Anthony Charles Lynton Blair was born on May 6th, 1953 in Edinburgh, Scotland, the son of Leo Blair and Hazel Blair, a barrister and a homemaker, respectively. As a small child Blair’s family moved to Glasgow, Scotland, then to Adelaide, Australia, and finally settled in Durham, England. Tony Blair spent the first part of his years in an ideal upper-middle class environment until 1963 when his father suffered a stroke, throwing the family into disarray with the breadwinner stricken ill. When young Tony Blair first received hand-me-down clothes instead of new ones, he quickly came to the realization of what life was like for the average British citizen.

After leaving Durham Cathedral School in 1971, Blair spent a year in London working at odd jobs such as driving a van and moving stage equipment for rock groups. However, Blair’s privileged education continued as he gained a partial scholarship to Fettes College in Scotland, which is sometimes called “Eton with a kilt.” Then in 1972, Blair entered Oxford where he would eventually graduate with a law degree. Tragedy struck Blair’s life again when his mother died two weeks later.

In 1975, Tony Blair joined the Labour Party where he would spend twenty-two years building a career that would eventually lead to his being elected the youngest British Prime Minister in over a hundred years.
Work History
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland -- (24 Oct. 1945)

Born in Georgia near the Turkish border, Joseph Stalin (born Iosif Djugashvilli) grew up in a family of former serfs as the son of a cobbler. The only surviving child of four siblings, Stalin suffered a childhood of extreme poverty and violent abuse at the hands of an alcoholic father who died when Stalin was only 11 years old. Stalin’s mother then supported the family by taking in washing until her son left to attend a Christian Orthodox seminary in Tblisi to study for the priesthood. However, in 1899, Stalin was expelled from the seminary for allegedly missing an exam, but it is well believed that he was in fact expelled because of his involvement with Marxism and Marxist groups. After his expulsion from the seminary, Stalin worked several odd jobs while getting himself more and more involved in the activities of radical Marxist groups.

Stalin married his first wife in 1904, who died three years later from tuberculosis. Stalin did remarry in 1919, but in 1932 his second wife also died, officially from suicide but some would say that Stalin murdered her. During the early 1900s, Stalin was arrested several times and exiled to Siberia twice, but escaped on both occasions. All of Stalin’s crimes are not recorded, but among his more serious it is believed that he did commit armed robbery and at least one case of murder. Rising from the position of common criminal, Stalin fell under the appreciation of Lenin and was given the editorship of the illegal Bolshevik newspaper Pravda. It was around this time that Iosif Djugashvilli started using the pseudonym Joseph Stalin, “man of Steel”, most likely to protect himself from the Czar’s police.

Stalin’s role in the Russian Civil War is not entirely clear. While there are those who profess that he was a combatant and a hero, there are more still who claim that Stalin did not really do anything that put him in harm’s way. In any case, he did do enough to be granted a place in Lenin’s politburo, which placed Stalin in a position to gain the Premiership of the Soviet Union. His only obstacle however was Leon Trotsky, another Communist activist and friend of Lenin who was murdered in Mexico where he was hiding from Stalin. By 1922, Joseph Stalin was in complete control of the Soviet Union with an iron grip that would last 31 years.

During the 1930s, Stalin began mass executions, purging the population, the bureaucracy, and the military of what he believed to be anti-revolutionary conspirators. After defeating the Nazi Army in 1945, Stalin returned to ruling the USSR in a reign of terror until 1953, when he suddenly died of a brain hemorrhage.

Today the name Joseph Stalin is associated with evil, much like Adolph Hitler. The number of people executed by Stalin or who died due to his administration is inestimable, with numbers ranging from as low as 250,000 to as high as 30 million. However, within Russia there is still a significant amount of people who view Stalin as a hero for having dragged Russia out of the mud from a peasant agrarian society and turned it into a superpower with mass industrialization, an organized agriculture, a strong military, and respect and fear from the rest of the world.
Work History
"(1899) Office clerk at the Tblisi Geophysical Observatory; Propagandist for the Social-Democratic Party in Tblisi, Georgia.

