Marshal Tito: Yugoslavia's Revolutionary Leader and Cold War Maverick

Early Life and Communist Awakening

Originally named Josip Broz, Josip Broz Tito was a revolutionary and statesman born on May 7, 1892, in Austria-Hungary in what is currently Croatia. He died almost 88 years later, on May 4, 1980, in Yugoslavia (now Slovenia). During the period from 1939 to 1980, Tito served as secretary-general and then president of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia. From 1941 to 1945, he was the supreme commander of Yugoslav partisans and then commander of the Yugoslav People's Army from 1945 to 1953. He held the title of marshal from 1943 to 1980, served as premier from 1945 to 1953, and as president of Yugoslavia from 1953 to 1980. Tito was the chief architect of the "second Yugoslavia," a socialist federation that lasted from World War II until 1991. He was the first Communist leader in power to defy Soviet hegemony, a backer of independent roads to socialism (sometimes referred to as "national communism"), and a promoter of the policy of nonalignment between the two hostile Cold War blocs.

Josip Broz, later known as Marshal Tito, was born of humble origins but would go on to become the president of post-World War II Yugoslavia. Tito was responsible for rebuilding Yugoslavia following the devastation it experienced during World War II and for forging a unified Yugoslavian nation until his death in 1980. Josip Broz was born in a large peasant family, the seventh of 15 children, to a Slovene mother and Croat father. In 1907, he apprenticed as a locksmith and completed his apprenticeship in 1910, at which point he became a member of the Social Democratic Party of Croatia-Slavonia headquartered in Zagreb. Following sporadic employment in this profession for five years, Tito was conscripted into the Austro-Hungarian Army in 1913. He attended a noncommissioned officer academy, was promoted to sergeant, and served in the Serbian war in 1914.

Rise to Prominence and Political Imprisonment

In early 1915, Tito was assigned to the Russian front where he became a casualty and prisoner of war in April 1915. Following a lengthy period of convalescence, he was placed in various internment camps which provided his first exposure to Bolshevik propaganda. Tito would remain an ardent communist, but of a special kind. His involvement with the communist movement began early when he took part in the July Days demonstrations that occurred in Petrograd in 1917. Upon the successful outcome of the October Revolution, he became a member of an Omsk, Siberian-based Red Guard unit. According to one biographer, "Following a White counteroffensive, [Tito] fled to Kyrgyzstan and subsequently returned to Omsk, where he married a Russian woman and joined the South Slav section of the Bolshevik party." Tito's future role as a prominent Yugoslavian statesman began when he returned to Croatia to become a member of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia.

In 1920, Tito's activities on behalf of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (CPY) were outlawed in December 1920. He returned to his metalworking trade in various capacities until 1923, when he renewed his ties with the CPY and served in local and regional leadership positions in Serbia and Croatia. In 1927, Tito became a member of Zagreb's CPY committee and was rapidly elevated first to organizational secretary, where he gained notice from communist leaders in Moscow, and then to the committee's political secretary. Following Tito's leadership of street demonstrations against civil authorities in June 1928, he was arrested in August 1928.

On November 6, 1928, after spending three months in prison, Tito was tried for a number of serious crimes, including holding active membership in the illegal Communist party, disseminating Communist propaganda, and the illegal possession of bombs and firearms. According to historian Fitzroy MacLean, "The trial, which was prominently reported in the local press, was remarkable for one thing in particular: for the first time a prisoner openly glorified the Communist cause." Indeed, Tito made his position about communism absolutely clear during his trial despite the serious consequences for doing so. Although Tito initially launched into a diatribe concerning the role the Communist party would play in bringing about much-needed reforms, he was cut short by the court president, who refused permission for Tito or his lawyer to speak any further and brought the proceedings to an untimely conclusion. The defendant's passionate zeal about his firmly held beliefs can be readily discerned from Tito's response to this unfair action when he shouted, "What better proof could there be that this is a police state? Long live the Communist party! Long live the World Revolution!" The courtroom was cleared after this outburst, and Tito and his four codefendants were removed by force by law enforcement authorities.

