Some time ago, in the 20th century, the state of Yugoslavia existed in Europe. It has chosen socialism in its path of development. Despite the fact that the president of Yugoslavia was a Croat by nationality, Serbs, Macedonians, and Montenegrins regret him. Everything was different here, not like in other countries, following the path, in the end of which communism was to be established. After the collapse of Yugoslavia, the so-called. titostalgia, which has not passed to this day. This phenomenon is named after the leader of Yugoslavia, who was not afraid to cause Stalin's displeasure, which brought anger not only to his head, but to the whole country.
However, in spite of this, the unyielding Croat remained the leader of the state, who ruled the country for 35 years out of 88 lived years of his life. The children and wives of Broz Tito and, of course, he himself has repeatedly become an object of interest for the media.
Who was this man who created a strong socialist country in the eternally boiling Balkans, which soon collapsed after his death?
early years
From the very beginning, with the biography of Joseph Broz Tito, not everything is simple. He was born on May 7, 1892 in the village of Kumrovets, which is located north of the capital of Croatia, Zagreb. The family was large, and Joseph was the seventh child. In addition, the family can be called international, like the entire Austro-Hungarian empire, part of which was the birthplace of the future leader. His father, Franjo Broz, was a Croat, and his mother, Maria Yaroshek, was a Slovenian, both were Catholics by religion. Later, the leader of Yugoslavia, Broz Tito, changed his date of birth to May 25, 1983. Why he did this is unknown. There is only an assumption that the number is connected with the German operations Rosselshsprung (Horseback Riding), the result of which was to eliminate the leader of the Yugoslav Communists.
Despite the fact that the family was poor, education is still the future president, since in Autro-Hungary at that time primary education was considered compulsory. He studied well at school, as evidenced by the preserved entries in the certificate.
After elementary school, the boy immediately had to work, and in 1907 his father even tried to send him to work in America, but due to lack of funds he had to abandon this attempt and look for another place to earn money. Broz Tito, the leader of Yugoslavia in the future, enters the disciples of a locksmith, where his brother Stepan later came. Tito's teacher was the Czech Nikolai Karas, who introduced his ward to the teachings of the socialists. Joseph Broz Tito imbued with the ideas of socialism and already in 1910, having moved to Zagreb, he became a member of the Social Democratic Party of Croatia and Slavonia.
Youth
Since 1911, Joseph has changed many jobs. He worked in Zagreb at a bicycle factory, in Mannheim at a Benz automobile factory, in Vienna at a Gridl factory, in Wiener Neustadt at a Daimler factory. During this time, in addition to professional skills, he also developed in other directions: he learned to dance, fencing, and studied Czech and German. But in 1913, such a favorable time for Tito’s self-development ended, he reached the age of 21 and, according to the laws of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, should go to military service. The service had to be carried out first in Vienna, in the imperial regiment, but on the basis of the report on the transfer of the future marshal was transferred to Zagreb.
It is not surprising that the Croatian nationality Joseph Broz Tito asked to serve among his countrymen. There he showed himself on the positive side and was sent to study at a junior officer school. Even the fencing skills acquired before the army were very useful: having improved them in the army, he was considered one of the best fencers of the regiment.
Tito's biography contains an episode in which a member of the royal family became a participant. Competitions were held in the unit, following which Joseph was awarded a silver medal. Awarding was made personally by Archduke Joseph Ferdinand. It is difficult to convey all the emotions that overwhelmed Broz Tito, the president of Yugoslavia in the future.
Here I am, the worker, the son of a landless peasant whose only capital is hands and profession, and I accept congratulations from the Archduke, ”Tito recalled. “I, an ordinary soldier, to whom a member of the imperial family shook hands!”
Joseph Broz, who was considering a reward, did not have time to take a walk - a shot was fired at Sarajevo, which killed not only the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, but also pierced millions of human destinies, destroying empires and creating republics.
World War I
The military unit where Joseph Broz served, was on the Serbian front until the end of the first year of the war, but already in January 1915 was transferred to the Russian front.
March 25, as a result of a severe wound in the battle at Mitkeu, the young man was captured. The wound was very serious, he spent almost 13 months in a hospital in Sviyazhsk, near Kazan. His condition was so serious that the doctors did not hope that he would survive. But the Croat turned out to be persistent, the body overcame everything and, as soon as the forces allowed, Joseph Broz Tito began to study the Russian language. Soon after his recovery, he was transferred to Alatyr, and by the beginning of 1917 to Kungur, where he was caught by the news of the February Revolution.
