Famous Politicians

The ranked list (from #351)

1. 351Nikolai YezhovRan the NKVD at the height of Stalin's Great Purge, an era later known as the Yezhovshchina.🇷🇺Soviet · Born May 1, 1895 · Died February 4, 1940
2. 352Eduard BernsteinSocial democratic theorist whose book Evolutionary Socialism argued for gradual reform rather than revolution, founding the revisionist movement.🇩🇪German · Born January 6, 1850 · Died December 18, 1932
3. 353Viktor OrbánReturned to office in 2010 as Hungary's prime minister and led the Fidesz party for decades, advocating what he called illiberal democracy.🇭🇺Hungarian · Born May 31, 1963
4. 354János KádárHungarian leader installed after the 1956 uprising who later allowed limited reforms.🇭🇺Hungarian · Born May 26, 1912 · Died July 6, 1989
5. 355William Howard TaftOnly man to have been both president of the United States and its chief justice.🇺🇸American · Born September 15, 1857 · Died March 8, 1930
6. 356Warren G. HardingRepublican president whose administration was damaged by the Teapot Dome scandal, which fully emerged after his death in office.🇺🇸American · Born November 2, 1865 · Died August 2, 1923
7. 357Franklin PierceFourteenth president of the United States, whose signing of the Kansas–Nebraska Act in 1854 deepened the sectional divide before the Civil War.🇺🇸American · Born November 23, 1804 · Died October 8, 1869
8. 358Louis Antoine de Saint-JustYoung Jacobin ally of Robespierre, guillotined alongside him in 1794.🇫🇷French · Born August 25, 1767 · Died July 28, 1794
9. 359Pietro BadoglioItalian marshal who replaced Mussolini as prime minister in 1943 and made peace with the Allies.🇮🇹Italian · Born September 28, 1871 · Died November 1, 1956
10. 360Frederick North, 2nd Earl of GuilfordPrime Minister who led Britain's government through most of the American War of Independence, resigning after the defeat at Yorktown.🇬🇧British · Born April 13, 1732 · Died August 5, 1792
11. 361Kurt von SchleicherServed as the last chancellor but one of the Weimar Republic and was killed in the Night of the Long Knives.🇩🇪German · Born April 7, 1882 · Died June 30, 1934
12. 362JD VanceWrote the memoir Hillbilly Elegy before becoming a senator for Ohio and then Donald Trump's vice president.🇺🇸American · Born August 2, 1984
13. 363Helmut SchmidtSocial Democrat chancellor of West Germany who handled the 1977 terrorist crisis and the economic turbulence of the 1970s.🇩🇪German · Born December 23, 1918 · Died November 10, 2015
14. 364Andrei GromykoLongest-serving Soviet foreign minister, holding the post from 1957 to 1985 and later becoming the country's titular head of state.🇷🇺Soviet · Born July 5, 1908 · Died July 2, 1989
15. 365Theobald von Bethmann HollwegAs German chancellor, he led the government into the First World War and is linked with the 1914 "scrap of paper" remark.🇩🇪German · Born November 29, 1856 · Died January 1, 1921
16. 366Ngawang Lobzang GyatsoGreat Fifth Dalai Lama who unified Tibet and began building the Potala Palace.Born October 21, 1617 · Died April 2, 1682
17. 367Patrice de MacMahonMarshal of France who defeated Italian-Austrian forces at Magenta and later served as president of the Third Republic from 1873.🇫🇷French · Born May 13, 1808 · Died October 16, 1893
18. 368Jalal TalabaniKurdish leader and founder of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, who became Iraq's first president after the fall of Saddam Hussein.Iraqi · Born November 12, 1933 · Died October 3, 2017
19. 369Baldur von SchirachNazi youth leader who headed the Hitler Youth and was later jailed after the Nuremberg trials.🇩🇪German · Born May 9, 1907 · Died August 8, 1974
20. 370Anthony EdenPrime minister whose handling of the 1956 Suez Crisis damaged his health and led to his resignation.🇬🇧British · Born June 12, 1897 · Died January 14, 1977
21. 371Hua GuofengMao Zedong's chosen successor who arrested the Gang of Four in 1976 before being sidelined by Deng Xiaoping.🇨🇳Chinese · Born February 16, 1921 · Died August 20, 2008
22. 372Itō HirobumiMeiji statesman who became Japan's first prime minister in 1885 and drafted the Meiji Constitution of 1889.🇯🇵Japanese · Born October 16, 1841 · Died October 26, 1909
23. 373Grigory ZinovievBolshevik who led the Communist International and was executed in Stalin's purges.🇷🇺Soviet · Born September 11, 1883 · Died August 25, 1936
24. 374James ConnollySocialist leader executed for his part in Dublin's 1916 Easter Rising.🇬🇧British · Born June 5, 1868 · Died May 12, 1916
25. 375Miloš ZemanBecame the first directly elected president of the Czech Republic in 2013, having earlier served as prime minister from 1998 to 2002.🇨🇿Czech · Born September 28, 1944
