How a direct assassination attempt on Tito happened in Dubrovnik

These days, Dubrovnik is remembering a nearly tragic visit by Josip Broz in 1950. It is known that several assassination attempts were made on Tito. But each time he escaped alive and well. From Tito's very political and military beginnings, the Germans issued a warrant for him, wanting to liquidate him as soon as possible. One of the assassination attempts was an attempt by Montenegrin officers who planned to crash a tram into Tito's car in Belgrade, reports the Patria News Agency.

The last direct assassination attempt on Tito occurred in Dubrovnik! The JNA Security Service and the Marshal's Office had information that there were indications that an assassination attempt might occur, so they decided that Tito must henceforth wear a bulletproof vest at all times.

The leadership of the Yugoslav émigré Cominform in the Soviet Union and Romania concluded that Tito should finally be liquidated in a classic way.

They chose Lieutenant Colonel Branko Rudić, one of Tito's personal escorts, as the assassin. They knew well that Rudić was a supporter of the Cominform resolution and Stalin's criminal policy towards Yugoslavia.

According to the plan, the assassination was to be carried out in Tito's residence in Dubrovnik. And so it happened. Rudić fired three shots at Tito from close range as he was coming from his room to his study. The bulletproof vest saved the marshal from certain death! His escorts who were nearby at the time liquidated the assassin on the spot. This was the first armed and direct assassination attempt on Tito.

The assassination in Dubrovnik was a carefully guarded state secret. Nothing was published about it until a few years ago. Only the publicist Vjenceslav Cenčić mentioned it.

Dubrovnik did not fall in Tito's eyes even then. And why would it, when he brought his potential killer from Belgrade. Years after that terrible event, Josip Broz Tito returned to Dubrovnik.