Political Prisoners Who Went on To Be Prominent Leaders
Political prisoners are incarcerated for their beliefs and for opposing what they consider an illegitimate government. Throughout history, some political prisoners stood by their convictions, survived jail, and eventually led their nation.
Political prisoners like Nelson Mandela and Adolf Hitler served jail time before rising to political prominence. Others, such as Vladimir Lenin, took advantage of turmoil within their nation and seized power. Then there are figures like Mohandas Gandhi and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, who left prison to lead nonviolent movements that liberated their people.
To truly understand the history of the world, you need to know who some of these ideologists were. We’re here to launch your quest for knowledge with notable political prisoners who played important roles in changing the historical trajectory of nations.
Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru of India was an early advocate of a free India. His father, Motilal, was involved in Indian independence movements in the 20th century.
Nehru’s profile rose in 1929 when he was elected president of the Lahore session of the Indian National Congress, which supported Indian independence. British colonizers imprisoned Nehru nine times, several times between 1930 and 1935, again in 1940 for protesting India’s involvement in World War II, and for the last time in 1942.
Nehru was India’s first prime minister when it gained independence in 1947.
Joseph Stalin
Stalin was exiled to Siberia between 1903 and 1913. While Lenin was in exile, the Bolshevik Party appointed him to its Central Committee. The Bolshevik Party seized power in 1917, and Vladimir Lenin took command. After Lenin’s death, Stalin outmaneuvered rivals to gain power, which he held until his death in 1953.
Mohandas Gandhi
Mohandas Gandhi, a devout Hindu clad mostly in loincloth and shawl, was the face of the Indian independence movement.
Gandhi’s activism began in South Africa in the early 1900s. Decades after World War I, he was the leading figure in Indian independence. Gandhi advocated peaceful non-cooperation and was arrested many times.
The Partition of India created the nations of India and Pakistan in 1947. Gandhi did not aspire to elective office, allowing Jawarharlal Nehru to take on the role of India’s first prime minister. Gandhi tried to forge peace between Hindus and Muslims, but a Hindu fundamentalist believed Gandhi had betrayed the nation and assassinated him in 1948.
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested multiple times during the struggle for civil rights. In the spring of 1963, King’s campaign to end segregation at lunch counters and in hiring practices in Birmingham, Alabama, drew nationwide attention when police unleashed dogs and opened fire hoses on the demonstrators.
King was jailed along with his supporters, among them schoolchildren. From prison, King penned what became known as the “Birmingham Letter,” an eloquent explanation of his philosophy of nonviolence.
King won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 “for his nonviolent struggle for civil rights for the Afro-American population.”
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela was in prison for 27 years for opposing South Africa’s system of apartheid. Mandela believed in nonviolent change. After the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, though, he advocated sabotaging the regime. South African authorities jailed Mandela in 1964. Mandela never stopped his opposition to apartheid while in prison.
He was released in 1990 and worked with South African President F.W. de Klerk to end apartheid and transition to majority Black rule. In 1993, Mandela and de Klerk shared the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts. A year later, Mandela was elected as South Africa’s first Black president.
Vladimir Lenin
Radicalism was in Vladimir Lenin’s blood. Imperial Russia executed his older brother after he attempted to assassinate Tsar Alexander III in 1887. Lenin attended Kazan University to study law and read Karl Marx’s Das Kapital. The university expelled Lenin for participating in a student demonstration.
During World War I, Lenin was exiled to Switzerland. Germany saw an opportunity to knock Russia out of the war and arranged for Lenin to return to Russia in 1917. Russia was in the throes of a revolution when Lenin ousted the provisional government, thus founding the world’s first communist government.
Adolf Hitler
Before Adolf Hitler was named chancellor of Germany in 1933, the Bavarian government imprisoned him for his role in an attempted coup of the Bavarian government in 1923. Hitler, a World War I veteran, led other former soldiers disillusioned with the democratic form of government that succeeded Imperial Germany after the war.
