Jaysus, there was I thinking he was a spoiled priest :)

Stalin had a weird obsession with writers. He'd persecute them and spare them, all on a whim.

Not all autocrats are boors. Saddam Hussein had four languages and wrote novels (probably not very good ones, but it does take sustained concentration.) And I learned the other week that Bashar al Assad was Oxford educated and speaks excellent English.

Mao was a poet and philosopher, Hitler was an artist and patron of the arts, Goering was a great collector...

It's our modern democratic politicians that don't have a much of a cultural hinterland.