The most unfortunate aspect to researching this list was the realization that that I could do a top 100 most evil men and still have a multitude of people for a second list! The selection of this list is based not upon death tolls, but upon the general actions, and impact, or brutality of the people. From bad to worst, here are the top 10 evil men in history.
10. Ruhollah Khomeini
Ayatollah Khomeini was the religious leader of Iran from 1979 to 1989. In that time he implemented Sharia Law (Islamic religious law) with the Islamic dress code enforced for both men and women by Islamic Revolutionary Guards and other Islamic groups. Opposition to the religious rule of the clergy or Islam in general was often met with harsh punishments. In a talk at the Fayzieah School in Qom, August 30, 1979, Khomeini said:
“Those who are trying to bring corruption and destruction to our country in the name of democracy will be oppressed. They are worse than Bani-Ghorizeh Jews, and they must be hanged. We will oppress them by God’s order and God’s call to prayer.”
In the 1988 massacre of Iranian prisoners, following the People’s Mujahedin of Iran operation Forough-e Javidan against the Islamic Republic, Khomeini issued an order to judicial officials to judge every Iranian political prisoner and kill those who would not repent anti-regime activities. Many say that thousands were swiftly put to death inside the prisons. The suppressed memoirs of Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri reportedly detail the execution of 30,000 political activists.
After eleven days in a hospital for an operation to stop internal bleeding, Khomeini died of cancer on Saturday, June 04, 1989, at the age of 86.
9. Maximilien Robespierre
Maximilien Robespierre was a leader of the French revolution and it was his arguments that caused the revolutionary government to murder the king without a trial. In addition, Robespierre was one of the main driving forces behind the reign of terror, a 10 month post-revolutionary period in which mass executions were carried out. The Terror took the lives of between 18,500 to 40,000 people, with 1,900 being killed in the last month. Among people who were condemned by the revolutionary tribunals, about 8 percent were aristocrats, 6 percent clergy, 14 percent middle class, and 70 percent were workers or peasants accused of hoarding, evading the draft, desertion, rebellion, and other purported crimes.
In an act of coincidental justice, Robespierre was guillotined without a trial in 1794.
8. Emperor Hirohito of Japan
Hirohito was the Emporer of Japan from 1926 to 1989. In 1937, Japanese troops committed the war crime that is now known as the Rape of Nanking (the then Capital of China, now known as Nanjing). The duration of the massacre is not clearly defined, although the violence lasted well into the next six weeks, until early February 1938. During the occupation of Nanjing, the Japanese army committed numerous atrocities, such as rape, looting, arson and the execution of prisoners of war and civilians. A large number of women and children were also killed, as rape and murder became more widespread. The death toll is generally considered to be between 150,000 and 300,000. The Wikipedia article contains images and descriptions of the atrocities committed.
7. Leopold II of Belgium
Leopold II was King of Belgium from 1865-1909. With financial support from the government, Leopold created the Congo Free State, a private project undertaken to extract rubber and ivory in the Congo region of central Africa, which relied on forced labour and resulted in the deaths of approximately 3 million Congolese. The regime of the Congo Free State became one of the more infamous international scandals of the turn of the century. The area of land privately owned by the King was an area 76 times larger than Belgium, which he was free to rule as a personal domain through his private army, the Force Publique. Leopold’s rubber gatherers tortured, maimed and slaughtered until at the turn of the century, the conscience of the Western world forced Brussels to call a halt.
6. Pol Pot
Pol Pot was the leader 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 imposed an extreme version of agrarian communism where all city dwellers were relocated to the countryside to work in collective farms and forced labour projects. The combined effect of slave labour, malnutrition, poor medical care and executions is estimated to have killed around 2 million Cambodians (approximately one third of the population). His regime achieved special notoriety for singling out all intellectuals and other “bourgeois enemies” for murder. The Khmer Rouge committed mass executions in sites known as the Killing Fields. The executed were buried in mass graves. In order to save ammunition, executions were often carried out using hammers, axe handles, spades or sharpened bamboo sticks.
