Editing Josip Broz Tito (section)

==Early life==
===Pre-World War I===
{{stack|float=left|[[File:Tito hiša1.JPG|thumb|upright=0.9|left|Tito's birthplace in the village of [[Kumrovec]], Croatia]]}}
Josip Broz was born on 7 May 1892{{refn|group=lower-alpha|After Tito became president of Yugoslavia, he celebrated his birthday on 25 May to mark [[Operation Rösselsprung (1944)|the unsuccessful 1944 Nazi attempt on his life]]. The Germans found forged documents that stated 25 May was Tito's birthday and attacked him on that day.{{sfn|Vinterhalter|1972|p=43}}}} in [[Kumrovec]], a village in the northern Croatian region of [[Zagorje]]. At the time it was part of the [[Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia]] within the [[Austro-Hungarian Empire]].{{refn|group=lower-alpha|Despite there being "not the slightest doubt" about the name, date and location of Tito's birth, many people in all parts of the former Yugoslavia give credence to various rumours about his origins.{{sfn|Ridley|1994|p=42}} (see the section {{section link||Language and identity dispute}})}} He was the seventh or eighth child of Franjo Broz and Marija née Javeršek. His parents had already had a number of children die in early infancy.{{sfn|Vinterhalter|1972|p=44}}{{sfn|Ridley|1994|p=44}} Broz was christened and raised as a [[Roman Catholic]].{{sfn|Ridley|1994|p=45}} His father, Franjo, was a [[Croat]] whose family had lived in the village for three centuries, while his mother, Marija, was a [[Slovenes|Slovene]] from the village of [[Podsreda]]. The villages were {{convert|10|mi|km|order=flip}} apart, and his parents had married on 21 January 1881. Franjo Broz had inherited a {{convert|10|acre|adj=on|order=flip}} estate and a good house, but he was unable to make a success of farming. Josip spent a significant proportion of his pre-school years living with his maternal grandparents at Podsreda, where he became a favourite of his grandfather Martin Javeršek. By the time he returned to Kumrovec to begin school, he spoke [[Slovene language|Slovene]] better than [[Croatian language|Croatian]],{{sfn|Vinterhalter|1972|p=49}}{{sfn|Swain|2010|p=5}} and had learned to play the piano.{{sfn|Ridley|1994|p=46}} Despite his mixed parentage, Broz identified as a Croat like his father and neighbours.{{sfn|Minahan|1998|p=50}}{{sfn|Lee|1993|p=9}}{{sfn|Laqueur|1976|p=218}}

In July 1900,{{sfn|Ridley|1994|p=46}} at age eight, Broz entered primary school at Kumrovec. He completed four years of school,{{sfn|Swain|2010|p=5}} failing 2nd grade and graduating in 1905.{{sfn|Vinterhalter|1972|p=49}} As a result of his limited schooling, throughout his life, Tito was poor at spelling. After leaving school, he initially worked for a maternal uncle and then on his parents' family farm.{{sfn|Swain|2010|p=5}} In 1907, his father wanted him to emigrate to the [[United States]] but could not raise the money for the voyage.{{sfn|West|1995|p=32}}

Instead, aged 15 years, Broz left Kumrovec and travelled about {{convert|60|mi|km|order=flip}} south to [[Sisak]], where his cousin Jurica Broz was doing army service. Jurica helped him get a job in a restaurant, but Broz soon got tired of that work. He approached a [[Czechs|Czech]] [[locksmith]], Nikola Karas, for a three-year apprenticeship, which included training, food, and [[room and board]]. As his father could not afford to pay for his work clothing, Broz paid for it himself. Soon after, his younger brother Stjepan also became apprenticed to Karas.{{sfn|Vinterhalter|1972|p=49}}{{sfn|Swain|2010|pp=5–6}}

During his apprenticeship, Broz was encouraged to mark [[International Workers' Day|May Day]] in 1909, and he read and sold ''Slobodna Reč'' ({{lit|Free Word}}), a socialist newspaper. After completing his apprenticeship in September 1910, Broz used his contacts to gain employment in [[Zagreb]]. At age 18, he joined the Metal Workers' Union and participated in his first labour protest.{{sfn|Swain|2010|p=6}} He also joined the [[Social Democratic Party of Croatia and Slavonia]].{{sfn|Dedijer|1952|p=25}}

