Yugoslavia

F

Liberation

In 1942 Tito's partisans, having won de facto control of part of Bosnia, founded a provisional government. This government, the Council for National Liberation, later accused the Chetniks of collaboration with the enemy. Armed clashes between the two factions occurred frequently thereafter.

The Council for National Liberation extended its military operations in Yugoslavia throughout 1943, building up an army of more than 100,000 soldiers and conquering more than 100,000 sq km (40,000 sq mi) of Yugoslav territory. British and American military missions joined the Liberation army in late 1943. In December the council, refusing to recognize the authority of the government in exile, established a national parliament. The rupture between the royal and provisional governments was healed, mainly through British mediation, in the summer of 1944. By the terms of the settlement, the provisional regime received representation in the government in exile, and Tito, who had been elevated to the rank of marshal, replaced Mihajlović as the official head of the Yugoslav army. In September 1944 Allied armies, operating in conjunction with Tito's forces, launched an offensive against the German army of occupation in Yugoslavia. German troops were cleared from Belgrade and most of their other Yugoslav strongholds before the end of October.

The following month, after various conferences in Moscow among representatives of the Soviet, the British, and the two Yugoslav governments, plans were announced for the merger of the royal Yugoslav government and the Council for National Liberation. Features of the projected regime included local autonomy for the various ethnic groups and a regency council, which would exercise King Peter's powers pending determination by plebiscite of his status. A new government was formed in March 1945, with Marshal Tito as premier and with Communists in other key positions; it promulgated a programme of generally mild social and economic reforms. The monarchy was abolished in August, and the king remained in exile.

G

The Tito Regime

Elections for a constituent assembly were held in November 1945. Moderate political groups, officially prohibited from running candidates, boycotted the polls. The candidates of the Communist-led United National Front secured the endorsement of 80 per cent of the eligible electorate. On November 29 the newly elected constituent assembly, regarding the vote as a mandate against the monarchy, proclaimed the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. The United States, British, and Soviet governments recognized the republic in the course of the next few weeks. Following adoption of a new constitution in January 1946, the constituent assembly reconstituted itself the national parliament. A new Cabinet, with Marshal Tito as premier and with substantially increased Communist representation, was formed in February.

Shortly after the war ended, the Tito government nationalized various sectors of the economy, imposed restrictions on the Roman Catholic Church, and liquidated uncooperative opposition groups. Newspapers critical of the policies of the Tito government were suppressed. Trade unions became semi-official arms of the government. Mihajlović was captured and indicted for treason and collaboration with the enemy. He and eight other Chetnik leaders were convicted and executed in July 1946. Archbishop (later Cardinal) Aloysius Stepinac, Roman Catholic primate of Yugoslavia, was tried on charges of treason and sentenced to life imprisonment. He was released from prison in 1951, but was thereafter confined to the village of Krašić until his death in 1960.

Yugoslavia adopted a new constitution in 1953, making Tito the Yugoslav president, and another in 1963, changing the country's name to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Over the next several decades some political adjustments were made in the government, many concerning the devolution of various governmental functions to the constituent republics. Nevertheless, during this period Tito's control over the country remained undiminished.

H

Agriculture and Industrial Expansion

Agriculture was a persistent problem for Tito's government. Intermittent and serious food shortages necessitated grain shipments from both the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The shortages resulted from severe droughts and from conflict between the peasants and government over collectivization. The government attempted to form large collective farms immediately after the war, and in 1953 the maximum size of private holdings was reduced to 10 hectares (25 acres). The party congress in 1959 again called for reorganization of agricultural land into larger socialized units, but collectivization was never forced, and at no time was more than about 13 per cent of the land collectivized. About 70 per cent of the private farms were smaller than 5 hectares (smaller than 13 acres) and were poorly cultivated. Most of the food for the cities came from the socialized farms.

The government was much more interested in developing industry than land. Post-War spending to rebuild and modernize industry averaged about US$1 billion annually. The five-year economic plans generally emphasized development of heavy industry at the expense of consumer-goods industries and agriculture. In the late 1950s economic controls were decentralized, and greater responsibilities were assigned to the trade unions, which already had more power than in other Communist states.

In 1965 and 1966 further economic reforms produced what has been called an economic revolution. The relatively small amount of control held by the central government was decreased, and more responsibility was assigned to the individual enterprises and to the workers' unions. Unsubsidized competition among enterprises was called for.

