Life With, and Around Tito
How exactly a young Partisan girl from Lika became the wife of the Yugoslav communist leader isn't quite clear.
According to one version, shortly after World War II ended, Interior Minister Aleksandar Ranković demanded his provincial subordinates send him a bunch of girls with checked backgrounds for work in the Marshal's cabinet. From about 50 candidates, Ranković reportedly picked five girls and presented them personally to Tito, who took a liking to the 24-year-old Partisan Jovanka Budisavljević. This version is confirmed by General Đoko Jovanić, who was the head of Yugoslav Counter-Intelligence Service KOS military arm at the time - according to his story, he personally responded to Ranković's order and suggested Jovanka for the position of Tito's associate.
Another version claims Jovanka was picked by Ivan "Stevo" Krajačić, NKVD's intelligence confidant for Yugoslavia, which is probably where the story originated that she was a Soviet spy.
Yet another version, this one by former JNA General Marjan Kranjc, says Jovanka was assigned to the Marshal as early as 1945 as part of the personnel that checked his food and overall cleanliness for the purpose of preventing disease. After the death of Tito's great love Davorjanka Paunović, whose grave is in the Royal Compound in Dedinje, 1946, Jovanka became his personal secretary according to Kranjc. "In this way she became a part of the inner most security ring around Tito and had to sign a secret cooperation agreement with the State Security Service (SDB), which was the law" - says Kranjc.
Read more about this topic: Jovanka Broz