Word: titos
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That year Tito proved his loyalty by swallowing without a qualm the Nonaggression Pact between Berlin and Moscow. As Tito explained: "We accepted the pact like disciplined Communists, considering it necessary for the security of the Soviet Union, at that time the only socialist state in the world." When Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Moscow issued orders for all-out resistance to the Germans, who two months earlier had conquered Yugoslavia. Within days, Tito had established the General Headquarters of National Liberation Partisans' Detachments-taking the name "partisans" from the irregulars who had operated behind...
From the start, the partisans were opposed by the Četniks-Serbian royalists loyal to the exiled King Peter II-who were led by Colonel Dragoljub Mihailović. Tito initially offered to join forces with the Četniks and put his troops under Mihailović's command. More fearful of the Communists than of the Germans, Mihailović demurred and his Četniks were soon engaged in civil war against the partisans. (He was tried after the war and executed...
...partisans, who ultimately numbered 300,000, had a broader national appeal than the chauvinistically Serbian Četniks, and they were far more active in launching guerrilla attacks against German divisions (up to 26 at one point) tied down in occupying Yugoslavia. As the Nazi troops retreated northward in 1944, Tito moved to consolidate his power. In the process, he violated an apparent promise to Winston Churchill. (Tito had told Britain's Prime Minister in 1944, "That is our basic principle: democracy and freedom of the individual.") Tito ruthlessly intimidated, imprisoned and even murdered his opponents; when general elections were...
...government in Belgrade staunchly backed Soviet foreign policy, installed a Stalinist regime at home and refused Marshall Plan aid offered by the U.S. But behind the scenes, Stalin and Tito feuded bitterly over Tito's determination to maintain his independence. On June 28, 1948, the world was startled by the announcement that Yugoslavia had been expelled from the new international Communist organization, the Cominform...
...Soviet lexicon, "Titoism" became a synonym for treason. But Tito did not buckle, even in the face of an economic boycott and Moscow's invasion threats. With Party Theoretican Edvard Kardelj and other close associates, he began mapping out a new form of Communism, vastly different from the Soviet model. Tito and his colleagues lifted harsh police controls on the population and reversed the policy of forced collectivization of farm land. They formulated the "self-management" system, under which factory employees and managers came to share in management decisions, decide on promotions and set their own wages...