​Josip Broz Tito he died on May 4, 1980 at 3:05 p.m. in Ljubljana. He recalled those dramatic situations in his autobiography “Bez reprise” Miroslav Lilić who read the news about Tito’s death on Zagreb television.
Life in Yugoslavia comes to a standstill, angry citizens take to the streets, the match between Hajduk and Crvena Zvezda is interrupted, football players cry, 50 thousand people sing “Comrade Tito, we swear to you” in the stands. Woe, fear and disbelief – the whole of Yugoslavia mourns and cries.
Five months earlier, the Presidency of the Central Committee of SK informed him that he would be the one who had to break the news to the people when Comrade Tito died.
– My blood pressure went up immediately and I started crying: “Please, don’t take me…I can’t do it! Let Mlakar do it, he can do it much better than me, I can’t stand it ..
He was ordered to be available, ready for twenty-four hours, and to prepare the entire program without an earthquake to function when that happened. No panic, lots of talk, everything relaxed and discreet… And of course, no nightly lumperaj and drinking.
From that day until Tito’s death Lilić he did not drink a single drop of alcohol.
That May 4 Lilić took Tanjug’s news without copying it and headed for the studio. I sat down on an empty chair, swallowed my saliva and tried not to think about anything, because he had a terrible stage fright. He was looking at the camera, and when the red light came on, he read:
“The Presidency of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Presidency of the Central Committee of the Union of Communists of Yugoslavia to the working class and peoples of Yugoslavia: Comrade Tito has died…”
WATCH THE VIDEO:
– I read the news, looked at the camera for a few more seconds and wanted to get up from the chair. But suddenly I realize that I’m wearing blue jeans that I forgot to replace with black pants! I remain seated, the director holds me in the frame and I add the first thing that came to my mind: “Dear viewers, from this moment on, the Yugoslav Radio and Television is starting to broadcast an extraordinary program. The director Mišo Davidovi held me for another 10- for a second in the frame and went with the camera to Tito’s picture. That’s how it is when there is excitement. Not only did I put on the black pants, but only under that stress I put on the jacket of my colleague Vlade Fuć” – he recalled in the book.
A day later, in the afternoon, a coffin with Tito’s remains arrived in Belgrade on a special train from Ljubljana. Located in the hall of the Assembly of Yugoslavia, where citizens paid their respects to the Yugoslav head of state in parades. In the queue to enter the Assembly, people waited for 15 hours.
Arafat, Thatcher, Saddam Hussein came…
On May 7, over 200 foreign delegations paid their respects to the coffin of Josip Broz in the federal parliament and a day later in Dedinje, in the House of Flowers, with the presence of 209 delegations from 127 countries, 700,000 people, four kings, five princes. , six presidents of parliament, 31 state presidents, 22 prime ministers and 47 ministers, among them Saddam Hussein, Yasser Arafat, Leonid Brežnev, Margaret Thatcher and Helmut Schmidt, the man who ruled Yugoslavia was buried 35 year.
Games of chance can be addictive. 18+.
