Ruhnama: The Book of the Soul

by Saparmyrat Nyýazow, Andrew Edwards (Editor)

Translated as "The Book of the Soul" this is the manifesto of Saparmyrat Niyazov Turkmenbasy - the leader of the Turkemen. In this book, volume one of Ruhnama, Turkmenbasy lays out the history and the expected conduct of the Turkmen people. This book had become a cult book in Turkmenistan, leading daily life from schools to job interviews. Dive into the mind of the Turkmen people under the rule of Niyazov in the book- Ruhnama

289 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

President-for-life of Turkmenistan from 1990 to his death in 2006.

He was First Secretary of the Turkmen Communist Party from 1985 until 1991 and continued to lead Turkmenistan for 15 years after independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Niyazov held the title of Türkmenbaşy ( father of all Turkmens )

Reviews

[Adam · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hahaha! Look what I added to Goodreads! Seriously though, I've read this book. I've taught this book, albeit rarely. Don't bother. Like Turkmenistan itself you might be tempted to look into this on the "wacky" factor alone, but in reality it's not nearly wacky enough to justify interest. Sorry.

[Fuad · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ruhnama started off well: page one revealed that the Turkmen nation was 5,000 years old and descended from Noah, though Turkmenbashi didn't reveal his sources. The rules of good manners followed, among which was: "Wear clean and decent clothes."

By page 300, I was struggling. The book's division into 5 sections was misleading, as Turkmenbashi tended to ramble on about different topics as the mood took him. I don't blame him. Writing a book is laborious and time- consuming and his day job was running a country.

[Jason Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is quite honestly one of the most bizarre books I have ever, and ever will, read. Sapamurat Niyazov is one of history's craziest dictators, but not in a brutal way. He was a crazy dictator because he was a crazy person. This book is just pure narcissism and the country of Turkmenistan still lives under the narcissism of the late dictator to this day. The back of this very book states as quoted, "this book has become a cult book in Turkmenistan, leading daily life from schools to job interviews." How bizarre is that? This book is essentially the constitution of the country because this book is incredibly influential on Turkmenistan. While an insane read, I'm glad to understand the crazy mind of history's lesser known dictators. One forever remembered as truly out of his mind. Here's to hoping that Turkmenistan and it's citizens will no longer have to endure living under totalitarian rule in the future.

[Abice07 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly entertaining musings and guidance from President for life and a cult leader.
It took me several years to finally finish this book, I am glad that it did, especially in this era of American politics. They pair well together.

[Val · Rating 1 out of 5]

From its foundation until his death Turkmenistan was ruled by President for Life, Saparmurat Niyazov, who was probably the battiest leader of a country in modern times. He wrote this book and introduced it into the school curriculum, later making it the basis of that curriculum.
I was surprised to find that some of it is quite sensible. A more balanced and factual curriculum would be a much better basis for a good education however.

[Kaiden Kobani · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Thank you Saparmurat Turkmenbashy Niyazov for writing this. It gets hate but to be honest this book has good insights. The only thing I do not like is the organization of thoughts, it is a good complete experience but it could have been arranged in a better order.

[Mathieu Totev · Rating 3 out of 5]

(The annotated version is really bad)
Reviewing the original book:

A highly spiritual and guiding book. Was expecting a lot of propaganda, but was surprised a few times by the thoughts brought forward and some psychological allusions. Clearly Turkmenbasy had read and was not stupid, even though some of his policies are questionable. Lots of history packed that gets boring, but the end is the interesting part. Where he outlays his view of the family, ethics, way of life, freedom, state. A traditional view is pushed, which is coherent, and is backed by religion; as if it was his own Quran. Now there are some dumb explanations, but overall reading this book would not radicalize and would make one at least a bit of a better person. What Turkemnbasy says here is more useful than any politician in the West has ever said.

[Suzanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I watched a documentary about Turkmenistan recently and I loved learning about their previous President-for-Life, Turkmenbashi. Then, yesterday, I was looking through the non-fiction section at the library where I work and I was SHOCKED to see that we had Turkmenbashi's book in our collection. I had to read it. Turns out no one has ever checked it out before I did yesterday. And it's easy to see why. This book is all over the place. There are bits about Turkmenbashi's (very sad) childhood, then some parables, then some sections with all of the terms of the separation of Turkmenistan from the USSR, and then pages and pages of families trees. It's a slog!

