Tito's Secret Empire: How the Maharaja of the Balkans Fooled the World

by William Klinger, Denis Kuljiš

This groundbreaking biography of Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia presents many startling new revelations, among them his role as an international revolutionary leader and his relationship with Winston Churchill. It highlights his early years as a Comintern operative, the context for his later politics as a leader of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). The authors argue that in the 1940s, between the dissolution of the Comintern and the rise of NAM, Tito's influence and ambition were far wider than has been understood, extending to Italy, France, Greece and Spain via the international Communist networks established during the Spanish Civil War. Klinger and Kuljiš disclose for the first time the connection between Tito's expulsion from the Cominform and the Rome assassination attempt on the Italian Communist Party leader, Palmiro Togliatti--the man who had plotted to overthrow Tito. Tito's Secret Empire offers a pivotal contribution to our understanding of Tito as a figure of real, rather
than imagined, global significance. This dazzlingly original book will reward all those who are interested in the history of international Communism, the Cold War and the Non-Aligned Movement, or in Tito the man--one of the most significant leaders of the twentieth century.

352 pages, Hardcover

Published May 1, 2021

Reviews

[Shrike58 · Rating 3 out of 5]

For what it's worth, I can actually remember the time and place where I was when Tito died. I was back at home from school when the news broke and my mother and I immediately started to speculate on what might happen next. Being of Croatian descent, and having no illusions about the Old County, the question was when the civil war would resume. It took awhile so I don't get any points for my predictive abilities.

Still, as a young man, I did give Tito points for, allegedly, saving Yugoslavia from being steam-rolled by Stalin like the rest of Central Europe; those beliefs did fade over time. Particularly once one began to appreciate the depth of Tito's own atrocities.

That brings us to this book, where the authors purport to give the reader a thorough exercise in muck-raking to the career of Joseph Broz as a revolutionary. The key takeaway is that the man got in on the ground floor early in regards to Communist World Revolution (while a Russian POW in the Great War), and was in no way a self-created local patriot. It would be more accurate to say that by drive, circumstance, and the systematic elimination of the competition, he made himself indispensable to Moscow. One of Stalin's "good fellows" who got things done.

Does this mean that Tito's performance in Yugoslavia was a fraud? Far from it according to Klinger and Kuljis. However, Tito's perspective on the Communist World Revolution, if the authors are to believed, was if this was going to come off he was certainly going to take care of himself, and carve out his own Balkan empire. That this vision clashed with Stalin's own plans to buy time until Moscow had nuclear weapons, are the real roots of the conflict between Stalin and Tito. Not to mention that if this empire came to pass, it was going to be run out of Sofia; not by Tito in Belgrade.

From this point, roughly at the same time as the attempted assassination of the Italian Communist figure Togliatti in 1948 (the authors seem to implicate Tito's involvement in this event), the book sort of fades out. The doings of the Non-Aligned movement just aren't as gripping.

I have issues with this book, even though the pre-1941 portions seem credible. For one, the authors' handling of military affairs always seems a little "off." This can be best illustrated by how Enrique Lister, a senior field commander in the army of the Spanish Republic during the civil war, is described as someone who "excelled" in regards to military command. This will be news to anyone who has read a bit in depth about that war. Further, considering the relative paucity of sources provided, apart from in regards to direct quotes, it's hard to judge the credibility of the authors.

It also doesn't help that both authors died before Oxford published this book, a version of which apparently came out in the former Yugoslavia in 2013. This means that there has been no real effort to engage in debate over the analysis of the authors, so this book is just a big dumb object that you can take or leave as you desire.

Which brings me to my last issue. I think Oxford University Press committed a disservice to readers by not providing some sort of editorial epilogue, speaking as to why they saw value in this work, and their sense of the authors, since Klinger and Kuljis can't speak for themselves. Oxford must have been impressed to publish this book, and their reasons for being impressed would bolster my sense that I wasn't just reading an exercise in geopolitical sensationalism; as grimly amusing as that might be.

[Steven Voorhees · Rating 3 out of 5]

The authors of this treatise (both now deceased) attempt to construct a biography of Josip Broz Tito, that maverick of southeastern Europe. This attempt is partially successful. The book chronicles his birth and growth (mainly political) in its first half. But its second half delves into Tito's masterful winning over of Western leaders (like Churchill), Tito's defiant rejection of Stalin and how Tito made Yugoslavia a pro-Western outlier -- the "Yalta before Yalta." What the book doesn't do is chronicle Tito's actions and record inside Yugoslavia. That is to say how did he hold the nation together amid its deep ethnic tensions? Going into SECRET EMPIRE, I hoped this would be discussed. It wasn't, which left me disappointed. Tito may very well have been a Maharaja in regional and geopolitics. But for insight into the Tito who magically kept Yugoslavia united, one needs to keep looking.

[Morgan Baliviera · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lavoro molto interessante di William Klinger, che ricostruisce in maniera meticolosa e completa la genesi del Partito Comunista jugoslavo e della polizia politica titina, l’OZNA.

[Wendy Yap · Rating 5 out of 5]

A rare glimpse behind the Iron Curtain, a heavy topic but written in a wry and funny manner. Published in 2021 so pretty recent and up to date. Wish there were more books by this author (in English).