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Some scholars counted the tyrants in human history, and found that these people who once held the power of life and death of thousands of people died of life, and the last part of their lives was not beautiful.
Frank Dikotter, a chair professor at the School of Humanities of the University of Hong Kong and a historian who has written many monographs on contemporary China, said that unlike the elected and successful leaders, after the death of the dictator, except for a few extreme groups, There are few people who mourn their grief.
Funk once analyzed the outcome of several totalitarian politicians who had a huge impact on the world in the 20th century for the BBC History website:
Few totalitarian strongmen can lie peacefully at home on their deathbeds, with relatives and friends by their side. Even people who died naturally, such as Mao Zedong and Stalin, were “lonely and widowed” in the last pass, and were deeply paranoid and suspicious, especially during the period before their death.
Historical analysis shows that tyrant-type rulers who seize power through violence often have to continue to use more violence to maintain the power that they have seized, which in turn creates more enemies that must be eliminated. Dictators can seize power, and so can others. Opponents will always have them, and they are usually equally ruthless, waiting for opportunities. Since the opponent may also be the people around him, the dictator must constantly cleanse his followers; it may be helpful if he can remove dissidents from the circle of friends before fighting against the enemy.
The fear culture of tyrants
In many cases, tyrants fall into paranoia and feel that they are surrounded by real or imaginary enemies. As the general secretary of the CPSU, Stalin issued an order that 1.5 million people were arrested, interrogated, tortured, and many executed by the secret police between 1934 and 1939. Stalin still felt that conspiracy was everywhere, and in the next few decades, millions of people were executed and sent to labor camps.
However, the fear culture created by Stalin also affected the last moment of his own life. On March 1, 1953, Stalin was found paralyzed on the ground, immersed in urine. He had a ruptured brain blood vessel, but no one dared to disturb him in the bedroom. The doctors arrived late, and because the followers were trembling, no one dared to make decisions without authorization. Stalin died on March 5.
Mao Zedong, the former leader of the Communist Party of China, also has similar paranoia. In the last ten years of his life, Mao was more suspicious. In order to regain absolute power, he launched the “Cultural Revolution”, which incited the masses to fight against the masses, forcing countless people to be forced to condemn their family, friends and colleagues, in order to prove that they were against Mao. , And only loyal to Mao. This movement, later characterized by the CCP itself as a “decade of catastrophe”, destroyed the lives and lives of tens of millions of ordinary Chinese people.
There was historical record that when Mao’s “close comrade” Zhou Enlai was diagnosed with cancer, Mao refused to approve treatment until it was too late. Zhou died in January 1976, and on September 9, eight months later, Mao died.
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Death of humiliation
Mao Zedong and Stalin died of natural causes, but not all dictators can live to this day.
In 1943, the Allied forces invaded Sicily, and the Italian “Fascist Congress” decided to turn against Mussolini. In July, King Emmanuel III of Italy ordered the army to arrest Mussolini. Despite vowing to defend their leader to the death, none of the party members resisted. Mussolini was imprisoned on Ponza Island.
However, Mussolini has at least one friend. The tragic end of a close friend is a warning: strong men may also be ousted. Hitler dispatched an elite team to rescue successfully, and Mussolini established a new fascist regime in northern Italy.
Mussolini reached the end after two years of suffering. He and several followers were captured by anti-fascist forces near Lake Como. Mussolini was shot on April 28, 1945, and the body was loaded into a van and sent to Milan, hanging upside down on a beam.
The end of Mussolini’s friend was also a violent death, but it did not come from the enemy. In the final months of World War II, Hitler withdrew the bunker built under the new Chancellery in Berlin. This was “his last escape from reality,” Hitler’s favorite architect, Albert Speer, once described it.
Hitler thought that Germany was not worthy of him, insisted on bringing more death and destruction to this country, and ordered the continued fighting. On April 20, 1945, Hitler’s 56th birthday, the enemy’s first shell hit Berlin. A few days later, only smoldering bricks and shingles remained around Hitler’s bunker.
Hitler knew that Mussolini’s body was insulted after his death, so he left a message and incinerated his body. Hitler shot himself on April 30, 1945. The corpse and the corpse of his mistress Ewa were dragged out of the bunker, doused with gasoline, and set ablaze.