World War II Leadership and Post-War Independence

On November 14, 1928, Tito was sentenced pursuant to Article I of the Law for the Defense of the State and received five-and-a-half years imprisonment based on allegations that he conspired to overthrow the ruling regime. Tito's response to his lengthy prison sentence resembled his earlier remarks in the courtroom when he leapt to his feet and once again shouted three times, "Long live the Communist party! Long live the Third International!" before being forcibly removed from the courtroom. According to MacLean, "All this was reported at length in the press, and the published accounts were widely read and passed from hand to hand by discontented people all over the country. As a result, the Communist cause was exalted and to many people Josip Broz became a hero." This heroic status would be further reinforced over the succeeding years as Tito defeated Nazi invaders during World War II without the assistance of the Red Army and then succeeded in leveraging his regional influence to play both sides of the Cold War belligerents against each other in the best interests of Yugoslavia.

Yugoslav-Soviet Relations and Cold War Positioning

Although the Soviets had dispatched a security contingent to guard Tito, the war had already ended and the contingent was viewed as an exercise in Soviet control rather than an actual effort to protect the Yugoslavian leader. By the late 1940s, Tito was convinced that while his country needed the economic and technical assistance that the Soviet Union could provide, he was absolutely adamant that Yugoslavia should remain outside Soviet domination. Not surprisingly, leaders in the Soviet Union also became increasingly wary concerning Tito's true intentions.

In reality, Soviet leaders had much to be concerned about because Tito's ambitions were nothing short of elevating Yugoslavia to a position that would rival the Soviet Union itself in the communist sphere of influence. Tito "valued Yugoslavia's unique brand of national communism, which had emerged from indigenous Yugoslav soil and the experiences of World War II." It was Tito's thinking that Yugoslavia had earned the right to assume this new position of influence in global affairs by virtue of its sacrifices and contributions to the communist cause. For instance, it was Tito's perspective that "the twofold character of the National Liberation Struggle—against both fascist aggressors and traitors—that made Yugoslavia unique." This sentiment is evident in an article by Tito in October 1946 wherein he emphasized the distinctive nature of Yugoslavia's struggle against both invaders and domestic collaborators, arguing that "no other occupied country in Europe can boast of such a struggle and our people have a right to be proud of it."

By mid-1948, relations between Moscow and Tito worsened when, only nine months after the Cominform was created, Stalin banished Tito from the organization based on his growing suspicions and distrust. The path that Tito was taking in developing the Yugoslavian version of communism was at distinct odds with the Soviet approach. Yugoslavia favored economic decentralization, reforms in worker management, and an overarching "active neutralism" for the country's foreign policy. Although there were fundamental political ideological differences involved in this feud, many authorities agree that Tito became increasingly unpopular in the Soviet Union for one simple reason: "The heart of the matter was Tito's refusal to obey Stalin. Stalin was primarily angry at Tito for supporting the Greek communists, as well as for claiming the city of Trieste, thus delaying the Austrian peace treaty and complicating Stalin's wartime alliance with the British and Americans."

Resembling a modern-day state beset by sanctions and embargoes at every turn, Yugoslavia was likewise cut off from trade with all Warsaw Pact nations. However, like many isolated regimes, Tito's Communist party managed to prevail despite these economic constraints. Despite remaining an ardent communist, Tito even managed to obtain military and economic assistance from the United States, a step that added yet more fuel to the Soviet's fires about Tito's regime. Indeed, Soviet archives indicate that Stalin ordered Tito's assassination in late 1952, an eventuality that was only disrupted by Stalin's own death in March 1953. In sum, "Yugoslavia was the only independent communist state since the 1948 Moscow-Belgrade rift, aloof from the Warsaw Pact or Soviet bloc, courted in the 1950s both by the United States and Soviet Union, admired by the increasingly independent Asian and African countries, and vehemently critical of Soviet great power chauvinism."

Conclusion

The research showed that Josip Broz Tito first achieved heroic status in Yugoslavia during his trial for anti-government activities in 1928 and never relinquished that status. His actions in defeating the Nazis during World War II were followed by his political stalemate with the Soviet Union, where he even managed to obtain military and economic assistance from the United States to the dismay of Soviet leaders. His contributions to Yugoslavian development after World War II were especially notable, as he guided his country along a very fine line between the Soviet brand of communism and the free market economies that were proliferating elsewhere on the European continent. In the final analysis, it is reasonable to suggest that Tito's stature is on the level of America's George Washington as a true founding father of his country.