Poverty and injustice made the young Tito receptive to the promises of Communism. Captured by the Russians in World War I, he participated in the Bolshevik Revolution. For the next two decades his life was one of danger and imprisonment as he sought to bring that revolution to his native land. His name became a legend — but his greatest exploits were still to come.

In 1941, the German legions rolled over Yugoslavia. Leading an ill-fed, ill-equipped Partisan army — one fourth of whom were women fighting alongside the men — Tito challenged the awesome Nazi military machine. Time and again, total annihilation was avoided by feats that enraged Hitler and won the applause of the world. By the war's end, Tito was undisputed leader of his people — and had come to the painful realization that what was good for Russia was not automatically good for Yugoslavia. And for Tito, his country came first. His daring break with Stalin, and his insistence upon Yugoslavia's right to follow an independent road to Socialism, upset the solidarity of the Russian Communist movement.

Dedicated revolutionary, heroic guerrilla commander and shrewd master of politics, Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia has left an indelible imprint upon the history of our times.

From the dust jacket