Despots, Dictators, Revolutionaries & Rebels

Thanks for the info (I thought the dude looked familiar!)

Very nice!

Avram Iancu 1824-1872
From Transylvania, which was then a part of the Austrian Empire, he was born to a peasant family, rising to become a lawyer.
He would later become involved in conflicts between Austria,where his loyalties lay and Hungarians who refused to debate the abolition of Serfdom. He rallied local peasants in his mountain region, numbers swelling to around 40,000, rebelling against Transylvania becoming a part of Hungary.
This earned him the title "Little Prince of The Mountains"
He may well have helped plant the seed for eventual Romanian autonomy, later in his life Iancu would suffer a nervous breakdown, ending up a half-mad vagrant, playing traditional music, songs and roaming his mountainous region of birth.
In 2016 Avram Iancu was officially declared as a 'Hero of The Romanian Nation' by the Romanian Parliament.

Karol Swierczewski 1897-1947
Born in Warsaw, Poland, he was evacuated to Moscow during WWI where he joined The Bolshevik Party & took part in the Russian Civil War. In 1919 during the Soviet-Polish War he fought on the Soviet side, and was wounded.
Karol remained in Russia, teaching at a Military School and in 1936, now a General, he was sent to Spain where he led the XIV International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War.
At the outbreak of WWII he served as a General in the Red Army, his growing alcoholism & bad decisions led to him being removed from the front lines by General Zhukov himself, in 1943 he became a General in the 1st Polish Army which was 'Soviet controlled'.
His incompetence due to alcohol continued & it's thought he consigned many soldiers to an unnecessary death, however many of his mistakes were hushed up by the Soviet NKVD & he was glorified as a hero come the end of WWII.
In 1946 Karol was made Deputy Defence Minister of Poland where he helped establish the Communist Regime in the country, consigning many anti-Communists to their deaths.
In 1947 Karol Swierczewski was badly wounded, in his unescorted car during a skirmish with Ukrainian Insurgents and died, it is thought that it was a set up, organised by his Soviet superiors, maybe directly ordered by Stalin himself.
Karol Swierczewski appeared on the Polish 50 Zlotych banknote for 20 years, after 1989 and the coming of the Solidarity movement many of his monuments were removed & streets renamed due to his links with setting up the Communist Regime.
In 2003 Polish veteran soldiers & independence fighters applied for an investigation into Swierczewski's crimes against Poland.
Ironically 50 Zlotych could buy 2 bottles of cheap vodka.

Domingos Ramos 1935-1966
A quite obscure addition to this topic, Ramos was a Partisan/Independence fighter in Guinea-Bissau's struggle for Independence from Portugal during the 1964-1974 war.
He is buried at the Guinea-Bissau Heroes of The Fatherland Monument site.

A nice pair.

Yes, very interesting read. When I saw the engraving (of a general with so many pounds of medals on his chest) I thought "oh boy, another Idi Amin!" But after reading Dave's interesting article on Felix Eboue, I can see my assumption was way off the mark.

The Banknote Den is a great website for anyone interested in the loaded info a banknote can reveal. I highly recommend giving it a second look!

Thanks for the kind words, guys. you're too kind.