THE TYRANTS
By Tim Lambert
Ivan the Terrible
In 1533 Ivan IV, also known as Ivan the Terrible inherited the throne. However he was only 3 years old and he did not obtain power until 1547. He was crowned Czar, a word derived from the Roman Caesar.
Ivan expanded Russian territory. The Golden Horde had broken up but Ivan warred against one its successors, the Kazan Khanate. he defeated Kazan in 1552 and subsequently conquered it. In 1554-56 Ivan conquered Astrakhan. However in 1571 the Crimean Khan captured and burned Moscow but the next year he was decisively defeated by the Russians. In 1582 Ivan conquered the Khanate of Sibir (which gave its name to Siberia).
Meanwhile Ivan degenerated into a tyrant. In 1565 he formed a private army called the Oprichnina. They were completely loyal to him and they killed anyone suspected of being the Czar's enemy. In 1570 The Oprichniks sacked Novgorod because Ivan believed the Novgorodians were collaborating with his enemies the Poles. The Oprichniks massacred the inhabitants, killing thousands.
The Metropolitan of Moscow denounced Ivan's cruelly and as a result he was strangled.
Ivan also devised horrific methods of torturing and killing anyone he suspected of being an enemy.
Ivan even killed his own son and heir by hitting him with an iron tipped staff. Ivan finally died in 1584.
To read a history of Russia click here here.
Robespierre and the Terror
The French revolution entered a new radical phase in 1792 when war began with Austria in April and with Prussia in May.
At first the war went very badly for France leading to fear and recriminations.
Moreover in the Summer of 1792 public opinion hardened against the king. At that time Paris was divided into sections with sectional assemblies. On 9 august they seized power. They joined to form the Paris Commune and they sent national guards to arrest the king. The king and his family took refuge and escaped harm. However the king's Swiss guard tried to stop the national guard and were massacred.
The Legislative Assembly then declared that the king was suspended. The Constitution of 1791 (which gave the king an important role) was now unworkable. The assembly then agreed to call elections for a new government, the National Convention, which met in September 1792.
Meanwhile on 17 August 1792 the Commune formed a tribunal to try people accused of political crimes. The first political prisoner was guillotined on 21 August.
Then, in September 1792, massacres of political prisoners took place. At that time the Prussian army was advancing into France. The Parisians were frantic and they began killing prisoners held in jails in the city. Kangaroo courts were set up and thousands of people were killed. The killings became known as the September massacres.
However on 20 August 1792 the French army halted the Prussians at Valmy.
The French revolution had now entered a new phase. The new government, the National Convention, abolished the monarchy. In December 1792 the king was put on trial. He was executed on 15 January 1793. Marie Antoinette followed him to the guillotine on 16 October 1793.
In June there was another popular uprising in Paris. This time the National Convention was purged. The moderate members (called Girondins) were removed and the extreme revolutionaries (called Jacobins) took control. The French revolution now entered its most extreme phase.
In August the British captured Toulon. On 23 August faced with a dire military situation the government called for the mobilisation of the whole nation for war. It was called the Levee en masse.
The Terror (La Terreur)
Meanwhile in March 1793 Watch Committees were formed to monitor foreigners and other suspects. In September 1793 the committees were given much greater powers. From then on anyone who 'by their conduct, their contacts, their words or by their writings' were revealed to be 'supporters of tyranny, of federalism and or to be enemies of liberty' could be arrested. Such a catch-all phrase meant virtually anybody could be arrested and executed.
In the following 9 months at least 16,000 people were executed. (The exact number is not known and it may have been much higher).
Meanwhile the military tide turned. In October 1793 the French army defeated the Austrians at Wattignies. In December 1793 Captain Napoleon Bonaparte recaptured Toulon.
Many Jacobins were deists or atheists and were bitterly opposed to Christianity. In September 1793 a movement called De-Christianization began. The church was persecuted. Churches were vandalised and closed. The church of Notre-Dame was renamed the 'Temple of Reason'.
In October a new calendar was adopted. Years were no longer counted from the birth of Christ. Instead they began on 22 September 1792, the first day of the republic. The year was divided into twelve months with names taken from nature. The seven day week was replaced by a ten day one.
