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World Leaders of the World Wars

For each position listed and time period, name the world leader.
Quiz by kalbahamut
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Last updated: January 1, 2020
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First submittedAugust 25, 2014
Times taken30,137
Average score50.0%
Rating4.35
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Position
Years
Answer
U.S. President
1945-1953
Harry Truman
1933-1945
Franklin Roosevelt
1913-1921
Woodrow Wilson
German Führer
1934-1945
Adolf Hitler
German Emperor
1888-1918
Kaiser Wilhelm II
British P.M.
1940-1945
Winston Churchill
1937-1940
Neville Chamberlain
1916-1922
David Lloyd George
1908-1916
Herbert H. Asquith
Italian Duce
1925-1943
Benito Mussolini
Austrian Emperor
1916-1918
Charles I
1848-1916
Franz Joseph I
Turkish President
1923-1938
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Ottoman
Grand Vizier
1917-1918
Mehmed Talât Pasha
Position
Years
Answer
Soviet Leader
1924-1953
Joseph Stalin
1922-1924
Vladimir Lenin
Russian Emperor
1894-1917
Czar Nicholas II
Free French Leader
1940-1944
Charles de Gaulle
Vichy Chief of State
1940-1944
Philippe Pétain
French P.M.
1917-1920
Georges Clemenceau
French President
1913-1920
Raymond Poincaré
Japanese Emperor
1926-1989
Hirohito
Japanese P.M.
1941-1944
Hideki Tōjō
Spanish Caudillo
1939-1975
Francisco Franco
Finnish President
1944-1946
Carl Gustaf Emil
Mannerheim
Ethiopian Emperor
1930-1974
Haile Selassie
Canadian P.M.
1935-1948
Mackenzie King
Australian P.M.
1939-1941
Robert Menzies
+1
Level 82
Jan 29, 2015
I'm here in Turkey right now. Since I was trying to accept native language spellings for all these leaders when possible, I just added a couple more type-ins for Pasha, whose name I've seen spelled a few different ways here that I wasn't aware of before. I even had a hotel room named after one of the other Pashas a couple nights ago.
+1
Level 55
Feb 4, 2015
If only you'd done the previous Finnish President, Risto Ryti, the BBC just did a radio programme/podcast about him. :(
+1
Level 38
May 28, 2015
i noticed that with the first two brit p.ms, they are out of order. Chamberlain was prime minister before churchill. Chamberlain led Britain in the first 8 months, and then resigned. Churchill was called to replace him.

Good quizzes!

+4
Level 82
May 28, 2015
I'm not sure what you're talking about but I think you are looking at the quiz wrong. Those aren't the first two British P.M.s... they're the last two. The leaders given here, if they all come from the same country, are listed in reverse order top-to-bottom. Look at the dates.
+2
Level 82
May 28, 2015
H.H. Asquith and David Lloyd George were British P.M. during "World War I," and this quiz is about the world leaders of "the World Wars"... it's counting both wars as a single extensive and protracted conflict. It's not just about "WW2." Maybe this is where your confusion stems from.
+4
Level 75
Oct 28, 2015
"Mackenzie King's" real name was William Lyon Mackenzie King and it makes no sense to not accept that as a correct answer
+1
Level 82
Oct 30, 2015
It also makes no sense to expect me to know that. :D But, thank you for pointing it out. I'll add that as a type-in.
+4
Level 82
Feb 1, 2016
Removed to make the quiz easier for the front page:

AbdulAziz ibn Saud

King Farouk of Egypt

Pancho Villa

Antonio Salandra

Pilsudski and Sikorski of Poland

give yourself extra credit in your mind if you knew any of them.

