YUGOSLAVIA Is There a Crack in the Iron Curtain?

A Radio Discussion by HAROLD FISHER ANATOLE MAZOUR and WAYNE VUCINICH

Including a Special Supplement on THE COMINFORM versus YUGOSLAVIA

749TH BROADCAST IN COOPERATION WITH THE NATIONAL BROADCASTING COMPANY NUMBER 538 *** JULY 11,1948 Around the Round Table ...

HAROLD H. FISHER, chairman of the Hoover Institute and War Library and professor of history of Stanford University

ANATOLE MAZOUR, visitiug associate professor of Russian history at the University of Chicago

WAYNE VUCINICH, assistant professor of Balkan and Near Eastern history of Stanford University

A Supplement on the CominForm versus Yugoslavia

I. "Political Trials in South-East Europe" 11 By KENNETH MATTHEWS, B.B.C. Balkans correspondent II. The Cominform Declaration on the Yugoslav Communist Party Leadership 16 III. The Reply by the Yugoslav Communist Party 23

The ROUND TABLE, oldest educational program continuously on the air, is broadcast entire­ ly without script, although participants meet in advance, prepare a topical outline, and ex­ change data and views. The opinion of each speaker is his own and in no way involves the responsibility of either the University of Chicago or the National Broadcasting COmpa1JY. The supplementary information in this pampMet has been developed by staff research and is not to be considered as representing the opinions of the ROUND TABLE speakers.

The University of Chicago ROUND TABLE. Published weekly. 10 cents a copy; full-year sub­ SCt'iption, 52 issues, three dollars. Published by the University of Chicago, Chicago 37, ll/i­ nois. Entered as second-class matter January 3, 1939, at the post office at Chicago, Illinois, under the Act of March 3, 1879. COPYRIGHT, THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, 1948 YUGOSLAVIA Is There a Crack in the Iron Curtain?

MR. FISHER: Is the split between *Yugoslavia's conduct is inappropriate Marshal Tito and Marshal Stalin a to the Marxist-Leninist philosophy split in international communism, or and is suitable only to nationalists. is it a phony? If there is a real cleav­ There follows a long list of what is age between Yugoslavia and Russia, regarded as instances of Bukharin should the United States act as if opportunism. They say that Yugo­ nothing had happened or give moral slavia's peasant policy is encouraging and material aid to Yugoslavia? In to the kulaks. But it is particularly any case, American foreign policy the leniencies toward the West-that faces a new crisis or, perhaps, a new is the important thing. opportunity in these unexpected de­ MR. FISHER: What is this Buk­ velopments. harin opportunism? Let us hear how the problem looks to the Russians and then how it MR. MAZOUR: They refer to the looks to the Yugoslavs, before we get opportunist policy of the Bukharin around to considering the issue from type, which means believing in the the broader international point of peaceful transformation of capitalism view and from the point of view of into socialism without any civil strife. the United States. Mazour, I wonder whether you would be willing to give MR. VUCINICH: It seems to me, if us a summary of the Russian accusa­ I understand the Soviet situation tions against Marshal Tito and the correctly in regard to the earlier leadership of the Yugoslav Commu­ Soviet developments, that Tito is now nist party. being accused of the very same thing that Stalin at an earlier period was MR. MAZOUR: The charges make accused of and stood for in the Soviet up a very long list, but I shall mention Union. only a few of the most important ones. The first is identification of the MR. FISHER: I think that that is the Yugoslav foreign policy with that of case. The very policy which the the imperialistic powers. The second Yugoslavs are now adopting is a accusation is that Yugoslavia is guilty policy not unlike that which was of slanderous Trotskyist propaganda adopted in Russia in the early years to the effect that the Soviet govern­ after the Communists had won ment is degenerate. The third is that power. 1 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ROUND TABLE

