During his 35-year rule, Josip Broz Tito traveled almost all over the world, but he avoided one city. He visited it only seven times, and always just in passing. We’re talking about the Serbian city of Cacak.
Whenever he passed through, it was just on his way to Uzice. Historians say Tito avoided Cacak because he perceived it as closely associated with the Chetnik movement until the end of his life. Historians claim that Tito always regarded the people of Cacak as Chetniks.
According to them, he thought so because of their proximity to Ravna Gora and songs like “Na planini, na Jelici” (eng. On the mountain, on Jelica). However, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia’s police rated Cacak as a communist stronghold in 1940, but apparently, this information meant nothing to Tito.
Older residents of Cacak say that every time before Tito’s arrival, opponents of his regime were put in jail, sometimes as much as seven days in advance.
They say this was done preventively. Historians point out that the lifelong president of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia couldn’t change his opinion of Cacak, despite being greeted by enthusiastic people on the street who were excited about his arrival, even though he never visited the city intentionally. Simply put, Tito never had a desire to visit this city. He just avoided Cacak altogether.