+5
Level 88
Oct 8, 2021
Add the Poles back they are too relevant to the wars to merit omission
+1
Level 77
Feb 29, 2016
Small typo. Wilhelm is either spelled with a capital W followed by a capital I or spelled with a capital W followed by a lower case "L". I can't tell which. I know it's pedantic, but hey...
+1
Level 48
Apr 9, 2016
Was about to say the same. Minor thing, but perhaps you want to fix it nonetheless. Pretty difficult quiz for me, yet a good one.
+2
Level 29
Mar 12, 2016
It's not "Czar", it's "Tsar".
+2
Level 82
Mar 15, 2016
I think the popular spelling changed when I was in college or thereabouts. Both are accepted. I even accept the Russian spelling of the name unlike many quizzes on the site.
+2
Level 78
Mar 12, 2021
Incorrect. Both spellings are fine.
+2
Level 65
Apr 9, 2016
Quiz about WWII without Poland? :)
+2
Level 82
Apr 10, 2016
Pilsudski and Sikorski were both on the quiz previously. They were removed to make it easier for the front page.
+6
Level 69
Apr 10, 2016
It is just sad how the leaders of the nation that fought in both wars from the very beginning (although in WWI mainly in the armies of the occupying empires) and suffered the most (or is at least in the top 3) are virtually unknown to the Westerners. Sorry, but Ethiopians or Spaniards had almost no major impact during any of the wars, yet their leaders get the credit. Just sad...
+3
Level 82
Apr 10, 2016
I don't disagree and I would have left them on if it was purely to satisfy my own prejudices, but QM likes the front page quizzes to be fairly accessible; Franco and Selassie are famous personalities- though this has to do with the fact that they shaped world history in other ways not directly related to WW1 or WW2. Of course Poland was much more important to the course these wars took than Spain or Ethiopia.

Genuinely sorry to disappoint.

+1
Level 69
Apr 12, 2016
Don't be sorry, it's not your fault :) In fact in your original quiz they were mentioned which proves that you know more about the subject than the average person - good for you! It just makes me sad that the leaders of the nation that played a pretty important role (especially in WWII) are virtually unknown to the general public. Couple of months ago I just read a book about Piłsudski which explains how he could crush the Soviets twice during the Polish-Soviet war and Russian Civil War. He didn't because (among other factors) he perceived Soviet as less organised, weaker and less of a threat to Poland (which in 1919 was true). Just imagine how would the world look like had he changed his mind...

Nevertheless, another good quiz by kalbahamut :)

+2
Level 80
Apr 9, 2016
How about adding John Curtin - Australian prime minister 1941-1945?
+1
Level 82
Apr 10, 2016
I considered this before and decided against it.
+4
Level 34
Apr 14, 2016
John Curtin was far more important than Menzies in terms of leadership during WW2. One of the most important events in Australian history was Curtin's decision to put Australia's defence and the war in the Pacific ahead of supporting the British in Europe, and aligning Australia much closer to the US - a decision which has strongly affected Australian foreign policy ever since.
+1
Level 82
Apr 14, 2016
Maybe I'll make a sequel.
+1
Level 61
Jun 6, 2017
Perhaps separating them into specifically WW1and WW2 quizzes? This will allow scope for getting some of the obscures in both conflicts back in. I miss Ryto Rysti. :)
+1
Level 82
Jun 7, 2017
I deliberately chose to not do this.
+1
Level 79
Apr 16, 2019
Terrible choice of Menzies over Curtin. Menzies did nothing as PM to the war effort and Curtin had to do everything when he came to power. Your understanding of Australian history is obviously very limited.
+1
Level 75
Apr 9, 2016
Spelling - Kaiser Wilhelm with a lower-case "i"!
+1
Level 82
Apr 10, 2016
Okay fine.
+2
Level 45
Apr 10, 2016
Why is Truman (U.S. President from April 1945) included but not Attlee (U.K. Prime Minister from July 1945, and who attended the Potsdam Conference) not?
+1
Level 82
Apr 10, 2016
This is addressed in comments above.
+1
Level 82
Apr 10, 2016
Though.... those comments seem to have disappeared? Maybe QM deleted them to avoid offending any oversensitive Englishmen? Or the person who originally commented about this deleted their own comment and the follow-up comments went out along with it...

Anyway, in short, Atlee was totally insignificant to the course of the world wars. He assumed office *after* war in the European theater had been won. The Americans were still fighting the Japanese at that point, but Atlee had nothing to do with it. Truman saw the war through to its ultimate end, and made the decision to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It makes no sense to equate the two.

+1
Level 82
Feb 15, 2017
What important decisions did he have to make?
+1
Level 61
Jun 6, 2017
Well, the commitment of Task Force 57, (British Pacific Fleet) for one, as well as the timing for the liberation of Malaya and the formation of Tiger Force, the RAF/Commonwealth AF strike force in the frame to bomb Japan if they hadn't surrendered after the atomic bombs were dropped.

