How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed

On a day with typical morning traffic, including the arrival of the bread truck, Drakulić turns on CNN and sees the Gulf War on television. War is likely coming to Yugoslavia also, but, as Drakulić cynically notes, “it’s only some 20 million people, lost in the hills of the Balkans, with no oil fields to make it important” (170). Drakulić fears that the coming conflicts will be intensely personal, the continuation of the partisan strife from World War II: “stories from the dead and disappeared from my family alone make me feel as though the war has never really ended” (171). Tito’s regime replaced nationalism with an official slogan of “brotherhood unity,” but since his death, “nationalism has started boiling loudly, like a steam kettle, which is now whistling loudly, becoming our only reality” (171).

The political situation has since deteriorated, with Serbia demanding centralized control of the Yugoslav republics and maintaining the direction of the Yugoslav army. At first, the talk of war was “noise you could dismiss with a little effort” (173). Her shopping trip shows the new atmosphere of fear, as the shelves are nearly empty of staples like flour and sugar.