Total industrial production in 1957 had increased by 70 per cent over that of 1953, and by 1966 had more than doubled the 1957 figure. In addition, the portion of the gross national income accumulated and distributed by the central government was rapidly being cut from 70 to 30 per cent. By 1967 prices had been stabilized, savings were increasing steadily, and labour productivity had risen by about 7 per cent. In the 1960s the government abolished visa requirements and attempted to reduce the persistent unfavourable balance of trade by attracting tourists to the Dalmatian coast. Hotels and restaurants, many privately owned, increased.

I

Relations with the USSR

As the Cold War began between Communist and the Western countries in the late 1940s, Yugoslavia allied with the USSR and rejected participation in the US-sponsored European Recovery Program. In 1947 Yugoslavia joined the Communist nations in establishing the Communist Information Bureau (Cominform), which succeeded the Third International (Comintern) that had dissolved in 1943. Headquarters of the new organization was in Belgrade. Early in 1948, however, Tito refused to accept orders from Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, and the USSR, through Cominform, retaliated. In a meeting in Bucharest in June, which Yugoslavia boycotted, Cominform denounced Tito and the Yugoslav Communist party, accusing them of major deviations from orthodox Communist policy. A Yugoslav party congress reaffirmed its loyalty to the USSR but re-elected Tito, whom the Soviet leaders had hoped to overthrow. The success of Yugoslav national Communism hampered Soviet efforts to control the Communist bloc and set a precedent for independence followed in some degree by other Communist countries.

The Soviet-Yugoslav struggle became sharper in 1949, as the USSR and other Communist states denounced treaties of friendship with Yugoslavia and banned the country from membership in the newly formed Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon, or CEMA). In the Korean War, Yugoslavia, in contrast with all other Communist states, joined in the United Nations (UN) embargo on furnishing arms to North Korea and Communist China. In 1953 Yugoslavia joined Greece and Turkey in treaties to form a Balkan Entente, which declined as relations among the Communist nations improved.

Shortly after Stalin's death in 1953 the USSR, followed by the other Communist states, resumed diplomatic relations with Yugoslavia, but Yugoslavia did not rejoin Cominform or enter Comecon. In 1954 Yugoslavia participated in the Soviet anniversary celebrations in Moscow, and Soviet leaders joined in the Yugoslav celebration of the tenth anniversary of the Russian rescue of Belgrade from the Germans. Along with professions of mutual friendship, however, Tito stressed Yugoslav obligations to the West. The visit of Soviet Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev to Belgrade in 1956 was followed by an agreement on cultural exchanges, a Soviet loan of US$84 million, and the cancellation of Yugoslavia's debt of US$90 million.

In the next few years Yugoslav relations with the USSR vacillated. Khrushchev and Tito exchanged cordial visits in 1956; however, early in 1957, at the 40th Soviet anniversary celebrations, Yugoslavia joined other Communist states in a peace manifesto but did not participate in their declaration of solidarity. In 1958 mutual trade declined, and subsequently in 1962 cordial reciprocal visits were resumed, with Tito addressing the Supreme Soviet in Moscow. By 1963 trade with the USSR and the other Communist states was increasing, but 70 per cent of Yugoslav trade was with the West and neutral countries. In 1964 Yugoslavia became an affiliate member of Comecon and participated in its commissions on trade, metallurgy, and chemicals. In addition, Yugoslavia agreed to cooperate with Romania in constructing a great navigation and hydroelectric project at the Iron Gate on the River Danube. On the other hand, by the 1960s Yugoslav ties with the West had caused bitter souring of relations with Communist China and Albania.

J

Developing Relations with the West

After World War II ended in 1945, Yugoslav relations with the West generally improved. In 1949 Yugoslavia secured financial help from the US Export-Import Bank and from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and also signed a trade treaty with Great Britain. In the same year, Yugoslavia was elected to the United Nations Security Council, against bitter Communist opposition. The United States continued to furnish aid, particularly in years of grain shortages, and by 1952 was also furnishing military supplies.

From the end of World War II until 1954 Yugoslavia was greatly interested in neighbouring Trieste, where Tito's forces had joined those of the United States and Great Britain in 1945 to drive out the Germans. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1947 a free territory was set up under the UN with the United States and Britain administering a zone including the city of Trieste, and Yugoslavia administering a smaller zone (Zone B). After long controversy, a settlement in 1954 gave Yugoslavia Zone B and some rights in the city of Trieste.