Tito's Secret Empire: How the Maharaja of the Balkans Fooled the World

by William Klinger, Denis Kuljis

Overview

This groundbreaking biography of Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia presents many startling new revelations, among them his role as an international revolutionary leader and his relationship with Winston Churchill. It highlights his early years as a Comintern operative, the context for his later politics as a leader of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). The authors argue that in the 1940s, between the dissolution of the Comintern and the rise of NAM, Tito's influence and ambition were far wider than has been understood, extending to Italy, France, Greece and Spain via the international Communist networks established during the Spanish Civil War. Klinger and Kuljiš disclose for the first time the connection between Tito's expulsion from the Cominform and the Rome assassination attempt on the Italian Communist Party leader, Palmiro Togliatti—the man who had plotted to overthrow Tito. Tito's Secret Empire offers a pivotal contribution to our understanding of Tito as a figure of real, rather than imagined, global significance. This dazzlingly original book will reward all those who are interested in the history of international Communism, the Cold War and the Non-Aligned Movement, or in Tito the man—one of the most significant leaders of the twentieth century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780197572429
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	05/01/2021
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	735,473
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.70(d)

About the Author

The late William Klinger was a historian of the Balkans; he died in 2015. Denis Kuljis was a renowned liberal Croatian journalist. With his partners, he founded Media Press, a company that launched the influential independent political weekly Globus. He died in August 2019.

Table of Contents

I. A COMINTERN AGENT

1. A STAR IS BORN, Pantovak 1928
2. THE SIBERIAN ODYSSEY OF A ZAGORJE CORPORAL, Omsk 1917
3. THE COMBAT CELL, Veliko Trojstvo 1920
4. PROLETARIAN GEORGIJEVI?, Kraljevica 1925
5. THE BOMBING PLOT TRIAL, Zagreb 1928
6. CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, Lepoglava 1931
7. QUEEN OF HEARTS, Vienna 1934
8. OBERKRAINER COMMUNISM, Ljubljana 1934
9. THE LIGHT OF THE LUX, Moscow 1935
10. WALTER IN THE COMMUNIST UNDERGROUND, Prague 1936
11. COMRADE ORGSEC, Anindol 1937
12. THE REVOLUTIONARIES FROM BOULEVARD SAINT-GERMAIN, Paris 1937
13. THE STALINISTS, Bohinj 1939

II. COMMANDER OF A SECRET ARMY

14. T. T., Istanbul 1940
15. MICKEY MOUSE IN WAR SCHOOL, Dubrava 1940
16. NEITHER WAR NOR PACT, Zagreb 1941
17. A SPY NEST IN DEDINJE, Belgrade 1941
18. THE SURREALIST REVOLUTIONARIES, Fruška Gora 1941
19. THE DEFEAT, U#382;ice 1941
20. THE LONG MARCH, Biha? 1942
21. THE BRIDGE OF BLOOD, The Neretva River 1943
22. MARSHAL, Jajce 1943
23. EAGLE, Bari 1944
24. PANTHER'S JUMP, Drvar 1944

III. THE SECRET EMPIRE

25. THE PURGA ARCHIPELAGO, Vis 1944
26. A RENDEZVOUS WITH STALIN, Moscow 1944
27. THE BELGRADE OPERATION, Craiova 1944
28. CONQUERING THE BALKANS, ACT 1: ALBANIA, Tirana 1944
29. CONQUERING THE BALKANS, ACT 2: GREECE, Thessalonica 1944
30. ROME'S STALINISTS VERSUS MILAN'S TITOISTS, Milan 1944
31. THE CASTLE OF LEAD, Bleiburg 1945
32. LOS CUATRO GENERALES, Toulouse 1945
33. THREE TITOIST EVANGELISTS, Trieste 1945
34. PLAN MAXIMUM, Gramos 1947
35. STALIN'S HISTORIC "NYET," Dedinje 1948
36. THE EXCOMMUNICATION, Bucharest 1948
37. TARGET: TOGLIATTI, Rome 1948
38. THE MAHARAJA OF THE BALKANS, London 1954
39. L'HOMME NIKITA, Belgrade 1954
40. A NEW MEDITERRANEAN OFFENSIVE, Suez 1955
41. A PSYCHODRAMA IN TITO'S WHITE PALACE, Belgrade 1955
42. A SECRET WAR IN THE MEDITERRANEAN, Algiers 1956
43. THE DOUBLE CONSPIRACY, Budapest 1956
44. THE ARSENAL OF THE MEDITERRANEAN REVOLUTION, Casablanca 1958
45. FROM DESERT TO WILDERNESS, Gold Coast 1961
46. THE THIRD WORLD CAPITAL IN THE BALKANS, Belgrade 1961
47. CUBA LIBRE, Brijuni Islands 1962
48. A DEFEAT IN THE HIMALAYAS, New Delhi 1962
49. ENTER THE DRAGON, Moscow 1964

IV. THE BRIJUNI INTERNATIONAL

50. THE EMPEROR WITHOUT AN EMPIRE, Brijuni Islands 1964-80

Index

Editorial Reviews

"A fascinating, highly readable and groundbreaking contribution to our understanding of Tito, suggesting that his power and ambitions in the 1940s stretched much wider than has been assumed previously."— Marko Hoare, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Relations, Sarajevo School of Science and Technology, and author of The History of Bosnia

"A compelling, provocative, and polemical examination of Tito's tenure and his position within the Cold War political (dis)order."— Jasmin Mujanovi?, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Elon University, and author of Hunger and Fury: The Crisis of Democracy in the Balkans

"Stripping away the nostalgia surrounding Tito, this meticulously researched book offers an unsparing re-appraisal of his life and contribution to the revolutionary climate of the twentieth century. While insightfully analyzing the Yugoslav leader's imperial ambitions, it debunks myths around Tito's Partisans' role in taking Belgrade in 1944." — Elizabeth Roberts, Balkan scholar and former diplomat, and author of The Realm of the Black Mountain: A History of Montenegro

From the Publisher