Robespierre grew alarmed as he believed that some form of religion was necessary to an orderly society. He denounced atheism and promoted belief in a supreme being.
Then on 26 June 1794 the French army defeated the Austrians at Fleurus ending the military threat to France. Many people were willing to support the terror while France was in danger but when the Austrian threat was removed support for the terror ebbed.
Robespierre then made the foolish mistake of threatening members of the National Convention. On 26 July 1794 he made a speech with vague threats against unnamed members. The Convention was thoroughly alarmed. The members now feared for their lives, realising that Robespierre might arrest and execute any of them. The only way to ensure their safety was to denounce Robespierre and remove him from power. This they did. On 27 July when Robespierre tried to speak he was drowned out with cries of 'Down with the tyrant!'. Eventually the members decreed his arrest and the arrest of his cronies.
However Robespierre fled and on 28 July he called on the Paris National Guard to protect him. However most of the national guardsmen did not turn up. Those who did melted away when it became clear that the National Convention was determined to arrest Robespierre.
Robespierre then tried to shoot himself but he was arrested on 29 July. He was sent to the guillotine on 30 July 1794.
The apparatus of terror was then dismantled. On 10 August 1794 the Revolutionary Tribunal was purged. (It was finally closed in May 1795). On 11 August the powers of the Committee of Public Safety were curtailed. Furthermore thousands of prisoners were released.
In March 1795 many churches re-opened for worship for the first time since October 1793.
To read a history of France click here here.
Josef Stalin
Following Lenin's death in 1924 the cunning and devious Stalin (Josef Vissarionovich Dzugashvili 1879-1953) took power. By 1928 he had made himself dictator. His main enemy Leon Trotsky (Lev Devidovich Bronstein 1879-1940) was exiled 1929. In 1940 he was assassinated in Moscow.
Stalin soon proved to be a tyrant who murdered millions of people.
In 1929 he ended the new economic policy and replaced it with a series of 5 years plans. Heavy industry was to be greatly expanded.
Stalin decided that farms in the Ukraine should be collectivised. In other words peasants would be deprived of their land and livestock and made to work as farm labourers on land now owned by the state. Not surprisingly many Ukrainian peasants bitterly resisted even slaughtering their own livestock rather than hand it over to the state. However Stalin was determined to crush the Ukrainian peasants and he caused a terrible famine in 1932-33 that took the lives of millions of innocent people. In 1932 collective farms were given completely unrealistic quotas to fill. Soviet law decreed that the peasants would not be allowed to keep any grain until they had met their quotas. They could not, of course meet them so Soviet officials simply confiscated all the grain they wanted leaving the peasants to starve. How many people died in this man-made famine is not known for sure but it was probably about 7 million. This horrific artificial famine is called the Holodomor.
In 1934 Stalin began a series of 'purges' in which millions of people died. The purges are known as the Great Terror. They began when Sergei Kirov was assassinated. He was probably murdered on Stalin's orders. Nevertheless Stalin used it as an excuse to eliminate his enemies (or anyone he thought might be an enemy). Many prominent communists were put on show trials and executed. Millions of ordinary people were sent to labour camps and forced to work in appalling conditions.
In 1937-38 Stalin 'purged' the officers in the red army. About 80% of the generals and 50% of the colonels were executed. So the red army was weakened just when Russia was facing a threat from Nazi Germany.
Despite Stalin's terrible crimes Russian industry grew rapidly in the years 1929-1941.
In 1939 Stalin made a non-aggression pact with Hitler. In 1939 the two men divided Poland between them. Then Stalin demanded that Finland give him territory, which he hoped would make Russia easier to defend. When the Finns refused Stalin went to war. The Russians attacked Finland on 30 November 1939. At first the Finns successfully resisted but superior Russian numbers eventually overwhelmed them. The Finns surrendered in March 1940.
In 1940 Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were still independent. However in the summer they red army entered them and they were absorbed into the Soviet Union.
Despite the non-aggression pact of 1939 the Germans invaded Russia in June 1941. Stalin was taken by surprise and the Russians suffered heavy losses. Finland, Rumania and Hungary assisted the Germans. However the Russians obtained substantial material aid from Britain and the USA.
