The idea that first political leaders "do things" and then historians record what they do is erroneous. 

There is NO SEPARATION between political actors and historians whose job is to record the behavior of political actors.

The men on the left were mass-murderers but not stupid. They knew what gets written up in history books. 

They wanted to "make it big" and they knew what they had to do to make it big: appealing to their primary audience: historians.

To make it big--if you are a political actor--is to kill a lot of people. The four men in the photographs collaborated with historians. Their behavior was dictated by journalists and historians those who observe and record their acts.

Now, there is another mass-murderer on the world stage who aspires to join the "big boys:" to make history; be remembered. Like these other men who "represented" their nations, Putin knows that if he going to "make it big," he has to kill a lot of people.