Tito and His Comrades

6

1

The Young Broz

World War One, Imprisonment, and

His Rise in the Yugoslav Communist Party

1892–1939

Learning and Wandering

Josip Broz was born on 7 May 1892 (though he used to quote other dates as
well)^1 as a subject of Franz Joseph in the village of Kumrovec, the district of
Zagorje—“the land beyond the mountains”—on the border between the Bano-
vina (vice-realm) of Croatia and the Duchy of Styria, in what is now Slovenia.
Although both regions were part of the Habsburg monarchy, they differed in
many ways. The Croatian side of the territory was part of the Kingdom of
Hungary, while Styria belonged to the hereditary lands of the ruling dynasty.
Franz Joseph was called emperor in Vienna, but king in Budapest. These were
not just ceremonial distinctions, since after the establishment of the Dual
Monarchy in 1867 two autonomous states were created, with only three key
ministries shared between them (war, finance, and foreign affairs), plus of course
the head of state himself—otherwise they were governed separately. Thanks to
the industrial revolution, the Austrian half of the Double Monarchy experi-
enced slow but steady development. The Hungarian part, however, lingered
beneath the yoke of a conservative feudal class, alien to the social and ethnic
problems that plagued the kingdom.
Had Josip Broz been born in the valley of Bistrica, just a few miles away from
his village, at the home of his Slovene mother, Marija, then his destiny would
likely have been very different indeed. The local priest would have almost
certainly noted his intelligence and therefore sent him off to the renowned
Bishop’s College in Ljubljana. This would have opened two doors for him: that
of the seminary or, if he was as diligent as he was capable of being, then the
university—that is, if he could manage to escape “God’s calling” (for his beloved
mother dearly wished that he would become a priest). But since he was born
in Croatia, where the Roman Catholic Church was less organized than its