler’s death and later spread rumors that he was alive. According to subsequent reports, however, the Soviets recovered his burnt remains, which were identified through dental records. Hitler’s body was secretly buried before being exhumed and cremated, with the ashes scattered in 1970.

Hitler's Foreign Policy
In 1933, Germany was diplomatically isolated, with a weak military and hostile neighbors (France and Poland). In a famous speech in May 1933, Hitler struck a surprisingly conciliatory tone, claiming Germany supported disarmament and peace.
But behind this appeasement strategy, the domination and expansion of the Volk remained Hitler’s overriding aim.
By early the following year, he had withdrawn Germany from the League of Nations and begun to militarize the nation in anticipation of his plans for territorial conquest.
Night of the Long Knives
On June 29, 1934, the infamous Night of the Long Knives, Hitler had Röhm, former Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher and hundreds of other problematic members of his own party murdered, in particular troublesome members of the SA.
When the 86-year-old Hindenburg died on August 2, military leaders agreed to combine the presidency and chancellorship into one position, meaning Hitler would command all the armed forces of the Reich.
Persecution of Jews
On September 15, 1935, passage of the Nuremberg Laws deprived Jews of German citizenship, and barred them from marrying or having relations with persons of “German or related blood.”
Though the Nazis attempted to downplay its persecution of Jews in order to placate the international community during the 1936 Berlin Olympics (in which German-Jewish athletes were not allowed to compete), additional decrees over the next few years disenfranchised Jews and took away their political and civil rights.



In addition to its pervasive anti-Semitism, Hitler’s government also sought to establish the cultural dominance of Nazism by burning books, forcing newspapers out of business, using radio and movies for propaganda purposes and forcing teachers throughout Germany’s educational system to join the party.
Much of the Nazi persecution of Jews and other targets occurred at the hands of the Geheime Staatspolizei (GESTAPO), or Secret State Police, an arm of the SS that expanded during this period.

Eva Braun
Hitler spent much of his time at Berchtesgaden during these years, and his half-sister, Angela Raubal, and her two daughters often joined him. After Hitler became infatuated with his beautiful blonde niece, Geli Raubal, his possessive jealousy apparently led her to commit suicide in 1931.
Devastated by the loss, Hitler would consider Geli the only true love affair of his life. He soon began a long relationship with Eva Braun, a shop assistant from Munich, but refused to marry her.
The worldwide Great Depression that began in 1929 again threatened the stability of the Weimar Republic. Determined to achieve political power in order to affect his revolution, Hitler built up Nazi support among German conservatives, including army, business and industrial leaders.
The Third Reich
In 1932, Hitler ran against the war hero Paul von Hindenburg for president, and received 36.8 percent of the vote. With the government in chaos, three successive chancellors failed to maintain control, and in late January 1933 Hindenburg named the 43-year-old Hitler as chancellor, capping the stunning rise of an unlikely leader.


January 30, 1933 marked the birth of the Third Reich, or as the Nazis called it, the “Thousand-Year Reich” (after Hitler’s boast that it would endure for a millennium).

After Hitler returned to Munich in late 1918, he joined the small German Workers’ Party, which aimed to unite the interests of the working class with a strong German nationalism. His skilled oratory and charismatic energy helped propel him in the party’s ranks, and in 1920 he left the army and took charge of its propaganda efforts.
In one of Hitler’s strokes of propaganda genius, the newly renamed National Socialist German Workers Party, or Nazi Party, adopted a version of the ancient symbol of the hakenkreuz, or hooked cross, as its emblem. Printed in a white circle on a red background, Hitler’s swastika would take on terrifying symbolic power in the years to come.
By the end of 1921, Hitler led the growing Nazi Party, capitalizing on widespread discontent with the Weimar Republic and the punishing terms of the Versailles Treaty. Many dissatisfied former army officers in Munich would join the Nazis, notably Ernst Röhm, who recruited the “strong arm” squads—known as the Sturmabteilung (SA)—which Hitler used to protect party meetings and attack opponents.

Beer Hall Putsch
On the evening of November 8, 1923, members of the SA and others forced their way into a large beer hall where another right-wing leader was addressing the crowd. Wielding a revolver, Hitler proclaimed the beginning of a national revolution and led marchers to the center of Munich, where they got into a gun battle with police.
Hitler fled quickly, but he and other rebel leaders were later arrested. Even though it failed spectacularly, the Beer Hall Putsch established Hitler as a national figure, and (in the eyes of many) a hero of right-wing nationalism.
'Mein Kampf'
Tried for treason, Hitler was sentenced to five years in prison, but would serve only nine months in the relative comfort of Landsberg Castle. During this period, he began to dictate the book that would become "Mein Kampf" (“My Struggle”), the first volume of which was published in 1925.
In it, Hitler expanded on the nationalistic, anti-Semitic views he had begun to develop in Vienna in his early twenties, and laid out plans for the Germany—and the world—he sought to create when he came to power.
Hitler would finish the second volume of "Mein Kampf" after his release, while relaxing in the mountain village of Berchtesgaden. It sold modestly at first, but with Hitler’s rise it became Germany’s best-selling book after the Bible. By 1940, it had sold some 6 million copies there.


