Tito and His Comrades

World War Two and the Partisan Struggle 145

built by Prince Paul in a neoclassical style, but also kept the Old Palace, where
King Aleksandar had lived, and the Ačević family’s still-incomplete villa at
15 Romunska Street (later called Užička Street, in memory of the town where
Tito had first tasted power). The Old Palace was reserved for important visitors
and heads of state, while the White Palace was for work, and the villa, where
prior to the liberation the German commander of Belgrade lived, served as a
private residence. Later, Tito annexed still more properties in the neighbor-
hood, creating a large, walled compound. He soon set to work on the residences
at Dedinje, which swiftly become his principal dwellings in Belgrade. In the
courtyard of the White Palace he erected a bronze statue of the horse he had
ridden in the war and, alongside it he put a statue of Ivo Lola Ribar.^494 Although
technically Tito had no right to these buildings—he was not president, just
prime minister—he acted with such self-assurance that neither the regents nor
the later president of the federal parliament (old father Ribar, who was also
formally head of state) put up any resistance. Tito celebrated New Year’s Eve
1945 as if the war had already been won, with an extravagant party at the White
Palace. For the first time his comrades saw him dancing with ladies, most of
whom had grenades or revolvers in their belts. The only bitter note came in the
form of an anonymous greeting card from a monarchist bearing the insulting
words: “How does it feel to be on foreign soil?”^495
Tito finally abandoned Paul Karadjordjević’s palace and never lived in it
with any regularity, using it just as his office. He did not, however, hesitate to
claim the spoils of the old rulers. When chests filled with gold and other pre-
cious objects were found in a basement, Tito used his skill as a former mechanic
to easily crack them open by hand. His bodyguard, General Moma Djurić,
suggested the riches be transferred to the National Bank, saying, “We don’t
need them.” “Eh, Djurić, steady on—we’ll have this, too,” came Tito’s reply.^496
He was forgetting his own words, published in the Proleter in May 1939: “The
public work of a party member can’t differ from his private life. For commu-
nists, this is crucial in winning the confidence of the masses.”^497

Tito: Hunter and Bon Vivant

The requisition of royal residences was not confined to Belgrade: Tito also took
possession of other manors, castles, and hunting lodges used by the Karadjord-
jevićes before the war. He was generous to his collaborators, who were allowed
to grab foreign properties and were often invited to parties, films, and billiard
games, but mostly to go hunting. Before the war, Tito and his friends did not
hunt, but after the war it became an obsession and an opportunity for “com-
rades” to reinforce their bond as part of the ruling elite. It became a ritual, with