It might seem that the children of dictators have everything. After all, their fathers are the richest and most influential people in the state. One nod from them is enough to fulfill every whim of a son or daughter. However, there is also the other side of the coin. These same satraps can, in a word, make their children disappear. Forever.
A dictatorship is a dictatorship, but you have to take care of your image. Every tyrant knows that. Finally, there comes a moment in his life when this or that person from his closest circle ceases to fit the ideal image of the "first family". For your own good, the black sheep must be removed - even if it is a descendant of the Father of the Nation.
Of course, the matter must be dealt with with a certain degree of discretion. But what are the secret services and trusted collaborators for…
Let him rot in the madhouse
Mussolini did not see the world except his wife Rachel, which he has repeatedly declared publicly. Propagandists assured that since she appeared in the life of the leader, no one else mattered.
From poverty, one would have believed it were it not for one small detail. Although Mussolini is said to love Rachel like a madman and has a daughter with her, a month before the wedding ... he has a son, Benito Albin, from a relationship with another woman.
Benito Mussolini had a shameful secret…
The boy's mother, Ida Dalser, Mussolini, then a poor journalist, also promised marriage. As Michel Ostenc, one of the authors of the book "Children of Dictators" writes, Ida:
[…] pretends to be his wife and multiplies scandals. Mussolini takes the opportunity to place her in a closed psychiatric facility San Clemente in Venice, where Ida dies in 1937.
After the duce gets rid of one problem, there is also another one that bears his name. Benito Albin is drafted into the army (in the Navy) and sent to the other side of the world. The further fate of the man is difficult to recreate.
According to one version of the story, after returning from the Far East, he, like his mother, landed in a closed facility. He was also supposed to die there in 1942.
Have them handed over right after birth
He Zizhen was a young and beautiful communist who was introduced to Mao Zedong in 1928. Soon the couple were married.
At that time, there was a civil war in China in which they were both involved. When He Zizhen started giving birth to children, the future chairman Mao did not like it, to put it mildly. As Jean-Christophe Brisard writes in the pages of Children of Dictators:
[…] the head of the communist Chinese rebels did not show proof of boundless paternal love. Did he not force his third wife, He Zizhen, to give at least two newborns to the care of the villagers in the 1930s ?! There is no question of burdening yourself with babies when there is a civil war.
Chairmen Mao and He Zizhen.
When Mao begins her Long Walk, she is five months pregnant. Mao doesn't hesitate for a second and sets off, not worrying about whether his wife, with her constantly growing belly, can keep up with him.
Mao didn't really care what happened to his own children.
The ground would not distract him from the "case". He Zizhen did not share this ideological devotion. She never gave up thinking about her children and looked for them after the war ended.
When it seemed to her that she had found her son, suddenly another mother appeared in her field of vision, also looking for hers, who of course she recognized in the same man.
Of course, the Chinese Communist Party agreed with the latter. After all, Mao didn't want to be a daddy at all. Personal intervention with my husband did not help either. At the plea of his wife, the chief replied that he would not help, because ... it would be too embarrassing for him.
Don't let the child's fate be disposed of without asking your opinion
Crazy revolutionary Fidel Castro, who acts on women with the power of a powerful magnet, marries the daughter of an influential family. The relatives of his beloved Mirta Díaz Balart will in a few years be perfectly suited to the regime of Fulgencio Batista.
The couple has a son, Fidelito, who conquers his father's heart. However, everything changes after the outbreak of the Cuban revolution, when Fidel and other revolutionaries begin to fight to overthrow Batista and is convicted of attacking the Moncada barracks in Santiago de Cuba. Instead of Comrade Castro's great victory, he is facing 15 years in prison.
Fidel's marriage deals aren't good. Mirta does not share her husband's revolutionary aspirations at all and is increasingly moving away from him.
For Fidel, it is more important than his son to show that he is in charge.
Castro is in prison and his wife starts working as a clerk in the ministry. In 1953, Mirta files for and gets a divorce along with custody of her son. Fidel reacts with fury.
Although he has not shown any special attachment to the child so far, he wants to take care of him (Fidelito lives with his mother in Miami at the time). As Jacobo Macgover, one of the authors of the book "Children of Dictators" writes:
Fidel doesn't even want to hear about it, he wants his son back, guided by fear of his in-laws' political influence rather than by true paternal love. The unfortunate Fidelito is then kidnapped three times:his parents grab him one by one.
An adult Fidelito kept under guard in a secluded mansion continues to adore his father.
Eventually, as a result of a trick, the boy ends up with his father. At first, Fidel cares for him and shows up with him by his side. However, interest in the descendant fades quickly. El Comandante pushes his son away from him, and he stays with Uncle Raúl more than with his own father. Finally, he is sent to study in distant Moscow. After graduating and returning to Cuba, he is scheduled to become director of the Atomic Energy Commission, but instead ... ends up in a closely guarded residence.
Apparently Daddy doesn't like him anymore. Fidelito still adores his father. The dictator effectively dislocated his psyche.
Bibliography:
The article was based on the book "Children of dictators" (Znak Horyzont 2015).