Summary
Josip Broz, later known as Tito, was a Croatian revolutionary who became a partisan leader during World War 2 and dictator of Yugoslavia until his death in 1980. He was one of the first eastern leaders to reject Soviet domination and survive, and promoted ‘nonalignment’ in the Cold War.Youth and Life in Russia
Josip Broz was born in 1892 to a peasant family in Croatia. He trained as a locksmith, joined a union and then worked as a travelling metalworker in Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Broz was conscripted into the Austro-Hungarian army in 1913 and excelled and when World War 1 broke out he fought in reconnaissance, learning skills vital to his later role in World War 2. He was wounded and captured by Russians in 1915. After a long convalescence he was placed in a P.O.W camp, where he became familiar with Bolshevik propaganda. Escaping in 1917, he was in St. Petersburg in time to take part in demonstrations and, after the Bolshevik revolution, joined the Red Army.Communist Leader
Having married a Russian and joined the Bolshevik party, Broz returned in 1920 to Croatia, now part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. He joined the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (CPY), but a state ban against communism drove the body underground. Broz supported the faction interested in violent revolution, and as he campaigned for communism he consequently lost multiple jobs. Broz worked on a local level for the CPY, rising to the position of organisational secretary for the CPY committee for Zagreb. His actions impressed the CPY’s bosses in Moscow and Broz was named political secretary. He led demonstrations and helped revive the party, but spent most of his time on the run, and was arrested in 1928 and imprisoned, in part due to the presence of bombs in his home.Broz was released from prison in March 1934, after a Yugoslav crackdown against communists had imprisoned many of his CPY fellows for much longer. Broz then took a new name: Tito. He travelled to Vienna, where the CPY leadership invited him on to the ruling Politburo. After a brief stay in Russia, which killed many foreign revolutionaries, Tito was back in Yugoslavia when Stalin purged the CPY, leaving Tito – who had possibly aided in the repression – with a lead role, and in 1937 he took charge of the Central Committee.
Tito as Partisan Leader
The opportunity for rebellion came when the Nazi led Axis powers attacked and occupied first Yugoslavia and then Russia. Tito’s communists co-ordinated a response, and their partisans fought against the invaders, to both repel them and seize control of the region. By 1943 the anti-Axis allies had to recognise Tito as the leader of resistance in Yugoslavia, and in 1944 the exiled royals came to an agreement with him. However, when Russian forces and Partizans ‘liberated’ Yugoslavia in 1944, Tito and his communist forces became effective rulers of the region.The Split with Russia
In mid-to-late 1945 Tito purged local non-communists, tried collaborators, held false elections and created a new communist Federal People’s republic of Yugoslavia. While he at first seemed to be acting in the Soviet style, he soon fell out with Soviet leader Stalin, over adventures in Greece and Albania, over taking an independent line and especially over being more charismatic and popular than Stalin. In 1948 Stalin tried to reassert his control over Yugoslavia but failed, and Tito remained in firm command of the government, army and police. With the rest of Eastern Europe evermore under Soviet control, Tito’s Yugoslavia drifted away from Russia.Non-Alignment
Yugoslavia leant towards the democratic west for the late 1940s, receiving aid, but Tito turned Yugoslavia back towards Russia after Stalin’s death. However, this renewed closeness soon faded, and Russia and Yugoslavia went through phases of cordial and less than cordial relations. Instead Tito developed a new policy, one of ‘non-alignment’, where states would theoretically stay an equal distance apart from the great eastern and western power blocs of the Cold War. Consequently, Tito allied with Egypt and India and non-aligned states held their first meeting in Belgrade in 1961. Tito led this movement at first, but was eclipsed over the years and the relevance of Non-Alignment faded. In practice Tito vacillated between east and west, charting a course which benefitted from each sides mutual antipathy.Federalism and Decentralization
During the 1960s and 70s Yugoslavia began to experience ever greater struggles between the centralised federalism of the unified states which composed Yugoslavia (including Croatia and Serbia) and a shifting of power to the republics. Tito managed this by purging centralist and decentralist alike, and then putting in place measures which he hoped would bind the country together, like plans for a rotating presidency (albeit one which would follow Tito’s own death) and a new constitution in 1974 which aimed to equalise the smaller states with the larger two. Keeping Yugoslavia together was a balancing act Tito just managed. He also sponsored terrorists such a Carlos the Jackal.Death and Legacy
After the 1974 constitution he acted increasingly like an elder statesman rather than a day-to-day ruler. In 1980, still dictator of Yugoslavia, he was admitted to hospital and died on May 4th. The nation which Tito had aimed to bind together fell apart over the next decade, due to economic problems he failed to solve and a growing nationalism he had tried to manage. Had he not purged liberal reformers in the 70s, and replaced them with hardliners and centralists, reform might have been possible. This led to independence movements, bitter warfare and ethnic cleansing.Despite acting as dictator, and proving ruthless when necessary, Tito also stands out as the first of the eastern communist nations to stand up and split from Russia and survive, even doing so when Stalin was in power, as well as creating the best conditions for citizens in a communist country. He loved the international political scene, such as travelling to conferences and being feted by national leaders, and led what might be considered a playboy lifestyle. His later life was marked by a desire to remain popular, and he stayed aloof from the day to day political decisions. This allowed him to escape the blame for the secret police or failed initiatives, and avoid the anger. Indeed, when students rebelled in the late sixties, Tito was able to side with them and scapegoat the government.
