How do bodhisattvas, and those who would emulate them, respond to tyrants?

How do bodhisattvas, and those who would emulate them, respond to a tyrant or despot, e.g. a Hitler or Stalin? Are Buddhists / Bodhisattvas suggesting a "non-resistance to evil by violence" (Tolstoy) and some strange notion of absolute forgiveness, practically or otherwise? To have someone preach that we all forgive tyrants, as they may go for our throat, seems like a peculiar and sadistic form of madness.