He returned home in December 1910.{{sfn|Ridley|1994|p=54}} In early 1911, he began a series of moves in search of work, first in [[Ljubljana]], then [[Trieste]], Kumrovec and Zagreb, where he worked repairing bicycles. He joined his first strike action on May Day 1911.{{sfn|Swain|2010|p=6}} After a brief period of work in Ljubljana,{{sfn|Ridley|1994|p=54}} between May 1911 and May 1912, he worked in a factory in [[Kamnik]] in the [[Kamnik–Savinja Alps]]. After it closed, he was offered redeployment to [[Čenkov]] in [[History of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown (1867–1918)|Bohemia]]. On arriving at his new workplace, he discovered that the employer was trying to bring in cheaper labour to replace the local Czech workers, and he and others joined successful strike action to force the employer to back down.{{refn|group=lower-alpha|Ridley notes that since his death, there have been stories written about this period in his life, some of which state that he married a Czech girl in 1912, with whom he had a son. According to Ridley, these stories are "almost impossible to verify".{{sfn|Ridley|1994|p=55}}}}

Driven by curiosity, Broz moved to [[Plzeň]], where he was briefly employed at the [[Škoda Works]]. He next travelled to [[Munich]] in [[Kingdom of Bavaria|Bavaria]]. He also worked at the [[Mercedes-Benz|Benz]] car factory in [[Mannheim]] and visited the [[Ruhr]] industrial region. By October 1912, he had reached [[Vienna]]. He stayed with his older brother Martin and his family and worked at the Griedl Works before getting a job at [[Wiener Neustadt]]. There he worked for [[Austro-Daimler]] and was often asked to drive and test the cars.{{sfn|Ridley|1994|pp=55–56}} During this time, he spent considerable time [[fencing]] and dancing,{{sfn|Vinterhalter|1972|p=55}}{{sfn|Swain|2010|pp=6–7}} and during his training and early work life, he also learned German and passable [[Czech language|Czech]].{{sfn|West|1995|p=33}}{{refn|group=lower-alpha|Ridley notes that some popular biographers falsely claim that he married for a second time in Vienna and had a son.{{sfn|Ridley|1994|p=57}}}}

===World War I===
In May 1913,{{sfn|West|1995|p=33}} Broz was [[conscript]]ed into the [[Austro-Hungarian Army]]{{sfn|Vinterhalter|1972|p=58}}{{refn|group=lower-alpha|When he was conscripted into the army, his date of birth was recorded as 5 March 1892.{{sfn|Ridley|1994|p=43}}}} for his compulsory two years of service. He successfully requested to serve with the [[Royal Croatian Home Guard|25th Croatian Home Guard Regiment]] garrisoned in Zagreb. After learning to ski during the winter of 1913 and 1914, Broz was sent to a school for [[non-commissioned officer]]s (NCO) in [[Budapest]],{{sfn|Swain|2010|p=7}} after which he was promoted to [[sergeant major]]. At age 22, he was the youngest of that rank in his regiment.{{sfn|West|1995|p=33}}{{sfn|Swain|2010|p=7}}{{refn|group=lower-alpha|Vinterhalter states that he was promoted to sergeant after completing non-commissioned officer (NCO) training.{{sfn|Vinterhalter|1972|p=64}}}} At least one source states that he was the youngest sergeant major in the Austro-Hungarian Army.{{sfn|Ridley|1994|p=59}} After winning the regimental fencing competition,{{sfn|Swain|2010|p=7}} Broz came in second in the army fencing championships in Budapest in May 1914.{{sfn|Ridley|1994|p=59}}