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Lenin statue was overthrown
Dictators at the end of the 20th century
In 1961, a concrete barrier, the Berlin Wall, was built only 100 meters away from Hitler’s bunker. During the coldest years of the Cold War, East Germany did this to prevent the flow of exodus from the country. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, countless statues of dictators were overthrown.
Throughout Eastern Europe, people demolished Lenin’s statues, smashed them with hammers, and beheaded him, and Lenin’s followers were no longer beautiful. The magnitude of the upheaval has shocked many observers. It turns out that there is a saying that dictators are unshakable. They captured the souls of their subjects, shaped their minds, and imposed curses on them. However, the curse never exists, only fear. When the fear ceases, the kingdom of the dictator falls apart.
Speaking of Ceausescu, who controlled Romania with an iron fist from 1965 to 1989, the moment he fell to power can almost be frozen in a few minutes. On December 21, 1989, Ceausescu appeared on the balcony of the Communist Party headquarters in the center of Bucharest and addressed the assembled crowd. Four days ago, on December 17, Ceausescu ordered the security forces to open fire on anti-government demonstrators in Timisoara. Although the secret police have strictly controlled the freedom of speech and the media for decades, people’s dissatisfaction with the Communist regime is still on the rise.
Ceausescu began to speak for a few minutes, and people behind the crowd began to whistle and roar. Ceausescu raised his hand to ask for silence, and repeatedly tapped the microphone, but the commotion continued. Ceausescu looked puzzled. His wife Elena leaned forward and shouted to the crowd: “Quiet! What are you doing?” Ceausescu decided to continue speaking. He has a hoarse and weak voice, trying to reassure the people by proposing to raise the minimum wage. But at this time it was obvious that he had been shaken. As the fear disappeared, the rally turned into a riot, forcing Ceausescu and his wife to flee by helicopter. A few days later they were hunted down and received a symbolic trial.
After the death sentence was pronounced, the Qi family was taken to the toilet in a small icy courtyard. Ceausescu sang “Internationale”, Elena was not so calm. There are records that Elena screamed when the firing squad fired.
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Gaddafi
“Settle after Autumn”
Dictators can sometimes push the days of being accounted for after death. For example, Franco in Spain. At first he was buried in the Valley of the Martyrs, a huge monument built in accordance with Franco’s will to commemorate the victims of the Spanish Civil War. Franco obviously didn’t care about using political prisoners as slave labor in the construction. But in September 2019, Franco’s coffin was dug out and reburied in the lower-key family cemetery. Stalin’s body was initially embalmed and hidden next to Lenin. Eight years later, Khrushchev ordered that Stalin be removed from the Red Square.
The disintegration of the Soviet Union marked a wave of revolutions against dictatorship in various parts of the world. One wave is the Arab Spring: In 2011, several regimes were overthrown or suffered heavy blows.
Libyan leader Gaddafi is one of the most notorious dictators, who died tragically in 2011 after more than 40 years in power. Allegedly, facing the pursuit, Gaddafi crawled into a cave to hide, begging for his life after being found. Rebel soldiers beat him, stripped him naked, abused his body, and then shot him.
In a few cases, tyrants can support the succession of future generations and indirectly prolong their rule. François Duvalier served as President of Haiti for 14 years, commonly known as “Doctor Dad”, and once declared himself “President for life.” He died in April 1971, first buried in the National Cemetery, and later transferred to the grand mausoleum built for him by his successor president and son Jean-Claude Duvalier. However, after the “little doctor” stepped down in 1986, the angry crowd demolished the last resting place of the “old doctor”.
North Korea is undoubtedly the most successful example of a family dynasty. Kim Jong-un is still strictly guarding the crystal coffins of his grandfather’s “great leader” and his father’s “respected leader”. Throughout the country, monuments known as the “Eternal Life Pagoda” remind the North Koreans that Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il will “forever be with us.”
However, if history can really be used as a mirror, the “legacy” of the Jin family may eventually suffer accidents.
Feng Ke is a chair professor at the School of Humanities, University of Hong Kong. He has written many books on contemporary China, including “Mao’s Great Famine” and “How to Be a Dictator: The Cult of Personality in the 20th Century.” This article is based on the article he wrote for BBC History Extra.