"...spotlights on the side, an altimeter and, yes, a Remington shaver."
June 3, 2014 2:13 PM Subscribe
When I was living in China, I was chatting with my host parents one day about the respective cults of personality around Mao and Tito, and the different attitudes held by younger vs. older people towards these figures. Because I was born in the eighties, I had not much insight into Tito's stature among the average citizen, except I knew that my father was one of Tito's Pioneers in his childhood (complete with obligatory red cravat) and that my mother wasn't (it seems the ranks of the Pioneers were not drawn from the proletariat so much as the intelligentsia).
At any rate, I decided I would email my grandmother to ask her what her generation's attitude was towards Marshal Tito, as she was of the generation that had lived through WWII and his subsequent rise to power, and the heyday of the Yugoslav years.
So, I was expecting kind of a general meditation on what it was like, expecting the kind of response if I had asked my American friend's grandparents what the Kennedy years were like, or something. Instead, here's what my grandmother wrote back (my translation):
"...When I think about Tito, I come to the conclusion that I cannot say anything as concise about him as he said about Stalin or Mao. To me, Tito was a statesman much greater and better than many of today's politicians in this part of the world. He also represented the system, the Communist system, which brought everything that such a system brings. Many today agree that in the time of Tito, life was better, and today we call those people Yugonostalgics. He brought about brotherhood and unity, which many today believe was forced because the differences between the tribes (as I call them) were merely suppressed, and became expressed in a terrible way after the country fell apart. I blame Tito for not resigning and leaving a successor, because those around him seized the opportunity and it led to everything that happened [the war]... I met Tito a few time at conferences and he always fascinated me, whatever people may have said about him. Nevertheless, a greater distance is necessary to correctly assess his role and his legacy..."
posted by Aubergine at 3:11 PM on June 3, 2014 [13 favorites]
At any rate, I decided I would email my grandmother to ask her what her generation's attitude was towards Marshal Tito, as she was of the generation that had lived through WWII and his subsequent rise to power, and the heyday of the Yugoslav years.
So, I was expecting kind of a general meditation on what it was like, expecting the kind of response if I had asked my American friend's grandparents what the Kennedy years were like, or something. Instead, here's what my grandmother wrote back (my translation):
"...When I think about Tito, I come to the conclusion that I cannot say anything as concise about him as he said about Stalin or Mao. To me, Tito was a statesman much greater and better than many of today's politicians in this part of the world. He also represented the system, the Communist system, which brought everything that such a system brings. Many today agree that in the time of Tito, life was better, and today we call those people Yugonostalgics. He brought about brotherhood and unity, which many today believe was forced because the differences between the tribes (as I call them) were merely suppressed, and became expressed in a terrible way after the country fell apart. I blame Tito for not resigning and leaving a successor, because those around him seized the opportunity and it led to everything that happened [the war]... I met Tito a few time at conferences and he always fascinated me, whatever people may have said about him. Nevertheless, a greater distance is necessary to correctly assess his role and his legacy..."
posted by Aubergine at 3:11 PM on June 3, 2014 [13 favorites]
"Nevertheless, a greater distance is necessary to correctly assess his role and his legacy..."
I bet you got birthday cards from your Nana that ended "Birthdays are a land of contrasts. May yours be happy."
posted by codswallop at 5:47 PM on June 3, 2014 [4 favorites]
I bet you got birthday cards from your Nana that ended "Birthdays are a land of contrasts. May yours be happy."
posted by codswallop at 5:47 PM on June 3, 2014 [4 favorites]
A four door convertible Caddy? That was indeed a custom one off job, since Cadillac stopped making those in the early 50s. What a beast of a machine, I love it.
posted by inthe80s at 7:45 PM on June 3, 2014
posted by inthe80s at 7:45 PM on June 3, 2014
I never knew "Broz" referred to "Dudebroz".
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 1:50 AM on June 4, 2014
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 1:50 AM on June 4, 2014
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