10 Maddest People Ever To Be In Charge Of A Country
6. Saparmurat Niyazov Brought Insane Despotism Into The 21st Century
Mr. Niyazov was the leader of Turkmenistan from 1985-2006, and he dragged the age-old tradition of hoplessly insane despots right into the 21st Century. Not for him the modern concepts of democracy, sanity, or not putting your face on everything. No, Saparmurat Niyazov was bringing crazy back big-time.
His cult of personality was of a scale not seen since Roman Emperors claimed to be literally gods. The gold statue of himself, that rotated so it always faced the sun, was one of the least insane ways he imposed his image on his developing but oil-rich nation.
Children pledged allegiance to him at the start of every school day, he changed the alphabet, he forced everyone to read his awful self-help book and banned things seemingly at random like beards and listening to the radio. He also had a thing for his mother and named things after her, including one of the months.
Niyazov stayed in power by the simple tactic of banning any opposition parties on the grounds he was too awesome to oppose. His death from a heart attack in 2006 robbed the world of one of its most stereotypically insane tyrants.