But then we come to this part about how much Turkmenbashi loves his country: "Nobody has ever been injured by his or her love of the nation. Be afraid of those who do not love their nation. If everybody likes their own nation, then the nations will like each other." Turkmenbashi! What are you talking about?!?

I also learned in this book that if I am not competent in the home then I'm holding Pete back in life (sorry Pete!) but also that Pete should be giving me more emeralds...so...

[Little Sheepling · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Ruhnama is a strange mixture of History, Geography, Stories, Anecdotes, Ethnology of the people of the "Independent and Eternally neutral Turkmenistan" with some added biography and stories of the President for life and his dear Mother, and ideals for the Turkmen people to follow.

Read this mostly to say that I've read it (but really, who is ever going to ask me that?) feel pleased to have read it, but I don't think I can read it a further 2 times and gain access to heaven as dictated (no pun intended) by the president for life, but maybe I can still get in on a technicality?

[Ryan Apperson · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is a collection of incoherent ramblings by the former dictator of Turkmenistan. I developed a bit of a morbid fascination with this book as an artifact of post-Soviet collapse and rebuilding gone wrong. While there is some insight from the book as a look into the mind of a dictator legislating his grandiose bromides and pseudo-history onto his population, it isn't really worth reading for much else than this. The translation is laughably awful, and the transliteration follows no set pattern. In all it was somewhat amusing but I obviously can't recommend it in good faith.

[Olive · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book of one of the world's best bastards who surprisingly was also a son of a bitch. The dictatorship of this man made the whole country's economy inflate, not to just 100-200% but, 3000% of the world's economy. To think about what the people went through those times without a standard economy and to have been forced to read this piece of shit (no offence to literature.. it's just that he doesn't deserve to touch any area of literature in the first place) is frustrating.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

One item on my bucket list is to do doughnuts around the Gates to Hell. Nyyazow may be dead, The Book of the Soul slowly being taken off most Turkmen curriculum including required reading material for a driver's license, but I'm not taking any chances.

This truly shows the glory and compassion of the mercifully neutral nation that is Turkmenistan. May Allah bring water to their deserts, cotton to their fields, and oil and gas to their pockets.

Now approve my travel visa, already.

[Nick Wallace · Rating 2 out of 5]

The ravings and nonsense of an insane person. Full of historical errors and down-home wisdom that point to the Turkmen being the best people ever to inhabit the earth and himself as a paragon of the ethnic group. Comparable to Ghaddafi's Green Book without the political philosophy (what there is of it).

[Nehir · Rating 1 out of 5]

Deli saçmasıydı...

[Hibiscus · Rating 2 out of 5]

Рухнама - это тост, растянувшийся на 300 страниц. Это кринжевый опус графомана средней руки, приправленный патриотическими стишками, народными сказаниями и поговорками (довольно интересными, между прочим), патриархальными наставлениями, выдержками из конституции, кучей задорновщины и прочей отсебятиной и душевными излияниями.

Ещё Рухнама - это провинциальный домострой, высосанный из пальца и замешанный на национализме. Грешит книжка и мифотворчеством (5000 лет истории, 70 государств) и культурной апроприацией (парфянские лошади, иранские ковры, первое колесо/колесница).

Но главное, я не нашёл ни строчки ненависти или ксенофобии, ни намёка на пантюркизм. Правда, автор гордится великими завоеваниями сельджуков и победами огузов, но как-то и выходит у него, что всё это нечаянно вышло, их ведь чуть ли не звали к себе, как варягов, со всех сторон. В общем, книга добрая и читается по-своему увлекательно.

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Рухнама – паломничество в душу туркмена.

Слово «эр» происходит от слова «ары». Говорит же Гараджаоглан: «По происхождению мы туркмены ары». Туркменское слово «эр» в мировых языках трансформировалось в «сэр», «хэр», «герр».

Рухнама – это даже не книга, это внутренний голос, повелевающий туркменам прислушаться к самим себе, к биению своего сердца, раз и навсегда заведенного Всевышним по его всемогущей и ��севидящей воле.

Даровав туркменам священное право умножаться числом, великий Аллах наделил их двумя неотъемлемыми чертами: ВДОХНОВЕНИЕМ и ЦЕЛЬНОСТЬЮ. Озаряя светом их души, он зажег свето�� РАЗУМА в их сознании. Соответственно и нарек свое творение ТЮРК ИМАН (родом из света). Так в мире появились туркмены.

