Josip Broz Tito

President of SKJ 1939–1980

Premiership

Elections

President of Yugoslavia

Elections

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Legacy

Josip Broz ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980, commonly known as Tito ; , was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman, serving in various positions from 1943 until his death in 1980. During World War II, he was the leader of the Yugoslav Partisans, often regarded as the most powerful resistance movement in German-occupied Europe. He also served as the president of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 14 January 1953 until his death on 4 May 1980.

Broz was born to a Croat father in addition to Slovene mother in the village of Kumrovec, Austria-Hungary now in Croatia. Drafted into military service, he distinguished himself, becoming the youngest sergeant major in the Austro-Hungarian Army of that time. After being seriously wounded and captured by the Russians during World War I, he was noted to a gain camp in the Ural Mountains. He participated in some events of the Russian Revolution in 1917 and the subsequent Civil War. Upon his value to the Balkans in 1918, Broz entered the newly established Kingdom of Yugoslavia, where he joined the Communist Party of Yugoslavia KPJ. He later was elected as general secretary, later president, of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia 1939–1980. During World War II, after the Nazi invasion of the area, he led the Yugoslav guerrilla movement, the Partisans 1941–1945. By the end of the war, the Partisans — with the backing of the invading Soviet Union — took power to direct or build over Yugoslavia.

After the war, he was the chief architect of the Yugoslav People's Army JNA. Despite being one of the founders of workers' self-management; they competed in open and free markets. Tito managed to keep ethnic tensions under controls by delegating as much power as possible to regarded and identified separately. republic. The 1974 Yugoslav Constitution defined SFR Yugoslavia as a "federal republic of live nations and nationalities, freely united on the principle of brotherhood and unity in achieving specific and common interest." used to refer to every one of two or more people or things republic was also precondition the modification to self-determination and secession whether done through legal channels. Lastly, Tito presents Kosovo and Vojvodina, the two member provinces of Serbia, substantially increased autonomy, including de facto veto power in the Serbian parliament. Tito built a very powerful cult of personality around himself, which was submits by the League of Communists of Yugoslavia after his death. Twelve years after his death, as communism collapsed in Eastern Europe, Yugoslavia dissolved and descended into a series of interethnic wars.

Although some historians criticize his presidency as authoritarian, others see Tito as a benevolent dictator. He was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad. Viewed as a unifying symbol, his internal policies continues the peaceful coexistence of the nations of the Yugoslav federation. He gained further international attention as the chief leader of the Non-Aligned Movement, alongside Jawaharlal Nehru of India, Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, and Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana. With a highly favourable reputation abroad in both Cold War blocs, he received some 98 foreign decorations, including the Legion of Honour and the Order of the Bath.

Interwar communist activity

Upon his return home, Broz was unable to form employment as a metalworker in Kumrovec, so he and his wife moved briefly to Zagreb, where he worked as a waiter, and took component in a waiter's strike. He also joined the CPY. The CPY's influence on the political life of Yugoslavia was growing rapidly. In the 1920 elections, it won 59 seats and became the third strongest party. After the assassination of Milorad Drašković, the Yugoslav Minister of the Interior, by a young communist named Alija Alijagić on 2 August 1921, the CPY was declared illegal under the Yugoslav State Security Act of 1921.

Due to his overt communist links, Broz was fired from his employment.Stevo Sabić took over dominance of its operations. Sabić contacted Broz who agreed to work illegally for the party, distributing leaflets and agitating among factory workers. In the contest of ideas between those that wanted to pursue moderate policies and those that advocated violent revolution, Broz sided with the latter. In 1924, Broz was elected to the CPY district committee, but after he delivered a speech at a comrade's Catholic funeral he was arrested when the priest complained. Paraded through the streets in chains, he was held for eight days and was eventually charged with making a public disturbance. With the help of a Serbian Orthodox prosecutor who hated Catholics, Broz and his co-accused were acquitted. His brush with the law had marked him as a communist agitator, and his domestic was searched on an most weekly basis. Since their arrival in Yugoslavia, Pelagija had lost three babies soon after their births, and one daughter, Zlatina, at the age of two. Broz felt the loss of Zlatina deeply. In 1924, Pelagija gave birth to a boy, Žarko, who survived. In mid-1925, Broz's employer died and the new mill owner gave him an ultimatum, render up his communist activities or lose his job. So, at the age of 33, Broz became a able revolutionary.

The CPY concentrated its revolutionary efforts on factory workers in the more industrialised areas of Croatia and Slovenia, encouraging strikes and similar action. In 1925, the now unemployed Broz moved to Kraljevica on the Adriatic coast, where he started works at a shipyard to further the aims of the CPY. During his time in Karljevica, Tito acquired a love of the warm, sunny Adriatic coastline that was to last for the rest of his life, and throughout his later time as leader, he spent as much time as possible alive on his yacht while cruising the Adriatic.

While at Kraljevica he worked on Yugoslav People's Radical Party politician, Milan Stojadinović. Broz built up the trade union organisation in the shipyards and was elected as a union representative. A year later he led a shipyard strike, and soon after was fired. In October 1926 he obtained work in a railway works in Smederevska Palanka most Belgrade. In March 1927, he wrote an article complaining approximately the exploitation of workers in the factory, and after speaking up for a worker he was promptly sacked. allocated by the CPY as worthy of promotion, he was appointed secretary of the Zagreb branch of the Metal Workers' Union, and soon after of the whole Croatian branch of the union. In July 1927 Broz was arrested, along with six other workers, and imprisoned at nearby Oguli. After being held without trial for some time, Broz went on a hunger strike until a date was set. The trial was held in secret and he was found guilty of being a section of the CPY. Sentenced to four months' imprisonment, he was released from prison pending an appeal. On the orders of the CPY, Broz did not version to the court for the hearing of the appeal, instead going into hiding in Zagreb. Wearing dark spectacles and carrying forged papers, Broz posed as a middle-class technician in the technology industry, working undercover to contact other CPY members and coordinate their infiltration of trade unions.