Dictionary of Genocide - D Ank Unlimited

Slovakia from invasion by the Red Army. Deposed as leader by an uprising of anti-Nazi
Slovak nationalists, he was arrested by U.S. forces and extradited to the control of the
Czechoslovakian government-in-exile in 1945. On April 15, 1947, the Narodny Sud
(the People’s Court) sentenced him to death, and—despite protests throughout
Slovakia—he was hanged three days later.
Tito, Josip Broz (1892–1980). Josip Broz, known as Tito, was the undisputed leader
and key political figure in Yugoslavia between the end of World War II and his death in
1980. Born in the town of Kumrovec, in the Croatian region of the Austro-Hungarian
Empire, Josip Broz was the son of a Croat father and Slovenian mother. During World
War I (1914–1918), he was captured by the Russians, spent time in a Russian prisoner of
war camp, joined the Russian communist party, participated in the October Revolution of
1917, and fought with the Red Army during the Russian Civil War (1918–1921). In 1936
he returned to Yugoslavia, and in 1937 became secretary of the Yugoslav Communist
Party. By this stage he had adopted his revolutionary nom de guerre, Tito. (There are differing
interpretations as to why he chose this as his nickname. One is that Tito is a Croatian
variant on the Latin name Titus, which was in common usage in the Zagorje region
where he was born. Another has it that Broz would use the technique of pointing at someone
when issuing orders and say—in Serbo-Croatian—ti (you), to (that), indicating who
was to carry out which task.)
Within days of the German invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, Tito led the Communist
Party in an active resistance against the Nazi occupation, commanding an army
that quickly became known as the Partisans. This force, under Tito’s military command,
was the only body that unified all national groups in Yugoslavia against German Nazi and
Italian fascist rule. At the same time, he fought the Serbian nationalist guerrillas—the
Chetniks—and the Croatian guerillas—the Ustashe—over the political future of postwar
Yugoslavia. Although he was a Croat, Tito’s communists did not recognize ethnic separatism.
Largely owing to the effectiveness of his unified approach to resisting the Nazis,
the Partisans played the most crucial role of all in liberating Yugoslavia.
Thanks to his strong leadership, Tito’s communists, in winning the peace, transformed
prewar monarchic Yugoslavia into a postwar communist state. Determined to maintain
Yugoslavia’s independence in the face of Soviet expansion through the acquisition of territory
and the creation of puppet regimes, Tito kept his distance from Moscow, preferring
to seek—and maintain—a rapprochement with the democratic West. This gave Tito a
certain measure of freedom in both his international relations and in the management of
his domestic affairs.
As an effective dictator, he ruled Yugoslavia with an iron hand, reliant on a powerful
military, a highly centralized party structure, and an all-pervasive secret police. He
brooked no ethnic politics or expressions of separatism. He cleverly kept a balance
between each rival ethnic group, always stressing the primacy of an individual and distinctive
Yugoslav identity. Nevertheless, because of economic disparities between the various
regions of Yugoslavia, ethnic rivalries and conflicts were never far from the surface.
It seemed inevitable that they would appear again after Tito’s passing in 1980.
His death, in fact, opened a major void, and the nature of his rule had left no
nominated successor to replace him. Instead, the country was ruled by a council of
ministers from each of the six autonomous republics: Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia,
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Montenegro. Under this decentralized system,
TITO, JOSIP BROZ
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