Despite his great role on the world stage, little is known about Josip Broz Tito's love life because he kept his private life to himself. As an introduction to this article, I did a little research on the Internet and some information coincides with what I knew from before, I also learned something new, but some ambiguities remain. It is no secret that Tito loved women and that women loved him, his charm and charisma. He married several times and did not have nationalist prejudices, so among those five loved women were: one Russian, one German, one Slovenian and two Serbian.
His first wife was the Russian, Pelagia Denisova Belousova, who met him as a prisoner of war in Russia. She was very young and married him at the age of 15, in 1918. The couple had four children, but only one son, Žarko, survived. Information on this marriage and on Pelagia's fate is very contradictory on the Internet, and it is difficult to distinguish what are historical facts and what are rumours due to absence of historical facts. It is certain that Tito brought her from Moscow to Croatia, which was then the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, but she returned to Russia after Tito ended up in prison. It is written somewhere that they divorced in 1936 because she refused to take care of her son Žarko, whom she gave to the orphanage, where Tito found him. It is far more likely that Pelagia was exiled to the "gulag" because she was Tito's wife, and he was told that she died there. He allegedly only found out in the 1967 that she was alive until then, when she actually passed away, and that the fact that she had been alive without him knowing it, shook him greatly.
His second wife was a German, Elsa Johanna Koenig, who had previously been the wife of a high-ranking German Communist official who had been imprisoned by Hitler's government. She was transferred by the International Red Aid to Moscow, where she met Tito. Her name was changed to Lucia Bauer. Tito married her in October 1936 but was transferred to Yugoslavia shortly afterwards. Lucia was also a victim of the Stalinist regime and as early as 1937 was killed on charges of being a German spy.
For the third important woman in Tito's life, historians cannot agree whether they were married or not, and it is a Slovenian woman of Jewish origin, Herta Haas. Some biographers claim that they got married in Zagreb in 1939, while others claim that they never got married. Herta is the mother of Tito's younger son, Aleksandar Mišo Broz. While Tito was still in a relationship with Herta, he entered into a love affair with a Serbian woman, Davorjanka Paunović, whom he gave the Croatian code name Zdenka. Davorjanka was his secretary before the war, and his closest comrade-in-arms during the war. They say she slept armed in front of his room during the war and was the last line of defence and the most loyal bodyguard. She was less than 20 years old when he met her. It was a great and passionate love that ran through the whole war. Their relationship was opposed to strict rules of conduct that did not allow love relationships in the partisan ranks, dictated by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia.
Tito's relationship with Davorjanka was also sharply questioned, and when he was cornered, Tito said: "Do what you want, I can't be without that woman." Allegedly, Davorjanka and Herta found themselves in the same room in 1943 and asked Tito to say which of them should come out. He replied, "I'll go out." Herta then withdrew and Tito stayed with Davorjanka until the end of the war. At the end of the war, she fell ill with tuberculosis and was sent to Moscow for treatment. She allegedly did not listen to the doctor's instructions and returned to Yugoslavia untreated and died shortly afterwards from the disease. She was buried in Belgrade's Tito's residence “Beli dvori” and thus, by mutual wish, she stayed with him forever.
Sometime after Davorjanka's death, Tito wrote a letter to Herta and asked her to return to him. She would thus become Yugoslavia's first lady. They say Herta was educated, spoke several languages and would be ideal for the role of first lady. But Herta refused Tito with a short and concise message: "My dear, Herta Haas kneels before a man only once."
The Yugoslav first lady became Tito's fifth wife Jovanka Budisavljevic, later Broz. Jovanka was a prominent fighter in the Second World War and even came out of the war with the rank of lieutenant colonel of the Jugoslav army, as well as with two orders for bravery. She met Tito during the war. They married in April 1952 and remained married until his death in 1980. The marriage seemed idyllic, except in last three years when Jovanka disappeared from the public stage and reportedly did not see Tito at all. Jovanka claimed that these were political games and that Tito's associates played tricks on her and separated her from Tito.
Love,
Kristina
Monday, November 22th, 2021
Pet ljubavi Josipa Broza Tita
O ljubavima Josipa Broza Tita, usprkos njegovoj velikoj ulozi na svjetskoj pozornici, malo toga pouzdano se zna jer je svoj privatni život čuvao za sebe. Kao uvod u ovaj članak napravila sam malo istraživanje na Internetu i neke se informacije poklapaju sa onim sam znala od ranije, naučila sam nešto novo, al’ ostaju i neke nejasnoće. Nije tajna da je Tito volio žene i da su žene voljele njega, njegov šarm i karizmu. Ženio se nekoliko puta i nije imao nacionalističkih predrasuda te su se tako među tih pet žena našle: jedna Ruskinja, jedna Njemica, jedna Slovenka i dvije Srpkinje.