Soon after the outbreak of [[World War I]] in 1914, the 25th Croatian Home Guard Regiment marched toward the [[Kingdom of Serbia|Serbian]] border. Broz was arrested for [[sedition]] and imprisoned in the [[Petrovaradin fortress]] in present-day [[Novi Sad]].{{sfn|Ridley|1994|p=62}} He later gave conflicting accounts of this arrest, telling one biographer that he had threatened to desert to the Russian side but also claiming that the whole matter arose from a clerical error.{{sfn|Swain|2010|p=7}} A third version was that he had been overheard saying that he hoped the Austro-Hungarian Empire would be defeated.{{sfn|West|1995|pp=40}} After his acquittal and release,{{sfn|Ridley|1994|pp=62–63}} his regiment served briefly on the [[Serbian Campaign of World War I|Serbian Front]] before being deployed to the [[Eastern Front (World War I)|Eastern Front]] in [[Galicia (Central Europe)|Galicia]] in early 1915 to fight against [[Russian Empire|Russia]].{{sfn|Swain|2010|p=7}} In his account of his military service, Broz did not mention that he participated in the failed Austrian invasion of Serbia, instead giving the misleading impression that he fought only in Galicia, as it would have offended Serbian opinion to know that he fought in 1914 for the Habsburgs against them.{{sfn|West|1995|pp=40}} On one occasion, the [[Reconnaissance|scout]] [[platoon]] he commanded went behind the enemy lines and captured 80 Russian soldiers, bringing them back to their own lines alive. In 1980 it was discovered that Broz had been recommended for an award for gallantry and initiative in reconnaissance and capturing prisoners.{{sfn|West|1995|pp=41–42}} Tito's biographer Richard West wrote that Tito actually downplayed his military record as the Austrian Army records showed that he was a brave soldier, which contradicted his later claim to have opposed the Habsburg monarchy and his self-portrait of himself as an unwilling conscript fighting in a war he opposed.{{sfn|West|1995|p=41}} Broz's fellow soldiers regarded him as ''kaisertreu'' ("true to the Emperor").{{sfn|West|1995|p=43}}

On 25 March 1915,{{refn|group=lower-alpha|West gives the date as 21 March,{{sfn|West|1995|p=42}} and Ridley says 4 April.}} Broz was wounded in the back by a [[Circassia]]n cavalryman's lance{{sfn|Gilbert|2004|p=138}} and captured during a Russian attack near [[Bukovina]].{{sfn|Frankel|1992|p=331}} In his account of his capture, Broz wrote: "suddenly the right flank yielded and through the gap poured cavalry of the Circassians, from Asiatic Russia. Before we knew it they were thundering through our positions, leaping from their horses and throwing themselves into our trenches with lances lowered. One of them rammed his two-yard, iron-tipped, double-pronged lance into my back just below the left arm. I fainted. Then, as I learned, the Circassians began to butcher the wounded, even slashing them with their knives. Fortunately, Russian infantry reached the positions and put an end to the orgy".{{sfn|West|1995|p=42}} Now a [[prisoner of war]] (POW), Broz was transported east to a hospital established in an old monastery in the town of [[Sviyazhsk]] on the [[Volga]] river near [[Kazan]].{{sfn|Swain|2010|p=7}} During his 13 months in hospital, he had bouts of pneumonia and typhus, and learned Russian with the help of two schoolgirls who brought him Russian classics by such authors as [[Tolstoy]] and [[Turgenev]].{{sfn|Swain|2010|p=7}}{{sfn|West|1995|p=42}}{{sfn|Ridley|1994|p=64}}
{{stack|float=right|[[File:Комплекс зданий земской больницы.JPG|thumb|The Uspensko-Bogorodichny monastery, where Tito recuperated from his wounds|alt=a colour photograph of a brown multi-storey building]]}}
After recuperating, in mid-1916, Broz was transferred to the Ardatov POW camp in the [[Samara Governorate]], where he used his skills to maintain the nearby village grain mill. At the end of the year, he was transferred to the [[Kungur]] POW camp near [[Perm, Russia|Perm]] where the POWs were used as labour to maintain the newly completed [[Trans-Siberian Railway]].{{sfn|Swain|2010|p=7}} Broz was appointed to be in charge of all the POWs in the camp.{{sfn|Ridley|1994|p=65}} During this time, he became aware that camp staff were stealing the [[Red Cross parcel]]s sent to the POWs. When he complained, he was beaten and imprisoned.{{sfn|Swain|2010|p=7}} During the [[February Revolution]], a crowd broke into the prison and returned Broz to the POW camp. A [[Bolshevik]] he had met while working on the railway told Broz that his son was working in engineering works in [[Petrograd]], so, in June 1917, Broz walked out of the unguarded POW camp and hid aboard a goods train bound for that city, where he stayed with his friend's son.{{sfn|Swain|2010|pp=7–8}}{{sfn|Ridley|1994|pp=66–67}} The journalist [[Richard West (journalist)|Richard West]] has suggested that because Broz chose to remain in an unguarded POW camp rather than volunteer to serve with the Yugoslav legions of the [[Royal Serbian Army|Serbian Army]], he was still loyal to the [[Austro-Hungarian Empire]], undermining his later claim that he and other Croat POWs were excited by the prospect of revolution and looked forward to the overthrow of the empire that ruled them.{{sfn|West|1995|p=43}}

