Life and Times of Josip Broz Tito Research Paper

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Josip Broz (Marshal) Tito

Originally named Josip Broz, Josip Broz Tito was a revolutionary and statesman who was born on May 7, 1892 in Austria-Hungary in what is currently Croatia and died almost 88 years later to the day on May 4, 1980 in Yugoslavia, or what is currently Slovenia (Josip Broz Tito, 2015). During the period from 1939 to 1980, Tito was alternately the secretary-general and then president the League of Communists of Yugoslavia. From 1941 to 1945, he was the supreme commander of Yugoslav partisans and then the Yugoslav People's Army from 1945 to 1953 (Josip Broz Tito, 2015). He assumed the title marshal during the period 1943 to 1980, then premier from 1945 to 1953 and then president of Yugoslavia from 1953 to 1980 (Josip Broz Tito, 2015). Tito was the chief architect of the "second Yugoslavia," a socialist federation that lasted from World War II until 1991(Josip Broz Tito, 2015). 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 blocs in the Cold War (Josip Broz Tito, 2015). This paper provides a review of the relevant literature concerning Tito's rise to power and the circumstance that confronted him. A summary of the research and important findings concerning Tito's life are provided in the conclusion.

Review and Analysis

Josip Broz, later known as Marshal Tito or just Tito, was born of humble origins but would go on to become the president of post-World War II Yugoslavia (Pribic, 2013). Moreover, Tito was responsible for rebuilding Yugoslavia following the devastation it experienced during World War II as well as the forging of a unified Yugoslavian nation until his death in 1980 (Marshal Tito biography, 2015). Josip Broz was born in a large peasant family, the seventh of 15 children (Marshal Tito biography, 2015) to a Slovene mother and Croat father (Josip Broz Tito, 2015). In 1907, he apprenticed as a locksmith and finished his apprenticeship in 1910 at which point he became a member of the Social Democratic Party of Croatia-Slavonia headquartered at Zagreb (Josip Broz Tito, 2015). Following his sporadic employment in this profession for 5 years, Tito was conscripted into the Austro-Hungarian Army in 1913, attended a noncommissioned officer academy, was prompted to sergeant and served in the Serbian war in 1914 (Josip Broz Tito, 2015).

In early 1915, Tito was assigned to the Russian front where was became a casualty and prisoner of war in April 1915 (Josip Broz Tito, 2015). Following a lengthy period of convalescence, Tito was placed in various internment camps which provided him with his first exposure to Bolshevik propaganda (Josip Broz Tito, 2015). Thereafter, Tito would remain an ardent communist but of a special ilk. His involvement with the communist movement began early on when he took part in the July Days demonstrations that occurred in Petrograd in 1917, and upon the successful outcome of the October Revolution, he became a member of an Omsk, Siberian-based Red Guard unit (Josip Broz Tito, 2015). According to one biographer, "Following a White counteroffensive, [Tito] fled to Kirgiziya (now Kyrgyzstan) and subsequently returned to Omsk, where he married a Russian woman and joined the South Slav section of the Bolshevik party" (Josip Broz Tito, 2015, para. 3). 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 (Josip Broz Tito, 2015).

In 1920, though, Tito's activities on behalf of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (CPY) were outlawed in December 1920 whereupon 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 (Josip Broz Tito, 2015). In 1927, Tito became a member of Zagreb's CPY committee and was rapidly elevated first to organizational secretary where he gained notice from the communist leaders in Moscow and then as the committee's political secretary (Josip Broz Tito, 2015). Following Tito's leadership of street demonstrations against civil authorities in June 1928, he was arrested in August 1928 (Josip Broz Tito, 2015).

On November 6, 1928, after spending 3 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 (MacLean, 1957).

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According to 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." (1957, p. 38). 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 at his trial, he was cut short by the court president who refused permission for Tito or his lawyer to speak any further and the proceedings were brought to an untimely conclusion (MacLean, 1957). 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!" (cited in MacLean, 1957, p. 137). The courtroom was cleared after this outburst and Tito and his four codefendants were removed by force by law enforcement authorities (MacLean, 1957).

On November 14, 1928, Tito was sentenced pursuant to Article I of the Law for the Defense of the State and received 5-and-1/2 years imprisonment based on the allegations that he conspired to overthrow the ruling regime (MacLean, 1957). 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 (MacLean, 1957). 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" (1957, p. 42).

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 the middle in the best interests of Yugoslavia (Granville, 1998). 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 (Graville, 1998). By the late 1940s, Tito was convinced that while his country needed the economic and technical assistance that the Soviet Union could provide, but he was absolutely adamant that Yugoslavia should remain outside the Soviet's domination (Granville, 1998). Not surprisingly, leaders in the Soviet Union also became increasingly wary concerning Tito's true intentions (Granville, 1998).

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 (Granville, 1998). In this regard, Granville reports that Tito "valued Yugoslavia's unique brand of national communism, which had emerged from indigenous Yugoslav soil and the experiences of World War II" (1998, p. 25). It was Tito's thinking that Yugoslavia had earned the right to assume this new position of influence in global affairs by virtue of 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" (Granville, 1998, p. 26). This sentiment is evident in an article written by Tito in October 1946 wherein he emphasized:

[T]he people of Yugoslavia were not fighting only against the invaders but also against their allies the local traitors -- the gangs of Pavelic, Nedic, Rupnik, and Draza Mihailovic. Despite the fact that the invaders and domestic traitors joined forces, the people prevailed in their great struggle. Therein he the specific features of the liberation struggle of the nations of Yugoslavia, therein lies its greatness. No other occupied country in Europe can boast of such a struggle and our people have a right to be proud of it. (Tito, 1946, p. 294)

By mid-1948, relations between Moscow.....

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