5. Attila The Hun
Attila was Khan of the Huns from 434 until his death in 453. He was leader of the Hunnic Empire which stretched from Germany to the Ural River and from the Danube River to the Baltic Sea. In much of Western Europe, he is remembered as the epitome of cruelty and rapacity. An unsuccessful campaign in Persia was followed in 441 by an invasion of the Eastern Roman Empire, the success of which emboldened Attila to invade the West. He passed unhindered through Austria and Germany, across the Rhine into Gaul, plundering and devastating all in his path with a ferocity unparalleled in the records of barbarian invasions and compelling those he overcame to augment his mighty army. Attila drowned in his own blood on his wedding night.
4. Vlad Ţepeş
Vlad III of Romania (also known as Vlad the Impaler) was Prince of Wallachia three times between 1448 and 1476. Vlad is best known for the legends of the exceedingly cruel punishments he imposed during his reign and for serving as the primary inspiration for the vampire main character in Bram Stoker’s popular Dracula novel. In Romania he is viewed by many as a prince with a deep sense of justice. His method of torture was a horse attached to each of the victim’s legs as a sharpened stake was gradually forced into the body. The end of the stake was usually oiled, and care was taken that the stake not be too sharp; else the victim might die too rapidly from shock. Wikipedia has an article that describes, in great details, the methods of Vlad’s cruelty. The list of tortures he is alleged to have employed is extensive: nails in heads, cutting off of limbs, blinding, strangulation, burning, cutting off of noses and ears, mutilation of sexual organs (especially in the case of women), scalping, skinning, exposure to the elements or to animals, and boiling alive. There are claims that on some occasions ten thousand people were impaled in 1460 alone.
3. Ivan IV of Russia
Ivan IV of Russia, also know as Ivan the Terrible, was the Grand Duke of Muscovy from 1533 to 1547 and was the first ruler of Russia to assume the title of Tsar. In 1570, Ivan was under the belief that the elite of the city of Novgorod planned to defect to Poland, and led an army to stop them on January 2. Ivan’s soldiers built walls around the perimeter of the city in order to prevent the people of the city escaping. Between 500 and 1000 people were gathered every day by the troops, then tortured and killed in front of Ivan and his son. In 1581, Ivan beat his pregnant daughter-in-law for wearing immodest clothing, causing a miscarriage. His son, also named Ivan, upon learning of this, engaged in a heated argument with his father, which resulted in Ivan striking his son in the head with his pointed staff, causing his son’s (accidental) death.
2. Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany in 1933, becoming “Führer” in 1934 until his suicide in 1945. By the end of the second world war, Hitler’s policies of territorial conquest and racial subjugation had brought death and destruction to tens of millions of people, including the genocide of some six million Jews in what is now known as the Holocaust. On 30 April 1945, after intense street-to-street combat, when Soviet troops were spotted within a block or two of the Reich Chancellory, Hitler committed suicide, shooting himself while simultaneously biting into a cyanide capsule.
1. Josef Stalin
Stalin was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union’s Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953. Under Stalin’s leadership, the Ukraine suffered from a famine (Holodomor) so great it is considered by many to be an act of genocide on the part of Stalin’s government. Estimates of the number of deaths range from 2.5 million to 10 million. The famine was caused by direct political and administrative decisions. In addition to the famine, Stalin ordered purges within the Soviet Union of any person deemed to be an enemy of the state. In total, estimates of the total number murdered under Stalins reign, range from 10 million to 60 million.