Hitler’s second book, “The Zweites Buch,” was written in 1928 and contained his thoughts on foreign policy. It was not published in his lifetime due to the poor initial sales of “Mein Kampf.” The first English translations of “The Zweites Buch” did not appear until 1962 and was published under the title “Hitler's Secret Book.”
Aryan Race
Obsessed with race and the idea of ethnic “purity,” Hitler saw a natural order that placed the so-called “Aryan race” at the top.
For him, the unity of the Volk (the German people) would find its truest incarnation not in democratic or parliamentary government, but in one supreme leader, or Führer.
"Mein Kampf" also addressed the need for Lebensraum (or living space): In order to fulfill its destiny, Germany should take over lands to the east that were now occupied by “inferior” Slavic peoples—including Austria, the Sudetenland (Czechoslovakia), Poland and Russia.
The Schutzstaffel (SS)
By the time Hitler left prison, economic recovery had restored some popular support for the Weimar Republic, and support for right-wing causes like Nazism appeared to be waning.
Over the next few years, Hitler laid low and worked on reorganizing and reshaping the Nazi Party. He established the Hitler Youth to organize youngsters, and created the Schutzstaffel (SS) as a more reliable alternative to the SA.

Members of the SS wore black uniforms and swore a personal oath of loyalty to Hitler. (After 1929, under the leadership of Heinrich Himmler, the SS would develop from a group of some 200 men into a force that would dominate Germany and terrorize the rest of occupied Europe during World War II.)

Military Career of Adolf Hitler
In 1913, Hitler moved to Munich, in the German state of Bavaria. When World War I broke out the following summer, he successfully petitioned the Bavarian king to be allowed to volunteer in a reserve infantry regiment.
Deployed in October 1914 to Belgium, Hitler served throughout the Great War and won two decorations for bravery, including the rare Iron Cross First Class, which he wore to the end of his life.
Hitler was wounded twice during the conflict: He was hit in the leg during the Battle of the Somme in 1916, and temporarily blinded by a British gas attack near Ypres in 1918. A month later, he was recuperating in a hospital at Pasewalk, northeast of Berlin, when news arrived of the armistice and Germany’s defeat in World War I.

Like many Germans, Hitler came to believe the country’s devastating defeat could be attributed not to the Allies, but to insufficiently patriotic “traitors” at home—a myth that would undermine the post-war Weimar Republic and set the stage for Hitler’s rise.

ADOLF HITLER

Adolf Hitler, the leader of Germany’s Nazi Party, was one of the most powerful and notorious dictators of the 20th century. Hitler capitalized on economic woes, popular discontent and political infighting to take absolute power in Germany beginning in 1933. Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939 led to the outbreak of World War II, and by 1941 Nazi forces had occupied much of Europe. Hitler’s virulent anti-Semitism and obsessive pursuit of Aryan supremacy fueled the murder of some 6 million Jews, along with other victims of the Holocaust. After the tide of war turned against him, Hitler committed suicide in a Berlin bunker in April 1945.

Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889, in Braunau am Inn, a small Austrian town near the Austro-German frontier. After his father, Alois, retired as a state customs official, young Adolf spent most of his childhood in Linz, the capital of Upper Austria.
Not wanting to follow in his father’s footsteps as a civil servant, he began struggling in secondary school and eventually dropped out. Alois died in 1903, and Adolf pursued his dream of being an artist, though he was rejected from Vienna’s Academy of Fine Arts.

After his mother, Klara, died in 1908, Hitler moved to Vienna, where he pieced together a living painting scenery and monuments and selling the images. Lonely, isolated and a voracious reader, Hitler became interested in politics during his years in Vienna, and developed many of the ideas that would shape Nazi ideology.

Qoutes from IDI Amin



"I am not a politician but a professional
soldier. I am, therefore, a man of few
words and I have been brief through my
professional career."

2. If we knew the meaning to
everything that is happening to
us, then there would be no
meaning.

3. In any country there must be
people who have to die. They
are the sacrifices any nation has
to make to achieve law and
order.

