World War Two and the Partisan Struggle 147
At first, Tito’s salary was modest—mostly symbolic—in part because no
one controlled how much the “court” (or marshalat, as it was called) spent. Not
until in 1952, three weeks before his election to the presidency of the republic,
did the Welfare Office finally formalize his work status. Taking into account
the effective years of his employment, including his years of clandestine work
and the war years, it recognized him as active from 26 May 1908 until 7 March
1945: a total of thirty-six years, nine months, and thirteen days. Article 220 of
the Constitution of 1963, which was dedicated to the president of the repub-
lic, awarded him a generous forty thousand dinars per month, tax-free, for his
work. Two years later, the Federal Assembly increased this sum to an enormous
550,000 dinars, which was again doubled very soon thereafter. From 1 January
1967 he received a further ten thousand dinars per month for entertainment
expenses; a sum that was augmented by an extra thousand dinars monthly.
As commander in chief he was also paid ten thousand dinars per month and,
from 1956, the Municipal Provisions Office paid him a supplement for his two
nephews, sons of Alexsander Broz, whom he raised in his home.^503
For the building and maintenance of his residences, security, travel at home
and abroad, and “other” expenses, there was a special fund financed by the state.
The General Secreteriat, which paid the salaries of Tito and his staff, had no
control over these expenses; they were managed by a Serb from Lika, General
Milan Žeželj, a “people’s hero” and commander of the guards who was twice
wounded during the war and who, according to Louis Adamic, “worshiped”
Tito.^504 Tito cost the state much more than King Aleksandar, who had had the
most expensive civil list in the world aside from the emperor of Japan. Vladimir
Popović, who in the early sixties oversaw Tito’s expenses, stressed that the daily
cost of his court amounted to more than a billion dinars.^505 In short: Tito loved
luxury. The insignia on his cap was of pure gold, as were the objects on his desk.
He wore a ring set with a five-carat diamond, and by way of explanation
claimed he had bought it in Moscow before the war, in case its value should
come in handy. In fact, as Djilas wrote, he lost that Moscow-bought ring dur-
ing Operation Schwarz, having grown too thin for it to stay on his finger. The
ring he wore after the war, and which was visible on the cover of Life magazine
when his biography was published, had nothing to do with that “investment.”
He received it, at his request, as a gift from the Soviet government in the spring
of 1946.^506
Tito ordered himself a new marshal’s uniform, working with a team of styl-
ists to choose the most apt decorations. He wore it when he met his officers,
but also on occasions when he wanted to cultivate army loyalty. When Vladi-
mir Dedijer asked him why he was so fascinated with uniforms, he replied
tartly that he would not wear them at all if Yugoslavs were intellectuals: “But,