(1901) Began writing for the Georgian Marxist journal, Brdzola; Joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party.

(1903) Joined the Bolshevik revolutionary movement.

(1912) Member of the Bolshevik Central Committee.

(1903-1921) Stalin dedicates his life to Marxism and the Bolshevik movement.

(1913) Worked as an editor for several Bolshevik underground newspapers one of them being Pravda.

(1917) October Revolution.

(1917) Editor of Pravda.

(1918) Commissariat for Nationality Affairs.

(1919-1923) Commissar for State Control.

(1922-1953) General-Secretary of the Party Central Committee.

(1924) Vladmir Lenin dies.

(1928) Consolidates his power and becomes the unquestioned leader of the Soviet Union; Initiates programs of agricultural collectivization and mass industrialization

(1939) Signed Non-Aggression Pact with Hitler.

(1941) Nazi Army invades Russia.

(1941) Premier of the Soviet Union.

(1945) Participates in the Yalta and Potsdam conference where he, Truman, and Churchill divided the world into spheres of influence.

(1945-1953) Continues to rule the Soviet Union as a totalitarian state and pursues cold-war policy with the West.



"
Affiliations
(1899) Social-Democratic Party. (1918-1953) Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
Awards
Joseph Stalin has also won numerous Awards

Rising to become an icon in the struggle against apartheid in Rhodesia, Robert Gabriel Mugabe began his life in humble surroundings, learning the skills of reading and writing from Christian missionaries. Having an appreciation for the gift of education, the future world leader started his working life as a schoolteacher. Mugabe's life reached a turning point sometime in the late 1950s while he was working as a lecturer in Ghana, where independence had just been won from colonial rule. So awestruck was Mugabe by the power of Ghana's uprising that he immediately envisioned his homeland achieving independence, as well.

Returning to Rhodesia in 1960, Mugabe began forming the Zimbabwe African People's Union, ZAPU, with Joshua Nkomo, another notable figure in Rhodesia's struggle for independence. The relationship, however, was not to last as Mugabe became dissatisfied with ZAPU believing that Nkomo and the organization were not militant enough.

Only two years after forming ZAPU, Mugabe formed the Zimbabwe African National Union, ZANU, a more belligerent version of his former association. The Rhodesian national police, gathering insight into Mugabe's activities, immediately set out to hunt down the leader of ZANU. In 1963, the national police got their man, detaining him for almost twelve months before he was sentenced to ten years on prison. Not one to sit idly in his jail cell, Mugabe earned no less than six university degrees by correspondence from the University of South Africa and the University of London.

Released from the penitentiary in 1974, Mugabe set out for Mozambique where he took up leadership of the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army, spending five years fighting as a leader of the guerilla army. Twenty years of political dissent paid off in 1980 when Mugabe's crowning moment came as he represented the ZANU delegation at the London Lancaster House Conference that led to the end of white minority apartheid rule and the beginning of Rhodesia's independence, later to be renamed Zimbabwe.

The school teacher turned guerilla was then to become the first black leader of Zimbabwe, receiving the majority of votes in the first democratic elections open to all, black and white. Mugabe has effectively remained leader of Zimbabwe since 1980. Although Zimbabwe was supposed to embrace political plurality, Mugabe has kept his reign on power through intimidating and reportedly torturing his political opponents. In striking irony, Mugabe's authority soon came to be recognized as being just as brutish, if not more than, the previous white regime. Today, the man once seen as the liberator of his homeland is regarded as little more than a dictator who has overstayed his time. Recently, the Zimbabwe Supreme Court ruled that human rights lawyers could proceed with filing a lawsuit against the president to open up records for a public inquest into the deaths of Mugabe's political opponents during the 1980s. The first court decision of its kind in the two decades of Mugabe's rule focuses on the deaths of an estimated 20,000 people in western Zimbabwe at the hands of government troops as allegedly ordered by Mugabe.
Climb to Fame
President of Zimbabwe and icon of resistance to white rule in the former state of Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe.
Work History
(1997) Chairman, Organization of African Unity.