It would be nice to see people being a bit more generous to Clement Attlee, a decent politician who sadly came to power at the wrong time. Nevertheless, a very good quiz.

+1
Level 82
Jun 7, 2017
I made no comments regarding his abilities as a politician, I just questioned whether or not he had anything at all to do with the World Wars. Your comment reinforces my belief that, no, he really did not. Isn't it the popular narrative that the main reason Churchill lost was that he was seen as a war time leader, and the election was held after the war was over?
+2
Level 55
Dec 4, 2019
He was also deputy Prime Minister to Churchill and very important to the coalition Govt throughout, but no argument with him being omitted from this quiz. A more curious aspect is that Churchill's political downfall in WW1 was caused by the failure at Gallipoli, and the penultimate British officer to evacuate Gallipoli was...Major Clement Attlee.
+2
Level 72
Mar 22, 2020
Oh Kal! How could you? "...European theatre had been won. The Americans were still fighting the Japanese at that point...". What? and no-one else? Personal disclaimer here: an (English) uncle of mine served in the Royal Navy in the far East until beyond VJ-day. And regardless of military action, surely it is nevertheless extremely relevant that the British voted Attlee in, thus ejecting Churchill, during the war.
+1
Level 78
Mar 12, 2021
Your comments fall on deaf ears. And stubborn. and ill-informed. Did I say stubborn? How could personal knowledge be correct over wikipedia research and conclusions drawn from nothing more than reading the timeline?
+1
Level 82
Mar 12, 2021
Yeah you're right personal anecdote is well understood to be the strongest and most reliable kind of data.
+1
Level 82
Apr 10, 2016
Too lazy to Google: Truman assumes office April '45, Germany surrenders May '45, Atlee becomes PM July '45, Japan surrenders September '45
+1
Level 37
Apr 19, 2017
Try August for the Japanese surrender.
+1
Level 82
Apr 19, 2017
The Japanese surrender was formally signed September 2. It was announced in August. What I said was correct, but I guess if you take into account that the war was realistically over after Nagasaki, August 9, then it becomes even more clear that Atlee had jack squat to do with it.
+1
Level 53
Apr 11, 2016
I feel like Vittorio Orlando deserves a spot on this quiz.
+1
Level 82
Apr 11, 2016
I doubt that he would be much more guessed than Antonio Salandra, and Salandra was already removed from the quiz to make it easier.
+1
Level 62
May 4, 2020
I would say Orlando is much easier than Salandra, personally.
+2
Level 65
Apr 14, 2016
generalissimo francisco franco is still dead
+4
Level 82
Apr 15, 2016
Thanks for checking on that for all of us.
+1
Level 88
Oct 8, 2021
So is everyone else on this quiz
+1
Level 82
May 19, 2016
Arguably, as far as Australian wartime leaders go, Billy Hughes and John Curtin are more significant than Menzies. Also - no China?
+1
Level 82
May 20, 2016
I could have put on Chiang Kai-Shek. But he appears already on my World Leaders of the Cold War quiz where I think he fits better. His role in WW2 wasn't as significant. I've got my reasons for putting Menzies on here as well. I feel like he did more of importance internationally, in relation to the war, than the other two. This is, admittedly, a pretty subjective opinion.
+2
Level 74
Sep 4, 2016
May you accept Ras Tafari for Haile Selassie?
+2
Level 36
Sep 4, 2016
Why just Menzies? What about Curtin?
+1
Level 34
Dec 23, 2016
Could you also accept Wang Liqin for the Hideki Tōjō answer? It's common knowledge that Wang was the one making all the decisions, not Hideki. Hideki was just a puppet, Wang had the real power.
+2
Level 82
Dec 24, 2016
If it's such common knowledge then why, when I google Wang Liqin, is every result about a table tennis player? Never heard of the guy you mention, but Tojo is a huge figure in history. Anyway, was Wang Japanese prime minister? If not, then it wouldn't be a correct answer.
+1
Level 57
Jan 5, 2017
where's clement Atlee for British Prime Ministers? He was in office whilst the war was still going on in the East.
+1
Level 82
Jan 5, 2017
yeah. Which had nothing to do with him.
+1
Level 82
Jan 5, 2017
To add to previous comments above about why Attlee is irrelevant to the world wars:

The fact that the major powers most involved in the Pacific were Japan, Russia, the USA, and China aside... British India recaptured Axis-controlled territory in the Spring of 1945. Australia, which was sort of independent of the British Empire in 1945 and sort of not, participating in the Borneo campaign against Japanese forces there in July 1945. Attlee didn't become Prime Minister until July 26, 1945. He was about as important to the outcome of the World Wars as Donald Trump.

