(This entry was actually written on May 4th 2010 for the thirtieth anniversary of Marshal Tito’s death, but at that time, with only a handful of exceptions, I was not actively posting my writings on the blog. This doesn’t make today’s posting belated, though, as the subject matter here is of lasting significance.)
Today is the thirty-first anniversary of Marshal Tito’s (1892-1980) death. I am pretty sure that, had he still been alive (metaphorically, of course, if not physically) in the morbidly inflamed 1990’s, Yugoslavia would have stayed alive with him and thus escaped the horrors of the internecine slaughter that had befallen her. In this sense, the death of Tito signified the imminent death of his country. Some are insisting that the collapse of Yugoslavia was in fact a good thing, but I am sure that very many people, understandably less vocal than the others, are still painfully mourning the tragedy of “e uno plures.”
Marshal Josip Broz Tito is a unique phenomenon among the giants of socialism in the twentieth century: not only is he a bona fide political genius, but perhaps also the most original one of all. His “Titoism” cannot be properly translated into any generic mold, applicable exclusively to his Yugoslavia of that day and age. The regime he successfully installed in the country after World War II was not totalitarian per se, as Yugoslavia was not a nation-state, like Vietnam or Korea, nor a totalitarian empire, like the Soviet Union. In fact, it was by no means totalitarian at all. Tito himself was a clear-cut authoritarian despot. The country was ruled only by his unquestionable legendary authority, and when he died, it could not go on for much longer, eventually collapsing into chaos a decade after his death. I can further note that as a non-aligned nation during the cold war, Yugoslavia occupied a special highly privileged niche in the post-WWII world order, carved for her by Tito, and for a while, after 1980, the strength of the niche held the crumbling pieces together. As soon as the post WWII world order started collapsing, the niche disintegrated in the chaos of the “new world order,” and the state of Yugoslavia ceased to exist for all intents and purposes.
Tito cannot be called a nationalist, being a Croat in a Serbian-dominated hodge-podge. He basically created the concept of Yugoslavian national identity against a host of political, cultural and historical odds. Indeed, Tito was the only reason why Yugoslavia as a whole existed in the post-WWII world, which fact Tito must have fully realized in his lifetime to an immense gratification for his already vastly enlarged ego.
The following set of quotes illustrates how Tito was using his personal authority to establish an artificial, but viable in his lifetime concept of Yugoslavian nationalism, which, as a term, meant nothing but an allegiance to his towering persona.---
"We have spilt an ocean of blood for brotherhood and unity of our peoples and we shall not allow anyone to touch or to destroy it from within."
"No one questioned, “who is a Serb, who is a Croat, who is a Muslim.” We were all one people, that’s how it was back then, and I still think it is that way today."
"None of our republics would be anything, if we were not all together; but we have to create our own history: history of United Yugoslavia, also in the future."
"Without a powerful and happy Yugoslavia, there cannot be a powerful and happy Croatia."
"I will give everything from myself to make sure that Yugoslavia is great, not just geographically but great in spirit and that it hold firmly to its neutrality and sovereignty that has been established through great sacrifice in the last battle (referring to the Second World War)."
"A decade ago young people en masse began calling themselves Yugoslavs. It was a form of rising Yugoslav nationalism, which was a reaction to brotherhood and unity and a feeling of belonging to our single socialist self-managing society. This pleased me greatly."
The following curious quotation illustrates my point that Tito was well aware that the concept of a Yugoslav nationality was extremely artificial. In referring to Bosnia-Herzegovina here, he must have been applying it broadly to all of Yugoslavia, as opposed to separate constituent ethnicities, as becomes clear from the text:
"Let that man be a Bosnian-Herzegovinian. Outside they do not call you by another name, except, simply: a Bosnian. Whether that be a Muslim, a Serb or a Croat. Everyone can be what they feel that they are and no one has a right to force a nationality (!!!) upon them."
Tito was a heroic wartime leader, fighting for the liberation of his country from foreign occupation, without any significant outside help from the Allies, and coming out gloriously victorious in the end. No wonder that, having virtually single-handedly wrestled independence from the might of a vastly superior enemy, he was in no hurry to surrender it either to the power of American Imperialism, or to the overlordship of Moscow. It is kind of pity, but an inevitable event anyway, that his ego had to clash with Stalin’s. As the greatest tribute to his genius, he was able to maintain his “third power” status in a fiercely bipolar coldwar world, even though, like with many other great leaders in history, his personal “empire” would not survive the man. Yet, nobody would deny greatness to Alexander or Charlemagne on that account, as none should deny it to Marshal Tito.
