The Josip Broz Tito Political School was once an elite place of study for Yugoslavia's elite communists. Titoism emerged as the country’s brand of socialism after they were expelled from the Cominform in 1948. Learn more with #MysteriesOfTheAbandoned at 9p ET on Science Channel. | Science Channel

Josip Broz Tito led Yugoslavia from 1945 until his death in 1980, becoming one of the Cold War's most distinctive Communist leaders. Born to a Croatian peasant family in 1892, he fought in World War I, was captured by the Russians, and embraced Bolshevism during the Russian Revolution. After rising through Yugoslavia's Communist Party ranks and surviving Stalin's purges in the 1930s, Tito organized the Partisan resistance that liberated Yugoslavia from Axis occupation during World War II, comman