Tito's personal files, which were considered Russian state secret for over 70 years and held in Stalin's archives (currently the Presidential Archives of the Kremlin) have recently been made public. According to these documents, which detail a large part of the Komintern's activities, Tito is said to have participated in the Spanish Civil War. This is something that Tito consistently omitted from his numerous biographies. The mistery was all the greater considering that all the other veterans of the Spanish Civil War proudly promoted theur roles in this endeavour, considered to be a great achievement.

Tito, on the other hand, consistently avoided the subject like the plague. He had only two public phrases to share with the world about the Spanish Civil War. Namely, in a biography for Life Magazine - 5 May 1959, he is reported as saying : "Although there are rumours to the contrary, I am not a veteran of the Spanish Civil War, even though I would have liked to be. I was in Spain only on one occasion, briefly, when I spent a day in Madrid". A year later, Tito instructed the author of his biography, Vladimir Dedijer, who had helped him prepare the article for Life Magazine, to make no mention whatsoever of these two sentences in a book published in Yugoslavia in 1953.

Indeed, all journalists were prohibited from engaging in public speculations about his role in the Spanish Civil War. The Moscow Presidential Archives, which are off limites to foreigners, recently transferred a number of documents concerning Tito to the Rissian National Archive of Socio-Political History. Tito's political heritage can as of now be found in a single place, accessible to both Russian and foreign researchers.

We can at last come to grips with one of Tito's most closely kept secrets. A reporter from « Novosti » informs us that his research has uncovered a document which clearly confirms that "... Josip Broz Tito participated in the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939.". And so we uncover another of the Grate Magician's secrets, which has been a source of conjecture for many decades throughout the world and in Yugoslavia.

Speculation was increasingly public near the end of Tito's life when in a book about him entitled "Great Achievements" was published containing a letter he wrote in late 1937 to Moscow in which he suggested that Moscow accept a Croat Communist - Ivan Krajačića, for "specialised political instruction" claiming that Krajačića had proven his valour during the Spanish Civil War. Tito made another recommendation on the same grounds for Slovenian Communist Josip Kopinič.

Another document was found in which Tito's closest associate, Edvard Kardelj claimed that he remembers how the Leader of the Yugoslav Communists spoke well of the Slovenian Communist Franc Rozman, whom he remembered as a good man from the Spanish Civil War.

Tito's participation in the Spanish Civil War was also confirmed by the Chief of the Spanish Communists Dolores Ibaruri. Nevertheless, Toto consistently negated his presence in Spain.

Now that the truth has finally been uncovered in the Russian archives, the natural question that arises is why Tito so vehemently negated his participation in a War that all others openly bragged about. The most logical answer is that Tito wanted to cover up his real role in this war, which wasn't one of combat but of "special actions" which would have polluted his otherwise rich biography.