Tito and His Comrades

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6

Tito’s Death and

His Political Legacy

1980

The Cult of Personality

To avoid thinking abut Tito’s seemingly imminent death, the late sixties and
seventies saw an increase in his cult of personality. It was a copy of Stalin’s cult,
but although it elevated the marshal to the level of the “Boss,” it stressed the
exceptionality of his experience. Tito’s physicality contributed to his legendary
status. He was a handsome man of medium height, robust build, ash blond
hair, and a fair face, more noble of bearing than his peasant origins might have
suggested. The artist Antun Augustinčić, who had sculpted Tito’s bust before
the Second AVNOJ, said half-jokingly: “He must be of aristocratic origin.
Who has ever seen such a type in Zagorje?”^1 Twenty years later, Dobrica Ćosić
agreed: “He has the head and the face of a condottiere. The head is made espe-
cially for busts, the profile for gold coins. The head and the face of this man
have something classical, Roman.”^2
The cult of Tito started even before the war, in restricted communist circles,
but developed further during the liberation struggle. Ranković related that in
autumn 1942 he was chatting with Tito, Kardelj, and Djilas under a beech tree.
Djilas stressed that Tito was not popular enough as a personality. “We too
should have a chief, a man for whom the masses feel an affinity. A leader.
A party secretary. As the Russians have in Stalin.”^3 In a patriarchal environ-
ment, where the folk poetry had deep roots, this idea found fertile ground.
With the poem “Tito, Violet White,” the simple fighters compared him to a
small flower to stress his exceptional rarity. The most famous poem in his honor
ended with a collective promise: “Comrade Tito, we swear never to depart from
your road.”^4 The same thought was expressed, if more challengingly, by the
Montenegrin poet Radovan Zogović with some “constructivist” verses: “Tito
has been born with rage / in a collective effort / by a Titan / the people / and
by the struggle, the mother / Tito, are we all / all / the army, the country and