When the tyrants of the twentieth century were in shorts

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The tyrants of the twentieth century demonstrated that they did not know the meaning of the word compassion, but they perfectly mastered the synonyms of horror and put them into practice with tenacity over the peoples they subdued. When did they become brutal murderers? Did your childhood have anything to do with that conversion? For psychology, childhood is a key moment in people's lives, in that vital phase the codes that explain later behaviors are hidden. This has been the research field of Véronique Chalmet, which has entered the black hole in which the horror of the past century was incubated: the childhood and adolescence of the most bloodthirsty oppressors. The French writer published last October The childhood of the dictators (Gedisa), a synthesis in which he addresses the first years of these executioners, who at some point lost their innocence even though it is difficult to imagine that innocence in them.
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    When the tyrants of the twentieth century were in shorts
    The tyrants at the table
    When the tyrants of the twentieth century were in shorts
    My father is a tyrant
    The writing of horror

“No one is born a murderer. These dictators grew up in a coercive environment and when they reached power, they released all the accumulated hatred, ”says Chalmet, a regular contributor to po[CENSORED]r science magazines such as Ça m’intéresse, in response to questions from EL PAÍS made by email. "As Nelson Mandela said, people learn to hate," he adds. The French writer, an expert in psychology and criminology, believes that "many frustrations, traumas and physical and psychological violence generated a total loss of ethical values" in the childhood of these despots. Already as adults, "they didn't care about what was right or wrong - although they knew the difference perfectly - and this is a characteristic of psycho criminals," he explains.

Chalmet had the opportunity to study sociopaths and psychopaths recently in a health institution for dangerous mentally ill and deduces many similarities in their behavior and that of tyrants. "In fact," continues the expert, "we are dealing with the same type of personalities. These abused children became insensitive adults unable to empathize. ” The main difference between anonymous sociopaths and tyrants would be, according to the author, in the achievement of power: “They seduced the people to get command and then kept terrorizing people. Hitler, Pol Pot or Mussolini were charismatic and perverse mani[CENSORED]tors. ”

The childhood of the dictators shows some circumstances that these evil characters shared. Interestingly, these dictators had "a desperate need for protective parental models," Chalmet describes, "but they were trapped in dysfunctional families. For most of them, the father was absent or cruel. In front, the mother often hid or repressed her feelings, even if it meant leaving the child in a state of confusion, fear or loneliness. ”

Here are some brushstrokes of the childhoods of some of these sinister characters:

Stalin (1878-1953). During his tenure at the head of the Soviet Union, 20 million people lost their lives. Yosif Vissariónovich was so fragile when he was born that he was nicknamed Sosso (the delicate one). He also had an abnormality in his left foot. Soon he began to suffer the alcoholic fury that his father, drunk every day, unloaded in the form of beatings on him and his mother. At age 10 he went to the parish school of Gori, his town in Georgia, where he stood out as a child prodigy of the choir. He suffered two horse car abuses that left him with physical consequences. In 1894, he was admitted to the seminary of Tbilisi with the maternal illusion that he became a priest. There, the 16-year-old teenager discovered "an austere life, marked by prayer, corporal punishment and study" with the monks, and when he returned to his room, "the marks of the requisitions made in his absence [...], a police spirit and a well-oiled coercive system, ”describes Chalmet.Franco (1892-1975). It triggered a civil war in Spain that caused more than half a million deaths and tens of thousands of people shot in subsequent years. The son of a general mayor of the Navy of Ferrol (A Coruña), at birth he was a baby “enclenque” and during his growth he remained so thin that his mother, Pilar, called him Cerillita. In his childhood he avoided expressing himself in public because he was ashamed of his pouty voice. His devoted mother instilled in him the sacred value of the family, a concept that he later wanted to extrapolate totally to Spain. His father maintained extramarital affairs continuously and ended up recognizing a Filipino boy three years older than Franco. Finally, in 1907, the father abandoned his wife and children and went to Madrid. The self-conscious teenager never forgave him and never saw him again.