10 Ways Robert Mugabe Mirrored Soviet Union Leaders

Former President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe passed away a week ago on 6th September 2019. As opinion on the erstwhile anti-colonial icon is so divided, there has been no shortage of invective-laden obituaries and praised-infused retrospectives about him over the past few days.

This, however, is going to be neither of those! 

This post is basically highlighting the observation that, from a historico-political point of view, Robert Mugabe would have made fit in perfectly as a stereotypical leader in the Soviet Union.

Here’s how:

1) He was a choleric intellectual and had to go underground for a while like Vladimir Lenin: 

Under pressure from czarist authorities, Vladimir Lenin was jailed for a year and then banished to Siberia for 3 years – as was customary at that time for convicts. After that he went into exile, finding himself as far afield as Germany and France.

Mugabe was jailed by the rogue Rhodesian government from 1964 to 1974 and then went into exile in Mozambique following his release.

Both men even returned home and rose to power in their respective countries. Whereas Lenin’s time at the top was short lived since he only ruled Soviet Russia then the Soviet Union for 5 years before his death, Mugabe’s run at the top went on for decades.

Also, both men were highly learned: Lenin read law and was versed – to say the least – in history and political science. Mugabe far surpassed Lenin, though, holding a whopping seven degrees in fields including education, law, administration and economics.

 

2) He was a brute like that animal Joseph Stalin: 

Not much explanation needed here. Mugabe killed his tens of thousands and Stalin his tens of millions.

For what it’s worth, neither man quite came close to Chairman Mao, thankfully.

 

3) He had Emmerson Mnangagwa as his henchman like Stalin had Lavrentiy Beria:

Stalin set targets for how many people had to be killed for opposing his government. These targets were met by Beria, who was Stalin’s go-to guy for internal security.

 

Mugabe’s equivalent was his henchman and loyal follower Emmerson Mnangagwa (aptly nicknamed the Crocodile), who was Mubage’s protege and younger kindred spirit where political violence was concerned.

Beria coordinated the 1940 Katyn massacre of over 20,000 people in Poland; Mnangagwa had just as many killed during the Matabeleland massacres in the 1980s.

The difference between the 2 is that Mnangagwa succeeded his mentor, while Beria was executed after Stalin’s death by his political rivals within the Communist Party.

 

4) He had a penchant for blustery speeches bordering on incoherence like Nikita Krushchev: 

Simply put:

Krushchev: 

Nobody: ……

Kruschchev at UN General Assembly  1960: * bangs shoe on desk *

famously says to the West:

We will bury you

 

Mugabe: 

Nobody: ……..

Mugabe at UN General Assembly 2015: “we equally reject attempts to prescribe ‘new rights’ that are contrary to our values, norms, traditions and beliefs.

We are not gays!

 

 

5) He had no idea when it was time to reform, like that bushy eyebrowed Frankenstein Leonid Brezhnev: 

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

So goes the well-known maxim.

This is very basic and applies to many Soviet leaders. Krushchev attempted some modest reforms but they were undone by Brezhnev, who preferred to keep pursuing the same old unsuccessful policies.

Mugabe did the same when he kept up his quantitative easing policies even though they had been a failure.

 

6) His reforms didn’t  reach the desired goal, like those of Mikhail Gorbachev: 

To his credit Gorbachev really did try his best but things were so far gone (all Brezhnev’s fault hmph) by the time he began his famous tandem of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) reforms and there were so many elements at play that he just couldn’t pull it off.

In Zimbabwe, parallels were drawn with Soviet perestroika and glasnost were adopted to little sustained success.

At the end of those policies, both men were removed from their positions.

 

7) He was removed by his party like Krushchev: 

Tired of his foreign policy gaffes, a high ranking Communist Party troika made Krushchev step down in 1964 after 8 years in office.

Mugabe was ushered into retirement by Mnangagwa in 2017 amidst fears that he was preparing his wife to assume the presidency.

 

8) His one-time ally had to run from him, like with Stalin and Trotsky: 

Though they were fellow Communists, Trotsky and Stalin didn’t see eye to eye on much.

Though they were fellow anti-colonialists, Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo didn’t see eye to eye on much.

Trotsky fled to Mexico to get away from Stalin; Nkomo fled to the UK.

Trotsky ended up assassinated by Stalin’s followers. Nkomo didn’;t suffer such a fate.

9) He died a hapless senior citizen: 

Like Stalin, Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko. 

 

10) He wasn’t a fan of the West, but shook hands with Margaret Thatcher, like Gorbachev: