There has always been a rumor in Europe and the United States that Stalin had carried out more than a dozen assassinations of Tito, without success. So Tito wrote a letter to Stalin, saying that if you continue your assassination campaign against me, I will retaliate against you in the same way. Stalin died shortly after, with tito writing him the letter on his desk.
The rumor was so mythical that it seemed that Stalin had been assassinated by Tito. Obviously, this rumor is not true. But according to documents declassified by the government after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Stalin's plan to assassinate Tito was true. It was only this plan that was aborted by Stalin's death.
(Pictured: Tito meets With Stalin)
So why did Stalin assassinate Tito? Were there other reasons for the abort of this assassination plan? Why didn't Stalin choose other plans against Tito? Metaphorically for military offensives and so on. This article will focus on these three aspects.
Why did Stalin assassinate Tito?
Stalin wanted to assassinate Tito because Tito ignored Stalin and was not willing to let Yugoslavia be the little Slavic brother of the Soviet Union. Tito rode the wall on both the east and the west, doing business with each other. At the same time, Tito wanted to create a "Balkan Federation" that included Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Albania, and even Greece, which would undoubtedly erode Soviet dominance in Eastern Europe.
Why did Tito do this? Unlike the other socialist countries in Eastern Europe, Yugoslavia was liberated mainly by its own strength. Although both the Soviet Union and britain and the United States assisted Tito, Britain and the United States helped Tito more, even decisively. The analogy of Britain and the United States giving tito's guerrillas all the weapons captured from Italy was decisive for the liberation of Yugoslavia. Therefore, Tito and Britain and the United States have a sense of war.
Tito did not want to betray Britain and the United States, and could not avoid the call of the Soviet Union, the Slavic and socialist big brother, and simply could not sin against anyone, determined to take the middle line.
(Photo: Three leaders of the Non-Aligned Movement)
As a result, Tito declared the concept of non-alignment, and as one of the most powerful countries in Eastern Europe, Yugoslavia, together with India and Egypt, became the "troika" of the Non-Aligned Movement. With 2/3 of the countries participating in the Non-Aligned Movement in the world at that time, Tito's international prestige soared.
Tito rode the wall on both the east and the west, and economically avoided the dogmatism of the planned economy, and there was still a lot of room for marketization and private ownership in Yugoslavia. Therefore, the West did not dislike Tito, and Yugoslavs could even travel to the West and work. Tito did business at both the east and the west, the economic system was flexible, and soon became the richest socialist country in the world, and in the seventies it had a car at home, which undoubtedly impacted the "spiritual leader" status of the Soviet Union.
It should be said that Stalin initially tried his best to woo Tito, even placing the intelligence headquarters of the International Communist and Workers' Parties in Nelgrade, the capital of Yugoslavia. Stalin turned a blind eye to Tito's refusal to join the Warsaw Pact and his association with the West.
What really angered Stalin was Tito's desire to create a "Balkan Federation" with Yugoslavia as the main body, including Bulgaria, Albania and even Greece. And Tito made no secret of it. Long before the founding of Yugoslavia, Tito publicly announced this plan.
(Photo: Map of the Balkans)
Obviously, once the "Balkan Federation" in Tito's plan was established, it would seriously shake the dominance of the Soviet Union in the socialist countries of Eastern Europe, and even form a domino effect. This is absolutely intolerable to Stalin. Therefore, when Titi invested heavily in helping the KKE fight the civil war, Stalin vigorously opposed it, that is, he did not want Greece to be included in the arms of Yugoslavia.
If you can't do it, you come in secret. Tito quietly approached Albania and Bulgaria, hoping that Yugoslavia would merge with the two countries step by step. The plan was very successful at first, and both communists received important help from Tito before liberation. Tito signed economic integration agreements with Albania and Bulgaria and built a railway and road transport network to connect the two countries.
Every step Tito took touched Stalin's bottom line. Finally, one day the Albanian general secretary, Hoxha, informed Stalin that Tito had asked for two divisions to be stationed in Albania and to speed up the process of merging the two countries. Stalin was furious, almost yelling at Tito, why not let the Soviet Union know about such a big thing.
The Soviet Union turned its face, and Stalin expelled Yugoslavia from the International Communist Intelligence Service. In 1948, at the All-Union Conference, the Soviet Union made the contradictions with Yugoslavia public, angrily denounced Tito as an imperialist "spy" and "spy", and called on the healthy forces in Yugoslavia to replace it.
(Photo: Hard Bone Tito)
Thus, Stalin really hated Tito. This is why Stalin wanted to physically purge Tito.
Why did Stalin have to assassinate Tito? Instead of taking it some other way?
Stalin also wanted to solve the Yugoslav problem by military means at the beginning and made a surprise attack on Yugoslavia. One was afraid of European and American interference, and at that time Yugoslavia had signed a similar cooperation agreement with the United States. The main thing is that Yugoslavia is not a weak chicken, it is a strong military, and it is superior in Europe. This is inseparable from Yugoslavia's developed industrial production capacity.
At that time Yugoslavia had 600,000 regular troops and 2 million reserve troops. It also has 1,000 105 mm heavy guns, 5,000 anti-aircraft guns, 2,400 armored vehicles and tanks, and thousands of anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles.
Yugoslavia also has an independent and developed military industry, which is even the country's first major foreign exchange earner, earning up to $3 billion a year in foreign exchange. The M70 assault rifle produced by it is a worldwide seller and is still used in many countries today.
In terms of defense, Yugoslavia is still a proud country. It was the only two countries in Europe to be liberated by its own strength (the other being the Soviet Union).
Since there was no way to solve the Yugoslav problem by force, the most economical method was to carry out assassinations. Guan Jian was Stalin's master of this. Hitler was almost killed by him. There was also Trotsky, the father of the Red Army, whom Stalin pursued for ten years, and who was eventually killed by agents sent by Stalin in heavily guarded Mexico.
(Pictured: Stalin, Lenin and Trotsky)
Regarding the assassination of Hitler, Kuliko, Yeltsin's then minister of internal affairs, revealed the details at a meeting. It turned out that Soviet agents had fought with Hitler's cronies and had two opportunities to get close to Hitler indefinitely. But after consulting Stalin, Stalin repeatedly did not agree, mainly because he was worried about hitler's successor and the signing of a peace treaty between Britain and the United States.
Stalin's assassination of Trotsky was widely known. After his victory in the power struggle with Trotsky, Stalin was at first a little jerky in the use of power, first exiled Trotsky to Almaty and then sent him out of the country. But he soon regretted it, and after leaving the country, Trotsky was very successful, and he was still very popular among the Communists of various countries, especially the "Fourth International" led by him, which had great energy.
So Stalin pursued Trotsky for a decade, from Turkey to France, from Norway to Mexico. In 1940, the Spaniard Mercader approached Trotsky by "falling in love" with Trotsky's assistant, killing him with a pickaxe.
Returning to the Soviet Union after twenty years in prison, Mercader was received by Soviet leaders and awarded the National Hero Medal.
(Pictured: Stills from The Assassination of Trotsky)
Therefore, Stalin was familiar with the assassination set. Now it is used on Tito, which is understandable.
Why did Stalin's assassination of Tito abort?
After the end of the Cold War, Soviet military historians Dmitry and Volkolonov consulted the declassified archives and obtained a document marked "top secret" from the Archives of the President of the Russian Federation. This top-secret document was presented to Stalin by the Soviet State Security Service.
According to the data, the NSA asked Stalin to approve the assassination plan of Tito by the out-of-staff agent Marcos.
This Marcos is obviously not his real name, his real name is Grigulijevich. The reason for being an out-of-staff agent was to ensure flexibility between the agent and the Soviet government, so as to prevent him from implicating the Soviet authorities after the accident.
Stalin must have known about this matter for a long time, and he must have received his relevant instructions. Otherwise, such a big thing, the Security Service would never dare to act privately first.
It is recorded that "Marcos" entered Italy with a Costa Rican passport after receiving the initial instructions, and became acquainted with a group of Costa Ricans with a background as a businessman. Later, under the operation of the Soviet Security Service, "Marcos" became the Costa Rican ambassador to Italy and Yugoslavia, and fought with a group of Tito's cronies, thus gaining the opportunity to get close to Tito.
(Pictured: The daunting Soviet Security Service)
According to the Soviet Security Service, "Marcos" even had the opportunity to make a private visit to Tito. Therefore, the Security Service believes that the opportunity to assassinate Tito is ripe. A report was submitted for Stalin's approval.
The report also mentions 3 ways to assassinate Tito:
One is to release a fungus that can cause Tito's lung infection during a private meeting with Tito, and of course, "Marcos" took anti-infective serum in advance. It is reported that this method Tito is bound to die.
The second is to store poison gas in the middle of the jewelry box given to Tito.
Three were the use of a silent pistol at a reception of diplomats attended by Tito while releasing tear gas.
It should be said that this plan is very careful, and "Marcos" has the opportunity to become a second national "hero". But within a month of the report, Stalin died.
Whether Stalin approved the plan is unknown. But what is certain is that the plan was aborted. Because his successor, Khrushchev, decided to improve relations with Yugoslavia and severely criticized Stalin at internal meetings.
(Pictured: Stalin and Khrochev)
The Soviet military historian Volkolonov recorded this secret archive in his own work, and we understand the whole picture.
epilogue
Today, in Russia and some countries in Eastern Europe, politicians still like to use assassinations to solve problems, including personal vendettas between politicians. There is tradition in this. Assassination is always the most economical method.
Imagine if Stalin had actually assassinated Hitler or Tito, what kind of great changes would the international landscape have been?
But times have changed since the prestige of the United Nations was established, and assassinations between politicians have become intolerable to the international community. But the power of interpretation lies with the powerful, for example, the Americans believe that it is just to assassinate politicians of "rogue states."
How did Tito and Stalin, as the leaders of the two most powerful GCZY countries in Europe at the time, understand the assassination between them?
The right to interpret truth or morality should never belong to a few powers. When the powerful try to use violence to defend the "right to interpret the truth", we must think carefully.
May there be no more hostility among politicians.