Dictators

Born between 1428-1431, Vlad the Impaler was abandoned by his father as a boy and betrayed by everyone he trusted. He channeled his resentment into an unquenchable lust for power and violence—eventual...

31 Mar 202044min

After uniting the Mongol tribes in 1206, Genghis Khan used his military prowess to assert dominance over the Ottoman Empire and the Chinese Jin Dynasty. By 1222, his empire spanned from the Caspian Se...

24 Mar 202037min

A nomad exiled from his tribe as a child, Genghis Khan used populism and meritocracy to unite the tribes of the Mongolian Steppe and become the ruler of all of Mongolia from 1206-1227 CE. Learn more a...

17 Mar 202045min

After the death of his beloved first wife, Tsar Ivan the Terrible descended into madness and paranoia. He turned his hatred and fear against his own people dragging the empire he had built with his ow...

10 Mar 202049min

Ivan Vasilyevich the Fourth was crowned Grand Prince of Muscovy at 3 years old after his father died. After a traumatic childhood of chaos and coups, Ivan would crown himself the first Tsar of Russia ...

3 Mar 202047min

Once he was appointed Chancellor of Germany, Adolf Hitler was finally in the position to implement his long-awaited vision. It was a vision that plunged the entire world into war, and led to the syste...

25 Feb 202051min

As a young man, nobody would have expected aspiring artist Adolf Hitler to become one of history's cruelest dictators. But once he realized he had a talent for politics, Hitler began a lifelong quest ...

18 Feb 202048min

Now in total power, Joseph Stalin went on to transform the Soviet Union into a modernized country—but at the cost of millions of lives. In order to fulfill his vision of communism, the deaths of peasa...

11 Feb 202045min