TITO’S SECRET EMPIRE WILLIAM KLINGER DENIS KULJIŠ Tito’s Secret Empire How the Maharaja of the Balkans Fooled the World HURST & COMPANY, LONDON First published in the United Kingdom in 2021 by C. Hurst & Co. (Publishers) Ltd., 41 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3PL © William Klinger and Denis Kuljiš, 2021 All rights reserved. Printed in Scotland The right of William Klinger and Denis Kuljiš to be identified as the authors of this publication is asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988. A Cataloguing-in-Publication data record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: 9781787383142 This book is printed using paper from registered sustainable and managed sources. www.hurstpublishers.com To the memory of the authors, Denis Kuljiš and William Klinger RIP Il y a deux histoires: l’histoire officielle, menteuse, puis l’histoire secrète, où sont les véritables causes des événements. Honoré de Balzac On Stalin’s secret orders. The American magazine Liberty depicts Tito, who had been an organizer on the side of the communists during the Spanish Civil War. After England and the USA had to drop Peter II at Stalin’s request, Tito was glorified by them as a Balkan freedom fighter. From Signal, a magazine published by the German Wehrmacht from 1940 to 1945. CONTENTS List of Illustrations I. A COMINTERN AGENT 1. A Star is Born, Pantovčak 1928 2. The Siberian Odyssey of a Zagorje Corporal, Omsk 1917 3. The Combat Cell, Veliko Trojstvo 1920 4. Proletarian Georgijević, Kraljevica 1925 5. The Bombing Plot Trial, Zagreb 1928 6. Crime and Punishment, Lepoglava 1931 7. Queen of Hearts, Vienna 1934 8. Oberkrainer Communism, Ljubljana 1934 9. The Light of the Lux, Moscow 1935 10. Walter in the Communist Underground, Prague 1936 11. Comrade Orgsec, Anindol 1937 12. The Revolutionaries From Boulevard Saint-Germain, Paris 1937 13. The Stalinists, Bohinj 1939 II. COMMANDER OF A SECRET ARMY 14. T. T., Istanbul 1940 15. Mickey Mouse in War School, Dubrava 1940 16. Neither War Nor Pact, Zagreb 1941 17. A Spy Nest in Dedinje, Belgrade 1941 18. The Surrealist Revolutionaries, Fruška Gora 1941 19. The Defeat, Užice 1941 20. The Long March, Bihać 1942 21. The Bridge of Blood, The Neretva River 1943 22. Marshal, Jajce 1943 23. Eagle, Bari 1944 24. Panther’s Jump, Drvar 1944 III. THE SECRET EMPIRE 25. The Purga Archipelago, Vis 1944 26. A Rendezvous with Stalin, Moscow 1944 27. The Belgrade Operation, Craiova 1944 28. Conquering the Balkans, Act 1: Albania, Tirana 1944 29. Conquering the Balkans, Act 2: Greece, Thessalonica 1944 30. Rome’s Stalinists Versus Milan’s Titoists, Milan 1944 31. The Castle of Lead, Bleiburg 1945 32. Los Cuatro Generales, Toulouse 1945 33. Three Titoist Evangelists, Trieste 1945 34. Plan Maximum, Gramos 1947 35. Stalin’s Historic “Nyet”, Dedinje 1948 36. The Excommunication, Bucharest 1948 37. Target: Togliatti, Rome 1948 38. The Maharaja of the Balkans, London 1954 39. L’homme Nikita, Belgrade 1954 40. A New Mediterranean Offensive, Suez 1955 41. A Psychodrama in Tito’s White Palace, Belgrade 1955 42. A Secret War in the Mediterranean, Algiers 1956 43. The Double Conspiracy, Budapest 1956 44. The Arsenal of the Mediterranean Revolution, Casablanca 1958 45. From Desert to Wilderness, Gold Coast 1961 46. The Third World Capital in the Balkans, Belgrade 1961 47. Cuba Libre, Brijuni Islands 1962 48. A Defeat in the Himalayas, New Delhi 1962 49. Enter the Dragon, Moscow 1964 IV. THE BRIJUNI INTERNATIONAL