Tito

Tito was a nom de guerre adopted in the mid 1930s by Josip Broz 1892–1980) to continue his undcerground work for the communist party in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. It served him well when he was directing the partisan resistance to the German occupation of the Balkans (1941-1945), and was his peremanent name after that.

• He had been born to a Croat father and a Slovene mother, thus understanding some of the ethnic tensions of his country. He was conscripted into the Austro-Hungarian army during the first world war, wounded and captured by the Russians (as a sergeant) in 1915, and a prisoner of war until 1917, when the Red Guard released and recruited him. He fought with reds in the Russian Civil War. Back in Yugoslavia, he rose to become General Secretary of the KPJ (Communist Party of Yugoslavia) in 1939. Through the 1930s, he was an active agitator and recruiter for the banned Communist Party, serving several prison sentences; he also recruited Yugoslavs for the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War. In the Party, he was a strong leftist and federalist, who rejected co-operation with right wing elements like the Chetniks - and to some extent the allies opposing the Axis powers. When Germany occupied the Balkans in 1941, Tito was appointed Commander in Chief of all military forces fighting to liberate Yugoslavia.

“national communism”

According to Oxford World Encyclopedia, Philip's, on line 2004, "Tito's greatest achievement was to hold Yugoslavia together".