Notable Omissions: Oliver Cromwell, Mao Tse-tung, Elizabeth Bathory, Kim Il-sung, Caligula, Idi Amin Dada
译文:
十大最邪恶的男人
最不幸的一面研究是这份名单让我认识到了，我可以做一个百强最邪恶的男人并且第二份名单里也有许许多多的人！选择这个名单不是根据死亡人数，但根据普遍的行为，和影响，或是野蛮的人。从恶劣到最坏的，在历史上有十大最邪恶的男人。
10.霍梅尼
霍梅尼是伊朗宗教领袖从1979到1989。在这段时间，他实行伊斯兰教法（伊斯兰宗教法）强迫男女加入伊斯兰武装革命卫队和其他伊斯兰团体。通常见到反对宗教统治神职人员或伊斯兰教教徒就会严厉的处罚他们。1979年8月30日在库姆Fayzieah学校谈话时，霍梅尼说：
“那些试图把腐败并且破坏我们的国家人，我们将以民主国家的名义压制。他们比Bani-Ghorizeh犹太人更坏，他们必须绞刑。上帝的命令与上帝的号召是要我们压制他们。
1988年伊朗囚犯的大屠杀，随着伊朗圣战人民的军事行动，Forough-e Javidan反对伊朗共和国，霍梅尼发布命令司法官员来判断每个伊朗政治犯和杀害那些不会悔改反政权的活动。很多人说，数千名被迅速处死监狱内。伟大的阿亚图拉(对伊朗等国伊斯兰教什叶派领袖的尊称)隐瞒的回忆录里详细地记载着执行了30000政治活动家。
经过11天在一家医院接受手术，以阻止内出血，霍梅尼死于癌症 ，1989年6月4日，周六，享年86岁。
9.罗伯斯庇尔
罗伯斯庇尔是一个法国革命领导人，并且他的理论导致了政府大变革不经审问就谋杀了国王。此外，罗伯斯庇尔主要推动了白色恐怖， 10个月后革命时期进行了大规模处决。在最后一个月，恐怖行动导致了18500至40000人之间1900名被杀害。许多人谴责革命法庭，其中约8成贵族， 6 ％神职人员， 14 ％的中产阶层，其中70 ％为工人或农民指控囤积居奇，回避草案，遗弃，叛乱及其他犯罪意图。
完全符合正义的行为，在1794年，未经审问，罗伯斯庇尔是用断头台处决的。
8.日本裕仁天皇
裕仁是日本天皇从1926到1989。1937年，日军犯下的战争罪行，现被称为南京大屠杀（当时的中国首都，现在被称为南京） 。在整个大屠杀期间是没有明确界定，尽管暴力事件仍持续到下六个星期，至二月初， 1938 。在占领南京，日军犯下的无数暴行，诸如强奸，抢劫，纵火和处决战俘和平民。大批妇女和儿童也遭到杀害，强奸和谋杀变得更为普遍。死亡人数总共达到15万至30万。维基文章包含图片和说明所犯下的暴行。
7.比利时利奥波德二世
利奥波德二世国王，比利时从1865年至1909年。与政府的财政支持，利奥波德创造了刚果自由邦，在刚果地区的中部非洲，一个非官方项目提取橡胶和象牙，依靠强迫劳动力，并导致大约300万刚果人死亡。政权刚果自由邦成为一个更加声名狼藉国际性丑闻世纪之交。私有的土地面积是比利时国王的土地面积76倍以上，这是他的自由，规则作为一个个人域名，通过他的私人军队，迫使公共职能。在世纪之交，利奥波德的橡胶采集折磨致残和屠宰之前，有良知的西方世界强迫布鲁塞尔呼吁停止了。
6.波尔布特