(1995) Chairman of the G15 group of countries.

(1992) Chairman of the Frontline States.

(1987-) President of Zimbabwe.

(1980-1987) Prime Minister of Zimbabwe.

(1980) Represents the Zimbabwe African National Union at the Lancaster House Conference in London that ends apartheid in Rhodesia granting freedom to the black majority. Rhodesia is renamed Zimbabwe.

(1977) Is elected President of the Zimbabwe African National Union.

(1975-1980) Escapes to Mozambique and takes up armed struggle against the Rhodesian government.

(1964-1974) Is incarcerated for constituting a threat to national security.

(1963-1964) Secretary-General of the Zimbabwe African National Union.

(1962-1963) Secretary-General of the Zimbabwe African People's Union.

(1961-1962) Founded the Zimbabwe African People's Union.

(1960-1961) Chairman, National Democratic Party; Editor for the Democratic Voice.

(1958-1960) Lecturer, St. Mary's Teacher Training College, Ghana.

(1955-1958) Lecturer, Chalimbana Teacher Training College, Zambia.

(1952-1955) School Teacher, Rhodesia.

(1950-1951) Undergraduate student, University of Fort Hare, South Africa.

(1942-1949) School Teacher, Rhodesia, (present day Zimbabwe).
Affiliations
Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front

Organization of African Unity
Awards
Robert Mugabe has also won numerous Awards

Malcolm (Little) X started out in a life of crime only to become become America’s most popular and threatening black revolutionary. His father Earl Little was an active supporter of Marcus Garvey who advocated that all Afro-Americans abandon America and return to their motherland. The fact that Earl Little was a black political activist made the Little family subject to constant attack from groups such as the KKK. Due to this neverending harassment, the Little family was eventually forced to move and ended up in Lansing, Michigan. The peace, however, only lasted so long and tragedy struck in 1931, when Earl was murdered by white supremacists.

Malcolm’s mother, a single black female with no money and six children, eventually became ill from stress and was committed by the authorities to a mental hospital. Malcolm was then sent to live with various foster families until he left school in 1940, and went to Boston to work as a shoe shine boy. Eventually, Malcolm Little became involved in a life of crime and fast living that eventually landed him in jail. It was in prison that he discovered the Nation of Islam and, upon his release from prison, Little changed his name to Malcolm X when he became a full and active member. In 1964, however, X went on the pilgrimage to Mecca and returned less militant and more hopeful of black and white racial harmony. Malcolm X changed his name yet again to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabbaz.

Around a year later in 1965, he was assassinated in the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, New York. The assassin has never been caught but there are generally two theories as to who assassinated Malcolm X, the first being that it was an agent of the federal government getting rid of potential national security threat. The second and most often repeated theory is that it was an operative ordered by the Nation of Islam to get rid of a renegade who might threaten their organization. Malcolm X was laid to rest in Ferncliff Cemetery, Ardsley, New York.
Work History
(02/ 21/1965) Assassinated New York by assassins identified as Black Muslims.

(1964) Leaves the Nation of Islam and begins the new movement Muslim Mosque; travels to Mecca in the Middle East for the required pilgramige and returns with the name El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz; forms the Organization of Afro-American Unity, OAAU

(1963) Suspended from the Nation of Islam.

(1959) Travels to Middle East and Africa.

(1954) Minister of the Nation of Islam's New York Temple.

(1953) Assistant Minister of the Nation of Islam's Detroit Temple.

(1952) Joins nation of Islam; changes name to Malcolm X.

(1946) Caught and convicted to a six-year prison sentence for burglary.

(c. 1944-1946) Begins a life of crime dealing in everything from drugs to prostitution to burglary.

(1942) Railroad dinnng car porter, New York.