Today is the thirty-first anniversary of Marshal Tito’s (1892-1980) death. I am pretty sure that, had he still been alive (metaphorically, of course, if not physically) in the morbidly inflamed 1990’s, Yugoslavia would have stayed alive with him and thus escaped the horrors of the internecine slaughter that had befallen her. In this sense, the death of Tito signified the imminent death of his country. Some are insisting that the collapse of Yugoslavia was in fact a good thing, but I am sure that very many people, understandably less vocal than the others, are still painfully mourning the tragedy of “e uno plures.”
Marshal Josip Broz Tito is a unique phenomenon among the giants of socialism in the twentieth century: not only is he a bona fide political genius, but perhaps also the most original one of all. His “Titoism” cannot be properly translated into any generic mold, applicable exclusively to his Yugoslavia of that day and age. The regime he successfully installed in the country after World War II was not totalitarian per se, as Yugoslavia was not a nation-state, like Vietnam or Korea, nor a totalitarian empire, like the Soviet Union. In fact, it was by no means totalitarian at all. Tito himself was a clear-cut authoritarian despot. The country was ruled only by his unquestionable legendary authority, and when he died, it could not go on for much longer, eventually collapsing into chaos a decade after his death. I can further note that as a non-aligned nation during the cold war, Yugoslavia occupied a special highly privileged niche in the post-WWII world order, carved for her by Tito, and for a while, after 1980, the strength of the niche held the crumbling pieces together. As soon as the post WWII world order started collapsing, the niche disintegrated in the chaos of the “new world order,” and the state of Yugoslavia ceased to exist for all intents and purposes.
Tito cannot be called a nationalist, being a Croat in a Serbian-dominated hodge-podge. He basically created the concept of Yugoslavian national identity against a host of political, cultural and historical odds. Indeed, Tito was the only reason why Yugoslavia as a whole existed in the post-WWII world, which fact Tito must have fully realized in his lifetime to an immense gratification for his already vastly enlarged ego.
The following set of quotes illustrates how Tito was using his personal authority to establish an artificial, but viable in his lifetime concept of Yugoslavian nationalism, which, as a term, meant nothing but an allegiance to his towering persona.---
"We have spilt an ocean of blood for brotherhood and unity of our peoples and we shall not allow anyone to touch or to destroy it from within."
"No one questioned, “who is a Serb, who is a Croat, who is a Muslim.” We were all one people, that’s how it was back then, and I still think it is that way today."
"None of our republics would be anything, if we were not all together; but we have to create our own history: history of United Yugoslavia, also in the future."
"Without a powerful and happy Yugoslavia, there cannot be a powerful and happy Croatia."
"I will give everything from myself to make sure that Yugoslavia is great, not just geographically but great in spirit and that it hold firmly to its neutrality and sovereignty that has been established through great sacrifice in the last battle (referring to the Second World War)."
"A decade ago young people en masse began calling themselves Yugoslavs. It was a form of rising Yugoslav nationalism, which was a reaction to brotherhood and unity and a feeling of belonging to our single socialist self-managing society. This pleased me greatly."
The following curious quotation illustrates my point that Tito was well aware that the concept of a Yugoslav nationality was extremely artificial. In referring to Bosnia-Herzegovina here, he must have been applying it broadly to all of Yugoslavia, as opposed to separate constituent ethnicities, as becomes clear from the text:
"Let that man be a Bosnian-Herzegovinian. Outside they do not call you by another name, except, simply: a Bosnian. Whether that be a Muslim, a Serb or a Croat. Everyone can be what they feel that they are and no one has a right to force a nationality (!!!) upon them."
Tito was a heroic wartime leader, fighting for the liberation of his country from foreign occupation, without any significant outside help from the Allies, and coming out gloriously victorious in the end. No wonder that, having virtually single-handedly wrestled independence from the might of a vastly superior enemy, he was in no hurry to surrender it either to the power of American Imperialism, or to the overlordship of Moscow. It is kind of pity, but an inevitable event anyway, that his ego had to clash with Stalin’s. As the greatest tribute to his genius, he was able to maintain his “third power” status in a fiercely bipolar coldwar world, even though, like with many other great leaders in history, his personal “empire” would not survive the man. Yet, nobody would deny greatness to Alexander or Charlemagne on that account, as none should deny it to Marshal Tito.
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