BONUS: Dictators’ Books - Real Dictators

Summary

Real Dictators: BONUS Episode - Dictators’ Books

Real Dictators is an award-winning podcast by NOISER that delves into the hidden lives of history's tyrants. In the bonus episode titled "Dictators’ Books," host Duncan Barrett engages in a profound conversation with author Daniel Calder. This detailed summary captures their exploration of dictator literature, shedding light on the personal and political nuances embedded within these often obscure writings.

Introduction to Dictators’ Literary Pursuits

The episode commences with Duncan Barrett introducing Daniel Calder, the author of The Infernal Library (also known as Dictator Literature: A History of Bad Books by Terrible People). Calder has dedicated years to unearthing and analyzing the literary works produced by various dictators, aiming to understand the minds behind their tyrannical regimes.

Calder’s Obsession with Dictator Literature

Calder shares his journey into the realm of dictator literature, highlighting a pivotal moment in the early 2000s when he encountered the Ruhnama, a book authored by Turkmenistan's dictator. This discovery ignited his decade-long obsession. He recounts:

"I think I managed to find it online. And this was in the days of dial-up. And I remember downloading it page by page so I could read it. And it was quite weird and terrible, but in an equal measure." (02:04)

Calder's fascination was further fueled by his visit to Turkmenistan in 2006, where he witnessed the pervasive presence of the Ruhnama in public spaces, cementing his belief that dictator literature was a living tradition rather than a relic of the past.

Accessing and Preserving Dictators’ Writings

A significant portion of the discussion revolves around the accessibility of these works. Calder notes the disparity in availability:

"The Rukhnama is not as easy to get hold of now and Ruhnemar volume 2 is very difficult." (05:20)

He contrasts easily accessible writings like Lenin's extensive publications, maintained by dedicated Soviet institutes, with the scarcity of works from lesser-known dictators such as Clement Gottwald of the Czech Republic. This variance underscores the fleeting nature of dictator literature, which often vanishes once a regime collapses.

The Nature and Quality of Dictators’ Writings

Calder delves into the diversity of dictator writings, which range from political tracts to poetry and novels. He emphasizes that the quality varies significantly:

"Mussolini probably was an actual writer, you know, so I think it's quite well known. Mussolini was a journalist by profession and very successful journalist and very successful editor." (08:13)

While some leaders like Mussolini demonstrated genuine literary skill, others produced works that were more propagandistic and less engaging. Calder highlights Hitler's Mein Kampf as an example of unstructured, hate-filled rhetoric, contrasting it with Stalin's dry and controlled writings.

Emotional and Psychological Insights

Reading dictator literature often evokes discomfort and a sense of interacting with pure evil. Calder reflects on this complex emotional landscape:

"Sometimes yeah, and I mean that's a good question." (07:04)

He explains that while some works, especially those written during periods of turmoil, reveal glimpses of the dictators' vulnerabilities and insecurities, others maintain a cold, monolithic facade. This duality offers readers a window into the psychological underpinnings of these tyrants.

Case Study: Saddam Hussein’s "Zabiba and the King"

A significant segment of the episode is dedicated to Saddam Hussein's novel, Zabiba and the King. Calder provides an in-depth analysis, describing it as a romance set in early Islamic history. The novel serves as an allegory, potentially symbolizing America's influence, yet it contains bizarre and gratuitous elements that reflect Saddam's troubled psyche:

"There's a lot of strange bits in it. So even if you read it as an allegory, the detail about rape is quite out there." (13:42)

Calder posits that the novel offers a rare glimpse into Saddam's loneliness and desperation, portraying him as a leader who, despite his formidable power, experiences profound vulnerability:

"You know, it's easy to denounce, but it's interesting to understand." (19:13)

This portrayal humanizes Saddam to an extent, emphasizing the importance of understanding the personal dimensions of dictators to grasp the full scope of their tyranny.

The Legacy and Impact of Dictators’ Literature

Calder discusses how dictator writings often become almost sacred texts within their societies, used as tools of indoctrination and control. However, their legacy is fleeting, as new regimes typically discard previous rulers' works. He underscores the paradox of these works being both widely distributed during dictatorship and quickly erased post-fall.

