Love and exploitation: personality cults, their characteristics, their creation, and modern examples

This thesis seeks to uncover the mystery behind a commonly used term: personality cults. Made famous during the reign of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, personality cults are written about but not fully explained from a theoretical perspective. In this study, I detail a theory of personality cults by exploring the characteristics that make up personality cults, how they are created, and demonstrate this through three case studies. The cases used are Russian president Vladimir Putin, Cubas former leader, Fidel Castro, and Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.