January 14th 2024
Lenin
I cannot move further because Germany has embraced the revolutionary flag. There is no actual violence in this kind of protest. Despite the actual blockades of the roads that remind me of Europe during my latest years of life, I do not notice any clash between different factions. At least along the streets. What happens on social media does not concern me. I am too old, my mindset is too old to get busy with the complexity of multiple digital platforms. The applied principles should not differ from my strategies to take over the power, to manipulate the mob before getting the highest position to rule the country. The technique used to master the on-line communication is however more similar to the one of the German National Socialists, and to the one of the Soviet Union after my death. In my case I managed to conduct a coup d’etat by manipulating a minority, not the majority of the population. Who, perhaps, was still not so enthusiastic to elect a plebeian, or a petit bourgeois, moreover a self professed atheist, to replace the holy czar. I am recognising it is foolish of me. Dictators are perhaps political leaders stupid enough to develop the ambition to rule a country on the verge of ruins. Clever lobbyists prefer to focus themselves where they could find easy money and a rich goldmine to be exploited. I however despised the rich tycoons, I was not able to understand their point. That was my limitation and the origin of the ruin of russia. I do not like the idea of the Soviet Union anymore.
The art dealer
With the New Year's Eve, it is ending a sort of financial year. There are no new characters emerging with the new one. The most well renowned names have not changed their position and I do not see any addition to the catalogue of emerging artists either. What I am mostly waiting for is a release signed by Thomas Ruff taking place by the end of the month. The curators call his creation a link to psychedelic culture. I have never been abstracted by booze or any strong effect on the human mind. Of course that is something popular and I have noticed a lot of strange behaviours among my colleagues. The colours, as well as the visual effects of teh Ruff’s oeuvre I am coveting so much are however highly captivating. They recreate fractals, they are fractals, but with such a complexity that they avoid trivialities. There is also a good equilibrium between rounds and squares in the composition. Not to mention the colours, particularly vivid. Perhaps even too much, reminding me of the Indian chromatic tastes. Ai Wei Wei is also back. This time by CIRCA, the whole Internet site is however not reachable. Perhaps because of the low budget, they have reserved it for IT, a hacker attack conducted by the Chinese friends, or the huge number of Ai Wei Wei’s fans contending for the prize. It could be a combination of the three, or just I am speculating too much. There should also be some cocktail parties taking place during the next week.
The consultant
Shops and offices are open once again and I can go around to collect all the information that I need. In the end I located a shop with my family name and contacted the manager. He is following the activity on behalf of my distant cousins. They seldom come back to the town, having preferred for a long time to spend most of their time on the Riviera. Luckily the coasts of Northern Italy are quite gloomy during this period of the year and they preferred to come back nearby Milan, although just for the weekend. They look to be nice people, quite wealthy, but with an idiosyncratic obsession for Lenin. The last heir of the family is called Valdimir, after him. They knew about Heidi's book and frequently spoke about Lenin's autograph with my grandad. They considered it a relic. The story was thus also clearer. As Lenin suddenly died, one of his assistants hid the book in the archives of general von S., my Russian ancestor or distant relative. It would have been better to avoid any reference to magic during the meetings of the politbüro. Some of the members of the central committee could have also nourished some interest to destroy the volume, just to be sure that Lenin will not resuscitate. The bolsheviks had already contacted my grandad’s family, which at the time was switching to the left. A loyal revolutionary, disguised as a white officer to be able to act undisturbed once outside the Soviet Union, found out where my grandad was quartered and let him have the book through the Graf von Pazze. It was necessary to complicate the operations in case the pretending white officer had been followed. It was not the case and everything went well. So far at least, since I do not own the book anymore.
