Niyazov's Turkmenistan

                                                Saparmurat Niyazov, Father of the Turkmen People

After the fall of the Soviet Union, many of the countries in Central Asia experienced difficulties in rebuilding their national identities.  Before the Soviet Union most people in the region identified themselves primarily by complex local tribal affiliations.  The influence of trade, war and a nomadic lifestyle all proved to be powerful barriers to the create of lasting national unity.  Central Asia has seen hegemons rise and fall, but no lasting nations exist here as they do in other parts of the world.  In spite of all of these challenges, a former Soviet party chairman named Saparmurat Niyazov would attempt to create a nation.  Niyazov had risen to power under Soviet rule during Gorbachev's era of reform.  While most party chairmen were slowly softening party rule by reducing limits on expression and increasing production of consumer goods, Turkmenistan under Niyazov avoided any such reform.  When the Soviet Union fell, he maintained his control over the country.  Rather than embracing an ideology, Niyazov styled himself the Turkembasy: father of the Turkmen people.  Few dictators have ever managed to so completely focus all national attention onto themselves.  He, like so many others before and since, went through the dance that all dictators perform.  With heavy control he silenced his critics, built a strong cadre of loyal bodyguards and then set about plundering the resources of his country.  But unlike other dictators, he did so with an eccentric and absurd flair.  He renamed months for members of his family, and seemed to have been particularly fond of his mother, renaming bread for her.  He was determined to re-introduce (or rather create from his imagination) Turkmen culture.  To this end, Niyazov wrote the Ruhnama, which alternates tracing the history of the Turkmen people with his own personal history and works by other poets for the "spiritual health of the country".  He demanded that all education be solely focused on teaching the Ruhnama because everyone loves the books they're forced to read in school, right?  Niyazov also declared his work be elevated to equal stature with the Quran.  When some imams refused, he demolished their mosques.  Not quite satisfied in degrading the faith of his people Niyazov then intervened with Allah himself to make knowledge of the Ruhnama a sufficient condition for salvation.  Today, after Niyazov's death, Turkmenistan's schools struggle to remove the Ruhnama from its curriculum or develop an alternative focus.  At least we'll always beat Turkmenistan in math and science.  Among his other obsessions, Niyazov frequently touted the virtues of complete and absolute neutrality.  Like other topics of fascination, neutrality got a month (December) named after it and a monument was built in its honor.  The Arch of Neutrality towers over the capital, commemorating the fact that Turkmenistan isn't about to take sides in petty squabbles.  Niyazov died in 2006 and politicians started to remove the zanier impositions of their former ruler.  Most people never called the days or months by their new names, or zealously pursue neutrality but Niyazov will live on as the most absurd dictator we've seen.