Ten Rulers Who Remade Their States in the Twentieth Century, from Lenin to Khomeini

Lenin led the Bolsheviks to power in the October Revolution of 1917 and became the first head of government of Soviet Russia. He founded the Cheka secret police in December 1917, and the Red Terror that followed an assassination attempt in August 1918 killed tens of thousands.

Mussolini became prime minister of Italy in October 1922 after threatening a march on Rome, then declared himself dictator on 3 January 1925. He organized employers and workers into state-supervised syndicates, the corporatist model that defines Fascist Italy, and enacted racial laws against Italian Jews in 1938.

Stalin succeeded Lenin as leader of the Soviet Union through the 1920s and ruled until his death on 5 March 1953. Forced collectivization from 1929, the Great Terror of 1936 to 1938 and the Gulag system together account for estimated deaths of six to twenty million people.

Vargas took power in Brazil in 1930 after a disputed election and in 1937 abolished the constitution to found the authoritarian Estado Novo. The same years brought labour and social security laws, women's suffrage and the secret ballot, and he returned as an elected president in 1951.

Salazar, an economics professor, became Portugal's finance minister in 1928 and prime minister in 1932. A 1933 plebiscite approved his corporatist constitution and launched the Estado Novo, which relied on the PIDE secret police and long colonial wars in Africa until it fell in 1974.

Peron helped engineer a military coup in 1943, built a base among organized labor and was elected president of Argentina in 1946. He expanded labor rights and social security while restricting press freedom, and the movement he founded, Peronism, outlasted his death in 1974.

Moscow installed Kim as leader of North Korea in 1948, and he ruled until his death on 8 July 1994. He advanced the Juche doctrine of self-reliance, built an extensive personality cult and passed power to his son Kim Jong Il, founding a hereditary communist dynasty.

Castro led the guerrillas that overthrew Batista and entered Havana on 8 January 1959, governing Cuba until he handed power to his brother Raul in 2006. His government raised literacy above ninety five percent and built a large public health system while jailing dissidents and censoring the press.

Pinochet led the coup of 11 September 1973 that overthrew the elected president Salvador Allende and ruled until a 1988 plebiscite ended his bid to stay on in 1990. His government created the DINA intelligence directorate and imposed free-market reforms designed by the Chicago Boys by military order.

Khomeini returned to Tehran from exile on 1 February 1979 and founded the Islamic Republic of Iran, serving as its first Supreme Leader until 3 June 1989. His doctrine of velayat-e faqih, set out in lectures in Najaf in 1970, became the constitutional basis of the state he built.