4. I am the hero of Africa.

5. My mission is to lead the country
out of a bad situation of
corruption, depression and
slavery. After I rid the country of
these vices, I will then organize
and supervise a general election
of a genuinely democratic civilian
government.

6. Politics is like boxing — you try to
knock out your opponents.


6. There is freedom of speech, but I cannot guarantee freedom after speech" Idi Amin

7. I'm a good Muslim and I'm only
interested in Islam.

8. It's not for me. I tried human
flesh and it's too salty for my
taste.

9. I myself consider myself the most
powerful figure in the world

10. Although some people felt Adolf
Hitler was bad, he was a great
man and a real conqueror whose
name would never be forgotten.

11. You cannot run faster than a
bullet

12. I do not want to be controlled by any
superpower. I myself consider myself the
most powerful figure in the world, and
that is why I do not let any superpower
control me.

13. I want your heart. I want to eat your
children.
(Idi Amin to an adviser just before
dinner)
I ate them before they ate me

14. We Africans used to carry
Europeans, but now Europeans are
carrying us. We are now the masters …
They came from Britian and wanted to
show that they really have power in my
country.”

Last Photos taken of Amin

In 1972, Amin declared "economic war" on Uganda's Asian population, a group that dominated Uganda's trade and manufacturing sectors as well as a significant portion of the civil service. Seventy thousand Asian holders of British passports were given three months to leave the country, and the abandoned businesses were handed over to Amin's supporters. Amin severed diplomatic ties with Britain and "nationalized" 85 British-owned businesses. He also expelled Israeli military advisors, turning instead to Colonel Muammar Muhammad al-Gadhafi of Libya and the Soviet Union for support.

Leadership
Amin was considered by many to be a gregarious, charismatic leader, and he was often portrayed by the international press as a popular figure. In 1975, he was elected chair of the Organisation of African Unity (though Julius Kambarage Nyerere, president of Tanzania, Kenneth David Kaunda, president of Zambia, and Seretse Khama, president of Botswana, boycotted the meeting). A United Nations condemnation was blocked by African heads of state.

Hypomania
Popular legend claims that Amin was involved in blood rituals and cannibalism. More authoritative sources suggest he may have suffered from hypomania, a form of manic depression characterized by irrational behavior and emotional outbursts. As his paranoia became more pronounced, Amin imported troops from Sudan and Zaire. Eventually, less than 25 percent of the Army was Ugandan. Support for his regime faltered as accounts of Amin's atrocities reached the international press. The Ugandan economy suffered, with inflation eclipsing 1,000%


Exile
In October 1978, with the assistance of Libyan troops, Amin attempted to annex Kagera, the northern province of Tanzania (which shares a border with Uganda). Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere responded by sending troops into Uganda, and with the aid of rebel Ugandan forces they were able to capture the Ugandan capital of Kampala. Amin fled to Libya, where he stayed for almost 10 years before finally relocating to Saudi Arabia. He remained there in exile for the remainder of his life.

Death
On August 16, 2003, Amin died in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The cause of death was reported as multiple organ failure. Although the Ugandan government announced that his body could be buried in Uganda, he was quickly buried in Saudi Arabia. Amin was never tried for his gross abuse of human rights.

Legacy
Amin's brutal reign has been the subject of numerous books, documentaries, and dramatic films, including "Ghosts of Kampala," "The Last King of Scotland," and "General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait." Often depicted in his time as an eccentric buffoon with delusions of grandeur, Amin is now considered one of history's cruelest dictators. Historians believe his regime was responsible for at least 100,000 deaths and possibly many more.

Coup d'Etat
Idi Amin began to strengthen his position within the Army using the funds obtained from smuggling and from supplying arms to rebels in southern Sudan. He also developed ties with British and Israeli agents in the country. President Obote first responded by putting Amin under house arrest. When this failed to work, Amin was sidelined to a non-executive position in the Army. On January 25, 1971, while Obote was attending a meeting in Singapore, Amin led a coup d'etat, taking control of the country and declaring himself president. Popular history recalls Amin's declared title to be "His Excellency President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea, and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular."

Amin was initially welcomed both within Uganda and by the international community. President Mutesa—fondly known as "King Freddie"—had died in exile in 1969, and one of Amin's earliest acts was to have the body returned to Uganda for a state burial. Political prisoners (many of whom were Amin followers) were freed and the Ugandan Secret Police was disbanded. At the same time, however, Amin formed "killer squads" to hunt down Obote's supporters.

