Many people know of the dictators throughout history who oversaw murderous regimes and implemented policies that resulted in widespread oppression and human rights violations. Even the mere mentions of their names can send shivers down people’s spines because of the fear and anguish that they evoke.
However, stories about the family lives of these evil rulers aren’t always as well-known. Some of these dictators were married, had children and at times lived somewhat ordinary family lives despite their totalitarian ways of ruling.
Here are the stories of the children of some of history’s most infamous dictators.
Romano Mussolini
Son of Benito Mussolini
Born in 1927 to Rachele Mussolini and the Italian Fascist dictator, Romano Mussolini was the youngest son of Benito and showed a keen interest in music from an early age. This love of music was likely inherited from his father, who played the violin in between his duties of running one of the most oppressive regimes in Italian history and plunging his country into the pits of World War II.
Romano eventually wanted to make music his full-time profession, and he had the opportunity to pursue this goal after the end of World War II and the execution of his father. Romano realized that jazz was his passion and used his piano-playing skills to craft a successful career as a world-renowned jazz musician. He also used his artistic talents to pursue careers in painting and film production.
Fortunately for Romano, he went on to live a life that was separate from his father’s cruel legacy and rarely spoke about his family life until he published a book in 2004 that was titled Il Duce, mio padre (The Leader, my father). Romano died in 2006 at the age of 78.
Alina Fernández Revuelta
Daughter of Fidel Castro
Alina Fernández Revuelta was born in 1956 in Havana a few years before her father seized control over Cuba at the end of the Cuban Revolution. Alina adopted her surname from her stepfather, who raised Alina with her mother. Having never developed a close relationship with her birthfather, Alina has stated that she felt closer to her uncle, Raúl Castro, and said that he could always be turned to for help.
Like many other people who suffered under Fidel Castro’s rulership, Alina wanted her freedom and sought asylum in Spain at the age of 37 after leaving Cuba wearing a disguise and presenting false papers. She has also been allowed to move to the U.S. and live in Georgia and Florida.
Alina has become an activist who opposes communism and uses her platform to warn others about the regimes that are similar to her father’s. Surprisingly, Alina has been allowed to return to Cuba for visits on separate occasions and was even allowed to spend time with her ill mother in 2014.
Yakov Dzhugashvili
Son of Joseph Stalin
In 1907, Yakov Dzhugashvili was born in the country of Georgia to parents Kato Svanidze and Ioseb Dzhugashvili (who eventually altered his first name and changed his last name to “Stalin” to mean “Man of Steel”). Yakov was raised by his mother’s relatives in the city of Tiflis (now Tbilisi) after her premature death at age 22 and rarely saw his father as a child.
At age 14, Yakov was taken by his father to live with him in Moscow, Russia, shortly before the establishment of the Soviet Union. Yakov’s shy and emotional personality often made him a target of his father’s outbursts and cruel taunting. When Yakov shot himself in the chest in his 20s during a suicide attempt and barely missed his heart with the bullet, Stalin allegedly showed his disdain even more toward his son by stating, “He can’t even shoot straight.”
When Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union during World War II in the summer of 1941, Stalin made Yakov join the Soviet military as a battery commander to fight the Germans. Yakov was captured by German soldiers shortly after leaving for combat and died in 1943 as a prisoner of war in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
Mao Anqing
Son of Mao Zedong
Born more than two decades before his father seized power as leader of China in 1949, Mao Zedong’s last surviving son survived a tumultuous childhood. After his mother was executed by He Jian, a ruthless Chinese warlord, Mao Anqing suffered beatings by local police because of his father’s affiliation with the Communist Party of China. His father was away for much of his young life while working for the party, leaving Mao Anqing and his two brothers to fend for themselves while trying to survive homelessness following their mother’s death.
In 1936, Mao Anqing and his older brother were sent to Paris and later to Moscow by their father to study. Joseph Stalin personally invited the boys to study in Moscow to try to instill socialist ideologies in the children with the hope of hastening a Soviet-style government in China. Mao Zedong, however, urged his children to focus on studying science rather than engage in politics.
Upon returning to China in 1947 after fighting for the Soviet Union to defeat Nazi Germany in World War II, the young men joined the country’s Communist Party before Mao Anqing’s brother died in combat in Korea in 1950. This and other tragic events in Mao Anqing’s life likely contributed to his struggles with mental illness, but he was eventually able to find success working as a translator. Mao Anqing lived to the age of 82 and died in 2007.
Kim Yo-jong
Daughter of Kim Jong-il
Almost everyone in the world knows of the former North Korean Supreme Leader’s son Kim Jong-un, who was named as his father’s successor in 2011, but fewer details are known about his youngest daughter. Most sources state that Kim Yo-jong was born on September 26, 1987, in Pyongyang and raised with her siblings in her mother’s palace.
Like many other members of North Korea’s ruling family, Kim Yo-jong has been afforded privileges that are not granted to ordinary citizens. She was allowed to attend school in Switzerland and studied ballet while abroad. She was even given the opportunity to attend the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in South Korea as a representative for Kim Jong-un. In addition to her privileged life, Kim Yo-jong has played an important role in the country’s sole political party. Some even believed that she would succeed her older brother as Supreme Leader of North Korea after he disappeared for a prolonged period in the spring of 2020 (Kim Jong-un later resurfaced and retains his role).
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