On 14 January 1953, Josip Broz Tito became the president of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, thus becoming the Head of State of that country, concurrently as President of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia.
The 1946 constitution of Yugoslavia defined the government as headed by a president (commonly known as prime minister) as the highest administrative authority in the country. Tito served as Prime Minister during the entire period up to adoption of the 1953 constitution, which proclaimed the country to be a socialist republic and removed all previous references to a government and ministries.
Josip Broz Tito was born in Kumrovec in what was then the Austro-Hungarian empire. He was drafted into military service, wherein he distinguished himself, becoming the youngest Sergeant Major in the Austro-Hungarian Army of that time. After being seriously wounded and captured by the Russians during the First World War, Tito was sent to a work camp in the Ural Mountains.
He thereafter participated in some events of the Great October Socialist Revolution in 1917 and the subsequent Civil War. When he returned to the Balkans in 1920, he entered the newly established Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and joined the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. He rose through the ranks of the Party and by 1937 assumed de facto control over the party. Tito was formally elected the Party’s general secretary in 1939 and later its president, the title he held until his death.
During the S
