According to secret FBI notes from May 1955, made public in late 2016, which contain the testimony of Marijan John Markul - a man posing as Tito was a Russian agent who took over Tito's identity after the real Josip Broz disappeared in Russia in 1937. . Marian Markul was born in Livno in 1909, immigrated to the United States in 1936, and received citizenship in 1944 after serving in the U.S. Army for two years during World War II. The report says it is uncertain how accurate the information he provides is, but it also states that he is "a socialist and wants to provide information that could be important to the security of the United States." [41]
A note from a meeting between FBI agents and Markul states that Markul visited Yugoslavia in 1953 and met with Tito on two occasions. The first meeting lasted about an hour, and on that occasion he noticed that Marshal Tito had five fingers on each hand. Markul claims that the real Tito lost the middle finger and the index finger of his left hand. He added that Tito with whom he spoke was educated and played the piano very well. On the other hand, the real Tito was uneducated, and as far as Markul knew, he did not know how to play the piano. Among other things, Markul claimed that Josip Broz was about 180 centimeters tall, while the one he spoke to was only 160 centimeters tall. [41]
Markul claimed that the real Tito was quite ill and had tuberculosis, and that he disappeared in Russia in 1937. He also stated that he had talked to the real Tito in Yugoslavia in the late 1920s, and that he had seen him in Paris in 1935 or 1936, adding that he was firmly convinced that the man was the real Josip Broz. The same opinion was shared by his sister and father. Markul also told the agents that all his statements could be confirmed by Zivko Topalovic from France, Tito's close friend, who fled abroad after the authorities sentenced him to 20 years in prison. Topalovic believed that the person posing as Tito was in fact Russian General Nikolai Lebedev. [41] Markul's statement was not confirmed by any investigation or other credible documents