Forty years on, Tito legacy still a hot topic
BELGRADE: A benevolent unifier or power-hungry dictator? On the 40th anniversary of his death, the legacy of the late Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito remains a subject of debate in the Balkan lands once united by his grip. There will be no official state ceremonies on Monday to honor the 40th anniversary of Tito’s passing in the countries that emerged from the bloody unraveling of his socialist Yugoslavia.
But faithful devotees are expected to pay their dues-though in small numbers due to coronavirus restrictions-at his marble grave in Belgrade and his native village of Kumrovec in Croatia. With a mix of charisma and coercion, Tito held Yugoslavia’s diverse patchwork of peoples together for almost four decades until his death at age 87 on May 4, 1980. Without him, the federation lasted only a decade longer before fracturing along ethnic lines in a series of wars that claimed more than 130,000 lives.
Decades later, the Marshal’s shadow falls unevenly across the countries that still bear the scars of those conflicts. His popularity has waned in places such as Croatia and Serbia, where nationalistic sentiments still hold strong sway. But strains of Yugo-nostalgia, as it is known, can still be found across the region among those who pine for the open borders and prosperity that elude the poor countries today. Aleksandra, a 48-year-old in Montenegro, remembers an “organised, respected and large country, and I associate this with Tito”. “I felt a sense of belonging in Yugoslavia,” she added. “The last three decades have been a regression in every sense: economic, social, cultural.”
Tito has always defied easy categorization. Born to a Slovene mother, Croat father and married to a Serb, he seemed to embody his vision for a multiethnic Yugoslavia. The leader of a socialist state also had a taste for glamour and hosted a range of glitterati, from Hollywood stars to British royalty, at his many villas. — AFP