Sukarno

Born Koesno Sosrodihardjo in 1901, Sukarno led Indonesia's nationalist movement through a decade of Dutch detention, released only when Japanese forces arrived in World War II. He and fellow nationalists collaborated with Japan to spread independence ideas, then seized the moment of surrender: on 17 August 1945, he and Mohammad Hatta declared Indonesia independent, and Sukarno became president. Four years of resistance - diplomatic and military - forced Dutch recognition in 1949, earning him the title "Father of Proclamation." After years of parliamentary turbulence he imposed "Guided Democracy" in 1959, then steered Indonesia toward the Non-Aligned Movement and closer to the Soviet Union, imagining a new UN based in Jakarta. The 30 September Movement in 1965 - a coup attempt tied to the Communist Party - handed General Suharto the lever: a military takeover and a purge that killed between 500,000 and over a million. Suharto took the presidency in 1967; Sukarno lived under house arrest until 1970, buried beside his mother in Blitar while his name was scrubbed from public memory, only to return decades later as the regime that erased him collapsed.