Tito and His Comrades

Jože Pirjevec. Tito and His Comrades. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2018.

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Legend

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Foreword by Emily Greble

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Types of Tito biographies:

• hagiographic, looking positively on the socialist experiment and crediting Tito for its successes, during his life:
  • Phyllis Auty, Tito: A Biography, 1970
  • Louis Adamic, The Eagle and the Roots, 1952
  • Vladimir Dedijer, Tito, 1952
• more nuanced, introducing new questions
  • Stevan Pavlowitch, Tito-Yugoslavia’s Great DictatorL A Reassessment, 1992
• geopolitical, based on Western archives and investigating Yugoslavia’s role in global affairs:
  • Richard West, Tito and the Rise and Fall of Yugoslavia, 1995
  • Jasper Ridley, Tito: A Biography, 1994
  • Lorraine Lees, Keeping Tito Afloat: The United States, Yugoslavia, and the Cold War, 1997
• demystifying / reevaluating, using Yugoslav archives
  • Pero Simić, Tito: Fenomen 20. veka, Belgrade 2011
  • Miro Simic, Tito bez maske, Ljubljana, 2008
  • Zvonimir Despot, Tito-tajne vladara: Najnoviji prilozi za biografiju Josipa Broza, Zagreb, 2009
  • Ivo i Slavko Goldstein, Tito, Zagreb, 2015
  • Olga Manojlovic Pintar, ed. Tito: Vidjenja in tumačenja, Beograd, 2011
• using YU archives but still biased one way or another
  • Geoffrey Swain, Tito: A Biography, 2010 (pro-communist)
  • Predrag Marković, Tito: Kratka biografija, Beograd, 2015 (pro-Yugoslavia)
  • William Klinger i Denis Juljiš, Tito: Neispričane priče, Banja Luka 2013 (nationalist)

ix Yugoslavia: Partisans won the war over Fascists and their domestic collaborators in order to re-unify Yugoslavia.

Post-Yugoslavia: WWII was a fight against communism, lost to Tito / Yugoslavia who crushed self-determination and sovereignty

113 2nd AVNOJ session:

• every decision was taken unanimously, without discussion, and with applause
• no delegates from Macedonia or Serbia were present

311 [Equating Yugoslavia with socialism took place during Yugoslavia.]

Edvard Kardelj: Yugoslav idea of a common nation could not be an ethnic but rather socio-political concept, “which means a socialist one.”

327 Kardelj, 1965: “…we are not united because of Yugoslavia, but because of socialism. And if we will not understand that it is socialism that unites Yugoslavia, nothing else can unite it.”

Kardelj: There were 3 political currents in the country:

1. autonomist – Slovenia, Croatia
2. centralist – Bosnia, Macedonia
3. hegemonic – Serbia

387 Stane Dolanc, 1972: “Without a united communist party, there would be no Yugoslavia, considering its historical, economic, and cultural differences.” Hence it’s necessary to strengthen the party.

451 An exchange between Svetozar Vukmanović-Tempo and Tito, in late 1970s.

Tempo: “What is happening to Yugoslavia?” Tito: “Yugoslavia does not exist anymore.” Tempo: “What is happening to the party?” Tito: “The party does not exist anymore.”

455 Because of defying Stalin and establishing a unique brand of socialism, “Tito remained in the memory of many of his “subjects” as a man to whom they should be grateful.” Yugoslavia went from a centralized totalitarian regime to market socialism, saw improvements in standard of living (albeit largely due to foreign loans), enabled popular influence on local politics and minimal censorship, had open borders, and, thanks to leading the Non-Aligned Movement, being a pioneer of unique form of socialism, and mediator between East and West/North and South, enjoyed international influence/prestige “utterly disproportionate to its economic and military weight.”