+1
Level 21
Jan 31, 2017
COOL QUIZ
+1
Level 82
Feb 1, 2017
Thanks. I have several other world leaders quizzes that haven't been featured yet that are similar. If a couple more got featured I might make several more.
+1
Level 51
May 1, 2017
John Curtin should be added to Australia as he was PM from 1941-1945 during the darkest time of the war in the Pacific front and is one of the most popular PMs of all time because of his role as PM during WWII
+1
Level 22
Oct 23, 2017
It should really be changed to Tsar considering that's how most people - and academic texts - spell it.
+1
Level 82
Oct 24, 2017
Not at the time.
+1
Level 37
Apr 28, 2018
This is a great quiz! - Original in that it was not a rehashing of the same old commonly known players. Thank You!
+1
Level 82
Apr 28, 2018
You're welcome. You probably would have liked it better before QM featured it. There were more less well-known figures on the quiz before.
+1
Level 54
May 17, 2018
Finished 13. Mustafa Kemal / kamal or only Mustafa should also work. Nice quiz
+1
Level 88
Jun 17, 2018
Kerensky led the Russian government after the overthrow of the Czar in 1917, a very major figure in the country's remaining role in the war and its revolution.
+1
Level 82
Jun 17, 2018
He also liberated Terra from Stefan Amaris.
+2
Level 88
May 4, 2020
Wow, unexpected BattleTech reference!
+1
Level 51
Jul 28, 2018
What about John Curtain? Australian PM from 1941-1945 --- Said Halim Pasha, Ottoman Grand Vizier from 1913-1917. --- Tojo's successor and predecessors?
+1
Level 82
Jul 29, 2018
1. Not as relevant to the course the wars took in my opinion (see comments and linked article above)

2. I don't know. Never read much about him.

3. Not nearly as significant or well-known as Tojo.

+1
Level 79
Apr 16, 2019
Curtin brought home the Australian troops from the Middle East to fight in New Guinea which caused the Japanese their first defeat in a land battle. To say that he was not relevant to the course WW2 took is ludicrous. Menzies on the other hand did nothing to influence the direction of the war and did whatever the British High Command asked him to do, yet you have included him in this quiz.
+1
Level 82
Apr 16, 2019
you didn't even bother reading the article, I'm sure.
+1
Level 82
Apr 16, 2019
Actually it looks like the comment I put up best explaining the decision, along with the link to the article that laid out the rationale clearly, is gone now. Probably I was responding to some user who has since been purged, so their comments are deleted along with all follow-up comments. God damn this feature is so annoying.
+1
Level 82
Apr 16, 2019
Anyway, it's been years since I researched this quiz (thoroughly, thanks for your vote of confidence), and now I don't entirely remember all of the reasons why I decided to put Menzies on here. I know that Curtin defied Churchill, who ordered Australian troops to Burma. I know Curtin declared war on Japan. I'm sure from an Australian perspective, Curtin is painted as the more important of the two leaders as defying the British Empire to bring Australian troops back to defend Australia is probably seen as patriotic and defending the homeland given greater emphasis and importance than anything else that happened in the war. I believe that my choice was based mostly on Menzies' activities rallying sentiment and support against Germany and Japan internationally leading up to WW2 - Menzies was far more involved in politics in Europe than Curtin, he was even being talked about as a replacement for Churchill - not on the events at the end of '41 when he was out of office.
+1
Level 82
Apr 16, 2019
As for the New Guinea campaign, sure that was significant, but are you sure that Australian media doesn't play up the importance of Australian troops there (maybe in efforts to try and lionize Curtin as noble defender of the country)? This Wiki article, for example, suggests that as many as 97% of the Japanese casualties during the campaign came about as a result of being cut off by the US Navy.
+1
Level 82
Apr 16, 2019
If I ever decide to update or revise this quiz I will take another long look at it. But given that it's already been featured and on the front page I kind of doubt that this will ever happen. It was already changed multiple times before that. Sorry.
+1
Level 82
Apr 16, 2019
Sorry I'm leaving too many comments here.

