The Selected Works of Josip Broz Tito

Really interesting person, able to unify many minorities, both during and after WW II. Makes for very interesting reading.

Josip Broz Tito, Josip Broz Tito: Military Thought and Works (Belgrade: Vojnoizdavacki Zavod, 1982). A splendid look at a theoretical and practical genius at war in his own words. Some of his assertions are must reading for the study of insurgency and counter-insurgency: the entire country is a battle space, there must be a union of all classes, people not historical forces must lead the revolution, rural orientation is essential and the insurgents must avoid set piece battles but also urban fighting, selected offense is the key as is command and control. This work contains marvelous maps showing progress in this Hobbesian world of war during World War II in Yugoslavia. Tito’s partisans had to defeat the Germans as well as their “collaborationist forces” such as the Croats, Slovenes, Albanian and Serbian “quislings,” etc. This book is a treasure trove for anyone wanting to understand the theory and the practice of insurgency.Note: The accomplishments of Tito during the insurgency phase are matched by his holding “Yugoslavia” together while he lived. For what he was up against, see Dimitrije Djordjevie and Stephen Fischer-Galati, The Balkan Revolutionary Tradition (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981). The “powder keg of Europe” had a vast, excruciatingly long and harrowing tradition of revolt, revolution and struggle against any and all hierarchical powers be the Ottoman, Austrian or later, Soviet or indeed, Serbian. Also, for an insider’s guide to this metal worker turned revolutionary turned party comrade in Moscow turned World War II insurgent turned ruler who liked palaces, see Milovan Djilas, Tito: The Story from Inside (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1981).

Excellent book