Hobbies of Some of World’s Worst Dictators

Hey, guys! The world has been rattled by the rule of dictators from time to time and has witnessed millions of deaths in the rule. But as one has said if you truly want to attain greatness embrace optimism even when darkness prevails. On a lighter note here, these dictators didn’t always engage themselves in wars and mass execution but were endowed with great talents. They were only humans(assuming conspiracies theories to be hokum!) and like you, they too had hobbies. Check them out!

1. Adolf Hitler (Germany)

Adolf Hitler – A name which brings connotations of death, warfare, murder, misery and the Yes, the Nazi leader established himself as the Fuhrer of all of Germany before attempted extermination of an entire race.

Hobbies:

He was obsessed about anything related to Disney. Hitler was very keen on painting and sketching, he enjoyed architecture and had colossal plans for the re-building of a Greater German Reich beginning with the Autobahnn project which survives him to this day. He loved animals particularly  his dogs which he insisted slept by his side. He kept canaries. He loved classical music and the Wagnarian operas but also loved other great composers  like Beethoven and Bruckner.

Hitler’s Painting

 

 

2. Joseph Stalin (USSR)
Joseph Stalin (1878-1953) was the dictator of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1929 to 1953.

Hobbies:

Being quite a philosophical person, he was very interested in history at that  time, and read books very often, sometimes daily. It’s said that he claimed to  read “around 500 pages a day.” He was very hard working, and was often found writing and studying very late at night. He wrote a few books in his time too.

“The pinkish bud has opened,

Rushing to the pale-blue violet

And, stirred by a light breeze,

The lily of the valley has bent over the grass.”

The above is an actual opening verse from one of Stalin’s poems. Under the pen name Soselo, he authored and published dozens of poems.

When he wasn’t busy sending people to the Gulag, Joseph Stalin relaxed by settling himself in with a cool drink and a roaring fire to draw himself some good old fashioned pornography. He enjoyed drawing naked men.

Joseph Stalin and his Painting

 

 

3. Kim Jong-il (North Korea)

Kim Jong-il was the supreme leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), commonly referred to as North Korea, from 1994 to 2011.

Hobbies:

He was a big follower of basketball and a massive fan of Michael Jordan. The dictator owned recordings of every game that Michael Jordan ever played with the Bulls, and invited Jordan to visit North Korea. Jordan declined, presumably to avoid being kidnapped and forced to take part in Kim’s communist re-imagining of Space Jam.

Kim did get the next best thing, however, when Madeline Albright gave him a basketball signed by Michael Jordan on a diplomatic visit.

The dictator responded by putting the ball in North Korea’s Museum of International Understanding. Of course, first he had to build the Museum of International Understanding, which he did, just so he could put the basketball in there

The basketball signed by Jordan

 

4.Saddam Hussein (Iraq)

Saddam Hussein was president of Iraq for more than two decades and is seen as a figurehead of the country’s military conflicts with Iran and the United States.

Hobbies:

Saddam liked fishing with grenades. Saddam Hussein, the late President of Iraq, wrote four novels and a number of poems. The first two books (Zabibah and the King and The Fortified Castle) were “Written by He Who Wrote It”, a traditional way in Arabic writing to preserve anonymity.

The four novels are:

1. Zabibah and the King
2. The Fortified Castle
3. Men and the City
4. Begone, Demons

 

 

5. Idi Amin(Uganda)

He is  the 3rd President of Uganda. He held power from 1972 to 1979.

Hobbies:

Watching cartoons. When police searched his home in 1979, they found a large case full of old film reels of “Tom & Jerry.”

 

 

 

6. Benito Mussolini (Italy)

Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician, journalist, and leader of the National Fascist Party, ruling the country as Prime Minister from 1922 until he was ousted in 1943.

Hobbies:   Hunting, politics, painting and world travel. His hobby was Creative Writing as well. Mussolini published more than fourteen volumes in and out of office, including a bodice-ripper, The Cardinal ’s Mistress, and a critique of the Russian novel. In his final idle moments, before he was strung upside down by piano wire.

 

Mussolini’s Poem

 

 

7. Mao Tse-Tung

Mao Zedong or Mao Tse, also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary and founding father of the People’s Republic of China, which he ruled as an autocrat styled the Chairman of the Communist Party of China from its establishment in 1949, until his death in 1976.

Hobbies: Mao Tse-Tung is most well known for tamping down on Chinese culture during his cultural revolution, but it turns out that he himself was an accomplished and romantic poet, and his poems are even considered quite good by many people.

Mao’s Poem

 

 

I really hope you liked this one and I got to admit that during research I too get to know many interesting facts about these dictators. If you really liked this article then share it with your friends and don’t forget to like and subscribe to this blog. See around and you will find more interesting articles.

See you soon. Cheers guys!