Funerals and Batons

When in Belgrade, we visited Tito's mausoleum, which is in the "House of Flowers".  

 

His funeral drew many world leaders including 4 kings, 31 presidents, 6 princes and 22 Prime Ministers. It was the largest state funeral in history until the funerals of Pope John Paul in 2005 and Nelson Mandela in 2013.

Leaders from both sides of the Cold War, from 128 countries, out of 154 UN members at the time, came to Tito's funeral. The grey areas are the countries that didn't send a delegation.  I assume that South Africa was not invited because of the ongoing struggle of apartheid. 

Some of the batons given to Tito

People come to visit Tito's tomb but most interesting to me was the display of batons. The type of batons carried in a relay race. is no secret that socialist regimes love pomp and circumstances and a nation wide relay race fits the bill perfectly.  The idea was that a baton would be carried all around the country, ending with the baton being given to Tito, the 'President for Life' on his official birthday of May 25.  The first race had about 12500 participants and went for 9000 kilometers or 5,600 miles.  By 1950 more than a million children participated and the event covered all the major towns in the country. In 1957 the race became a national holiday and was covered extensively by radio and TV for the entire month.

The race culminated when the baton was given to Tito in a huge football stadium located in the capital city.  When he died in 1980, the race was already underway and the baton was immediately placed on the ground in respect.

I would love to know the story behind each one.

So many interesting shapes and colors!  I'd love to know the story behind each of them. A suit, a cow, a sewing machine, a pick, a gas mask, clasped hands, a train, a microphone, a ball....so many and what was on display was only a small part of the collection.

The annual relay of youth - one of the great events of Socialist Yugoslavia