22 brutal dictators you've never heard of

Representative government has been a luxury that relatively few people have enjoyed throughout human history.

And while the vast majority of dictators fall short of Hitler- or Stalin-like levels of cruelty, history is rife with oppressors, war criminals, sadists, sociopaths, and morally complacent individuals who ended up as unelected heads of government — to the tragic detriment of the people and societies they ruled.

Here's a look at 22 brutal dictators that you may not have heard of:

A previous version of this article was written with Armin Rosen.