Josipa Broza-Tity stosunek do religii
Josip Broz-Tito’s Stance towards Religion

Summary/Abstract: The article is based mainly on an analysis of speeches and other sources in which Josip Broz Tito referred to religious issues and the literature on the subject. They cover the period of the Marshal’s life and present his views and policy evolution over time. Among the main findings is that Tito, unlike some communist leaders (e.g. Enver Hoxha), did not take a dogmatic approach to religion – it occupied a precisely defined place in his politics, both as an activist/ chairman of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia before, during, and after the Partisan War.His skilful religious policy during the war made it easier for him to consolidate power in the liberated country. On the other hand, after the period of brutal reprisals (1945–1952), Tito single-handedly decided to make changes in this field and increase the surveillance of religious institutions by the military Counterintelligence Service (KOS) and the State Security Service (UDBA) on the one hand, and announced a ‘battle for the souls of the youth’ on the other. Therefore, from the point of view of the atheist government, it may have seemed incomprehensible to make significant concessions to religion in the first half of the 1960s. This movement led to a resurgence of nationalisms that were deadly to the state’s existence. The Marshal’s conviction that the people’s power had already ‘solidified’ enough can only partly explain such a decision.An analysis of KOS documents from the Military Archives in Belgrade (Vojni Arhiv), used for the first time in Poland and more widely unknown, revealed that Tito had been informed of the threat of the rise of nationalisms since at least the 1950s. It seems that the decisions taken on religious policy were dictated mainly by personal ambitions to preside over the Third World. This would have been impossible without concessions to, for example, the Holy See or the Muslim community. The Marshal placed his personal interests above those of the state.

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