At first the Germans advanced rapidly and captured a huge number of Russians (most of the captives did not survive the war). However the rate of German advance slowed and by the beginning of December it had 'run out of steam'. The Germans failed to take Moscow and on 5 December 1941 the Russians counterattacked. They made some progress early in 1942 but in the summer the Germans returned to the offensive
German troops advanced into the Caucasus. Others attempted to capture Stalingrad. The battle for the city was fought from August onwards. In November the Russians counterattacked and encircled the Germans. The majority of German troops surrendered on 31 January. The rest surrendered on 2 February. Meanwhile the Germans withdrew from the Caucasus.
The Germans and Russians fought a great tank battle at Kursk in July 1943. The result was a resounding Russian victory. Afterwards the red army advanced rapidly. In November 1943 they liberated Kiev.
Early in 1944 the red army entered the Baltic States. In June they began a massive offensive in central Europe. Rumania surrendered on 23 August 1944.
In January 1945 the Russians advanced across Poland. In April they entered Berlin. The war ended on 8 May 1945.
When Germany surrendered the red army was left occupying Eastern Europe. So Stalin installed puppet regimes in each country. Stalin also clamped down on his own people. Fortunately he died in March 1953.
Adolf Hitler
On January 30 1933 President Hindenburg asked Hitler to become Chancellor and to lead a coalition government. Hindenburg disliked Hitler who he called the 'Bohemian corporal'. However a number of German politicians thought they could use Hitler. They were convinced that if he joined a coalition they could dominate him. They soon turned out to be very wrong.
On 27 February the Reichstag burned down. A Dutchman called Marinius van der Lubbe was arrested and confessed to the crime. Hitler claimed that van der Lubbe did not act alone and that it was a communist plot. The next day President Hindenburg was persuaded to sing 'Presidential Decree for the Protection of the People and the State', which allowed arbitrary arrest. As a result all the leading Communists were arrested.
The last election in Weimar Germany was held on 5 March 1933. The Nazi's still failed to gain a majority of the vote. However the Communist party was banned and none of its members could take their seats in the Reichstag. As a result the Nazis were left in control of the Reichstag.
In March 1933 Hitler persuaded the Reichstag to pass the enabling law. This would give Hitler the power to pass new laws without the consent of the Reichstag. The new law meant changing Germany's constitution and that would require votes by two thirds of the Reichstag's members. Incredibly 80% of the Reichstag voted in favour of the law, only the Social Democrats voted against it. The Reichstag voted to make a madman dictator of Germany.
Hitler wasted no time in introducing a tyrannical regime in Germany. After 1871 Germany was a federal state. It was made up of units called Lander, which had once been independent countries. A governor ruled each. However in April 1933 Hitler replace them with Reich governors, all of who were loyal Nazis. This helped to bring the country even more under Hitler's control.
In May Hitler banned trade unions. To replace them he created the Deutsche Arbeitsfront (German Labour Front) under Robert Ley. It set levels of pay and hours of work.
The Social Democratic Party was banned in June 1933. Later that summer other parties dissolved themselves, under pressure from the Nazis. On 14 July 1933 Hitler banned all parties except the Nazi party.
Hitler consolidated his grip on power with a purge called the Night of the Long Knives on 30 June 1934.
In 1934 the SA or brownshirts wanted to take over the army. The army was appalled by this idea and Hitler needed the army's support. Moreover the SA had other enemies. In 1925 Hitler created the Schutztaffel (protection squad) of SS as his bodyguard. Heinrich Himmler the head of the SS resented the fact that the SS was officially part of the SA. He wanted the SS to be a separate organisation. He also wanted more power for himself. Himmler told Hitler that the SA were planning to overthrow him.
Hitler himself arrested Rohm the leader of the SA. The SS arrested other important figures in the SA and other prominent critics of the regime. All of them were shot.
The on 2 August 1934 President Hindenburg died. Hitler, the Chancellor took over the President's powers and called himself Fuhrer (leader). The army were made to swear an oath of loyalty of Hitler. (Previously they swore an oath of loyalty to Germany).
Furthermore any opponents of the regime (mostly communists and socialists) could be arrested and sent to a concentration camp without trial. (At first although prisoners were beaten and tortured concentration camps were designed as prisons rather than extermination camps). Homosexuals were also sent so concentration camps. So were vagrants, beggars and the 'work-shy'.
