Josip Broz Tito.

In the village of Kumrovec in 1892, Josip Broz was born the seventh of 15 children to Roman Catholic peasants. He failed the first grade and left school at 13 to become a locksmith’s apprentice. By 1910 he joined the Social Democratic Party, and in 1913 was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian Army. Captured by Russians in 1915, he spent years in prisoner camps and eventually joined the Bolsheviks in Petrograd in 1917.

When Germany invaded the USSR in 1941, Tito called the Partisans to arms with the slogan Death to Fascism, Freedom to the People! He built a disciplined fighting force that liberated large areas of Yugoslavia. By 1943, the Allies switched support from the Chetniks to Tito’s Partisans after the Tehran Conference. After the war, Tito became Prime Minister and later President, imposing a communist constitution in 1946. He broke with Stalin in 1948 and developed a unique form of Yugoslav communism, including workers’ self-management. Tito also co-founded the Non-Aligned Movement with Nehru and Nasser in 1961, and was named President-for-Life in 1974.

Tito married three times: to Pelagija Belousova in 1919, to Herta Haas in 1936, and to Jovanka Broz in 1952, and had two sons, Žarko and Mišo. His grandson Sasa Broz became a theatre director. Tito’s family background was humble; his father was a blacksmith and his mother a Slovene from Podsreda. He spent part of his childhood with his maternal grandfather in Slovenia.

Tito’s greatest achievement was holding together a multi-ethnic Yugoslavia for 35 years. He outlived Stalin by almost 30 years and was the last WWII leader to leave the stage. After his death in 1980, Yugoslavia fragmented within a decade, leading to tragic wars. Tito remains a controversial figure, admired for resisting Soviet domination but criticized for authoritarian rule. He remains a key figure in the Non-Aligned Movement and the man who defied both Hitler and Stalin.