The greatest politicians of the 20th century. List, achievements and interesting facts

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:42

Each person has his own heroes, but if we are talking about the most famous politicians of the 20th century, then for all these are practically the same people. Two world wars, the collapse of empires and the creation of several dozen new states have revealed outstanding politicians who have remained forever in the history of mankind.

Lenin forever

Failures in the First World War and the bad domestic policy of Russia in the early 20th century brought a great state to the brink of destruction. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (Ulyanov) managed to create the world's first "state of workers and peasants" on the ruins of the Russian Empire. Revolution and civil war forever changed the history of mankind. To all ordinary people of the world, he gave hope for social justice in real life. With harsh and bloody methods, under his leadership, a victory was won over internal opponents and intervention.

In foreign policy at the beginning of the 20th century, the young country sought to spread socialist ideas. Lenin showed himself to be an outstanding theoretician of Marxism and a pragmatic politician. Heintroduced war communism and a new economic system into world political practice, retreating from the ideals of Marxism when it was necessary to restore the country after the war. Lenin will forever remain the greatest politician of the 20th century in Russia.

Stalin: winner or executioner?

Who will remain in the history of Russia, Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (Dzhugashvili), while no one can say. For many countries of the world who believe that the United States won World War II, he is undoubtedly a bloody tyrant who unleashed mass terror in the country and enslaved the peoples of Europe. By his order, dozens of peoples of Russia were resettled from their native land to Central Asia, hundreds of thousands of people died during the pre-war repressions.

On the other hand, it is impossible to hush up the real achievements of the leader: industrialization and collectivization were carried out in the shortest possible time, which gave the country commercial agriculture. Stalin took over an agrarian country ravaged by civil war and made it an industrialized power with nuclear weapons. The country won the most terrible war in the history of mankind. Could it have been done differently? Do without terrible human casu alties? Nobody knows. Mao Zedong said about Stalin: "70% of successes and 30% of mistakes".

Hitler is the ruler of Europe

It's no secret that Adolf Hitler, who is perceived as an undeniable pure evil for many peoples of Europe and the post-Soviet space, is the most famous German politician of the 20th century. He went a long way from corporal in the Firstworld to the chancellor of Germany. He came to power as a result of the democratic elections of 1932-1933. He can be called the initiator of World War II, when Germany easily conquered almost all of Europe and only the Soviet Union offered decisive resistance. The total genocide against Jews, gypsies and the peoples of the post-Soviet space, who ended up in the territories occupied by Germany, made him the greatest villain of the 20th century. Today it is believed that his real name sounds like Güttler, but by mistake of a priest he became Hitler.

Winner of the American Depression and the Japanese

For us, Franklin Delano Roosevelt is an American politician of the 20th century, who was the president of a country that was part of the anti-Hitler coalition. But for Americans, Roosevelt is probably above all a president who overcame the Great Depression and defeated the Japanese in the Pacific War. He is the only American politician of the 20th century, and most likely the last one, who was elected to the presidency of the United States four times. Roosevelt, after his election, put in order the country's banking system, the agricultural and industrial sectors, established a minimum wage, and created conditions for attracting foreign investment. During the Second World War, he managed to avoid the direct participation of American troops in hostilities for as long as possible.

Franklin Roosevelt made the USA a great country. While he was President of the United States, he released in 1945 a continuation of the stories about Sherlock Homes. Roosevelt was the initiator of the creation of the UN.

Non-violence is strength

Among the people who are directly or indirectly responsible for thousands of ruined human lives, Mohandas Karamchand (Mahatma) Gandhi will remain the only politician of the 20th century who put human life above material we alth. After studying law in the UK, he dedicated his life to fighting injustice. Mahatma achieved his first great success in South Africa, where, thanks to his efforts, discriminatory laws against Hindus working in the country were abolished. It was introduced to the people of India by the Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, who was the first to call it Mahatma, which means Great Soul. He fought for women's rights and against the Indian caste system. Mahatma called on the Indian people to fight with non-violent means (satyagraha), which eventually led to the independence of India.

Comrade Mao

Monuments to Mao Zedong in China are not being demolished, nor are they branded as a bloody tyrant and murderer, although millions of Chinese have suffered as a result of the policies pursued under his leadership. He remains one of the most respected Chinese politicians of the 20th century. In 1921, Mao took part in the founding meeting of the Communist Party of China, which he then led for 33 years. Mao Zedong started a guerrilla war in 1927, which ended with the proclamation of the People's Republic of China in 1949, when the armed units of the Chinese Communist Party won the civil war, like the Japanese before.

Modern China admits mistakesMao during the construction of the state, including the "Big Push" and "Cultural Revolution." But merit is also recognized: from an agrarian country with an illiterate population, by the middle of the 20th century, China became an industrial state with a literacy rate of 80% (started with 7%). Mao Zedong's theoretical legacy of Maoism (self-reliant socialism) is still popular in some developing countries.

First black man

The most famous fighter for the rights of the black population against apartheid (racial discrimination) not only in the Republic of South Africa, but throughout the world. Nelson Mandela was born into the family of a petty tribal leader who had four wives. His mother was the third wife. Starting the movement as a supporter of non-violent methods of struggle, he led the guerrilla units of the African National Congress, which blew up government and military installations. For which he was sentenced to life imprisonment. In total, he spent 27 years - first in solitary confinement, and then in a house in the prison yard. While he was in custody, he graduated from the University of London.

In 1993, Mandela received the Nobel Peace Prize as a politician of the second half of the 20th century, who eliminated apartheid. In 1994, he became the first black president of his country.

Deng Xiaoping

China is now the world's largest economy thanks to reforms initiated by Deng Xiaoping. He studied in France and the Soviet Union, where he became interested in communist ideas. In Moscow hestudied under the name of Dozorov, and became Deng Xiaoping in 1924 when he joined the Communist Party of China, at birth he was Deng Xiansheng. He fought against the Japanese in the civil war. Then there was a long way to the leadership of the party, several times he was repressed for disagreeing with the general line of the party.

After leading China, Deng Xiaoping began economic reform. First of all, agricultural communes were abolished, industry gained greater freedom, and free economic zones began to be created. This began the rapid growth of the country's economy, especially the production of consumer goods and exports. Chinese foreign policy in the 20th century became more open. Chinese students have appeared in all developed countries of the world. China has become a market economy, but Deng Xiaoping's reforms have never affected the political structure of the country. In the late 80s, he voluntarily resigned from all leadership positions, becoming the country's spiritual leader, continuing to influence China's foreign and domestic policy.

Empire Destroyer

He destroyed one country, the Soviet Union, and did much to destroy another. Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin is the brightest Soviet and Russian politician of the 20th century. Having reached high positions in the leadership of the Communist Party, he began to struggle for power with its general secretary, Gorbachev. This confrontation ended with the collapse of the USSR, when, on the initiative of Yeltsin, the "Belovezhskaya agreement" was signed on the creation of the Commonwe alth of Independent States.

Under his guidance,"fairly" divided the assets inherited by Russia as the successor of the Soviet empire and carried out "shock therapy" over the country.

Russian domestic politics of the 20th century was absolutely anti-social. Market reforms were carried out in the country, all the main laws by which Russia now lives were adopted. The state has a private sector and non-state media.

Boris Yeltsin was tried three times to be impeached, and in 1993 all the formal procedures were carried out, but after an armed confrontation with parliament, he managed to stay in power. Yeltsin led the country from 1991 to 1999, but everyone will probably remember the first president of the Russian Federation more from television footage at the time of the transfer of power.