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Tito and His Comrades
Jože Pirjevec, Foreword by Emily Greble
A life as riveting as any John Le Carré plot
This landmark biography reveals the life of one of the most powerful figures of the Cold War era. Josip Broz (1892–1980), nicknamed Tito, led Yugoslavia for nearly four decades with charisma, cunning, and an iron fist.
With his Partisans he fought Hitler during World War II, and after the war he shrewdly resisted the Soviet Union's grasp. A leader of the non-aligned nations, he long enjoyed a reputation in the West as "the only good Communist" despite a dubious human rights record at home. Jože Pirjevec employs impressive research from archives in eight languages to offer this illuminating, definitive portrait of a complex man in turbulent times.
Pirjevec recounts how Tito, with little schooling but an astute intellect and driving ambition, rose through Communist Party ranks to shape and rule the Yugoslav federation. Surviving multiple assassination attempts by Nazis, Soviet spies, and others, Tito boldly threatened Stalin in return and may have, Pirjevec reveals, contrived Stalin's death. The narrative follows Tito's personal and political life into old age, as the specter of a Soviet invasion haunted him until his death at age eighty-seven. Available in English for the first time, this edition includes new material from Pirjevec and a foreword by Emily Greble.
 Jože Pirjevec is a research counselor at the Science and Research Center of Koper, Slovenia, and a fellow of the Slovenian Academy of Arts and Sciences. His many books have been translated into numerous languages and include Serbs, Croatians, and Slovenians: History of Three Nations; The Yugoslav Wars: 1991–1999; and Saint Vitus Day: Yugoslavia 1918–1992, History of a Tragedy.
Praise
“An enlightening, enthralling biography of Yugoslavia's leader Tito.”
—Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
“Skillfully navigating the complex terrain of history and memory that Tito evokes, this biography is both respectful to his complicated legacy and sensitive to the emotionally charged questions of history that have fueled discord in the region. . . . Pirjevec does not take sides, nor does he ask his readers to do so.”
—Emily Greble, from the foreword
“Tito's life is an extraordinary story, a series of theatrical coups and ruptures on a stage with many of the great figures of the last century. [Pirjevec] shows all the paradoxes and ambiguities of this fervent revolutionary who nonetheless enjoyed luxury, entertaining Hollywood stars or the Queen of England with equal splendor.”
—Le Monde
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Larger images
June 2018
LC: 2017044551 DR
552 pp. 6 x 9
20 b/w illus.
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