“We don’t let them have ideas. Why would we let them have guns?”
― Joseph Stalin
Hitler, Mao, and Stalin are all finalist for the most brutal dictators in history. Millions of Stalin’s citizens went to Siberian gulags for trivial offenses. Meanwhile, his political enemies ― both real and imagined ― were executed en masse over perceived threats. His iron-fist rule led to the deaths of some 20 million Soviets and initial shortsightedness contributed to the massive loss of life in the war with Hitler’s Germany.