Today marks the 40th anniversary of the death of Josip Broz Tito, the lifetime President of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY).
Tito passed away on May 4th 1980 in a hospital in Ljubljana. Four days later, 700 thousand people arrived at his funeral in Belgrade, including 209 government delegations from 128 countries of the world.
He led Yugoslavia for 35 years and belonged to the order of the prominent leaders in view of the fact that he was one of the founders of the Non-Aligned Movement, which was of great importance within the former bipolar structure of the international system. In domestic politics, Tito left an indelible mark, as well as the Constitution of 1974-which proved to be unsustainable.
Thanks to Tito’s policies and his refusal of Stalin in 1948, Yugoslavia enjoyed considerable support from the United States. In the period of bipolarity, the US financially and politically supported the countries that took the side of the United States.
As the leader of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, Tito led the National Liberation Army in World War II, and emerged from the war as a war leader who then became the longest-serving head of state, since the end of World War II.
Josip Broz Tito was born in Kumrovec in 1892, in a mixed Croatian-Slovene family. The date of his birth is not known, but May 25th is considered to be his birthday, and was in the former state celebrated as the Youth Day. He was wounded in Russia in 1915, after which he was captured, and his official biography also states that he participated in the October Revolution.