The event was known as the Beer Hall Putsch, and it failed. Hitler was tried for treason and sentenced to five years in prison. He served just nine months. During his incarceration, Hitler wrote the first volume of his book, Mein Kampf (My Struggle), which was published just eight years before he rose to power.
Vaclav Havel
Vaclav Havel became president of Czechoslovakia after the Velvet Revolution ousted the communist government in 1989.
Havel’s triumph culminated in a long struggle against the oppressive communist regime. Havel — a playwright, poet, and dissident — was involved in the liberal reforms of 1968 known as the Prague Spring. The Soviet Union suppressed the movement, and Havel’s plays that satirized the dehumanized Czech society were banned.
The communist hold over Eastern Europe weakened in the 1980s, and large anti-government demonstrations appeared in Prague in November 1989. When the communist party capitulated in early December, Czechoslovakia elected Havel interim president.
Lech Walesa
Carpenter and electrician Lech Walesa’s active opposition to the communist regime in Poland began in 1970 when he saw police killing demonstrators at a food riot in Gdańsk.
Walesa was one of the workers who created the Solidarity Trade Union in 1980. The communist government in Poland banned the union, imposed martial law, and arrested and detained Walesa for about a year.
Walesa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983. The Polish government yielded to public pressure and restored Solidarity, leading Walesa to run for president in 1990 and win Poland’s first post-communist presidential election in a landslide.
Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi was the daughter of an assassinated Burmese politician. She became politically active after the mass killing of anti-government protestors and, in 2016, became the first State Counsellor of Myanmar.
The U Ne Win regime placed Suu Kyi under house arrest. In 1991, she won the Nobel Peace Prize, which pressured the government to release her from house arrest, which it did in 1995. She was placed under house arrest several times between 2000 and 2009.
A military coup ousted her in 2021, and the following year, the coup leaders sentenced her to 33 years (reduced to 27 years) in prison for corruption.
Anwar Ibrahim
The Asian financial crisis in 1997 short-circuited Malaysian politician Anwar Ibrahim’s political career. Ibrahim’s relationship with Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad was good until they disagreed on handling the crisis. Ibrahim was fired and convicted on corruption charges. He spent ten years in jail.
In 2018, Mahathir came out of retirement and ran for prime minister. He said if he won, he would seek a royal pardon on Anwar’s behalf, returning Anwar to politics. Mahathir vowed to step down in two years, handing the office to Anwar.
Anwar won a parliamentary seat and became prime minister in 2022.
Ho Chi Minh
Ho Chi Minh grew up in Vietnam, a French colony, and, in his youth, traveled to Great Britain, the United States, and France.
Minh formed the Viet Minh (League for the Independence of Vietnam). When he sought help from China to help Vietnam gain independence, Chinese leaders distrusted and imprisoned him.
Vietnam’s quest for independence would take another 30 years. The Viet Minh ousted French colonists in 1954, and the communists in North Vietnam defeated the U.S.-based South Vietnam in 1975 to unify Vietnam and realize Ho’s dream six years after his passing.
Kim Dae-Jung
Kim Dae-Jung was elected president of South Korea in 1997 and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000. He was jailed repeatedly and survived five attempts on his life. In 1961, Dae-Jung was elected to the National Assembly. Three days later, the Assembly dissolved after a military coup led by Major General Park Chung Hee. Hee’s administration restored the Assembly, and Kim was elected in 1963.
Between 1976 and 1987, Kim was in and out of jail often. His career came full circle in December 1997 when he was elected president.
Gerry Adams
Gerry Adams is the former president of Sinn Féin, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, and an ex-member of the British Parliament.
Adams grew up in a republican family and was involved in peaceful Roman Catholic protests in Belfast that became violent in the 1970s. The British interned him, believing he was an IRA strategist. Adams denied having direct involvement in the organization. The British imprisoned Adams often in the 1970s.
He was charged with belonging to the IRA but never convicted. In 1983, Adams was elected president of Sinn Féin and a member of the British Parliament.
