The political ideology and policies promulgated by Tito are known as Titoism. Drafted into military service, he distinguished himself, becoming the youngest sergeant major in the Austro-Hungarian Army of that time. After being seriously wounded and captured by the Russians during World War I , he was sent to a work camp in the Ural Mountains. Tito participated in some events of the Russian Revolution in and the subsequent Russian Civil War.
Upon his return to the Balkans in , he entered the newly established Kingdom of Yugoslavia , where he joined the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. Having assumed de facto control over the party by , Tito was formally elected its general secretary in and later its president, the title he held until his death. After the war, Tito served as the prime minister β , president β; from president for life , and marshal of Yugoslavia , the highest rank of the Yugoslav People's Army JNA. In , under his leadership, Yugoslavia became a communist state , which was eventually renamed the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Despite being one of the founders of the Cominform , he became the first Cominform member and the only leader in Joseph Stalin 's lifetime to defy Soviet hegemony in the Eastern Bloc , leading to Yugoslavia's expulsion from the organisation in in what was known as the TitoβStalin split. Tito wavered between supporting a centralised or more decentralised federation and ended up favouring the latter to keep ethnic tensions under control; thus, the constitution was gradually developed to delegate as much power as possible to each republic in keeping with the Marxist theory of withering away of the state.
He envisaged the SFR of Yugoslavia as a "federal republic of equal nations and nationalities, freely united on the principle of brotherhood and unity in achieving specific and common interest. After Tito's death, Yugoslavia's leadership was transformed into an annually rotating presidency to give representation to all of its nationalities and prevent the emergence of an authoritarian leader.
Twelve years later, as communism collapsed in Eastern Europe and ethnic tensions escalated, Yugoslavia dissolved and descended into a series of interethnic wars. Historians critical of Tito view his presidency as authoritarian [ 6 ] [ 7 ] and see him as a dictator , [ 8 ] [ 9 ] while others characterise him as a benevolent dictator.