Being in the midst of workers actively studying the works of Lenin who returned from exile, Broz decides to go to Petrograd. He lurked in the freight train, among the cargo, and, just a few days later, was in the capital, having had time for the most eventful events of July - demonstrations against the Provisional Government. Becoming a spectator of such an event, Broz Tito was enthusiastic and determined to go home, organize a revolution. Here is what he said:
I was encouraged by the strength and organization of these demonstrations and saw what kind of strength the working class represents .... Many workers were killed. Then the mass arrests began ... I hid under the bridges over the Neva for several days, and then decided to flee to my homeland. I told myself: I’m going to Yugoslavia to make a revolution, I’m going home.
Tito and the revolution
The Bolsheviks suppressed the speeches, Lenin fled to Finland and took refuge in a hut in Razliv. There were spontaneous arrests in the streets. Trying to get to his homeland, the future leader of the country, Broz Tito, gets to Finland, which was then part of Russia, where he was overtaken by police and transported to the Peter and Paul Fortress. From there, having learned that he was an Austrian prisoner of war, the Croat was returned to Siberia, to Kungur. But in Yekaterinburg, Joseph Broz Tito arbitrarily changes direction and flees to Omsk, where the Bolsheviks were in power. There he turned to the authorities with a request for Russian citizenship and for joining the RSDLP (b) party. After the onset of the Whites, Omsk fell and again it is necessary to run. This time in the Kyrgyz village, where he went to work for a rich Kyrgyz.
Meanwhile, in November 1918, the First World War ended. The Russian, Austro-Hungarian and German empires did not become. In their place, new states appeared. For example, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. All these events prompted Joseph Broz Tito to seek contact with the Yugoslav Bolsheviks and in January 1920, after so many years, he returned to his homeland.
First wife
Even before these events, in 1918, 25-year-old Broz Tito married Pelageya (Polina) Belousova. The first wife of the revolutionary was younger than him, according to some reports at the time of 1918 she was not a full 15 years. When Kolchak came to power in Omsk, the new government did not want to recognize a civil marriage and they had to get married in the church, after 2 years. Moreover, the first time Joseph registered a marriage not under his last name, calling himself Joseph Brozovich.
Arriving at home, Joseph got a job at the mill, together with Polina they were expecting the first child, who died shortly after birth. The same sad fate befell the second child. Later 2 and 3 year old girls and a boy died. Only the son of Zharko, born in 1924, survived.
Polina Broz also joined the Communist Party of Yugoslavia in 1927, having experienced all the delights of underground work. Despite the fact that she did not meet with special help from her husband, Joseph Broz's wife Tito did not reproach him, realizing how dangerous he was and how difficult the life of the party leader was. In 1928, almost simultaneously with her husband, Polina was arrested, but released very soon, because an experienced revolutionary, as much as possible, protected her husband and was able to convince the police of her non-involvement in the party. Together with the child, Polina settled with friends, who sympathized with her position and supported as much as she could. By the way, their help was spent; she spent almost all of her small salary on her son and husband. Soon, Polina and her son through secret channels sent the Yugoslav Communists to Soviet Russia.
Political life
In Zagreb on November 6, 1928, the trial "on the case of bombers" began, it was on him that the future president of Yugoslavia passed as one of the five accused. After receiving five years of imprisonment, Broz Tito continued to improve his linguistic skills in prison and began to study Esperanto and English, and in addition, political science. Made escape plans. But he was unlucky, had to serve his entire term. Moreover, having left prison at the end of his sentence, he was immediately arrested for escaping in 1927.
A few months later, Broz Tito finally came out of the gates of his prison and was able to return to active party activity. Already on December 29, 1934, Joseph was sent to Moscow. In February 1935, advancing with the help of fake documents, which is saturated with the biography of Broz Tito, the future leader of Yugoslavia reached the capital of the Soviet Union.
What he did for several years in Moscow is not known for certain. It was previously believed that Joseph consisted of the party of Yugoslav communists under the Comintern, but this is not so. Information leaked that Broz Tito collaborated with Soviet intelligence, helping them gather information about the Communist leaders abroad. It was a very dangerous time when, immediately after the Kirov assassination, went full of repression against the old Bolsheviks, party leaders arrested on murder charges. Among the victims of repression were Zinoviev, Kamenev, Bukharin, Trotsky. They did not have enough resources to fight Stalin, whose authority was gaining more and more strength every day.
