Ruhnama -“Book of the Spirit”

Prophetic vision where Turkmen were led to the "golden path of life."

The Rukhnama,¹ published in 2001 by Saparmurat Niyazov, the President of Turkmenistan from 1990 to 2006, was an autobiography/ spiritual guide/ history of the Turkmen which Niyazov imposed upon his people.² Niyazov liked to be known as Turkmenbashi, or "Leader of the Turkmen."

Monumental ten-meter high Rukhnama flips open!

An unusual monument was erected in the Turkmen capital of Ashgabat. In a vast park that celebrates the post-Soviet independence of the country, in the middle of a broad fountain, there stands a monumental ten-meter-high copy of a book. The cover consists of its title, Ruhnama, as well as the name and likeness of the author in gold relief. ³

The most peculiar thing about this monumental book is the fact that it can be “flipped open” mechanically: When thus opened, a multimedia spectacle begins in which the portrait of Türkmenbaşi’s, manuscript pages of the book and propagandistic films on the “glories” of Turkmen history are projected on the inside of the monument, accompanied by the strains of Turkmen music. The scenes displayed are based on passages in the Ruhnama; the solemn reading is transmitted through loudspeakers for everyone in the park to hear.⁴

Translated into 40 Languages

The Ruhnama was translated into over 40 languages, including Zulu. Familiarity with this quasi-religious text was necessary to gain entrance to university or even to pass a driving test. Children studied it in school, and passages were inscribed on the minarets of the largest mosque in the country. These translations were primarily designed by foreign corporations to gain a cordial relationship with Niyazov and were not meant for international consumption.⁵ Turkmenistan sits on the fifth-largest natural gas reserves in the world.

Rukhnama appealed to Oguz Turkic heritage

The Ruhnama, appealing to the Oguz Turkic heritage of the Turkmen nation, to her remote Parthian past, and to vague Islamic cultural inheritance, was supposed to provide guidelines for nation-building and cohesiveness. Atatürk's Nutuk was one of the literary models of Niyazov's book. Having fixed the newly-invented national mythology in writing, Niyazov was not only shaping his society in the desirable manner, but also legitimising his own rule.⁶

Ruhnama” projected a unified identity of the Turkmen tribes back into the past

The Ruhnama was initially not intended as a history book but as an epos: it describes the customs and values of the ancient Turkmens and the epical heroes of the Turkmen tradition (like Oghuz Khan, Dede Korkut, Görogly) as models for the nation of today. Consistent with the traditional political functions of epics, the Ruhnama projected a unified identity of the Turkmen tribes back into the past, and legitimized the political order of the country after independence. Niiazov himself referred to his Ruhnama as the “Oghuznama of the Third Millennium”, and presented himself in forms reminiscent of traditional bards, and as a Father of the Turkmens.⁷

Shadow Of the Holy Book

Turkmenistan has attracted interest from multinational corporations seeking new markets and economic partnerships with the regime. The murky linkage between such overtures and the Ruhnama prompted Finnish filmmaker Arto Halonen, along with American writer Kevin Frazier, to make the documentary Shadow of the Holy Book.⁸ After learning that subsidizing the translation and printing of the Ruhnama was a way to curry favor with the House of Niyazov, this curious pairing trek the globe seeking to expose unbridled avarice on the part of global concerns Caterpillar, Siemens, Daimler, Bouygues, and John Deere. Still, major corporations commissioned translations in their native countries in order to massage the Turkmenbashi ego and gain access to Turkmenistan gas rights and the enormous boondoggle construction contracts that were available under Niyazov.⁹

Closing The Book on Turkmenbashi's 'Rukhnama'

After the death of Saparmurat Niyazov, Presidents Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow (2006 to 2022) and his son, Serdar Berdimuhamedow (current President) the Rukhnama is no longer part of school curricula.¹⁰ However, "it is hard to expect that Serdar Berdimuhamedow will make any fundamental changes in the functioning of the state, reducing authoritarianism or increasing its openness to the world." ¹¹

1. Spelling varies. Ruhnama . Published in 2001.

2. Kalder, Daniel. Turkmenistan: Proudly Maintaining the Tradition of Dictator Literature Publishing Perspectives. December 13, 2013.

3. Nicolosi, Riccardo. “Saparmyrat Niyazov’s Ruhnama: The Invention of Turkmenistan.” Tyrants Writing Poetry. Budapest, Hungary: Central European University Press, 2022. 233–249. Horak, Slavomir. “The Ideology of the Turkmenbashy Regime.” Perspectives on European politics and society 6.2 (2005): 305–319.

4. Ibid.

5. These translations were primarily designed by foreign corporations to gain a cordial relationship with Niyazov and were not meant for international consumption. The backstory is explored in the documentary, Shadow of the Holy Book.

6. Shapira, Dan. “Īrān-o Tūran: On Iranian (and Quasi-Iranian) in the Ruhnama.” Iran & the Caucasus 14.2 (2010): 265–278.

7. Bouma, Amieke. “Turkmenistan: Epics in Place of Historiography.” Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas 59.4 (2011): 559–585—Turkmenistan: Epics in Place of Historiography. Niiazov also published poems and songs in epical style. In the second volume of the “Ruhnama” (2004) Islam takes a stronger position, and we see a strong sacralization of the President; at that time Niiazov also ordered the construction of a huge mosque with “Ruhnama” quotations on the minarets.

8. IDFA 2007 | Trailer | Shadow of the Holy Book - YouTube.

9. Shadow of the Holy Book. 2008. Produced and directed by Arto Halonen. Art Films Production. 52 min. DVD. Finnish documentary on the Ruhnama, the “holy book” that came to define the dictatorship of Saparmurat Niyazov, the first president (for life) of Turkmenistan, with relish. The documentary, examines schools where Ruhnama is taught, mosques (Turkmenistan is a mostly Muslim nation) forced to display the book alongside the Koran, and huge official ceremonies where hundreds of singing Turkmen perform choreography with the book in hand. It also provides a brief history of Turkmenistan leading up to Niyazov’s rule. But the real objective of the film is to question the corporations who, eager to do business with Turkmenistan (which has rich oil and gas reserves), have financed translations of the book into many languages.

10. Kjuka, Deana (August 13, 2013. Closing The Book on Turkmenbashi's 'Rukhnama' Radio Free Europe. Turkmenistan: The beginning of the Berdimuhamedow dynasty

11. Górecki, Wojciech. (2022) Turkmenistan: The beginning of the Berdimuhamedow dynasty. Center for Eastern Studies.