| the revolutionary claims of the CPY28 giving Tito a “green light” to prepare the Jajce’s session of the ACNLY. I believe after detailed investigation, that the official Soviet government in Moscow was using the Comintern for its political purposes. Because the Comintern did not answer Tito negatively about his intention to hold the ACNLY’s session in Jajce with a prevouosly designed schedule of work and prepared decisions, one can only conclude that the Soviet government sustained Tito’s intention to change the political system in Yugoslavia by revolutionary means29. For that purpose, regular reports of Soviet officials on this region expressed the view that the CPY appeared like the only political power in this country which was capable of restoring the Yugoslav state. In the backing of this Soviet policy to manipulate the CPY in order to create a new satelite, a socialist Yugoslav state, was the Soviet claim to establish political dominantion over Central and Southeastern Europe. Socialist Yugoslavia would play a very important role in Stalin’s concept of the Pax Sovietica Commonwealth as the country connecting Central and Southeastern Europe’s territories under Moscow’s control and guidance.
There are indications from the sources that Stalin designed for Yugoslavia a leading role among postwar Balkan member-countries of the Soviet commonwelth. Such indications can be found in Svetozar Vukmanovič-Tempo’s memoirs Borba za Balkan (Struggle over the Balkans). Specifically, from March 1943 onwards (i. e. immediatelly after the Red Army defeated the Germans at Stalingrad) Tempo was working to set up a joint Balkan headquarters to coordinate military operations in the border regions of Yugoslavia, Albania, Bulgaria and Greece against the Germans and Italians. The command of the joint Balkan liberation forces would be given to the Yugoslav communists, a sign that postwar Yugoslavia would play a chief role among other Balkan members of the Pax Sovietica Commonwealth. Tempo was working in haste “especially considering the fact that the landing of allied troops from Africa in the Balkan Peninsila was expected any day, and this would have greatly affected the balance of power in each Balkan country. There was no time for delay!”30 However, developments did not take the expected course, since Anglo-American forces invaded Sicily and later on southern Italy but not the Balkans. The idea of a Balkan Union under the Soviet supervision seemed to be realized in 1946–1947 when Tito and Dimitrov negotiated upon a Yugoslav-Bulgarian Confederation. At last, the idea turned out to be quite illusory in 1948–1949 with the Tito-Stalin confrontation and the Yugoslav departure from the Pax Sovietica Commonwealth.
The Soviet Union Increases its Domination Over the National Liberation Movement of Yugoslavia
One of the important agreements of “the big three” in Teheran was to give aid to Tito’s NLAY which practicaly meant that assistance to General Mihailovię and his royal četnik movement was ended. The western allies obviously reversed their attitude towards events in Yugoslavia in view of the successes of the NLAY. The British as well were at that time becoming more interested in the liberation movements in other Balkan countries with a
_____________________________________________________
28 N. Popović. Jugoslovensko-sovjetski odnosi u drugom svetskom ratu (1941–1945). Beograd, 1988. S. 111.
29 J. B. Tito. Sabrana djela. Beograd, 1979. T. XVII, s. 54–70.
30 S. Vukmanović-Tempo. Borba za Balkan. Zagreb, 1981. S. 80–88. |
dizainas ir programavimas giriaus