(1940) Shoeshine boy at the Roseland Ballroom in Boston.
Affiliations
1952-1964 Nation of Islam. 1964- Muslim Mosque. 1964- Organization for Afro-American Unity.

President of South Africa and the African National Congress (ANC) Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki was born into poverty in a rural valley region of South Africa near Queensland. Mbeki is not the only revolutionary in his family, as his father is also a legendary figure in the annals of anti-apartheid history, as he was the founder of the ANC’s militant wing known as Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation). Thabo Mbeki did not see much of his father while growing up, since Govan was either busy with ANC business or being held in prison. Thabo, for the most part, was raised by relatives.

In 1950, the government of South Africa began to enact a practice of resettlement of blacks that were living on land desired by whites, often to a remote rural region with no schools or infrastructure. Fortunately, Mbeki was allowed to attend high school away from home and, at the age of 14, he joined the ANC Youth League. At this point Mbeki began to become deeply involved with student politics, even participating in student strikes and protests. His enthusiasm for social justice eventually got him expelled from high school, however, and he had to continue his high school studies with home tutoring.

By 1960, Mbeki was driven to living in the underground, hiding his real activities from the world. He had become very proficient and well known as an organizer of protests, rallies, and strikes. Mbeki was never a member of his father’s militant faction, but in 1962 the ANC ordered him to leave the country, most likely because his father did not want him to be implicated and suffer in planned future bombings to be committed by the militant wing. Between 1962 and 1966, Mbeki lived and studied abroad in the United Kingdom, earning himself a Master’s in economics.

In the late 1960s, Thabo Mbeki represented the ANC in numerous parts of Africa and the world, establishing contacts, opening offices, assisting mobilized activist groups, and creating a network solely for the destruction of apartheid in South Africa. He began the 1970s with a stint in the Soviet Union where he received military training in guerilla warfare, although he was never a combatant in the anti-apartheid struggle. Afterward, Mbeki represented the ANC in Swaziland, assisted exiled South Africans in Nigeria, and had gained a seat on the National Executive Committee.

When the 1980s came, Mbeki was in a state of distinction. He was now in his 40s and a lifetime activist of the ANC. His loyalty and dedication began to pay off as he found himself filling prominent posts in the ANC such as Political Secretary in the Office of the President, Director of the Department of Information and Publicity, and Department Head of International Affairs.

In 1990, the South African government, under President F. W. de Clerk, announced that the African National Congress was no longer banned and would be allowed legal status as a political party. A lifetime of sacrifice and struggle for Thabo Mbeki came to bear fruit in 1994 when apartheid was completely dismantled and the first free democratic elections were held where both whites and blacks could cast a ballot with full and equal voting rights. Nelson Mandela was the first elected president of the new democratic South Africa, with Thabo Mbeki as Deputy-Vice President. When Mandela announced in 1996, that he would not seek re-election as president, he endorsed Mbeki as a candidate. After a successful election victory in July of 1999, Thabo Mbeki was sworn into office as the President of South Africa, taking over from the legendary Nelson Mandela, an icon of the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa. The inauguration of Mbeki represented the first transfer of power in the young and struggling democracy of an “apartheid free” South Africa.
Work History
"(1961-1962) Youth organizer, African National Congress, ANC; Secretary of the African Students Association

(1967-1970) Official for African National Congress, London Office, U.K.

(1971-1972) Military training in the Soviet Union; Assistant Secretary of Revolutionary Council, African National Congress.

(1973) Represented African National Congress in Botswana.

(1974-1976) Representative for African National Congress, Swaziland.

(1975- ) National Executive Committee, African National Congress.

(1976-1978) Representative for African National Congress, Nigeria.

(1984-1989) Political Secretary in the Office of the President of the African National Congress; Director of Information and Publicity, African National Congress.

(1989- ) Department Head of International Affairs, African National Congress. (1990) The African National Congress gains legal status as a political party.

(1993) Chairperson of the African National Congress. (1994) First democratic elections held in South Africa with full voting rights for all black citizens.

