Josip Broz Tito

Who was Josip Broz Tito?

Marshal Josip Broz Tito was the leader of the Yugoslav Partisans, Europe's most effective anti-Nazi resistance movement and a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman, serving in various roles from 1945 until his death in 1980. While his presidency has been criticized as authoritarian, Tito was "seen by most as a benevolent dictator" due to his successful economic and diplomatic policies and was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad. Viewed as a unifying symbol, his internal policies successfully maintained the peaceful coexistence of the nations of the Yugoslav federation. He gained international attention as the chief leader of the Non-Aligned Movement, working with Jawaharlal Nehru of India, Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt and Sukarno of Indonesia.

He was General Secretary of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, and went on to lead the World War II Yugoslav guerrilla movement, the Partisans. After the war, he was the Prime Minister, President of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. From 1943 to his death in 1980, he held the rank of Marshal of Yugoslavia, serving as the supreme commander of the Yugoslav military, the Yugoslav People's Army. With a highly favourable reputation abroad in both Cold War blocs, Josip Broz Tito received some 98 foreign decorations, including the Legion of Honour and the Order of the Bath.