13 Photos of Powerful Communist Leaders and Dictators
From Karl Marx to Joseph Stalin to Mao Zedong, the label of communism has been attached to these figures—and their often ruthless governments—through history.
Communism as an ideology arose in the wake of the first Industrial Revolution when overworked, underpaid workers felt exploited and sought better representation in government. The Communist Manifesto, as laid out by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, called for a classless society where each person would contribute according to ability and receive according to his or her needs.
Karl Marx, a German philosopher and economist, is considered the father of Communism. Marx collaborated with Friedrich Engels to propose a new ideology in which the state owns major resources and everyone shares the benefits of labor. In The Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engel called for a working-class revolt against capitalism. Their motto, “Workers of the world, unite!” became a rallying cry among disgruntled working class across Europe
German socialist philosopher Friedrich Engels was the close collaborator of Karl Marx. Engels, the son of a textile factory owner, was sent to a manufacturing plant in Manchester to learn the family business. His observations of the working class inspired his interest in socialism. He and Marx, whom he met in Manchester, published The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1845 and The Communist Manifesto in 1848.
Vladimir Lenin led the Russian Revolution and founded the Soviet state. As the Soviet Union's first leader, Lenin orchestrated the Red Terror that crushed dissidence and founded Cheka, the first incarnation of dreaded Soviet secret police. Following his death in 1923, Lenin was succeeded by Joseph Stalin, who adopted even more dictatorial methods of governing than Lenin. Millions of Soviets would die under Stalin's totalitarian rule.
Mao Zedong was a theorist, soldier and statesman who led the communist People's Republic of China from 1949 until his death in 1976. He transformed his nation, but his programs, including the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution led to tens of millions of deaths.
Zhou Enlai was a leading communist figure in the Chinese Revolution, and premier of the People's Republic of China from 1949 to 1976, He was instrumental in opening up relations between the United States and China, resulting in President Nixon's visit in 1972, shown here.
Kim Il-Sung ruled communist North Korea from 1948 until his death in 1994, leading his nation through the Korean War. During Kim's rule, North Korea was characterized as a totalitarian state with widespread human rights violations. His son, Kim Jong-Il, took over after his father's death. He carried on his father's totalitarian ways and often clashed with the West over his nuclear ambitions.
Ho Chi Minh was instrumental in Vietnam’s struggle for independence and served as leader of the Vietnamese nationalist movement for more than three decades, fighting against the Japanese, then French colonial forces and then U.S.-backed South Vietnam. When Communists took over Saigon in 1975 they renamed it Ho Chi Minh City in his honor.
Khrushchev sparred with the United States over the Berlin Wall and Cuban Missile Crisis, but attempted some degree of "thaw" in domestic policies in the Soviet Union, easing travel restrictions and freeing thousands of Stalin's political prisoners.
Fidel Castro established the first communist state in the Western Hemisphere after leading an overthrow of the military dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in Cuba in 1959. He ruled over Cuba for nearly five decades, until handing off power to his younger brother Raúl in 2008.
Che Guevara was a prominent communist figure in the Cuban Revolution, and later a guerrilla leader in South America. After his execution by the Bolivian army in 1967, he was regarded as a martyred hero, and his image became an icon of leftist radicalism.
Josip Broz Tito was a revolutionary and chief architect of the "second Yugoslavia," a socialist federation that lasted from World War II until 1991. He was the first communist leader in power to defy Soviet control and promoted a policy of nonalignment between the two hostile blocs in the Cold War.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, communist governments collapsed across Eastern Europe. While most of these "revolutions" were peaceful, some were not. Accused of mass murder, corruption and other crimes, Romanian leader Nicolae Ceausescu was overthrown, and he and his wife were executed in 1989.
Mikhail Gorbachev (shown here with U.S. President Ronald Reagan) led the Soviet Union from 1985 until his resignation in December 1991. His programs of "perestroika" ("restructuring") and "glasnost" ("openness") introduced profound changes in Soviet society, government and economics and international relations.
1 / 13: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images
While Marx never saw communism in action in his lifetime, Vladimir Lenin led the October Revolution in Russia in 1917, overthrowing imperial rule and establishing the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Communism then spread to China and on to Cuba, Vietnam and Korea.
The original, higher vision of communism, as outlined by Marx and Engels, was never implemented. But a series of leaders and dictators from the Soviet Union to China to Cuba would label their governments as communist. Many of these leaders, including Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong, were brutal in their rule, overseeing the mass murder of millions of their own citizens. They also came to represent one side of the Cold War with the United States.
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