(1994) Deputy President of the African National Congress under President Nelson Mandela.

(1995) Chancellor of the University of Transkei, South Africa.

(1995-1999) Deputy President of South Africa.

(1997- ) President of the African National Congress.

(1999- ) President of South Africa.

"
Affiliations
"African National Congress Member, Political and Military Council. Member, National Working Committee. Member, National Peace Committee."
Awards
Thabo Mbeki has also won numerous Awards

As Chancellor of Germany, Gerhard Schroder is seeking to invigorate the German economy and the aging German social institutions. An effective orator with a knack for rolling with the political punches, Schroder has always been something of an outsider in German politics. He is a former Marxist that is now a left-leaning Social democrat. Schroder's "new Germany" policies borrow heavily from President Clinton's program in the States, as well as Prime Minister Tony Blair's "Cool Britannia" in the UK. In style and in substance, Schroeder is attempting to build what has been called "a new center" by broadening his party's influence with technology advancement, entrepreneurial spirit and youthful professionalism.

Schroder’s political career began in 1963, when at the age of 19 he joined the Young Socialists and the Social Democratic Party. After his Marxist activist group contributed to the defeat of the center-left government of former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, Schroeder began to gravitate more towards the political center himself. Eventually, as a more of a moderate Socialist, he was elected premier of the state of Lower Saxony in 1990.

Over time, Schroder developed a smooth political demeanor that, in his eventual climb through the German political ranks, projects a sense of social justice, familiarity and success. In public speeches and on television, he has attempted to distract attention from the accomplishments of past governments - in domestic affairs and on the world stage - by concentrating on the negatives, such as the severe unemployment of these governments. German voters have continued to support Schroder's pragmatic policies and, after his three unsuccessful marriages, have not punished him for his difficulty in keeping his family life on track. However, even with Schroeder's new "Zeitgeist," Germany has yet to take promised and necessary steps toward diminishing the state's role in the economy and inspiring a new spirit into the private sector.
Climb to Fame
Chancellor of Germany (1998-present)
Work History
"1958-1961 Retail trade apprentice clerk. 1962-1964 Employed at a hardware store while studying for high school equivalency exam and diploma. 1969-1970 Chairman of the Young Socialists, Gottingen, Germany. 1977 Member of the executive committee for the Hannover Social Democratic Party, SPD. 1978-1980 Federal Chairman of the Young Socialists. 1978- Began practicing law, self-employed. 1979- Member of the SPD advisory council. 1983-1993 Chairman of the Hanover SDP. 1986- Member of the executive committee for the federal SDP party. 1989- Member of the SDP executive committee board. 1990 Elected minister-president of Lower-Saxony. 1994-1998 Chairman of the Lower-Saxony state. 1998 Elected Chancellor of the German Bundestag.
Affiliations
1963- Social Democratic Party of Germany. 1978-1980 Young Socialists of Germany.

Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was born on February 1, 1931 the son of a construction laborer. At three years old, Yeltsin's father was arrested for anti-Soviet agitation and sentenced to three years hard labor in the Gulag. Yeltsin's childhood is recorded as happy but still reflects the hardships of poverty as his father was frequently unemployed and his mother was a seamstress. Yeltsin graduated from a technical institute as a construction engineer and spent the next 40 years holding a series of important posts related to his field of expertise. Eventually, he was asked to move to Moscow, an indication in Soviet society of a progressive career.