MR. MAZOUR: Tito's present plan used to present to Stalin that there is reminds us a little of the National no democracy in the Russian Com­ Economic Plan. munist party and that most of the MR. VUCINICH: Yes, it seems to me members of the Politburo and others that it is almost the exact copy of the are co-opted rather than e1ected­ Russians' rather unsatisfactory and exactly the same accusation. unsuccessful experience. MR. FISHER: There is a good deal MR. FISHER: Well, Vucinich, what of this business of seeing the mote is the Yugoslav Communist reply to and the beam in a controversy of this that Russian charge, or Cominform kind, where the person who is mak­ charge, that Yugoslavia is pursuing ing the argument is the one who de­ a policy hateful to the Russians? fines the degree of democracy which exists in his own state. I have been MR. VUCINICH: In a rather lengthy interested in this matter from the document the Yugoslavs refuted all point of view of timing. It does not the charges and came to the conclu­ seem to me that there was any urgent sion, it seems, that they were all based necessity for the Russians to explode on incorrect, unfounded assertions. this particular bomb at this particular The Soviet technicians, for example, moment. were not so belittled and slandered. The Yugoslavs assert that they them­ MR. MAZOUR: I do not quite agree selves are the true interpreters of with you. To us it may seem a little Marxist-Leninist teachings; but the bit more serious than it would prob­ Russians themselves and other Com­ ably seem to a Communist. First of inform states are not. They say that all, the discussion there means to the Yugoslavs were not nationalist them really a strengthening of the and that anyone who had followed party rather than a weakening. It is their underground resistance and the so-called "self-criticism"; it is also postwar developments would have getting rid of some of the elements seen that very clearly. It is very inter­ that came into the party during the esting, too, that the Yugoslavs claim war and are now regarded as unde­ that there is more democracy and sirable. self-criticism within their Commu­ nist ranks than there is in the Soviet MR. VUCINICH: I am inclined to Union. They went into great detail think that this must have been brew­ in refuting the Cominform charges ing for some time past, and only as a one by one. last resort have the Communists de­ cided to come out into the open with MR. MAZOUR: It is interesting to this charge against Yugoslavia. note here that the idea of more or less democracy within the party ranks MR. FISHER: What do you mean by is exactly the criticism that Trotsky "last resort"? THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ROUND TABLE 3

MR. VUCINICH: Well-thinking premiulll ceases to be on the number that this would do more to under­ of people in the party, and the prior­ mine the proletarian movement, the ity is then on the discipline and order workers' movement, arid Communist within the party itself. Now here we prestige in the world than anything have a kind of purging of the inter­ else-I am sure that they would not national party, just the way you had play exactly into our hands at this a purge of the Soviet Communist moment unless they were really party back in the thirties. forced to do it. MR. VUCINICH: I think that the MR. FISHER: I wonder whether we uniqueness of the Yugoslav position cannot find some reason for this par­ must be pointed out. Tito, for exam­ ticular explosion in the change of ple, found himself in Yugoslavia situation which I think most of us during the war and organized the have sensed in the past few weeks or underground resistance. He devised perhaps in the last two months? his own tactics and plans and emerged victorious with very little if MR. MAZOUR: Does not this Com­ any assistance from any outside inform indictment also indicate a quarters. This is somewhat unlike change in the general policy of the the situation in any other country. Soviet government? From about 1936 or so Russia followed more or MR. MAZOUR: Is it so, Vucinich? less a nationalistic policy. I wonder That is exactly what Stalin used to whether this is again a turn to the say to Trotsky. Trotsky was abroad old internationalist policy of world and Stalin was inside, and he knew revolution. better what to do with Russia than did Trotsky. MR. FISHER: I would like to look at it from the angle of Russian and MR. VUCINICH: Certainly Tito has international Communist party tac­ more reason to be proud of his tics. When you have a situation in accomplishments and successes than which there is a boiling-up of revo­ do Thorez, Togliatti, Pauker, Dimit­ lutionary ferment, there is a pre­ rov, Kolarov, Gottwald, and others mium on getting as many people as -all of whom were postwar importa­ possible into the Communist party tions. In Yugoslavia, Tito built a first­ and on developing wide contacts class army of six hundred and fifty through united fronts, popular fronts. thousand men. But aside from mere­ In the course of that process you ly the sense of power that Tito now bring in a lot of people who are re­ has, and perhaps justly so, there are garded as unreliable, who have too other differences-the economic con­ many ideas of their own, and who do ditions. not follow the party line. When the MR. FISHER: There is another situation begins to calm down, the thing that I would like to bring up 4 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ROUND TABLE before we get on to that economic that is the peculiar economic organ­ situation and that is this purely hu­ ization of Yugoslavia. I mean "pecu­ man side that you have touched liar" in the sense of predominance of upon. One of the things, I think, the peasant element and the agrarian which has been offensive to many problem there and the relation of people in the West is the extreme that problem to the internal political claim of the Soviet spokesmen that situation in Yugoslavia-the tenden­ they won the war. Now it appears cy of Tito to depend upon a wide that the claims of the Yugoslavs that basis instead of upon a narrow Com­ they won their particular war and munist proletarian basis. He spread established their particular brand ... his base wide; that was one of the MR. MAZOUR: They had their own things that Russia objected to. marshal. MR. MAZOUR: I do not quite see the MR. FISHER: Yes, they had their point. Do you mean that the general own marshal ... and that conceit is economic setup is, for instance, quite just as offensive to the people in Mos­ different from thatof Russia in 1917? cow as what the Muscovites say is MR. VUCINICH: I would be in­ offensive to us. clined to say that. For, in the first MR. MAZOUR: That brings out a place, the Yugoslavs have no upper national element of pride in all the classes. They have not had them since accomplishments, each group claim­ the medieval period. The society is ing that it contributed most. essentially a peasant one; almost 80 MR. VUCINICH: That is right, and per cent of the population is a small particularly so in Yugoslavia, where landholding peasantry which has the national pride is something that one distinction of always having been a in the West can hardly imagine. But carrier of national struggles and all it goes even beyond that. Those who the movements for democratic im­ joined the Communist party in the provements in Yugoslavia. The accu­ movement earlier in the war are more sation on the part of the Cominform proud than those who have joined that Yugoslavian peasantry is reac­ later. Actually, in conversation with tionary seems a little too much. the Yugoslav Communists you can MR. FISHER: The point I was em­ detect who had joined the under­ phasizing was that, given the social ground in 1941, who joined in 1943, structure which you have just been who simply came in, in 1945 when describing, it would be a very difficult things were pretty much over. political thing for Tito to ignore that MR. FISHER: The old guard, in and to place all his emphasis upon a other words. There is another thing Communist leadership which had its connected with this situation which base primarily in an industrial soci­ bears upon the economic side and ety that does not exist in Yugoslavia. THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ROUND TABLE 5

