Josip Broz (7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito, was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and politician who led Yugoslavia as prime minister from 1943 to 1963 and as president from 1953 until his death in 1980. He was the longtime leader of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, supreme commander of the Yugoslav Partisans during World War II, and one of the founders of the Non-Aligned Movement. The political ideology and policies associated with his rule are known as Titoism.
Tito was born in Kumrovec in present-day Croatia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Drafted into military service, he distinguished himself, becoming the youngest sergeant major in the Austro-Hungarian Army. After being wounded and captured by the Russians during World War I, he was sent to a work camp in the Ural Mountains. Tito participated in the Russian Revolution in 1917 and the Russian Civil War. Upon his return to the Balkans in 1920, he entered the newly established Kingdom of Yugoslavia, where he joined the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. Having assumed control over the party by 1937, Tito became its general secretary in 1939 and led it until his death. During World War II, after the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia, he led the Yugoslav guerrilla movement, the Partisans (1941–1945), often regarded as the most effective resistance movement in German-occupied Europe. By the end of 1943, the Partisans, with the Allies' backing, took power in Yugoslavia.
After the war, Tito served as the prime minister (1943–1963), president (1953–1980; from 1974 president for life), and marshal of Yugoslavia, the highest rank of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA). Under Tito's leadership, Yugoslavia became a communist state, known from 1945 to 1963 as the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia and thereafter as the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Despite being a founder of the Cominform, his party became the first member—and he the only leader during Joseph Stalin's lifetime—to defy Soviet hegemony in the Eastern Bloc, resulting in Yugoslavia's expulsion from the organisation in 1948 in the Tito–Stalin split. Alongside other leaders and Marxist theorists such as Edvard Kardelj and Milovan Đilas, he initiated the idiosyncratic model of socialist self-management. Tito wavered between supporting a centralised or more decentralised federation, and ended up favouring the latter to keep ethnic tensions under control. Thus, the constitution delegated much power to each republic. A powerful cult of personality arose around him and was sustained for several years after his death. Following Tito's death, Yugoslavia's leadership was transformed into an annually rotating presidency, giving representation to all its nationalities, and to prevent an authoritarian leader. Twelve years later, as communism collapsed in Eastern Europe and ethnic tensions escalated, Yugoslavia broke into several independent states and descended into a decade of interethnic wars, the deadliest conflict in Europe's postwar history until the Russo-Ukrainian war.
Historians critical of Tito view his presidency as authoritarian, while others characterise him as a benevolent dictator. He was popular in Yugoslavia and abroad, and remains so in the former countries of Yugoslavia. Tito was viewed as a unifying symbol, with his internal policies maintaining the peaceful coexistence of the nations of the Yugoslav federation. He gained further international attention as a co-founder of the Non-Aligned Movement. With a highly favourable reputation abroad in both Cold War blocs, he received a total of 98 foreign decorations, including the Legion of Honour and the Order of the Bath.
Josip Broz was born on 7 May 1892 in Kumrovec, a village in the northern Croatian region of Zagorje. At the time, it was part of the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was the seventh or eighth child of Marija (née Javeršek) and Franjo Broz. His parents had already had a number of children die in early infancy. Broz was christened and raised as a Roman Catholic. His father was a Croat whose family had lived in the village for three centuries, while his mother was a Slovene from the village of Podsreda. Franjo had inherited a 4.0-hectare (10-acre) estate and a good house, but he was unable to make a success of farming. Josip spent a significant proportion of his pre-school years living with his maternal grandparents at Podsreda, where he became a favourite of his grandfather Martin Javeršek. By the time he returned to Kumrovec to begin school, he spoke Slovene better than Croatian, and had learned to play the piano. Despite his mixed parentage, Broz identified as a Croat like his father and neighbours.
In July 1900, Broz entered primary school at Kumrovec. He completed four years of school, failing 2nd grade and graduating in 1905. As a result of his limited schooling, throughout his life, Tito was poor at spelling. After leaving school, he initially worked for a maternal uncle and then on his parents' family farm. In 1907, his father wanted him to immigrate to the United States but could not raise the money for the voyage.
Instead, aged 15 years, Broz left Kumrovec and travelled about 97 kilometres (60 mi) south to Sisak, where his cousin Jurica Broz was doing army service. Jurica helped him get a job in a restaurant, but Broz soon got tired of that work. He approached a Czech locksmith, Nikola Karas, for a three-year apprenticeship, which included training, food, and room and board. As his father could not afford to pay for his work clothing, Broz paid for it himself. Soon after, his younger brother Stjepan also became apprenticed to Karas.
During his apprenticeship, Broz was encouraged to mark May Day in 1909, and he read and sold Slobodna Reč (lit. 'Free Word'), a socialist newspaper. After completing his apprenticeship in September 1910, Broz used his contacts to gain employment in Zagreb. At age 18, he joined the Metal Workers' Union and participated in his first labour protest. He also joined the Social Democratic Party of Croatia and Slavonia.
He returned home in December 1910. In early 1911, he began a series of moves in search of work, first in Ljubljana, then Trieste, Kumrovec and Zagreb, where he worked repairing bicycles. He joined his first strike action on May Day 1911. After a brief period of work in Ljubljana, between May 1911 and May 1912, he worked in a factory in Kamnik in the Kamnik–Savinja Alps. After it closed, he was offered redeployment to Čenkov in Bohemia. On arriving at his new workplace, he discovered that the employer was trying to bring in cheaper labour to replace the local Czech workers, and he and others joined successful strike action to force the employer to back down.
Driven by curiosity, Broz moved to Plzeň, where he was briefly employed at the Škoda Works. He next travelled to Munich in Bavaria. He also worked at the Benz car factory in Mannheim and visited the Ruhr industrial region. By October 1912, he had reached Vienna. He stayed with his older brother Martin and his family and worked at the Griedl Works before getting a job at Wiener Neustadt. There he worked for Austro-Daimler and was often asked to drive and test the cars. During this time, he spent considerable time fencing and dancing, and during his training and early work life, he also learned German and passable Czech.
In May 1913, Broz was conscripted into the Austro-Hungarian Army for his compulsory two years of service. He successfully requested to serve with the 25th Croatian Home Guard Regiment garrisoned in Zagreb. After learning to ski during the winter of 1913 and 1914, Broz was sent to a school for non-commissioned officers (NCO) in Budapest, after which he was promoted to sergeant major. At age 22, he was the youngest of that rank in his regiment. At least one source states that he was the youngest sergeant major in the Austro-Hungarian Army. After winning the regimental fencing competition, Broz came in second in the army fencing championships in Budapest in May 1914.