Ethnic Purging
Obote took refuge in Tanzania, from where, in 1972, he attempted unsuccessfully to regain the country through a military coup. Obote supporters within the Ugandan Army, predominantly from the Acholi and Lango ethnic groups, were also involved in the coup. Amin responded by bombing Tanzanian towns and purging the Army of Acholi and Lango officers. The ethnic violence grew to include the whole of the Army, and then Ugandan civilians, as Amin became increasingly paranoid. The Nile Mansions Hotel in Kampala became infamous as Amin's interrogation and torture center, and Amin is said to have moved residences regularly to avoid assassination attempts. His killer squads, under the official titles of "State Research Bureau" and "Public Safety Unit," were responsible for tens of thousands of abductions and murders. Amin personally ordered the execution of the Anglican Archbishop of Uganda, the chancellor of Makerere College, the governor of the Bank of Uganda, and several of his own parliamentary ministers.

As Uganda approached independence, Amin's close colleague Apollo Milton Obote, the leader of the Uganda People's Congress (UPC), was made chief minister and then prime minister. Obote had Amin, one of only two high-ranking Africans in the KAR, appointed as first lieutenant of the Ugandan Army. Sent north to quell cattle stealing, Amin perpetrated such atrocities that the British government demanded he be prosecuted. Instead, Obote arranged for him to receive further military training in the U.K.

Soldier for the State

On his return to Uganda in 1964, Amin was promoted to major and given the task of dealing with an army in mutiny. His success led to a further promotion to colonel. In 1965, Obote and Amin were implicated in a deal to smuggle gold, coffee, and ivory out of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A parliamentary investigation demanded by President Edward Mutebi Mutesa II put Obote on the defensive. Obote promoted Amin to general and made him chief-of-staff, had five ministers arrested, suspended the 1962 constitution, and declared himself president.

IDI AMIN DADA


Idi Amin Dada Oumee was born around 1923 near Koboko, in the West Nile Province of what is now the Republic of Uganda. Deserted by his father at an early age, he was brought up by his mother, an herbalist and diviner. Amin was a member of the Kakwa ethnic group, a small Islamic tribe that had settled in the region.




Amin received little formal education. In 1946, he joined Britain's colonial African troops known as the King's African Rifles (KAR) and served in Burma, Somalia, Kenya (during the British suppression of the Mau Mau), and Uganda. Although he was considered a skilled soldier, Amin developed a reputation for cruelty and was almost cashiered on several occasions for excessive brutality during interrogations. Nevertheless, he rose through the ranks, reaching sergeant major before finally being made an effendi, the highest rank possible for a Black African serving in the British army. Amin was also an accomplished athlete, holding Uganda's light heavyweight boxing championship title from 1951 to 1960.

Between 1975 and 1978, an estimated two million Cambodians died by execution, forced labor, and famine. In 1978, Vietnamese troops invaded Cambodia, capturing Phnom Penh in early 1979. A moderate communist government was established, and Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge retreated back into the jungle.
In 1985, Pol Pot officially retired but remained the effective head of the Khmer Rouge, which continued its guerrilla actions against the government in Phnom Penh. In 1997, however, he was put on trial by the organization after an internal power struggle ousted him from his leadership position. Sentenced to life imprisonment by a “people’s tribunal,” which critics derided as a show trial, Pol Pot later declared in an interview, “My conscience is clear.” Much of the international community hoped that his captors would extradite him to stand trial for his crimes against humanity, but he died of apparently natural causes while under house arrest in 1998.

Pol-pot Of Cambodia



This Man seemingly kind looking and soft spoken from his pictures but that is far from the truth

The Khmer Rouge, organized by Pol Pot in the Cambodian jungle in the 1960s, advocated a radical communist revolution that would wipe out Western influences in Cambodia and set up a solely agrarian society. In 1970, aided by North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops, Khmer Rouge guerrillas began a large-scale insurgency against Cambodian government forces, soon gaining control of nearly a third of the country.
By 1973, secret U.S. bombings of Cambodian territory controlled by the Vietnamese communists forced the Vietnamese out of the country, creating a power vacuum that was soon filled by Pol Pot’s rapidly growing Khmer Rouge movement. In April 1975, the Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, overthrew the pro-U.S. regime, and established a new government, the Kampuchean People’s Republic.



As the new ruler of Cambodia, Pol Pot set about transforming the country into his vision of an agrarian utopia. The cities were evacuated, factories and schools closed, and currency and private property was abolished. Anyone believed to be an intellectual, such as someone who spoke a foreign language, was immediately killed. Skilled workers were also killed, in addition to anyone caught in possession of eyeglasses, a wristwatch, or any other modern technology. In forced marches punctuated with atrocities from the Khmer Rouge, the millions who failed to escape Cambodia were herded onto rural collective farms.



Dominique

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