Pol Pot

About Pol Pot

Pol Pot was a Cambodian politician and revolutionary leader who served as the Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea from 1976 to 1979. As the leader of the Khmer Rouge, he orchestrated a radical, totalitarian agrarian communist regime responsible for the Cambodian genocide. This regime forcibly relocated urban populations to the countryside, abolished private property and money, and led to the deaths of an estimated 1.5 to 2 million people through execution, starvation, and overwork, solidifying his place at HPI Rank #710 among history's most influential figures.

His historical importance is reflected in his HPI rank, yet his 2025 annualized Wikipedia pageviews stood at 2.3 million. This level of attention represents a significant +7x overattention relative to his historical importance ranking, suggesting a strong, persistent modern interest, perhaps driven by the severity of the atrocities committed. For comparison, Dwight D. Eisenhower, ranked slightly less important at #814, received 3.5 million views, while the highly influential philosopher Martin Heidegger (#432) received only 590K views.

Despite the high overall traffic, the year-over-year change for Pol Pot's attention grew by +7.1%, though his Q1 vs Q3 momentum suggests that this interest was flat in the latter half of 2025 (-0% momentum).