«Рухнама» Сапармурата Ниязова: Книга души и туркменская пропаганда

Turkmen book by Saparmurat Niyazov

The Ruhnama, or Rukhnama, translated into English as Book of the Soul, is a two volume work written by Saparmurat Niyazov, the president of Turkmenistan from 1990 to 2006. It was intended to serve as a tool of state propaganda, emphasising the basis of the Turkmen nation. The Ruhnama was introduced to Turkmen culture in a gradual but eventually pervasive way. Niyazov first placed copies in the nation's schools and libraries but eventually went as far as to make an exam on its teachings an element of the driving test. It was mandatory to read Ruhnama in schools, universities and governmental organisations. New governmental employees were tested on the book at job interviews. After the death of Niyazov in December 2006, its popularity remained high. However, in the following years, its ubiquity had waned as President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow removed it from the public school curriculum and halted the practice of testing university applicants on their knowledge of the book.

Epics had played multiple important roles in the social life of Central Asia across centuries. Preparations for the revised book were underway as early as April 1999, when Niyazov declared that Mukkadesh Ruhnama would be the second landmark text of Turkmens, after the Quran. The first volume was finally published in December 2001. In September 2004, Niyazov issued a second volume. Efn|R. Nicolosi notes the publication date to be January 2005. Victoria Clement and Riccardo Nicolosi suspect that the work was ghost written. Written to "recover real Turkmen history without Soviet distortions", Niyazov promised the return of an atavist past from the times of Oghuz Khagan, but only if the conduct of ancient Turkmens were emulated in accordance to his sage guidance. It has been compared to Kemal Atatürk's Nutuk, and Leonid Brezhnev's Trilogiya. efn|Ancient Turkmenistan "stretched from Altyntepe through Anew, Nusay, Takgala, the entire Merw, Koneurgench and Caspian Belh region, including Seyhun Jeyhun from east to west up to the Idil Sea in the north". The narrative resumes with Niyazov ushering in independence of the state. Several of his specific policies find a mention.

Niccolosi notes Ruhnama to have transformed Turkmenistan into an "epideictic space", which was in "permanent, unanimous exultation of the person of Niyazov". Niyazov claimed those who read it thrice were destined for heaven. After the publication of the second volume, Niyazov had mosques and churches display the Ruhnama as prominently as the Quran and Bible, and cite its passages during sermons. A twenty foot tall neon Ruhnama was erected at an Ashgabat park in 2003. In August 2005, the first volume was launched into orbit so that it could "conquer space". A photo journalistic essay in 2006 noted the nation to be filled with advertisements of Ruhnama – each at a cost of two dollars. 12 September was declared a national holiday. A course in Ruhnama was mandated for all students in school as part of social sciences. Efn|A poetry volume by Niyazov was also made compulsory. The text also doubled as the sole government approved version of history across all Turkmen schools until Niyazov 's demise, and had a substantial negative effect on academic scholarship.

In his early days, Ruhnama was led away from its earlier spot of prominence though it continued to be a part of educational curricula. In Spring of 2007, official references to Ruhnama were trimmed and around 2009 10, television broadcasts of Ruhnama stopped. And in 2014, it was finally declared that Turkmen universities would no longer test applicants on their knowledge of the book, in what Slavomir Horak interpreted as the total purge of Ruhnama from Turkmen educational curricula. It has been noted that books written by Berdimuhamedow, Niyazov's successor, had begun to be included in coursework following his inauguration as leader. Luca Anceschi, an expert on the region and University of Glasgow professor, saw this as a transfer of Niyazov's cult of personality to Berdimuhamedow.

The Ruhnama has been translated to over 50 languages. The English version was translated from a Turkish translation of Ruhnama; it does not correspond to the Turkmen version in many places, but is generally more accurate and bulky than the Russian translation.