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Description
I bought this leather coat on the flea market in Zagreb, Croatia, only to find out later that it was originaly produced back in 1960s for UDBA officers. UDBA was the secret police in communist Yugoslavia. Those guys used to investigate and execute „enemies of the people“. The coat looks similar to those leather coats of Cheka officers from the early age of Soviet Union. But it also looks very much like the long Nazi coats. In the Soviet 1920s the leather coat symbolized proletarian ruggedness, ideological fortitude, and the expression of revolutionary manliness. By the late 1930s, when most communists abandoned leather for wool suits, the coat became the usual uniform of the Soviet secret police and thus embodiment of the Revolution. Indeed, leather’s sleek shine went well with Felix Dzerzhinsky’s famous slogan that a good Chekist had „clean hands, a cool head, and a warm heart“. But in reality Chekists had neither clean hands, cool heads, nor warm hearts.
This short turn back to Soviet history is here only to explain why I took this self-portrait in the secret service leather coat. Pity I did not have the good old Mauser, to make the picture complete.
My intention was to research how a man feels in the uniform of organizations such as UDBA or Cheka. The answer is simple: a man feels power and strength in his body, a man feels that how a powerful state apparatus stands behind him, how he has power over life and death. It is a horrible and pleasant feeling at the same time and I believe this was the essence of being such an officer.
How much of this state of mind can be contributed to the leather coat and why they loved it? I would say that this coat, like all other types of uniforms as well, had some secret power due to the fact that is was the symbol of state power. It made an officer feel powerful. It is not surprising how they have chosen such a firm and crude material for those coats.
Why is power is so important in our lives, why can’t we live without efforts to achieve the highest possible power? I believe Bertrand Russell said something like this: power is the fundamental social principle and every person is trying to gain as much power as possible, and everything else is just an act.

Description
I bought this leather coat on the flea market in Zagreb, Croatia, only to find out later that it was originaly produced back in 1960s for UDBA officers. UDBA was the secret police in communist Yugoslavia. Those guys used to investigate and execute „enemies of the people“. The coat looks similar to those leather coats of Cheka officers from the early age of Soviet Union. But it also looks very much like the long Nazi coats. In the Soviet 1920s the leather coat symbolized proletarian ruggedness, ideological fortitude, and the expression of revolutionary manliness. By the late 1930s, when most communists abandoned leather for wool suits, the coat became the usual uniform of the Soviet secret police and thus embodiment of the Revolution. Indeed, leather’s sleek shine went well with Felix Dzerzhinsky’s famous slogan that a good Chekist had „clean hands, a cool head, and a warm heart“. But in reality Chekists had neither clean hands, cool heads, nor warm hearts.
This short turn back to Soviet history is here only to explain why I took this self-portrait in the secret service leather coat. Pity I did not have the good old Mauser, to make the picture complete.
My intention was to research how a man feels in the uniform of organizations such as UDBA or Cheka. The answer is simple: a man feels power and strength in his body, a man feels that how a powerful state apparatus stands behind him, how he has power over life and death. It is a horrible and pleasant feeling at the same time and I believe this was the essence of being such an officer.
How much of this state of mind can be contributed to the leather coat and why they loved it? I would say that this coat, like all other types of uniforms as well, had some secret power due to the fact that is was the symbol of state power. It made an officer feel powerful. It is not surprising how they have chosen such a firm and crude material for those coats.
Why is power is so important in our lives, why can’t we live without efforts to achieve the highest possible power? I believe Bertrand Russell said something like this: power is the fundamental social principle and every person is trying to gain as much power as possible, and everything else is just an act.