Ryszard Kapuściński on the book "Imperium"

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

I wrote Imperium instead of a different book. In the mid-1980s I had an idea to write a trilogy about dictators. The first volume was “The Emperor,” the second “Shah of Shahs,” and the third was meant to be about Amin — an extraordinarily cruel military dictator in Uganda in the 1970s. I had been there many times, gathering material and was preparing to write that book, when in 1985 Perestroika began in the USSR. It was a major world event. Amin was a completely marginal topic compared with what was happening in the East. I could not stay away — I knew I had to go there, see the USSR and try to describe it.

Cesarz-2 on kapuscinski.info

Ryszard Kapuściński on the book "Imperium"