| |
KF5JRV > TODAY 07.04.19 15:27l 75 Lines 4097 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 34038_KF5JRV
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Apr 07
Path: IW8PGT<IZ3LSV<IW0QNL<JH4XSY<N3HYM<KF5JRV
Sent: 190407/1325Z 34038@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQ6.0.18
On April 7, 1963, a new Yugoslav constitution proclaims Tito the
president for life of the newly named Socialist Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia.
Formerly known as Josip Broz, Tito was born to a large peasant family in
Croatia in 1892. At that time, Croatia was part of the Austro-Hungarian
Empire, and in 1913 Broz was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian army.
After the outbreak of World War I, he fought against Serbia and in 1915
was sent to the Russian front, where he was captured. In the
prisoner-of-war camp, he converted to Bolshevism and in 1917
participated in the Russian Revolution. He fought in the Red Guard
during the Russian Civil War and in 1920 returned to Croatia, which had
been incorporated into the multinational but Serb-dominated kingdom of
Yugoslavia.
He joined the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (CPY) and was an effective
organizer before his arrest as a political agitator in 1928. Released
from prison in 1934, he rapidly rose in the ranks of the CPY and took
the name Tito, which was a pseudonym he used in underground Party work.
He went to the USSR to work with Comintern–the Soviet-led international
Communist organization–and in 1937-38 survived Soviet leader Joseph
Stalin’s purge of the CPY leadership. In 1939, Tito became
secretary-general of the CPY.
In 1941, Axis forces invaded and occupied Yugoslavia, and Tito and his
communist partisans emerged as the leaders of the anti-Nazi resistance.
In 1944, Soviet forces liberated Yugoslavia, and in March 1945 Marshal
Tito was installed as head of a new federal Yugoslav government.
Non-communists were purged from the government, and in November 1945
Tito was elected Yugoslav premier in an election limited to candidates
from the communist-dominated National Liberation Front. The same month,
the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia, comprising the Balkan
republics of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Slovenia,
and Macedonia, was proclaimed under a new constitution.
Although the Yugoslav republics were granted autonomy over some of their
affairs, Tito held the ultimate power and ruled dictatorially,
suppressing opposition to his rule. He soon came into conflict with
Moscow, which disapproved of his independent style, especially in
foreign affairs, and in early 1948 Joseph Stalin attempted to purge the
Yugoslav leadership. Tito maintained control, and later in 1948 the CPY
was expelled from Cominform, the confederation of Eastern European
communist parties. Isolated from the USSR and its satellites, Yugoslavia
was courted by the West, which offered aid and military assistance,
including an informal association with NATO. After Stalin’s death in
1953, Yugoslav-Soviet relations gradually improved, but Tito was
critical of the Soviet invasions of Hungary and Czechoslovakia, and
attempted to develop common policies with countries unaligned with the
United States or the USSR, such as Egypt and India.
In 1953, Tito was elected Yugoslav president and was repeatedly
re-elected until 1963, when his term was made unlimited. Although he
used his secret police to purge political opponents, the average
Yugoslavian enjoyed more freedoms than the inhabitants of any other
communist country in Eastern Europe. Tito died in May 1980, just a few
days before his 88th birthday.
After the collapse of communism in 1989, ethnic tensions resurfaced, and
in 1991 the Yugoslav federation broke apart, leaving only Serbia and
Montenegro remaining in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. In
1992, civil war erupted over Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic’s
attempts to keep ethnically Serbian areas in other republics under
Yugoslav rule. In March 1999, NATO began airstrikes against the
Milosevic regime in an attempt to end genocide in Kosovo and enforce the
area’s autonomy. In October 2000, Milosevic was ousted in a popular
revolution. He was then arrested and charged with crimes against
humanity and genocide. He died on March 11, 2006, in prison in the
Hague, before his trial ended.
73 de Scott KF5JRV
Pmail: KF5JRV@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
email: KF5JRV@GMAIL.COM
Read previous mail | Read next mail
| |