波尔布特是领导的红色高棉和首相的柬埔寨，从1976年至1979年，曾时点领导人自1975年。在波尔布特职权期间他强加一个极端版本农业共产主义，集体农庄和强迫劳动项目所有城市居民迁往乡下工作。集聚造成苦役犯，营养不良，贫困医疗和处决估计已死亡约200万柬埔寨人（约占人口的三分之一） 。他的政权取得特殊恶名，分隔出所有知识分子和谋杀其他"资产阶级敌人"。红色高棉犯下的大规模处决的地点称为杀戮场。在巨大埋葬处执行埋葬。为了节省弹药，被处决的时候进行用锤，斧处理，铁铲或激化竹棍。
5.Attila匈奴
Attila是汗匈奴从434直到逝世453 。他领导的匈奴帝国路上从德国到乌拉尔河和多瑙河到波罗的海。在许多西欧国家，他是残暴和贪婪的象征。波斯一次失败的运动，随着公元441年东罗马帝国的入侵，取得了一定的成绩，并且匈奴大胆的入侵西部地区。他畅通无阻地通过奥地利和德国，横跨莱茵河进入高卢，所有他走过的地方都掠夺并且破坏与凶猛无比，记录了他残暴的侵略和强制性的，以增强他的伟大军队。在他的新婚之夜，匈奴死在了他的血泊之中。
4.吸血伯爵德古拉
罗马尼亚弗拉德三世（称之为施以木桩之刑的人），他在1448年到1476年之间三次成为了公国的公爵（弗拉德四世）。弗拉德最著名的传说是极其残酷的刑罚，他强加在他的统治期间，弗拉德见血就发狂，因此具有吸血鬼特征在Bram Stoker's中流传为吸血惊情小说。在罗马尼亚，从多角度来看他作为一个国王是具有深度的正义感。他的酷刑方法是每一个受害者的腿用削尖的棍子逐渐地刺进人的体内。棍子的尾部涂了一层油，并且棍子小心的刺入，棍子不能削的太尖，否则受害者会死的太快。在Wikipedia文章的描述中，详细的记载着的弗拉德的残忍方法。他宣称残忍的列表中应用了大量的方法如：钉子头，切断四肢，致盲，绞杀，焚烧，切断鼻子和耳朵，残害性器官（特别是在妇女的情况） ，劫夺，剥皮，把人的肉体放在太阳底下暴晒，并且在人活着的时候用沸水煮他们。有人声称在10000人里面，弗拉德把1460人钉在尖桩上。
3.俄罗斯伊凡四世
伊凡四世·瓦西里耶维奇，称之为恐怖的伊凡，是我国伟大的公爵从1533年到1547年，他是第一位统治者，俄罗斯承担称号沙皇。在1570年，伊凡在自己的信仰之下带领Novgorod城市的优秀分子计划逃出波兰，并且于2月1日停止了他的军队。伊万的士兵建立在围墙周边的城市，以防止市民逃走。部队每天由500至1000人聚集，然后前伊凡和他的儿子手段残忍并且杀害了很多人。1581年，伊凡击败他怀孕的儿媳，让她穿暴露的服装，造成流产。他的儿子，又名伊万后，就这一问题与他父亲进行了激烈的争论，导致伊凡敲打他儿子的头，他的手下指出，这是造成他儿子的（意外）死亡。
2.阿道夫·希特勒
在1933年，希特勒被任命为德国总理，1934年兼任德国总统，直到1945年希特勒自杀。第二次世界大战的年底，
希特勒的政策是征服领土和制服种族并且杀死和毁灭千百万人，包括种族灭绝，杀死六百万犹太人就是现在被称为屠杀。1945年4月30日，经过激烈的头衔战斗，苏联红军当时发现了一具酷似希特勒的尸体和两个德国总理的尸体，希特勒把手枪枪口对准自己的前额，开枪自杀。
1.斯大林
斯大林是苏联共产党总书记，也是苏联的中央委员会，从1922年直到他逝世于1953年。在斯大林的领导下下，乌克兰遭受饥荒，许多人认为斯大林政府的行为是一种种族灭绝行为。估计死亡人数从250万到1000万。政治行为和行政决定是直接造成饥荒的原因。此外的饥荒，斯大林下令清除苏联红军，并且把苏联红军视为敌国。根据斯大林的统治估计总数共杀害的人数，从10万到60万人。
遗漏的重要人物中还有：克伦威尔，嗜血女伯爵，金日成，卡里古拉，阿敏将军