[MAY 14, 1922–DECEMBER 10, 1999]

First Croatian president

Franjo Tudjman was born in Veliko Trgovisce, a village in the Hrvatsko Zagorje region in northern Croatia. He was the first president of Croatia, following its creation as an independent state in 1991.

During World War II Tudjman fought alongside his father and brothers as an officer in the partisan forces of communist leader Joseph Broz Tito (Marshal Tito) against Croatia's pro-Nazi Ustache regime, founded on April 10, 1941, as the so-called Independent State of Croatia (Nezavisna Drzava Hrvatska, NDH). After the war Tudjman served in the Ministry of Defense and was a member of the general staff of the Yugoslav National Army (JNA) in Belgrade, attaining the rank of major general. In 1961 Tudjman left the JNA to pursue an academic career in Croatia. From 1961 to 1967 he was the director of the Institute for the History of the Workers Movement...