What do dictators call themselves

Communism then spread to China and on to Cuba, Vietnam and Korea. The original, higher vision of communism, as outlined by Marx and Engels, was never implemented. But a series of leaders and dictators from the Soviet Union to China to Cuba would label their governments as communist. Many of these leaders, including Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong, were brutal in their rule, overseeing the mass murder of millions of their own citizens.

They also came to represent one side of the Cold War with the United States. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us!

Although the number of dictatorships have been decreasing, there are several dictators still in power today. Photo: Flickr. Blog - Latest News. Forty percent of the nation, which is about 24 million people, lives below the poverty line. Most of all, with the cult of personality, there is a point since all of them have to acclaim the dictator in public, all of them become liars. When people lie, it becomes very difficult to find out who thinks what; it becomes very difficult to organise a coup because you have no idea who stands where.

EE: Can you give us a quick introduction to the eight dictators who feature in your work? FD: Yes, I did it chronologically. He is the very first one to start his own cult of personality.

It will be the king who will have him arrested at the end of his career, so to speak. The second one seems reasonably straight forward — Adolf Hitler, how can you miss him?

Or Stalin. Or Mao Zedong. All of these being the classic 20th century dictators. I thought I had to take three figures who are not necessarily all that well known, but somehow, I think, shed light on the five big ones. The final one is Mengistu. FD: They work at it tirelessly, from the very beginning. Adolf Hitler works at his image, and, of course, also works at building up his own party from the very beginning — the early s onwards. It is he who designs those garage-red flyers that attract new recruits; it is he who is behind the marches, the flags, etc.

And, of course, he is behind his own image; he hires a photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann, to produce photos that project sheer strength of character and iron determination. And again and again, he works at building up his own image as a charismatic leader. You can read Mein Kampf , for instance.

In there, of course, is a very clear program: aggregate the Versailles treaty; get rid of the Jews, make Germany greater, invade the Soviet Union. But there are also many elements of the Hitler myth — you know, the voracious reader, the born orator, the unrecognised artist driven by destiny to save his people.

Mussolini, by one account, spends pretty much half of his time projecting his own image as the omniscient, omnipotent, indispensable leader of Italy, on top of running about half a dozen ministries. So, again and again, with each dictator it becomes very clear that they are ultimately responsible for building up their own cult.

They begin with a low-key approach and with every step that they increase the terror, they manage to compel people to acclaim them in public, to cheer them in public. And the key point here — coming back to what you said — is that the cult often is seen as brainless enthusiasm.

If you want to know whether there is a cult of personality, you go to a country and you find out whether you can find anyone who has anything negative to say about the man in charge. If the answer is no, you will know what a cult of personality is. EE: So, what about the people they ruled over, and possibly appealed to as well? What conclusions did you draw about them? FD: They are great actors. Dictators are great actors.

Mussolini thought of himself as a great actor. We forget, also, that ordinary people have to become great actors themselves; they have to chant on command; they have to parrot the party line; they have to invoke the slogans; they have to cry, cheer, shout… on command.

So it is not just some bizarre ritual that operates under fear. Now the point here, really, about ordinary people is to make clear that the cult of personality is not designed to convince, or to persuade people that their leader truly is a great genius; no, the cult is there to destroy common sense, to destroy reason, to sow confusion, to enforce obedience, to literally isolate individuals and crush their dignity.

People have to self-monitor what they say and how they say it — and in turn they start monitoring other people. FD: Yes. Now all of them realise that control of the press is important; that no good dictator will allow freedom of press to continue for very long.

Infact, the very first act will be to close down publication houses and to eliminate, step-by-step, every single freedom. This happens in Germany within two or three years; it happens under Mussolini in about five six years… everywhere freedom of speech becomes the victim. These are replaced by massive ministries of propaganda. And these dictators — Stalin, Mussolini and Duvalier — do that very carefully; they scrutinize what happens.

So the words of the dictator, whether it is under Hitler in Germany or Stalin or Mao or Kim Il-Sung, is everywhere and in every newspaper — there are posters everywhere. The voice of the dictator frequently, but not always, will pursue you wherever you go — certainly in the case of Germany, with loudspeaker pillars erected in cities and mobile ones taken to the countryside. Not so in the case of Stalin, who cultivates a very remote image — so you will rarely see him in the newsreels; you will very rarely hear his voice.

He very deliberately cultivates an image of remoteness. But again, as I said, Stalin himself is a compulsive editor who will check everything that is said about him in the press; every photo must be censored and approved; every word attributed to him must be approved.

Some of them are very talented — and not just organisational skills. EE: Can you speak a little bit more about that? FD: Well, one skill they have is that they are great actors.

They can literally not just do it with foreigners, but with people who were quite close to them. But Lin Biao writes, at the height of the Great Leap Forward when literally tens of millions of people were worked, starved and beaten to death , Lin Biao writes that Mao is someone who will only take credit and he will not be criticised for anything; you must flatter him all day long.

Neither Mao nor Stalin will react when somebody opposes them; they know how to bide their time; they know how to calculate — in a very cold manner — and they know how to strike like a cobra when they need to. Can you talk about this? A great many of them do cultivate this image of modesty.