But not only for party work, Joseph used this time. In 1936, he divorced his wife, putting forward as the reason the alleged betrayal and poor care of his son. Polina did not confirm any of the charges, but agreed with a divorce. But the role of Broz Tito in her fate did not end there, since it was her previous relationship with him that cost her two arrests, she was rehabilitated only in 1957, however, the right to live in Moscow was never returned to her.
The Second World War
In October 1936, in one of the Moscow registry offices, Broz Tito married a second time. He married Lucia Bauer under the name of Friedrich Walter. Lucie was previously married to one of the German Communists.
Three days later, the young spouse went on the next assignment of the party and they did not meet again. In connection with the coup, the power of General Franco was established, and Tito was sent to Yugoslavia in order to mobilize those who wanted to go to war with the fascist regime.
Together with Milovan Djilas, Edward Kardel and Alexander Rankovich, Joseph makes up the new backbone of the leadership of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. As a result of his fruitful work in 1938, Moscow established him as the head of the new leadership of the Yugoslav Communist Party.
April 5, 1941 between the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, a pact of friendship and non-aggression was signed. On April 6, 1941, that is, the next day, Hitler troops attacked Yugoslavia. The Balkan country was again drawn into the European conflict.
On June 27, at a meeting of the central committee of the Politburo, a decision was made to create a main headquarters to guide the partisan movement. Units were created all over the country, led by the chief secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Joseph Broz Tito. Thanks to such organization and selfless activity of the partisans, the German troops could not take control of the entire territory of Yugoslavia. They controlled power only in large cities. The people's liberation army of Yugoslavia at the end of 1943 controlled a large territory of the state.
During the war, Broz Tito proved to be not only a competent leader, but also a brave, dedicated partisan. Under his command, the detachments more than once left the encirclement, inflicted heavy losses on German formations; as a result, in 1943 it was proposed to assign Joseph Broz Tito the title of Marshal of Yugoslavia. Throughout the existence of the entire state of Yugoslavia, he remained the only marshal in the history of this country.
Such a fact in the biography of Isif Broz Tito speaks of a successful fight against the invaders, as the mention in Hitler’s favorite newspaper, “Völknisher beobachter”. The Nazis accused him of all mortal sins, however, the photograph was posted on the old one, also from the police archives of Zagreb. A reward for him was 100,000 marks.
In October 1942, Broz Tito conducted an operation that was extremely dangerous for his reputation as a communist. He turned to the German command with a proposal to conduct an exchange of prisoners. Among these prisoners was his third wife, Greta Haas, who had already been arrested a few months ago, but, thanks to a name and surname that looked like a German, the Nazis did not understand who she really was. Very soon, upon learning of Joseph's adultery, Greta left the detachment.
During the war, future President Broz Tito showed himself from different angles, sometimes unpleasant for senior mediators from Moscow, but he never disappointed his partisans, who, by personal example, were convinced that the commander would not abandon them, hiding behind his high rank of Secretary General of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. There were many examples of this, and, moreover, in the history of the Second World War there was no other commander of such a rank afterwards, like Broz Tito.
A politician’s biography abounds with examples of responsibility not only to people, but also to animals. For example, having lost his dog, he grieved for a long time, and upon learning that the partisan detachment commander had ordered the slaughter of a cow that had traveled with the detachment many kilometers in anger, demoted him.
Confession
After the defeat of Italy in the war, the Yugoslav government, which was in London, recognized Joseph Broz Tito as the supreme commander, the British also began to support the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia. On April 5, 1945, the Supreme Commander of Yugoslavia signed an agreement on the temporary deployment of Soviet troops for the final expulsion of the Nazi invaders from the country. The victory brought Yugoslavia a new name. It turned into the Democratic Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, where the prime minister and foreign minister represented by Joseph Broz Tito played a key role.
The most friendly relations were established between the USSR and the FEFU, which can be between full partners, the more unexpected was the discord in 1948. Tito and Stalin did not agree on the need for the Balkan Confederation. The anti-Yugoslav company began. The following year, the USSR canceled the Treaty of Friendship, Mutual Assistance and Post-War Cooperation with Yugoslavia. In general, in the Soviet state there is some kind of hysteria, the result of which was the rapprochement of the Far Eastern Federal District and the Western bloc.
