Tito: A Pictorial Biography

by Fitzroy Maclean

If ever there was a child of the twentieth century, it was Josip Broz, born eight years before it began, the son of a poor Croat peasant, suddenly to become famous some fifty years later as Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia. Our century's blood stained landmarks, two World Wars, the Russian Revolution, the Spanish Civil War, the emergence of Stalin, Hitler, and Mussolini, the great Soviet purges of the thirties, the assassinations at Sarajevo and Marseilles, all played their part in his development and had their impact on his career. And he, in his turn, made his impact on the century.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography

127 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Major General Fitzroy Hew Royle Maclean, Bt, KT, CBE.

Graduate of Eton and subsequently King's College, University of Cambridge. Joined the Diplomatic Service in 1932. Posted to Paris from 1933-1937 and then the British Embassy to Moscow from 1937-1941.

Veteran of WWII. In 1941, he chose to enlist as a private in the Cameron Highlanders, but was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant the same year. He was one of the earliest members of the elite SAS. By the end of the war, had risen to the rank of Brigadier. Maclean wrote several books, including Eastern Approaches, in which he recounted three extraordinary series of adventures: traveling, often incognito, in Soviet Central Asia; fighting in the Western Desert Campaign (1941-1943), where he specialized in commando raids (with the Special Air Service Regiment) behind enemy lines; and living rough with Josip Broz Tito and his Yugoslav Partisans. It has been widely speculated that Ian Fleming used Maclean as one of his inspirations for James Bond.

Unionist Party (Scotland) member of Parliament (MP) from 1941-1974.

Awarded a baronetcy, becoming 1st Baronet, Maclean of Strachur and Glensluain. Invested a Knight of the Order of the Thistle (KT). Appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). Recipient of the Croix de Guerre (France), the Order of Kutuzov (Soviet Union), the Order of the Partisan Star (Yugoslavia), and, posthumously, the Order of Prince Branimir (Croatia).

Reviews

[Ian Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Josip Broz Tito was a fascinating man. He was born in 1892 to a peasant family in Croatia, which was then a part of the Austro- Hungarian Empire. He became a soldier in the First World War where he was taken prisoner by the Russians and saw first-hand the Russian Revolution. It was this event that radicalized him and for the next twenty years doggedly devoted his life to the cause, which included agitating in factories, serving five years in prison, and working his way up through the communist movement until he eventually become leader of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. With the onslaught of the Second World War, he led a tenacious and brilliant guerrilla campaign against the Germans. After the war, he became president of Yugoslavia where he fell out big time with Stalin, started the Non-Aligned Movement with Nehru and Nasser, liberalized his country to a much further extent than other communist countries, introduced Workers Management in state run enterprises, and held together a nation that consisted of a mish-mash of ethnic groups who loathed the sight of one another.

This book is quite short but vividly captures the man and his times. There is little analysis but all the details are there. If I have anything against the book, it is short of criticism. Like most communist dictators, he rigged elections, suppressed free speech, set up a secret police and imprisoned dissidents, and Maclean says little about this. However, compared to other communist dictators, he was a saint, and for the most part, the system worked. Under Tito, people had peace and prosperity and a fair amount of personal freedom. It all unraveled after his death, but the book was written in 1979, so Maclean does not realize this.

The book is broken down into three parts: the early years, the war years, and the Presidency years. There are plenty of photographs that accompany the text. If you want to know about one of the most intriguing, interesting and attractive men of the 20th century, this is a good place to start.