Josip Broz Tito

**Josip Broz**, nicknamed **Tito**, (May 7, 1892 – May 4, 1980) was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary, statesman, and dictator who was the leader of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, from 1945 until his death in 1980.  From 1945 to 1953 he was Prime Minister, and from 1953 to 1980 he was the President.  His funeral on May 4, 1980, was attended by representatives of 128 out of 154 UN member countries.  Tito was a controversial person, with people having strong and differing views about his leadership.  He has been described by some critics as an authoritarian and a benevolent dictator.

## Early life
Tito was born in Kumrovec, Croatia, where his parents had a small farm. He went to the village elementary school until 1905. In 1907 he was machinist's apprentice in Sisak. In 1910 he joined the union of workers and social-democratic party of Croatia and Slavonia. In 1912 and 1913 he worked in factories in Bohemia, Mannheim and Vienna. In May 1913 he was conscripted into the Austro–Hungarian Army and later was imprisoned for anti-war propaganda. During World War I he was wounded, captured, then imprisoned by Russians. He, along with other political personalities in third-world countries, started the Non-Aligned Movement. In the mid-1970s, federal republics of Yugoslavia were granted more autonomy, and the country underwent political decentralization. When he died in 1980 the political situation worsened, as the nationalist parties gained ground. The centralist rule of Slobodan Milošević culminated into brutal and bitter Yugoslav Wars during the 1990s, just ten years later.

## Death
Tito became ill over the course of 1979. On 7 January and again on 11 January 1980, Tito was admitted to the Medical Centre in Ljubljana, the capital city of the SR Slovenia, with circulation problems in his legs. His left leg was amputated soon afterward due to arterial blockages and he died of gangrene at the Medical Centre Ljubljana on 4&nbsp;May&nbsp;1980 at 3:05&nbsp;pm, three days short of his 88th birthday. Many world leaders came to his funeral.

## Historical criticism
Accusations of culpability are related to crimes perpetrated during and after WWII, in pursuit of fleeing Nazi collaborators, such as the massacres of Foibe and Kočevski Rog butchery. Mass graves are evidences of massacres; accusations of genocide and ethnic cleansing by historians. Accusations of guilt in the Bleiburg massacre, the repression of the Croatian Catholic Church, and the crackdown on the Croatian Spring or MASPOK.
Accusation of Vojvodina massacre consists in retaliation against Germans and Hungarians citizen and supposed Chetnik Serbs but some historians consider these incidents also ethnic cleansing against Germans and Hungarians because during World War II, the German minority in occupied Yugoslavia enjoyed a status of superiority over the Yugoslav population.
The AVNOJ Presidium issued a decree that ordered the government confiscation of all property of Nazi Germany and its citizens in Yugoslavia, persons of German nationality (regardless of citizenship), and collaborators. The decision acquired the force of law on February 6, 1945.

Tito's repression involved many of his old friends such as Milovan Dilas and Vladimir Dedijer, who were both imprisoned but later wrote several books with gross accusations against him; with criticism heaped on Tito's lustful lifestyle: by 1974 he had 32 official residences, one of the ten richest men in the Balkans, *a communist who lived like a king*. Tito constructed huge personality cult around him, which kept Yugoslavia from falling apart.

## Funeral 
The funeral of Josip Tito, President of Yugoslavia, was held on 8 May 1980, four days after his death on 4 May. His funeral was visited by most of world statesmen.

The "Plavi voz" (*Blue train*, official presidential train) brought his body to the capital Belgrade and he lay in state in the Federal Parliament building until the funeral.

## Related pages
* Yugoslavia
* Titoism

## References 
## Bibliography
* 
* Dedijer, Vladimir. *Tito*. New York: Arno Press, 1980 
* 

## Other websites
* Josip Tito Reference Archive at the Marxists Internet Archive
* Unseen pictures from US Archives 
* Sign the first virtual memorial of Marshal Tito 

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