Prva mu je žena bila Ruskinja Pelagija Denisova Belousova koja ga je upoznala kao ratnog zarobljenika u Rusiji. Bila je vrlo mlada i udala se za njega u dobi od 15 godina, 1918. godine. U braku je rođeno četvoro djece, ali preživio je samo jedan sin, Žarko. O tom su braku i o Pelagijinoj sudbini informacije na Internetu vrlo kontradiktorne i teško je razlučiti što su povijesne činjenice, a što naklapanja uslijed nedostataka povijesnih činjenica. Pouzdano je da je nju Tito doveo iz Moskve u Hrvatsku, koja je tada bila Kraljevina Srba, Hrvata i Slovenaca, ali ona se nakon nekog vremena vratila u Rusiju, nakon što je Tito završio u zatvoru. Negdje piše da su se rastali 1936. kao i da se ona odbila brinuti za sina Žarka kojeg je dala u dom gdje ga je Tito našao. Vjerovatnije je da je Pelagija bila prognana u “gulag” upravo zato što je bila Titova supruga i njemu su rekli da je tamo i preminula. Navodno je tek 1967. saznao da je do tada bila živa, kad je stvarno preminula i da ga je činjenica da je do tada bila živa, a da on to nije znao, jako potresla.
Druga mu je supruga bila Njemica, Elza Johana Kenig koja je prethodno bila supruga jednog visokog dužnosnika njemačkih komunista, kojeg je Hitlerova vlast strpala u zatvor. Nju je Internacionalana crvena pomoć prebacila u Moskvu i tamo je pod imenom Lucia Bauer, upoznala Tita. Tito ju je oženio u listopadu 1936., ali je nedugo nakon toga prebačen na ilegalni rad u Jugoslaviju. Lucia je bila žrtva Staljinovog režima i već 1937. godine nevina streljana pod optužbom da je njemački špijun.
Za treću bitnu ženu u Titovom životu se povjesničari ne mogu složiti dali su bili vjenčani ili ne, a radi se o Slovenki židovskog porijekla, Herti Haas. Neki biografi tvrde da su se vjenčali u Zagrebu 1939. dok drugi tvrde da se nikada nisu vjenčali. Herta je majka Titovog mlađeg sina Aleksandra Miše Broza. Dok je Tito još bio u vezi sa Hertom, ušao je u ljubavnu vezu sa Srpkinjom Davorjankom Paunović kojoj je nadjenuo hrvatsko kodno ime - Zdenka. Davorjanka mu je prije rata bila tajnica, a tokom rata najbiliži suborac. Kažu da je spavala naoružana ispred njegove sobe tokom rata i da je bila zadnja linija obrane i najvjerniji tjelohranitelj. Kad ju je upoznao imala je manje od 20 godina. To je bila velika i strasna ljubav koja se provlačila kroz čitav rat. Njihova se veza suprostavljala strogim pravilima ponašanja koji nisu dozvoljavali ljubavne odnose u partizanskim redovima, diktirano od strane komunističke partije Jugoslavije. Titova je veza sa Davorjankom isto bila oštro preispitivana i kad je bio stjeran u kut, Tito je rekao: “Nek mi Partija sudi, ja bez te žene ne mogu.”. Navodno su se Davorjanka i Herta 1943. našle u istoj prostoriji i tražile od Tita da kaže koja od njih dvije treba izaći. Odgovorio je “Izaći ću ja.”. Herta se tad povukla i Tito je do kraja rata ostao sa Davorjankom. Krajem rata ona se razbolila od tuberkuloze i bila poslana u Moskvu na liječenje. Navodno nije slušala upute liječnika i vratila se u Jugoslaviju neizliječena i kratko nakon toga od te bolesti i preminula. Sahranjena je u beogradskoj Titovoj rezidenciji Beli dvori i tako po obostranoj želji zauvijek ostala uz njega.
Tito je neko vrijeme nakon Davorjankine smrti napisao pismo Herti i molio je da mu se vrati. Ona bi time postala jugoslovenska prva dama. Kažu da je Herta bila obrazovana, govorila nekoliko jezika i da bi za ulogu prve dame bila idealna. No Herta je Tita odbila kratkom i jezgrovitom porukom: “Dragi moj, Herta Haas kleči pred muškarcem samo jednom.”.
Jugoslovenska prva dama postala je Titova peta žena Jovanka Budisavljević, kasnije Broz. Jovanka je bila istaknuti borac u drugom svjetskom ratu i čak iz rata izašla sa činom potpukovnika JNA, kao i sa dva ordena za hrabrost. Tita je upoznala još tokom rata. Vjenčali su se u travnju 1952. godine i ostali u braku do njegove smrti 1980. godine. Brak se naoko činio idiličan, izuzev zadnjih godina kad je Jovanka nestala sa javne pozornice i zadnje tri godine njegova života nije ga uopće viđala. Jovanka je tvrdila da se radilo o političkim igricama i da su je Titovi suradnici izigrali i odvojili od Tita.
S ljubavlju,
Kristina
Ponedeljak, 22. studenog 2021.