I. PROKLOV Postgraduate Institute of Oriental studies RAS Turkmenistan in the modern mass consciousness is most often associated with the personality cult of its late leader, President Saparmurat Niyazov, better known as "Turkmenbashi". Despite the fact that the Basic Law proclaimed Turkmenistan to be a democratic and legal state, until recently, power in the country in many ways resembled the systems created by Stalin, Mao Zedong and Kim Il Sung: the same reverence bordering on deification, the same unlimited monopoly on power. Turkmenistan, without any doubt, was a rare exception even to the political practice of the countries of post-Soviet Central Asia (indeed, like all the states of the former Soviet Union). All spheres of public, political and economic life were under the personal control of the Head of State. A series of presidential decrees banned smoking, closed rural hospitals, renamed the names of days of the week and months, reduced the duration of secondary and higher education, included the study of the president's own book in the curriculum, and banned opera and ballet, which the president considered alien to Turkmen culture. Meanwhile, the Constitution of Turkmenistan enshrined the secular nature of the State and guaranteed fundamental human rights, proclaiming the individual as the highest value of society and the State. ONE-MAN RULE SYSTEM The Basic Law establishes state government in the form of a presidential republic (Article 1)1. The first presidential elections of Turkmenistan were held before the dissolution of the USSR-on October 21, 1990. After gaining independence and approving the Constitution, S. Niyazov, trying to show that his legitimacy is now based on legal acts not related to the USSR, defiantly organized June 21, 1992 G. new, uncontested presidential elections. At them, S. A. Niyazov was unanimously elected President of the country. At the same time, Khalk Maslahaty (People's Council) - the highest representative and legislat ... Читать далее