Anti-Semitism
Hitler hated Jews. In April 1933 he ordered a boycott of Jewish shops. Also in 1933 a law called 'The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service' banned Jews from working in government jobs. Then in 1935 Hitler passed the Nuremberg laws. The Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honour made it illegal for Jews to marry 'Aryans' (people of Germanic descent) or even to have sexual intercourse with them. The Reich Citizenship Law stated that Jews could not be German citizens.
Worse was to come. On 7 November 1938 a Polish Jew called Herschel Grynzpan shot a German official called Ernst Von Rath at the German embassy in Paris. In response the Germans attacked Jews and Jewish property on 9 November 1938. Jewish homes and shops were attacked and so many windows were broken it was called Kristallnacht (crystal night). Thousands of Jews were sent to concentration camps. The Nazis also decided that the rest of the Jews must pay a fine of 1,000 million marks and they were not eligible for insurance payments.
The Nazis also detested Gypsies. In 1935 they were forbidden to marry 'Aryans'. From 1939 onwards German Gypsies were deported to Poland. Later, like the Jews they were murdered in concentration camps.
The Nazis were, of course, responsible for murdering millions of innocent people. From 1940 Polish Jews were confined in ghettoes. When the Germans invaded Russia in 1941 the mass murder of Jews in the east began. At first they were shot. Then at the Wannsee Conference in January 1942 Nazi leaders decided to exterminate all Jews. So they were rounded up and deported to death camps. When they arrived some were selected for work (and worked to death), while others were gassed. Afterwards the bodies were burned.
By the end of World War II some 6 million Jews had been murdered.
To read a history of Germany click here here.
Idi Amin
in January 1971 when Prime Minister Milton Obote was in Singapore attending a meeting Idi Amin staged a coup in Uganda.
Amin turned out to be one of the worst tyrants of the 20th century. The number of people he murdered was at least 100,000 and possible many more. Apart from those Ugandans who were shot others were tortured to death or bludgeoned to death with sledgehammers or iron bars.
Amin also decided to help himself to the Asian's wealth. There were about 70,000 Asians in Uganda in 1972 many of them shopkeepers and businessmen. Amin gave them 90 days to leave the country. They were forced to leave most of their property behind and it was shared among Amin's cronies.
However as a result of the loss of the Asian's skills and the murders of many professional Ugandans the economy collapsed. Infrastructure such as roads and water supply deteriorated.
In order to distract attention from the terrible economic situation Amin decided to invade Tanzania on 30 October 1978. However the war turned into a disaster for Amin. Early in 1979 the Tanzanians invaded Uganda and Amin's forces fled.
Unfortunately Amin was never brought to justice for his terrible crimes. He fled abroad and died in 2003.
To read a history of Uganda click here here.
Pol Pot
In 1975 a horrific and tragic era of Cambodian history began the reign of the Khmer Rouge. They were led by Pol Pot (or Saloth Sar) also known as 'Brother Number One'. How many people were killed by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge is not known for certain but it was probably at least 1.5 million and it may have been as many as 3 million. Pol Pot declared that history would begin again in Cambodia. The first year of revolution was now the first year of history.
In 1975 Cambodia was a mainly agricultural country. Pol Pot decided it should be completely agricultural. This meant all the people from the towns and cities were forced to move to the countryside. Pol Pot also decided that agricultural output should double in 4 years (a totally unrealistic target). Private property was banned and collective farms were formed. They were supposed to grow 3 tonnes of rice per hectare (again a completely unrealistic target). People were made to work very long hours to try and grow the extra rice. They were given insufficient food and many fell ill and died from a combination of exhaustion and malnutrition.
That was not all. Religion was panned (people caught practising Buddhism were executed). Family relationships were banned (on the grounds that parents exploited their children). Furthermore the smallest infringement of the rules resulted in execution. Although they were half starved people caught foraging for food were executed. People were also executed for being lazy. Needless to say anyone who complained was executed.
Furthermore the Khmer Rouge murdered intellectuals. Soon people who could speak a foreign language or who wore glasses were executed. This nightmarish situation was only ended by a war with Vietnam. The Vietnamese invaded in December 1978 and quickly prevailed. Unfortunately Pol Pot escaped and he did not die until 1998.
To read a history of Cambodia click here here.