© Getty Images

Vladimir Lenin -

Led by Bolshevik Party leader Vladimir Lenin, leftist revolutionaries launched a coup against Russia’s ineffectual Provisional Government following the Russian Revolution. He served as the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1924, and of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1924.

© Getty Images

Francisco Franco -

Francisco Franco was a Spanish general who led the Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. He thereafter ruled over Spain from 1939 to 1975 as a dictator.

© Getty Images

Catherine the Great -

Catherine the Great was the last Empress Regnant of Russia, from 1762 until 1796, and the country’s longest-ruling female leader. She came to power following the overthrow of her husband, Peter III.

© Getty Images

Muammar Gaddafi -

Born to a poor Bedouin family, Muammar Gaddafi grew up loathing the Libyan monarchy and its Western backers. Sensing its growing weakness, the then-junior army officer decided to seize power himself in 1969, while King Idris was out of the country. He ruled Libya for 42 years.

© Getty Images

Napoleon Bonaparte -

Napoleon rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the Revolutionary Wars. After he engineered a coup in 1799, he became the First Consul of the Republic until 1804. He then became the Emperor of France until 1815.

© Getty Images

Fidel Castro -

The Cuban revolutionary took a key role in the Cuban Revolution by leading the 26th of July Movement in a guerrilla war against General Fulgencio Batista. After Batista's overthrow in 1959, Castro assumed military and political power as Cuba's leader.

© Getty Images

Fulgencio Batista -

For his part, Fulgencio Batista served as the elected president of Cuba from 1940 to 1944, and as its US-backed military dictator from 1952 to 1959, before being overthrown during the Cuban Revolution. Batista initially rose to power as part of the 1933 Revolt of the Sergeants, which overthrew the provisional government of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Quesada.

© Getty Images

Pol Pot -

In 1975, the Khmer Rouge guerrillas overthrew General Lon Nol's military government of Cambodia, beginning a reign of terror that would kill over a million people. This was led by Pol Pot, who governed as prime minister between 1976 and 1979. He then continued to guide the Khmer Rouge until he too was excised from its leadership in 1997.

© Getty Images

Augusto Pinochet -

A career military officer, Augusto Pinochet was named head of the Chilean army around the same time he joined a CIA-backed coup plot against the man who had promoted him, President Salvador Allende. Pinochet ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990.

© Getty Images

Alberto Fujimori -

A controversial figure, Fujimori was president of Peru from 1990 to 2000. Frequently described as a dictator, he ended up fleeing the country amid a major scandal involving corruption and human rights abuses. In response to the political deadlock, Fujimori, with the support of the military, carried out a self-coup in 1992.

© Getty Images

Sulla -

Sulla was a Roman general and statesman, who won the first large-scale civil war in Roman history. He became the first man of the Republic to seize power through force.

© Getty Images

Abdel Fattah el-Sisi -

The sixth and current president of Egypt since 2014, el-Sisi was involved in the military coup that removed then-president Mohamed Morsi from office, in response to the June 2013 Egyptian protests.

© Getty Images

Empress Dowager Ci'an -

Empress Dowager Ci'an was the ruler of the Qing dynasty, in today's China. She staged a coup, historically known as the Xinyou Coup, against the eight regents and ousted them from power, in order to secure control of the regency.

© Getty Images

Pervez Musharraf -

Pervez Musharraf is a Pakistani military officer who took power in a coup in 1999. He served as president of Pakistan from 2001 to 2008.

© Getty Images

Edward III of England -

Edward was crowned at age 14 after his father was deposed by his mother, Isabella of France. At age 17, he led a successful coup against Mortimer, the de facto ruler of the country, and began his personal reign from 1327 to 1377.

© Getty Images

Jorge Rafael Videla -

Jorge Rafael Videla was an Argentine military officer and dictator, who served as president from 1976 to 1981. He came to power in a coup that deposed former president Isabel Perón.

© Getty Images

Selim I -

In a civil war over the Ottoman Empire in 1512, Selim I defeated his brother, forced the abdication of their father Sultan Bayezid II, then eliminated all heirs from the kingdom, except his son Suleyman.

© Getty Images

William Walker -

William Walker was an American adventurer who sought to conquer lands in Central and South America during the 19th century. Walker managed to seize the presidency of Nicaragua in July 1856 and ruled until May 1, 1857. He was then forced out by a coalition of Central American armies. He returned in an attempt to reestablish his control of the region, but was captured and executed by the government of Honduras in 1860.

© Getty Images

Idi Amin -

Idi Amin was a Ugandan military officer and the third president of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. He is considered one of the most brutal dictators in world history.

© Getty Images

Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq -

Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq was a general who became the sixth president of Pakistan after declaring martial law in 1977. He served as the head of state from 1978 until his death in 1988.

© Getty Images

Mobutu Sese Seko -

Mobutu Sese Seko was president of Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He seized power in a 1965 coup and ruled for 32 years before being ousted in a rebellion in 1997.

© Getty Images

Nguyễn Khánh -

Nguyễn Khánh was a South Vietnamese military officer and Army of the Republic of Vietnam general who served as prime minister of South Vietnam while at the head of a military junta from 1964 until 1965. He went into exile in the US and passed away in 2013.

© Getty Images

Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo -

Mbasogo has been president of Equatorial Guinea since 1979. He held numerous positions under the presidency of his uncle, Francisco Macías Nguema, before ousting him in a military coup.

© Getty Images

Klement Gottwald -

Klement Gottwald was elected as Czechoslovakia's first communist president, four months after the 1948 coup in which his party seized power with the backing of the Soviet Union. He held the post until his death in 1953.

© Getty Images

Yoweri Museveni -

Yoweri Museveni is the ninth and current president of Uganda. Yoweri was involved in rebellions that toppled Ugandan presidents Milton Obote and Idi Amin before he came into power in 1986.

© Getty Images

Blaise Compaoré -

Blaise Compaoré is a military leader and politician who ruled Burkina Faso from 1987, seizing power following a coup. He resigned in 2014, following days of violent protests.

© Getty Images

Omar al-Bashir -

Omar al-Bashir is a Sudanese military officer who led a revolt that overthrew the elected government of Sudan in 1989. He served as president of Sudan from 1993 until 2019, when he was ousted in a military coup.

© Getty Images

Heraclius -

In 610 CE, as the Eastern Roman Empire was crumbling under the weight of war and famine, Heraclius stepped ashore at Constantinople with the intent to overthrow Phocas, the then-emperor, and he succeeded in doing so. Heraclius became the Byzantine emperor until 641 CE.

© Getty Images

Nabonidus of Babylonia -

Nabonidus was the king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, ruling from 556 BCE to 539 BCE. A relatively minor member of the nobility, he was proclaimed king after the deposition and murder of King Labashi-Marduk in a plot likely led by Nabonidus' son Belshazzar.

Sources: (Grunge) (History) (BBC) (The Washington Post)

See also: History's cruelest despots and dictators

© Getty Images