26. 376Mohammad MosaddeghAs Iran's prime minister he nationalised the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in 1951 before being overthrown in a 1953 coup.Pahlavi Iran · Born May 19, 1882 · Died March 4, 1967
27. 377Sarah PalinGovernor of Alaska who became John McCain's running mate in the 2008 Republican presidential campaign.🇺🇸American · Born February 11, 1964
28. 378Gregory PotyomkinFavourite and adviser of Catherine the Great who annexed Crimea for Russia.🇷🇺Russian · Born September 13, 1739 · Died October 5, 1791
29. 379William Henry HarrisonNinth American president, who fell ill and died a month after his inauguration, serving the shortest term.🇺🇸American · Born February 9, 1773 · Died April 4, 1841
30. 380Lajos KossuthLed the Hungarian revolution of 1848 as governor-president, becoming a symbol of national independence admired across Europe and America.🇭🇺Hungarian · Born September 16, 1802 · Died March 20, 1894
31. 381Pierre LavalThree-time prime minister of France who headed the collaborationist government under Vichy and was executed after the Second World War.🇫🇷French · Born June 28, 1883 · Died October 15, 1945
32. 382Benjamin DisraeliConservative prime minister and novelist, author of Sybil, who secured Britain a controlling stake in the Suez Canal.🇬🇧British · Born December 21, 1804 · Died April 19, 1881
33. 383Kwame NkrumahLed the Gold Coast to independence as Ghana in 1957 and became its first leader, championing Pan-Africanism.🇬🇭Ghanaian · Born September 21, 1909 · Died April 27, 1972
34. 384Herman Van RompuyBelgian prime minister who became the first full-time President of the European Council in 2009.🇧🇪Belgian · Born October 31, 1947
35. 385Reza ShahArmy officer who seized power, became Shah in 1925 and founded the Pahlavi dynasty, pursuing rapid modernisation of Iran.🇮🇷Iranian · Born March 15, 1878 · Died July 25, 1944
36. 386Miguel Díaz-CanelEngineer by training who succeeded Raúl Castro as Cuba's president in 2018 and later became head of the Communist Party.🇨🇺Cuban · Born April 20, 1960
37. 387Abd el-KrimRifian leader who fought Spain and France in the Rif War and founded the Republic of the Rif.Alawi Sultanate · Born January 12, 1882 · Died February 6, 1963
38. 388Gustáv HusákCommunist leader who headed Czechoslovakia's ruling party through the long period of "normalisation" that followed the 1968 Prague Spring reforms.Czechoslovak · Born January 10, 1913 · Died November 18, 1991
39. 389Zbigniew BrzezinskiAs Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor, he shaped American foreign policy towards the Soviet Union and the Camp David era.🇺🇸American · Born March 28, 1928 · Died May 26, 2017
40. 390Paul-Henri SpaakThree-time Belgian prime minister who went on to lead NATO as its second secretary general.🇧🇪Belgian · Born January 25, 1899 · Died July 31, 1972
41. 391Tony BlairLed Labour to a landslide in 1997 and governed for a decade, helping broker the Good Friday Agreement.🇬🇧British · Born May 6, 1953
42. 392Sahle-Work ZewdeCareer diplomat who became Ethiopia's first female president, elected unanimously by parliament in 2018.🇪🇹Ethiopian · Born February 21, 1950
43. 393Aristide BriandFrench statesman who served as prime minister eleven times and shared the 1926 Nobel Peace Prize for the Locarno agreements.🇫🇷French · Born March 28, 1862 · Died March 7, 1932
44. 394Mahmoud AhmadinejadHardline Iranian president for two terms, noted for his confrontations with the West over the nuclear programme.🇮🇷Iranian · Born October 28, 1956
45. 395Süleyman DemirelSeven-time Turkish prime minister who later served as the country's ninth president from 1993 to 2000.🇹🇷Turkish · Born November 1, 1924 · Died June 17, 2015
46. 396Friedrich RatzelGeographer who coined the term Lebensraum and helped found political geography.Grand Duchy of Baden · Born August 30, 1844 · Died August 9, 1904
47. 397Milovan ĐilasYugoslav Partisan leader turned dissident whose book The New Class attacked the privileged bureaucracy of communist states.Montenegrin · Born June 12, 1911 · Died April 20, 1995
48. 398Wilhelm FrickNazi interior minister who helped enact the Nuremberg Laws and was hanged after being convicted at Nuremberg.🇩🇪German · Born March 12, 1877 · Died October 16, 1946
49. 399Robert F. KennedyAttorney general under his brother John F. Kennedy, he was a New York senator and 1968 presidential candidate before being assassinated.🇺🇸American · Born November 20, 1925 · Died June 6, 1968
50. 400Gustav StresemannWeimar-era foreign minister whose diplomacy, including the Locarno Treaties, helped bring Germany back into European affairs and earned a Nobel Peace Prize.🇩🇪German · Born May 10, 1878 · Died October 3, 1929