Recommendations and Final Thoughts

Towards the episode's conclusion, Calder offers guidance for listeners interested in exploring dictator literature. He recommends Mussolini's War Diary as a relatively accessible and readable example, while cautioning against delving too deeply due to the often distressing content:

"If you're just curious and wanted to read one that didn't cause too much pain, I say Mussolini's War Diary is quite short and quite readable." (23:26)

Calder emphasizes that while these works are historically significant, they are not generally recommended for casual reading due to their challenging nature.

Conclusion

This bonus episode of Real Dictators provides a compelling exploration of dictator literature through Daniel Calder's insightful analysis. By examining the writings of tyrants like Lenin, Stalin, Mussolini, and Saddam Hussein, the episode sheds light on the complex interplay between literature and authoritarian power. Calder's work underscores the importance of understanding these texts not just as propaganda tools, but as windows into the minds of some of history's most notorious figures.

For more insightful episodes like this one, subscribe to Noiser+ at noiser.com/subscriptions and explore additional content that delves deeper into the lives of history's most infamous dictators.

Transcript

Podcast Host (0:01)

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Duncan Barrett (0:33)

Almost every dictator at one time or another has put pen to paper. Some have wrestled with ideas, with philosophy. Many have merely vented, spewing their diatribes onto the page. Others have made forays into fiction, poetry and drama with varying degrees of success. Noiser writer Duncan Barrett spoke to a man who's made it his mission to wade through all kinds of dictators writings. Daniel Calder is author of the Infernal Library, also published as Dictator Literature A History of Bad Books by Terrible People.

Interviewer (1:14)

I enjoyed reading your book enormously, but I'm curious as to whether you enjoyed writing it. There's a kind of bitterness that comes through now and then about the research that you had to do for this one.

Daniel Calder (1:25)

I would say I enjoyed it more looking back over it than in the process. It was a kind of great literary endurance test to see how much of this can I read when it was just really atrocious. Most of it. I mean, I had the idea when I was a younger man, you know, and I had more of my life in front of me than I do now. So. So it was like, eh, if I spend like 8, 9, 10 years, like reading dictator books, it'll be fine. In the heady days of youth, it seemed like a worthwhile challenge.

Interviewer (1:53)

Obviously there are the kind of dictator books that we're all familiar with, Mein Kampf, the Little Red Book, et cetera. But it was actually quite an obscure one that got you started on this road to begin with, right?

Daniel Calder (2:04)

Yeah. I moved to like Russia in 1997 and I'd kind of grown up during the Cold War and so I was kind of vaguely aware that dictators had books. You know, when you got to Moscow in the 90s, there was still a lot of communist detritus lying around. And I remember the first flat that I rented had a kind of complete works of Lenin or something on the shelves. It felt like a kind of dead tradition to me that like dictator books was a thing from the past. And then a couple of years later, probably early 2000s, I was in my flat and there was Nothing going on. I switched on the TV and there was this report from I didn't know where. It was just really, really bizarre imagery of kind of gold statues of this slightly portly gentleman in a business suit and kind of. It looked like somewhere in Asia in this kind of post modern desert landscape with tilers in it. And at the end and I realized, oh, it took me to stand and turned out there's a book there called the Rukh Nama. And everybody was kind of compelled to read this Rukh Namah and it was the work of the dictator and it was like he was a genius. And the book itself was quite strange looking. It's kind of pink and green with this gold head on the COVID And so that did make me really quite obsessed. I had to know more. And so I think I managed to find it online. And this was in the days of dial up. And I remember downloading it page by page so I could read it. And it was quite weird and terrible, but in an equal measure. And the weirdness made it possible to overlook the terribleness or the terribleness was a feature of the weirdness. And I thought, oh, this is really interesting. And so in the end, I actually went to Turkmenistan early 2006, while the dictator Turkmen Bashi was in his full glory. It was like peak of Central Asian Disneyland, Stalinism. And I mean, I went all over the country and the book was absolutely central, you know, and there was like a mosque in his birthplace which had text from the Rukhnama on the minarets of the mosque. I thought, pretty sure this is kind of blasphemous. I went into like a Russian Orthodox cathedral and they had copies of the Ruhnema in the entrance, I think there was a mountain and they'd put bits of the Ruhnema on it. There was TV shows where they were reading from the Ruhnema. And so for me it was like a revelation because it was suddenly instead of this like dead tradition of dictator books, I thought, like, it was a living tradition and it was really bizarre. It made to me very real an experience of the 20th century that maybe lots of people had suffered through. And so I think that really kicked off this obsession that lasted for about a decade.