Then in 1989, Yeltsin was elected to the Congress of People's Deputies for Moscow electoral district No. 1, in the first multi-candidate parliamentary elections in the history of the USSR. Two years later, the electorate chose him as the first democratically elected president in the country's entire history. What began as a presidency celebrated with hope soon turned sour with the results of a poor performing economy, the Chechen war, and alleged public drunkenness. In the midst of a public scandal involving the Presidency and charges of corruption, Yeltsin surprised the world by resigning from the office of President, leaving the leadership of Russia to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. It is widely believed that Yeltsin was forced into retirement with a deal granting him and his family immunity from charges of bribery, kickbacks, and other accusations of corruption.
Climb to Fame
The first democratically-elected president of the USSR.
Work History
(1955) Uraltiazhtrubstroy state construction company

(1968) Head of construction department under Sverdlovsk regional party committee

(1975) Secretary of the Sverdlovsk regional committee of industrial development

(1976-1985) First Secretary of the Sverdlovsk CPSU regional committee

(1978-1989) Deputy of the USSR Supreme Council

(1981) Head of Construction under the CPSU Central Committee

(1985) Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee of Construction

(1985-1987) First Secretary of the CPSU Moscow City Committee

(1987-1989) First-Deputy Chairman of the USSR State Construction

(1989) USSR People's Deputy

(1990) Member of the USSR Supreme Committee; People's Deputy of the Russian Federation; Chairman of the Russian Supreme Council

(1991) President of Russian Federation

(1996) Re-elected President of the Russian Federation

(1999) Resigns from the Office of President
Affiliations
(1961-1990) Member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Awards
Boris Yeltsin has also won numerous Awards

Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Louis Joseph Freeh is a former US District Court judge from New York City with a deeper interest in crime fighting than practicing law. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Rutgers law school, Freeh barely spent a year after graduation with his private law practice before he joined the FBI as a special agent. Nonetheless, before becoming director of the FBI, Freeh also served the law as a deputy US Attorney, where he was involved in a number of high-profile cases involving the Italian Mafia of New York, the revenge bombing of a federal judge, and the murder of a civil rights leader.

It was nearly 20 years after joining the FBI that President Clinton nominated Freeh for the position of director and shortly thereafter Freeh occupied his office in 1993. Since then, Freeh has brought a number of noticeable changes to the FBI. One of his first moves was to reorganize the FBI's headquarters, placing professional administrative personnel in positions that were at one time occupied by agents with special knowledge or talents needed in the field. This has resulted in the large majority of agents assigned to fieldwork where the essence of FBI work takes place leaving the paperwork to administrators and human resources specialists. Moreover, since Freeh's appointment, the FBI has expanded its international exposure, even setting up a branch office in Moscow. Freeh has also supervised a key number of high-exposure politically charged cases, including the terrorist bombing in Oklahoma City, the bombing of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, numerous abortion clinic bombings, and the alleged theft of U.S. nuclear weapons secrets by a Chinese-American operative.

Nevertheless, Freeh's arrival has been marked by both amiability and loathing. Not all of Freeh's initiatives have had the best reception from the FBI's old guard. Most notably, Freeh has openly and in no uncertain terms stated that homosexuality and race would no longer be a barrier to becoming an FBI agent. Freeh is also facing internal opposition due to the newly instituted policy of sharing information with local level police forces. Previously, the FBI prided itself on its data gathering capabilities but was often accused of not sharing the information with local police, resulting in a climate of disdain between various levels of law enforcement.

Not long ago, in the fall of 1999, Freeh officially announced the addition of two divisions to the FBI, a Counterterrorism Division and an Investigative Services Division, which will support the already Criminal and National Security Division.

Louis Freeh will most likely be remembered as one the FBI's more involved and reformist director's. Freeh's tenure as director of the FBI will expire in the year 2003.
Climb to Fame
Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI.
Work History
(1993-) Director, Federal Bureau Investigation, Washington DC.

(1991-1993) Judge, US District Court, New York City.(1974-1975) Lawyer, private practice.

(1987-1991) Deputy Associate, US Attorney Office.

(1981-1991) Assistant US Attorney, US District Court, Southern District, New York City.

(1980-1981) Special Agent Supervisor, Federal Bureau of Investigation.

(1975-1980) Special Agent, Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI.
Affiliations
Member, New York County Lawyers Association

Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association

Phi Beta Kappa, Rutgers University, New Jersey.
Awards
Louis J Freeh has also won numerous Awards