Read Online A Guided Tour Through the Museum of Communism by Slavenka Drakulic - Free Book Online

fulfill all his heart’s desires. Or was it, again, the same thing as with his legs: Perhaps he acquired such desires only after climbing to power? Never mind, let’s not get carried away by such speculation.
    It is hard to believe that seemingly unimportant food habits and preferences—the content of his plate—can reveal a person’s character. But according to Koki-birdie, his ability to seriously delude himself could have already been detected in his ignoring the doctor’s orders and not taking proper care of his health. Knowing that he ate totally inappropriate and harmful food, Koki said to himself, “Our beloved Marshal, the greatest son of our nations and nationalities” (as he was sometimes called) “is seriously infected by the personality cult virus.” Ah, I see that you think Koki exaggerates, that he could not be that clever a birdie! But it was easy to come to such a conclusion. The Marshal was an extremely vain man. So much so that he believed nothing bad could ever happen to him. Whatever he did, whatever he ate, no serious illness could befall him. He felt so sure of himself, so untouchable—even by death. And that is the symptom of a grave illness that is closely connected to power. In fact, Koki thinks that it comes from having absolute power. But the paradox of such power is that it clouds not only your judgment but also your image of yourself. You begin to think that “living forever” is not only a metaphor; you begin to live that metaphor!
    The most important characteristic of the personality cult is that a person believes in his own immortality. After he died, one of his doctors was here, and Koki heard him say that the Marshal did not believe he was dying. “What, amputate my leg? I’d rather kill myself!” he said angrily when the doctors told him he would need an operation to save his life. What kind of life would that be? Koki knows that the Marshal loved traveling, and he could see how humiliating it would be for him to travel like an invalid! A crippled old man! And how could he lead his people, who were accustomed to a strong, decisive, imposing person? It would look disgraceful. So it took quite some persuasion to get him to agree to surgery. He wanted to be the only one in charge of his destiny, like God. And even when he survived that first surgery, the Marshal was not aware of death looming—he spoke about his future plans, Koki heard. For him, death was an abstraction; it concerned others—not him. Yes, he said that “one is immortal because of one’s deeds,” but this did not apply to him. Mind you, on his deathbed his barber dyed his hair every second week! That is what Koki calls wishful thinking. A sad picture comes to Koki’s mind from those times, a photo with his two sons from the hospital in Ljubljana. The Marshal’s last photo. Koki could see on their faces that they were worried and sad, that they knew what he did not want to comprehend, that this was the end.
    Koki also thinks that at the beginning others were to blame for adoring the leader. But later on, he himself became responsible for accepting that adoration, for believing in it. One of the dangers of the Marshal’s attitude toward the future was reflected in his perception of himself as being irreplaceable. That perhaps determined the destiny of his beloved country, Yugoslavia: He was hardly capable of imagining its future without him. Therefore, he did not prepare his successor. To create a successor would have meant that he recognized the fact that he was on his way out. But wouldn’t that mean defeat? Perhaps even an offense? He could not stand competition; therefore, he eliminated anyone who had the capacity of eventually replacing him. Another characteristic of his personality cult was that he could not be criticized—a luxury others didn’t have.
    Then, in the late seventies, a so-called collective presidency of