The decision to establish a collective presidency in 1971 was a prudent recognition, prompted by Tito himself, that the Tito era was entering its last phase. Yugoslavia's public life had been dominated for over a quarter of a century by the personality of Tito, and everyone was aware that problems would arise when he left the stage. There was no obvious successor who could command the same respect and loyalty of Yugoslavs in all republics. Men like the Slovene Edvard Kardelj or the Croat Vladimir Bakarić had lived in the shadow of Tito since the days when they had been Partisans; they were too closely associated with their own republics; and they were old and ailing. In the immediate post-war period it had seemed as if Djilas and Ranković were possible successors, but both had since left the LCY in disgrace. One of the problems which were beginning to emerge at this time, and one which has become increasingly insistent during the last ten years, is the absence of a post-war generation of leaders who have experience in public affairs and who will be able to replace the Partisan generation which has dominated Yugoslavia since the war. Many of the Partisans were comparatively young at the end of the war. Tito, one of the oldest – he was known to his comrades as ‘Stari’ (the Old Man) – was only fifty-six years old at the time of the Cominform dispute in 1948; Kardelj was thirty-eight, Bakarić thirty-six, and most of the other members of the Central Committee were under forty years old.