| Tito was born Josip Broz in Kumrovec, | | | | Kingdom of Yugoslavia quickly fell apart and King |
| Croatia-Slavonia in 1892, which at that time was | | | | Peter II and the government fled the country. |
| part of the Austro-Hungary Empire. He left school | | | | Tito organised a pan-Yugoslav revolutionary army, |
| when he was twelve, training as an apprentice | | | | scoring notable victories against Axis forces. In |
| locksmith and attending night classes in geography, | | | | November 1943, Tito formed a provisional |
| history and languages. Between 1911-1913 he | | | | government and declared the creation of the |
| drifted around Europe working in a series of | | | | Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. Tito's |
| factory jobs, mainly as a mechanic. He worked | | | | resistance forces, the Partisans faced supposedly |
| for the Benz automobile company in Mannheim | | | | insurmountable odds as they faced both the Axis |
| and as a test driver for Daimler in Wiener | | | | forces and another resistance force led by Draza |
| Neustadt, Austria. In late 1913, he was drafted | | | | Mihailovic who collaborated with the invading |
| into the Austro-Hungary army and sent to a | | | | armies. However, the Partisans gradually began to |
| school for non-commissioned officers and became | | | | get the upper hand, although German retaliations |
| a sergeant. At the outbreak of World War One, | | | | against the civilian population were horrific. In late |
| he was arrested for distributing anti-war literature | | | | 1944, with the help of Soviet forces, Tito drove |
| and imprisoned. On his release, he was sent to | | | | the Axis armies across the borders and out of |
| the Eastern Front, where he distinguished himself | | | | Yugoslavia. In post-war elections, Tito's |
| and was recommended for decoration. He was | | | | pro-republican People's Front, led by the |
| seriously wounded and captured by the Russians | | | | Communist Party of Yugoslavia won with an |
| in March 1915 and was sent to a work camp in | | | | overwhelming majority. Tito established a tough |
| the Ural mountains. The camp was liberated by | | | | Stalinist regime with wholesale and harsh purges |
| revolting workers in early 1917, Broz made his | | | | being conducted regularly. |
| way to Petrograd where he participated in the | | | | However, unlike the other fledgling communist |
| July Days demonstrations. He tried to make his | | | | countries, Tito took an independent line from |
| way to Finland but was captured once again, he | | | | Moscow, he had not relied heavily on their support |
| escaped however and in a dramatic number of | | | | during the war and therefore was confident to |
| months he married a Russian woman, joined the | | | | run things on his own terms. Tito and Stalin were |
| Red Army and fought in the Russian civil war. He | | | | to clash over many minor matters but a huge rift |
| returned to Croatia in 1920, immediately joining | | | | developed in 1948, when Tito modelled his |
| the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, working | | | | economic plan without consulting the Soviets, |
| underground because of government crackdowns. | | | | resulting in Yugoslavia being thrown out of the |
| Once again, he was constantly on the move, | | | | Cominform. Tito realised that the Yugoslav |
| working as an itinerant worker because once it | | | | strategy would have to be re-drawn to prevent a |
| was revealed that he was CPY he was | | | | slide into capitalism. He used the estrangement to |
| subsequently dismissed. In 1928 he moved to | | | | Yugoslavia's advantage by attaining US aid through |
| Zagreb, where he was appointed Secretary of | | | | the Marshall Plan and he assured a leading place |
| the Metal Workers Union of Croatia, he was also | | | | for Yugoslavia in the Non-Aligned Movement. |
| appointed as the Zagreb Branch Secretary of the | | | | After Stalin's death, relations with the USSR |
| CPY. Later that year, he was arrested, tried for | | | | improved but they would never return to the |
| communist activity and imprisoned in Lepoglava | | | | way they were before 1948. Tito continued to |
| Prison in northern Croatia. It was there that he | | | | strengthen the bloc of Non-Aligned countries, |
| met Mosa Pijade who was to become his | | | | building close ties with Arab states and being a |
| ideological mentor. Upon his release he lived | | | | very active member of the UN. Towards the late |
| underground, adopting many different aliases, one | | | | 1960s, unrest began to develop in parts of |
| of which was ‘Tito'. | | | | Yugoslavia, forcing Tito to implement |
| In 1934, he was co-opted onto the Central | | | | devolutionary legislation which granted more |
| Committee and the Politbureau of the decimated | | | | power to the constituent republics. However, |
| Yugoslav Communist Party. In 1935, he returned | | | | nationalist pressure increased resulting in a new |
| to the Soviet Union, working for a year in the | | | | constitution being introduced in 1974 granting |
| Balkan section of the Comintern. In 1936 the | | | | virtually co-federal status to the republics. |
| Comintern sent him back to Yugoslavia to purge | | | | Following these changes, Tito increasingly took on |
| the Yugoslavia Communist Party. In 1937, he was | | | | the role of elder statesman as his direct |
| elected to General Secretary of the Party, after | | | | involvement in domestic and international affairs |
| many of the other candidates were executed. He | | | | diminished. He was married twice and had two |
| transformed it into a highly disciplined, effective | | | | sons. His second wife, Jovanka Budisavljevic was |
| and well-organised organisation. For the first time, | | | | a Serbian woman from Croatia many years his |
| it fully supported the preservation rather than the | | | | junior and a former partisan fighter. Tito died in |
| break-up of Yugoslavia. The Axis Powers invaded | | | | Ljubljana on 4 May 1980. |
| the country in 1941, the armed forces of the | | | | |