If Quizmaster ever asks me to revisit this quiz, perhaps to expand it, I'd be happy to add back on some of the Polish leaders and perhaps a few others. And I might consider either adding Curtin or changing Menzies to Curtin, if for no other reason then on the grounds that he seems to be more famous and more associated with WW2 than Menzies at least within Australia.

But I'm not going to touch the quiz until and unless Dan requests it. If he wants to re-feature an expanded, revised version, I'll take another look. I could fix the Wilhelm type-in at the same time if this occurs.

+1
Level ∞
Apr 16, 2019
It's been over 3 years since it was last featured so if you make changes I will feature it again. Your call.
+1
Level 82
Apr 16, 2019
would you object to me adding on a couple of more obscure answers?
+1
Level ∞
Apr 16, 2019
I prefer less obscure answers, but no I don't object.
+1
Level 82
Apr 17, 2019
okay I'll keep it to 2-4. Probably at least add on the Polish leaders that were removed. I'll give it some thought. Thanks.
+1
Level 58
Aug 16, 2018
Please add Chamberlian as a type in for Chamberlain.
+1
Level 28
Oct 29, 2018
Where is the Philippines?? that time it was A Commonwealth Of The USA If I know its president Is Manuel L Quezon Then When Japanese Ruled It It Became A Puppet state of japan and The President Was Jose Laurel
+1
Level 82
Oct 29, 2018
You answered your own question. As a dominion of, first, the United States and later Japan, the leadership of the Philippines did not really have much to do with affecting the course of the wars.
+1
Level 76
Nov 28, 2018
Why is "kaiser" alone an acceptable type-in for the German emperor?
+1
Level 82
Nov 28, 2018
don't know. I think QM just updated some of these. Might be a quirk of automatic type-ins
+1
Level 69
Oct 19, 2019
I feel like accepting just "Pasha" for Mehmed Talât Pasha is way too easy. :P

I had absolutely no idea who the Ottoman leader was, I just knew many of them held the title "Pasha".

+2
Level 82
Oct 19, 2019
Yes there were even 3 Pasas at the same time for a while. But I should probably edit that answer to also accept "Talat"
+1
Level 30
Mar 2, 2020
John Curtin was prime minister of Australia between 1941-1945...
+1
Level 73
Aug 21, 2020
Accept Kemal for Kemal
+1
Level 56
Nov 11, 2020
What an interesting quiz - thank you. Perhaps you might consider also including Jan Smuts?
+1
Level 52
Nov 23, 2021
Re: the Menzies/Curtin debate, aside from the fact that Curtin is more strongly associated with WWII, Menzies is also far more associated with his longer PMship throughout all of the 1950s and most of the '60s. I was stumped by this one because I genuinely couldn't recall who Curtin's predecessor was and was surprised to learn it was Menzies.
+1
Level 56
Dec 28, 2021
maybe don't accept kaiser for the German emperor question because that wasn't really wilhelm's name
+1
Level 82
Dec 28, 2021
I know that. Must be an automatic type-in used by the site... probably QM assumed people might try to type in "the Kaiser" as an answer on some other quiz... ::shrug::
+2
Level 60
Jun 3, 2022
Curtin was a far more important leader for Australia during WW2 than Menzies. Menzies was just a tool of English Imperialism.
+1
Level 82
Jun 3, 2022
So, to the world and the war, Menzies was more significant? I read up on this a long time ago but I think I remember Bob spent a lot of effort getting international support for the Allied war effort. So maybe like you said, useful to the Empire. Seems like the other guy is more famous in Australia because he placed the defense of Australia as paramount.

I think I was going to change this and then forgot or got lazy and never updated the quiz.

+1
Level 38
Jul 16, 2022
How come John Curtin was not included?
+1
Level 82
Jul 17, 2022
I think that I meant to update this to include him but then I got distracted. I don't remember my original reasoning but I think it was something along the lines of thinking that while Curtin is more significant to Australia, Menzies did more that was relevant to the world in relation to the war. I posted an article before making that point, I think.
+1
Level 65
Feb 28, 2023
No Norway or Yugoslavia?
+1
Level 48
Apr 30, 2023
Mehmet Talaat was not accepted :(
+1
Level 67
Feb 29, 2024
The most arbitrary of answers and Kalbahamut stays dyed-in-the-wool as always... No surprises here