Tito, one of history’s greatest guerrilla fighters, liberated his country from German occupiers in World War II and formed a Communist government that maintained independence from both the Soviet Union and China. Known for his personal courage, physical and moral strength, and zest for life, Tito provided stability in an extremely volatile environment for more than three decades.
Born Josip Broz on May 25, 1892, at Kumrovec, Croatia, the seventh son of a peasant family, the future Tito endured a child¬hood of poverty. As a teenager he apprenticed as a locksmith and then as a metalworker before joining the army at the outbreak of World War I. In March 1915 a Cossack lancer wounded Broz, and he became a prisoner of the Russians^ During his captivity Broz experienced the October Revolution and became so impressed with the Communist movement that he joined the Red Army in 1917.
Broz returned to an independent “Yugoslavia in 1920 and joined the Yugoslav Communist Party. In 1928 he was arrested for subversion and served a five-year prison sentence. Upon his re¬lease, Broz went to Moscow to assist in Soviet efforts to exert influence in the Balkans and in 1936 traveled to Paris to recruit volunteers for the International Brigades to fight in Spain.
In 1937 he returned to Yugoslavia and, after his election as secretary-general of the Yugoslav Communist Party, worked to keep his country neutral in the impending World War II. Broz did little to oppose the German invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941 because of the nonaggression agreement between the Soviets and the Germans. When Germany invaded Russia in June, Broz adopted the nom de guerre Tito and began organizing resistance.
Tito initially allied with the survivors of the Royal Yugoslav Army and experienced some early successes in clearing the Germans from Serbia. The relationship between Tito’s Communists and the Royalists, known as Chetniks, soon deteriorated, however, as the Germans conducted a counteroffensive to regain lost ground. Tito, now opposed by both the Chetniks and the Nazis, withdrew to Montenegro and Bosnia to regroup.
Tito turned his guerrillas against the Chetniks and quickly defeated them. Declaring himself the leader of all of Yugoslavia, he campaigned to unite Yugoslavs, regardless of ethnic or religious background, against the common German enemy. Tito’s lighdy armed partisans grew in numbers, and their familiarity with their mountain retreats allowed them to remain hidden from German patrols, conduct sabotage in small groups, and assemble into large units to conduct general offensives. They compensated for their lack of large weapons with mobility and surprise.
In November 1943 the Allies recognized Tito as the legitimate leader of Yugoslavia and began providing weapons, ammunition, and military advisers. Despite Tito’s Communist beliefs, most of the support came from the English and Americans rather than the Soviets. Within “Yugoslavia, Tito gained strength through his charm when possible and through force when necessary.
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Hider ordered a total of seven campaigns to destroy Tito’s partisans. In the spring of 1943, Germany committed ten of its di
visions, supported by six Italian divisions, against Tito. Although surrounded, Tito escaped the encirclement by traveling hazardous mountain trails. He saved not only his four divisions of guerrillas but also his four thousand wounded. A year later, the Germans tried to capture Tito by parachuting special troops near his headquarters. Again, Tito escaped, adding to his reputation and bringing more recruits into his army.
In September 1943, without conferring with the Allies, Tito declared Yugoslavia “a federal community of equal peoples,” convened a “Partisan Parliament,” and declared himself marshal of Yugoslavia. Tito formed his more than a quarter-million partisans into a united army and went On the offensive. Supported by Allied air cover, Tito’s army fought together with the advancing Soviets and in October 1944 liberated Belgrade from the Germans. By war’s end, his army was also fighting alongside the British at Trieste.
Tito remained in power after the war and quickly asserted his independence from both the Soviets and the Western powers; Al-though he remained a dedicated Communist, Tito expressed na-tionalist viewpoints, stating, The Yugoslav brand of communism had its origins in the hills and forests and was not imported ready- made from Moscow.”
In June 1953, Tito became the president of the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia and maintained his absolute power until his death at Ljubljana on May 4, 1980, at age eighty-seven. During his thirty years of rule, Tito maintained his country’s neutrality and became a leader of other nonaligned countries. From his humble peasant beginnings, Tito became one of the world’s best-dressed statesmen and an accomplished pianist as he advanced to a position of respect as a world leader.
Tito stands as the only partisan leader of World War II to liberate his country with a minimum of Allied support and establish himself so strongly during the war that his position remained un- threatened afterward. For the next three decades, he stood up to Soviet and Western leaders, solidified the independence of his country, and maintained peace in a region of extreme ethnic, religious, and other rivalries. He alone unified Yugoslavia, and when he died, the country disintegrated into the warring states of Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia. His ranking on this list would be even higher had his country remained united after his death.