Authoritarian Leaders On Stamps

Hi,

I'm researching to start a collection depicting "evil" leaders. There are criteria that all have to be satisfied:

1. Stamps must be issued by the authority over which the leader presides.
2. Stamps must be issued or at least designed during this leader's reign.
3. (updated) Leader is not a monarch, and his regime considered authoritarian and abusive. Killing of opposition straight out qualifies, or openly giving out top government posts to relatives.
4. (added) Personality cult of the leader must be established.

To illustrate which stamps satisfy those conditions and which do not:

OK: Kim Il Sung and North Korea, 1976 (1,2,3)
Not OK: British or Belgian royalty (3 not satisfied)
Not OK: Stamps depicting Stalin, that were not issued by USSR (2 not satisfied)
Not OK: Stamps depicting Mao, issued by China, after Mao's death (1 not satisfied).

So far my list of what to look for is pretty short, so any pointers welcome:

1. USSR under Joseph Stalin
2. USSR under Leonid Brezhnev
3. Cuba under Fidel Castro
4. Libya, al-Gaddafi's rule (1969-now)
5. Egypt, Mubarak's presidency
6. North Korea, several "dear leaders" from Kim dynasty.
7. China, Mao's time (1966-76)
8. Germany under Hitler
9. Turkmenistan under Niyazov
10. Italy under Mussolini
11. Spain under Franco
12. Equatorial Guinea under Francisco Macías Nguema
13. Zaire under Mobutu Sese Seko
14. Iraq under Saddam Hussein
15. Iran + Khomeini
16. Uganda under Idi Amin
17. Yugoslavia under Josip Tito (?)
18. Romania under Nicolae Ceausescu
19. German Democratic Republic under Erich Honecker
20. Indonesia under Sukarno and Suharto
21. Albania: Enver Hoxa
22. Haiti: Francois Duvalier

Who can continue this list? Any resources that could be useful?

UPDATE: Quick search reveals no stamps of Idi Amin.

Equatorial Guinea under Francisco Macías Nguema
Zaire under Mobutu Sese Seko

huckles888:

Updated, thanks. Do you know if any of those guys have shown up on stamps during that time period? Usually, if elected leader shows up on stamps of the country, that's a good way to tell that "something is rotten in the Kingdom of Denmark". I wonder if Venezuela qualifies...

Yugoslavia - Josip Tito
Romania - Nicolae Ceausescu

Iran - Shah Mohammed Pahlavi
Iraq - Saddam Hussein
Uganda - Idi Amin

A fly in the ointment here. Isn't this actually a huge, huge topic? As in, would it not include any country where there was not a democratically elected leader, or possibly leader by succussion (monarch) over the past 150 years? And what about countries that were conquered and issued stamps depicting the ruling regime and leader or used overprints i.e. Ethiopia (Mussolinni) or Poland (Hitler)or even places like Belgian Congo (King Leopold) where rule was maintained by force. Or puppet rulers (Quisling in Norway) or ...

It would be a fascinating historical enterprise but even if you did not worry about definitions of "evil" or get bogged down in "good intentions" that went somewhat astray, I do not think it would by any means be a small project.

Just a thought ... but have fun with it!

Marius:
Thanks, added. I had doubts about Tito, since I don't remember if he killed a lot of innocent people during his rule, but at least he was on stamps of Yugoslavia, so I am adding him.

Jamesw:
Thanks. Shah Pahlavi does not qualify, though, just like any other monarch, no matter how insane.

Panama - Dictatorship of Noriega 1981-1989

backroads:
Not that huge, if you set certain criteria. First of all, not all of the s appeared on stamps of their country. Second, I am not counting occupation stamps or similar, because occupied country cannot be considered leader's native country for my purposes.

And evilness is judged by ordering killing innocent people without regard of the laws of their country. Stalin certainly did it, and so did Hussein. I am not sure if there are known examples I can find of Tito.

Khomeini does not qualify, as it turns out - condition 2 is false.

I've always thought this would be a fine topic for an educational stamp exhibit. Some of the people we see honored on worldwide stamps were actually rats.

Like they say, one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. I understand Hitler liked kittens.

chasa:
One thing I noticed is that usually if ruling leader shows up on stamps of that country while he's at the helm, then later on there's always stories of abuse and/or misappropriations.

smauggie:
Thanks for suggestion, but quick search reveals - no image of Noriega on Panama stamps during his period.

aisaev, does Jefferson Davis fit into that mold? He seemed quite happy to have his picture on Confederate States stamps.