Less than a month after Broz arrived in Petrograd, the [[July Days]] demonstrations broke out, and Broz joined in, coming under fire from government troops.{{sfn|Swain|2010|p=8}}{{sfn|Ridley|1994|p=67}} In the aftermath, he tried to flee to [[Grand Duchy of Finland|Finland]] in order to make his way to the United States but was stopped at the border.{{sfn|West|1995|p=44}} He was arrested along with other suspected Bolsheviks during the subsequent crackdown by the [[Russian Provisional Government]] led by [[Alexander Kerensky]]. He was imprisoned in the [[Peter and Paul Fortress]] for three weeks, during which he claimed to be an innocent citizen of Perm. When he finally admitted to being an escaped POW, he was to be returned by train to Kungur, but escaped at [[Yekaterinburg]], then caught another train that reached [[Omsk]] in [[Siberia]] on 8 November after a {{convert|2000|mi|km|adj=on|order=flip}} journey.{{sfn|Swain|2010|p=8}}{{sfn|Ridley|1994|pp=67–68}} At one point, police searched the train looking for an escaped POW, but were deceived by Broz's fluent Russian.{{sfn|Ridley|1994|p=67}}

In Omsk, local Bolsheviks stopped the train and told Broz that [[Vladimir Lenin]] had seized control of Petrograd. They recruited him into an [[Red Guards (Russia)|International Red Guard]] that guarded the Trans-Siberian Railway during the winter of 1917 and 1918. In May 1918, the anti-Bolshevik [[Czechoslovak Legion]] wrested control of parts of Siberia from Bolshevik forces, the [[Provisional Siberian Government (Omsk)|Provisional Siberian Government]] established itself in Omsk, and Broz and his comrades went into hiding. At this time, Broz met a 14-year-old local girl, {{ill|Pelagija Belousova{{!}}Pelagija "Polka" Belousova|sh|Pelagija Belousova}}, who hid him and then helped him escape to a [[Kazakh people|Kazakh]] village {{convert|40|mi|km|order=flip}} from Omsk.{{sfn|Swain|2010|p=8}}{{sfn|Ridley|1994|p=71}} Broz again worked maintaining the local mill until November 1919, when the [[Red Army]] recaptured Omsk from [[White forces]] loyal to the [[Provisional All-Russian Government]] of [[Alexander Kolchak]]. He moved back to Omsk and married Belousova in January 1920.{{refn|group=lower-alpha|West states that the marriage occurred in mid-1919.{{sfn|West|1995|p=45}}}} At the time of their marriage, Broz was 27 years old and Pelagia Belousova was 14. They divorced in the 1930s in Moscow.{{sfn|Ridley|1994|p=76}}<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |title=Marko Stričević je u Sibiru našao obitelj prve supruge o kojoj Tito nikad nije govorio. 'Oteo ju je po stepskoj tradiciji, bilo joj je 14 godina' |url=https://www.telegram.hr/kultura/marko-stricevic-je-u-sibiru-nasao-obitelj-prve-supruge-o-kojoj-tito-nikad-nije-govorio-oteo-ju-je-po-stepskoj-tradiciji-bilo-joj-je-14-godina/ |website=Telegram.hr |last1=Hr |first1=Telegram }}</ref> Broz later wrote that during his time in Russia, he heard much talk of Lenin, a little of Trotsky, and "as for Stalin, during the time I stayed in Russia, I never once heard his name".{{sfn|West|1995|p=45}} Tito joined the Communist Party in 1920 in Omsk.<ref name=":0" /> In the autumn of 1920, he and his pregnant wife returned to his homeland, by train to [[Narva]], by ship to [[Stettin]], then by train to Vienna, where they arrived on 20 September. In early October, Broz returned to Kumrovec in what was then the [[Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes]] to find that his mother had died and his father had moved to [[Jastrebarsko]], near Zagreb.{{sfn|Swain|2010|p=8}} Sources differ over whether Broz joined the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] while in Russia, but he said that the first time he joined the [[Communist Party of Yugoslavia]] (CPY) was in Zagreb after he returned to his homeland.{{sfn|Ridley|1994|p=77}}