Tito was born Josip Broz on May 25, 1892, the seventh of fifteen children of a peasant (poor farmer) family of Kumrovec, a village near Zagreb, Croatia. Tito began working on his family's farm when he was just seven years old. At the same time, he attended an elementary school where he studied until he was twelve years old. When he was fifteen years old, he began training to become a locksmith. During this time he also went to night school where he studied subjects including geography, history, and languages.
After spending several years working as a mechanic in Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, and Germany, Tito was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian army at the outbreak of World War I (1914–18) where German-led forces fought for control of Europe. He was wounded and captured by the Russians, and spent time in a prisoner-of-war camp. Tito soon joined the Red Army, the Communist group that rose to power after the Russian Revolution of October 1917 and would ultimately lead to the creation of the Communist Soviet Union.
In 1920 Tito returned to Croatia and joined the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. In 1928 he was sentenced to five years' imprisonment for Communist activity. After spending several years in the Soviet Union (the name of Communist Russia), in 1934 he was
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