В истории туркмен был и божественный Аршак. Основатель парфянского царства, это он вступил в борьбу с римлянами и сражался с ними как лев, положив начало парфянскому рыцарству, распространившемуся потом во всем мире.

[Rafael Nardini · Rating 3 out of 5]

O Turcomenistão foi governado com mão de ferro pelo ditador Saparmurat Niyazov. Ele usou as imensas reservas de gás do país para construir fantasmagorias urbanas - a maior das quais, uma estátua dele próprio em OURO, com um mecanismo que girava para ficar sempre em direção ao sol. Campeão no culto à personalidade ele escreveu Ruhnama (Livro da Alma), um volume cheio fantasias míticas e invenciones paranoicas - a maior delas a de que a civilização turcomena teria surgido a 5 mil anos. O livro, no entanto, virou leitura obrigatória nas escolas e templos e foi exigida até mesmo para o cidadão tirar carteira de motorista. Ele nutria ódio de todos os jornalistas e proibia a entrada desses profissionais no país.
Essa é a perigosa síndrome dos livros dos ditadores: eles se escondem à vista de todos e são tão absurdos e ruins que tornam impossível acreditar em seu poder de impactar tantos leitores.
O grande antagonismo entre a era Niyazov e os dias atuais é que os novos tiranos populistas sequer são grandes leitores e não mais escrevem e nem mesmo terceirizam a publicação de livros. Apenas digitam freneticamente, viralizando resíduos odiosos muito parecidos com os capítulos do Livro da Alma.
Com uma diferença: é um cativeiro aceito voluntariamente por grande parte do público. Não tão voluntariamente, claro, pois os algoritmos seduzem, atingem o lado mais soturno dos nossos corações, ou seja, o mesmo alvo mirado por Niyazov em seus delírios.

[Alexandre Olivier · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is crazy! It doesn't hold as big a position as it did during the reign of Turkmenbashi, or Niyazov, however, you want to call him. It's taken a smaller position in Turkmen culture but it still delivers insight into Turkmen life, culture and history. A few tips if you are going to read the book: Obviously, you must be knowledgeable on the current political situation and history over there to fully understand the book and the writing is also quite strange, some words and sentences seem randomly put together, I had to read some parts a few times to fully understand what Niyazov (if it was really him who wrote it) said.

[Trounin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Неужели мечты средневековых поэтов действительно сбылись? Ниязов мудро определил — если чего-то нет, а того хочется, то нужно говорить так, как ты того желаешь, и тогда оно обязательно наступит. Описал он великое прошлое туркмен, дал им великолепное настоящее, назвал хорошими и наделил отличнейшими качествами. Стыдно туркмену не быть тем туркменом, каким его представили на страницах «Рухнамы».

(c) Trounin

[Claudia Roth · Rating 1 out of 5]

When dictators fancy themselves great thinkers and writers... A piece of utter tosh, translated into many languages by corrupt companies trying to get a piece of biz in Turkmenistan. Oh yes and this piece of rubbish was compulsory reading even in the Mosque. Wonder if Turmendummy's dentist who took over kept that? But hey - the Turkmens invented the wheel. There's always that...

[David Burns · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ruhnama: The Book of the Soul ** 1.5 stars for the bizarre novelty of it ** Bought in a university bookshop in Ashgabat and read in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan (Apr 2024)

[aden · Rating 1 out of 5]

he had some bars in there especially in section 5 (turkmen spirit) no lie… but he forgot the part about creating a censored state… or actually he kinda alluded to it which made me feel uncomfortable again after my time visiting. horrible english translation tho

[Liv · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hadde gitt denne boka 0 stjerner hvis det var mulig

[Chovgan · Rating 1 out of 5]

During Niyazov's tenure, the Rukhnama was obligatory reading for all Turkmens. After his death, the book has increasingly fallen out of favor.

In a nutshell: Rukhnama is just a three-volume work of gibberish pseudo-history and half-baked spiritual insights by eccentric, insane, outlandish, and ruthless despot.

Now Turkmenbashi is feeding the worms, and soon the Ruhnama will likely be as unread as the works of Enver Hoxha, the Albanian dictator also reported to have banned beards.

[Kaidi Pan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Is this a joke?

[Emile Greenbank · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this cured my foetal alcohol syndrome