The post-war period of the biography of Broz Tito
The FEFU was the first country to follow the socialist path of development, where the president appeared. It happened in 1953. Joseph Broz Tito, a Croatian national, became president. He held this position until his death in 1980. Of course, relations between the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia were restored under Khrushchev, who visited Broz Tito in 1955, but they did not return to their previous level. The President of Yugoslavia was quite independent in relation to the policies pursued by the USSR in relation to other countries, and successfully resisted the pressure of the USSR on the Communist Party. Under his leadership, socialism was built on a special, Yugoslav model, the so-called DDD (decentralization, de-bureaucratization, democratization). And for the first time in history, the Communist Party stated that it is refusing the indicated role and will exert influence on politics only with the help of its moral qualities.
Yugoslavia never ceased to amaze. A Croatian by nationality, Broz Tito, a man who once finished only elementary school and acquired all further knowledge himself, becomes one of the leaders in the Non-Aligned Movement. Thanks to the ongoing economic policy, the standard of living of the Yugoslavs was extremely high compared with other residents of Europe.
The personal life of the country's leader was not publicized. Therefore, if anyone paid attention, he considered it best to keep silent - but where did the first lady of the state, the president’s wife, Jovanka Tito, go? She was accused of conspiracy to coup and espionage in favor of the USSR. But there was no physical reprisal. Jovanka was simply put on house arrest in a house in Belgrade, from where she could only get out in 2000.
last years of life
The health of the President of Yugoslavia has repeatedly failed. In the 1970s, he was diagnosed with diabetes, he suffered a heart attack, problems with the liver began, and there was a blockage of blood vessels on his leg. Only the latter made him seriously think about his health and agree to hospitalization. Against the backdrop of growing alarm in society about the alleged USSR invasion of Belgrade, the country's leaders hid from the population the true state of affairs about Tito’s health, themselves not expecting how much the president had the disease.
In January 1980, doctors were forced to amputate his leg. The Yugoslavs were sincerely concerned about his health, an endless stream from all parts of the country he received letters with words of support. Adults and children wrote, everyone hoped that Broz Tito would soon return to duty.
But nothing helped. Health, significantly undermined not only by past deprivations, but also smoked daily by several packs of cigarettes, did not get better. Inflammation of the lungs began, jaundice, the liver refused. According to some reports, Broz Tito fell into a coma on February 14th. And on May 4, after a slight improvement, the state of health worsened.
Joseph Broz Tito is dead. The country was in shock. This is especially illustrated by the episode that occurred during the match between the teams “Hajduk” and “Red Star”. At 43 minutes, the match was stopped and the death of the president was reported to those present. All 50 thousand people froze in shock, the players of both teams, together with the referees, hugging in the center of the field, cried, someone fell on the lawn, shaking from sobs. Both Serbs and Croats received the news of the death of the leader with equal pain. So many political leaders came to Joseph Broz Tito’s funeral as they didn’t even attend a UN meeting. Even Margaret Thatcher was present here, as you know, not particularly fond of the Communists, Brezhnev and Italian President Santeni laid flowers, other leaders said goodbye as emotionally as the Yugoslavs. Yasser Arafat, clutching a hand to the coffin, sobbed, tears rolled down his face and the iron Saddam Hussein. According to the Western press, "funeral discharge" won in Belgrade. Documentary films about Broz Tito ("In the Mountains of Yugoslavia", "Tito and Me", "Liberation" and others) convey this mood of society well.
In the 1990s, events in Yugoslavia made the whole world shudder. Having once again become a victim in political clashes, this country has revealed another Balkan crisis to the world.
“For someone who does not know how well he lived under Tito, I can’t help anything,” said Serb Rade Sherbegia, an outstanding actor.
Of course, like any political leader, especially on such a scale, Tito still has a large army of opponents, but the fact that there are many supporters suggests that the president of Yugoslavia lived a life worthy of respect. A biography of the only president of Yugoslavia, which would give answers to all questions, has not yet been written. The memory of him is preserved even many decades after his death: in the residence of Broz Tito in Croatia on the island of Brioni, a national museum is organized where everyone can touch the life of the socialist president.