We do not want to belong to any side. We belong to all those who fight for their independence, their freedom, the dignity of their peoples.
Politicians
Josip Broz Tito
Founder and first lifelong president of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1892-1980). A Croatian-born metalworker who became commander of the Partisan resistance during the Second World War, Tito liberated Yugoslavia largely by his own forces. After breaking with Stalin in 1948 and being expelled from the Cominform, he developed worker self-management socialism and co-founded the Non-Aligned Movement, hosting the first Belgrade Conference in 1961. He held together a six-republic multi-ethnic federation for 35 years through a mix of charismatic authority, repressive policing, and constitutional engineering, leaving a legacy that combines genuine state-building with significant human-rights abuses and the seeds of Yugoslavia's post-1991 disintegration.
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Josip Broz Tito's Other Quotes
Stop sending people to kill me. We've already captured five of them, one with a bomb and another with a rifle. If you don't stop sending killers, I'll send one to Moscow, and I won't have to send a second.
We study and take as an example the Soviet system, but we are developing socialism in our country in somewhat different forms.
Brotherhood and unity.
Even if I had to choose between Yugoslavia and Communism, I would choose Yugoslavia.
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We choose freedom.
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Nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.
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We will bury you!
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Berlin is the testicles of the West. When I want the West to scream, I squeeze on Berlin.
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I am a Berliner.
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Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.
-- John F. Kennedy