Cult of personality

==Purpose==
[[File:دوار السبع بحرات- دوار الرئيس حاليا - panoramio (cropped).jpg|thumb|Statue of Syrian dictator [[Hafez al-Assad]], who is revered as their ''Al-Abad'' (Immortal Leader) by followers of [[Ba'ath Party (Syrian-dominated faction)|Syrian Ba'athism]]<ref name="auto">{{Cite journal |last=Bader Eddin |first=Eylaf |date=8 November 2022 |title=Al-Abad: On the Ongoing |url=https://brill.com/view/journals/mjcc/15/4/article-p367_5.xml?language=en&ebody=full%20html-copy1 |journal=Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication |volume=15 |issue=4 |pages=367–372 |doi=10.1163/18739865-01504004 |s2cid=253455744 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230604090746/https://brill.com/view/journals/mjcc/15/4/article-p367_5.xml?language=en&ebody=full%20html-copy1 |archive-date=4 June 2023 |via=Brill|doi-access=free }}</ref>]]
Often, a single leader became associated with this revolutionary transformation and came to be treated as a benevolent "guide" for the nation without whom the claimed transformation to a better future could not occur. Generally, this has been the justification for personality cults that arose in totalitarian societies, such as those of [[Adolf Hitler]], [[Joseph Stalin]], [[Kim Il Sung]], [[Mao Zedong]] and [[Hafez al-Assad]].

Admiration for Mao Zedong has remained widespread in China in spite of somewhat general knowledge of his actions. In December 2013, a ''[[Global Times]]'' poll revealed that over 85% of Chinese viewed Mao's achievements as outweighing his mistakes.<ref>{{Cite news |date=December 23, 2013 |title=Mao's achievements 'outweigh' mistakes: poll |work=[[Al Jazeera Arabic|al-Jazeera]] |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2013/12/mao-achievements-outweigh-mistakes-poll-2013122553410272409.html}}</ref>

[[Jan Plamper]] argues while [[Napoleon III]] made some innovations in [[Second French Empire|France]], it was [[Benito Mussolini]] in Italy in the 1920s who originated the model of dictator-as-cult-figure that was emulated by Hitler, Stalin and the others, using the propaganda powers of a [[Totalitarianism|totalitarian state]].{{sfn|Plamper|2012|pp=4, 12–14}}

[[Pierre du Bois de Dunilac]] argues that the Stalin cult was elaborately constructed to legitimize his rule. Many deliberate distortions and falsehoods were used.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=du Bois |first1=Pierre |title=Stalin – Genesis of a Myth |journal=Survey. A Journal of East & West Studies |date=1984 |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=166–181}} See abstract in {{Cite book |first1=David R. |last1=Egan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C_7Xh2euykoC&pg=PA157 |title=Joseph Stalin: An Annotated Bibliography of English-Language Periodical Literature to 2005 |last2=Melinda A. Egan |publisher=Scarecrow Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0810866713 |page=157}}</ref> The [[Moscow Kremlin|Kremlin]] refused access to archival records that might reveal the truth, and key documents were destroyed. Photographs were altered and documents were invented.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Strong |first1=Carol |last2=Killingsworth |first2=Matt |date=2011 |title=Stalin the Charismatic Leader?: Explaining the 'Cult of Personality' as a legitimation technique |journal=Politics, Religion & Ideology |volume=12 |issue=4 |pages=391–411 |doi=10.1080/21567689.2011.624410 |s2cid=144628885}}</ref> People who knew Stalin were forced to provide "official" accounts to meet the ideological demands of the cult, especially as Stalin himself presented it in 1938 in ''[[the History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks)|Short Course on the History of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)]]'', which became the official history.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Maslov |first=N. N. |date=1989 |title=Short Course of the History of the All-Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik) – An Encyclopedia of Stalin's Personality Cult |journal=Soviet Studies in History |volume=28 |issue=3 |pages=41–68 |doi=10.2753/RSH1061-1983280341}}</ref>

Historian [[David L. Hoffmann]] states "The Stalin cult was a central element of [[Stalinism]], and as such it was one of the most salient features of Soviet rule&nbsp;... Many scholars of Stalinism cite the cult as integral to Stalin's power or as evidence of Stalin's megalomania."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hoffmann |first=David L. |author-link=David L. Hoffmann |date=2013 |title=The Stalin Cult |journal=The Historian |volume=75 |issue=4 |page=909 |doi=10.1111/hisn.12023_65 |s2cid=145070443}}</ref>

In Latin America, [[Cas Mudde]] and [[Cristóbal Rovira|Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser]] link the "cult of the leader" to the concept of the ''[[caudillo]]'', a strong leader "who exercises a power that is independent of any office and free of any constraint." These [[populism|populist]] [[strongman (politics)|strongmen]] are portrayed as "masculine and potentially violent" and enhance their authority through the use of the cult of personality. Mudde and Kaltwasser trace the linkage back to [[Juan Perón]] of [[Argentina]].<ref name=mudde />