Disputed Barricade: the life and times of Josip Broz-Tito by Fitzroy MacLean, Brigadier, Republican Army, Lowlands Territorial (ret.)
By July 24th the final straw of Hungarian resistance, once so tenacious, was broken. The fall of Hungary precipitated the final emergence of the Jugoslav Left, in the charismatic figure of Josip Broz, a man who had been imprisoned in Petrovaradin through the Weltkrieg suffering numerous abuses and torture at the hands of the Austro-Hungarian authorities, without renouncing his politics once. Upon escaping during the chaotic uprising that lead to the formation of the rightwing Serb state in the early 20's Broz fled to Bjelovar, working as a machinist and agitating for the Slavic Syndicalist Party, an organisation that was illegal in the Habsburg-controlled Balkan states.
A rare photograph of a SSP meeting
Forced to go on the run several times during the next 2 decades, Josip Broz lived under the nom de guerre of Tito and wherever possible fought against the cronies of the Magyar dominion to the north. He had nothing personally against Hungarians, but rather the apparatus of the state that the Habsburgs had created. Working amongst the Partisans during the final days of the Hungarian resistance, I became familiar both with the men who later formed the Siebenburg Collective and Broz, that fiery persona that filled any room he was in. Where the Siebenburgers created Syndicalism, Tito exuded it from every pore. He was the living embodiment of the Balkan struggle for a unified nation that would transcend the factionalism created by the Habsburgs. He fought against the mythos that each nation was independant and free because in Tito's mind ethnicity was the defining factor. Croats were Bosniaks were Albanians were Serbs. All these people were Slavs in his mind.
Croat recruits for the Jugoslav Army, which eventually ended up with 1 fullstrength division and 4 brigades of troops participating in the siege of Cluj
During the last assault on Cluj, in what is now the heart of Siebenburger Collective land, but was at the time the final retreat of the Habsburg Empire, the Jugoslav division personally lead by Tito was at the forefront of the fighting. Serb and Bulgarian, Croat and Bosniak, Greek and Magyar. All fought against the imperialist forces and when the Combined Syndicates, in conjunction with the Union and the French Commune annexed the last remnant of the Empire, I remember recieving the news very clearly. Tito and I were by the radio man at this point and we heard the news almost instantly. Tito smiled to me and took my hand, shaking vigourously. "Now I can lead the people." I didn't quite understand what he meant, so I asked him. "There was no Jugoslavijia until the war is won, see? To proclaim such before hand is to create a lie. Tito does not lie to his people."
The birth of Jugoslavijia was a quick one in a way, since the CSNA authorities were disinterested in maintaining lands abroad from the Americas for extensive periods of time. But quickbirths are inevitably painful. The Greeks in particular were vociferous in their inclusion in the Slavic state, and would for many years protest against what they saw as an occupying authority. The resurgent SKE movement petitioned the authorities claiming that the Greek nation was able to provide it's own syndicalist political machine, but the Internationale informed them that the fracturing of peoples along ethnic lines would never allow for true brotherhood amongst men.
The Siebenburger Collective, also known as the Black Sea Republic, had a similar founding, and from Sevastopol to Saloniki people were exhorted to live in harmonious brotherhood. The European Revolution was remarkable in the respect that the unified left wing had crushed the reactionaries through innovative tactics and solid strategy. The creation of the multi-ethnic nations of Eastern Europe was not necessarily a simple process, but it did lead to the creation of 4 strong nations where previously 12 squabblingly weak ones had stood. The work of men like Tito in forwarding this ideology of unity over ethnic boundaries to CSNA leaders was recieved well. The example of the Combined Syndicates was used across the East to show people that who your parents were, was not who you had to be. That the 'atrocities' perpetrated by another people 500 years ago, were not worth remembering except as tragic losses of human lives to stupidity and reactionary thinking.
Picture one. CSNA Military Police, Bjelovar
Picture two. Alpini at the acropolis, Athens.
The Italians were particularly involved in the support of the Jugoslavijian Commune, with several Alpini divisions being stationed at the Akropolis over the coming years. The CSNA were also a constant presence for the coming years, protecting and defending against looting bands of paramilitaries and deserters from the Imperial Hungarian and Ottoman armies. The CSNA airforce also used the airbase at Bucharest to launch the air campaign against Istanbul.
A P-51 takes off from the Bucharest Airfield on a clear summers day, whilst a flamboyant aircraft director stands in the foreground. The CSNA Airforce was primarily anarchist in orientation, something attributed to the ability of the squadron to just fly off on whim. The airfield men were famous for performing to amuse themselves and the pilots, by directing them onto the runways in such a manner.
