I have an extreme interest in dictators, especially of the Antebellum period. I have an intrest both in those that I support (Park, Franco, Dollfuss, Mussolini) and those that I revile (Hitler, Stalin, Mao). My interest in them goes beyond politics too, I like to know their hobbies (Mussolini played Tennis and Mao loved to swim), their pets (Hitler had a mouse and two dogs, Mussolini had several cats and a lioness), and their early life. I was wondering if anyone else had a similar interest.

oh god yes, dictators fascinate me, Stalin, Nicolae Ceaucescu, Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung, the entire communist system fascinates me

HITLER!!!! I love studying the "issues" he had.

Do Latin American independence leaders with dictorial tendencies (Simon Bolivar, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, though I suppose Maximillian was rather interesting too) count?

I suppose that I'm more interested in them because I'm into Latin American history though.

After Portiforio Diaz, I think that all of the dictators in Latin America were uninteresting, simply nationalist (or in Castro's case, communist) bastards without any depth to them that I can see.

I suppose Mussolini was interesting.

How could somebody so competant at Italian domestic policy be so terrible at administering the countries he conquered?

I study certain leaders who were sort of like dictators. Shaka Zulu and Ghenghis Khan are among my favourites at the moment.

And boy, did he have issues!

Not only him, his whole ministry. Goebells, Goring, Himmler, Speer, Hess, Bormann etc.

I have been fascinated by Communist dictators: Lenin, Stalin, Ceauscescu, Kim Il-Sung/Kim Jong-Il. I would have to say that Stalin is probably the most intriguing for me, since my one of my interests is the Soviet period of Russian history.

I mentioned in the countries thread that I had a particularly intense interest in North Korea.  This stretched to an interest also in Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il, though that's the only time I've had a particular interest in dictators.