Josip Broz Tito

May 7, 1892 – May 4, 1980

Leader of the Yugoslav Partisans in World War II and ruler of Yugoslavia from 1945 until his death in 1980. He broke with Stalin in 1948.

Who else was alive Wikipedia

Biography

Josip Broz was born in 1892 in Croatia, then part of Austria-Hungary. A metalworker, he served in the Austro-Hungarian army, was captured by the Russians in 1915 and joined the Bolsheviks. Back home he became a communist organiser, was jailed, and in 1937 became leader of the Yugoslav Communist Party under the name Tito.

After the Axis invasion of 1941 he led the Partisans in a guerrilla war against the occupiers and rival forces. By 1945 his Partisans had liberated most of the country, and he became head of the new communist Yugoslavia.

In 1948 he broke with Stalin and was expelled from the Soviet bloc. He developed a looser form of socialism with workers' self-management and became a founder of the Non-Aligned Movement. He held the federation's peoples together under his rule as prime minister and then president for life until his death in 1980.