MR. VUCINICH: It is true, because we will collectivize agriculture; and the bulk of his army is peasant. if you collectivize agriculture, you then put the means into the hands of MR. MAZOUR: There is not a prole­ the Communist party for the control tariat in a strict sense in Yugoslavia. of the agricultural community, which MR. VUCINICH: That is correct. the party does not have if the other, earlier system of individual owner­ MR. MAZOUR: The answer that ship or even these cooperatives that Tito gives in this respect is the you mention are in effect. strongest. We cannot quote here the whole thing, but he points out that, MR. VUCINICH: I think that, in with a strong peasantry, with no addition to the peasant question and proletariat, he has to rely upon the the question of collectivization, there wider methods rather than to single are other economic conditions in out the proletariat for the leading Yugoslavia which must have some elements. bearing on this latest development MR. VUCINICH: It is interesting to there. For example, Yugoslavia has know that Marshal Pijade, who is been more destroyed and devastated considered the spiritual leader of the than any other single European coun­ Yugoslav Communists, about two try. We know also that possibilities months ago said that the cooperative for recovery in Yugoslavia are far less movement which is now being in­ than they are in other satellite nations troduced in Yugoslavia is the most which have rather large industry. suitable form of socialism at this Then we know that the Yugoslav stage of Yugoslav development. five-year plan was devised with the hope that assistance would be forth­ MR. FISHER: But that does not coming from both West and East. satisfy the Communist demand for Then they had to sacrifice the West political control-and, as I have for political reasons, and the East has watched it in other countries, they not been able to provide them with follow a certain pattern which is, anything, so that Tito even wrote a first, to tell the peasants that they will personal letter to Stalin requesting share in the division of the large assistance. estates, where such large estates exist; then they are likely to cut the thing MR. MAZOUR: Let us go back to up into such small pieces that it will that interesting document of accusa­ not work well. It is uneconomic to tions for a moment. You remember expect the agricultural resources of that one of the greatest arguments of the country to work in such small . Stalin was a belief in the sovereignty units. Then they go on and suggest of the state. What do you gentlemen the next step: If you cannot make the think of such a document as this thing work in these small farms, then which is actually not only intimida- 6 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ROUND TABLE tion but a call to revolution? That is, ty is being undermined by using the if you do not do this, the only thing to Communist channels to compel the do is to overthrow you and put the Yugoslav people to change their lead­ right man in the government of ership, not by their own vote, but by Yugoslavia. pressure through the Communist MR. VUCINICH: I was impressed by machine. the tone of the resolution and also by MR. MAZouR: To save sovereignty, the tone of the attacks in our own in order to violate sovereignty. If local Communist newspapers-words that is the case, exactly what does such as "treachery" and "betrayal" Moscow plan? If it plans a federa­ on the part of Tito seem to me a little tion, does it plan a federation of bit too strOI)g. blocks or a federation such as the MR. MAZOUR: Betrayal of what? sixteen constituent republics? What do you think, gentlemen? MR. VUCINICH: Betrayal of the original Marx-Lenin-Stalin teach­ MR. VUCINICH: There is one point ings. But you mention the question that I think we have left out, that is, of nationalism. That is really interest­ we seem to be associating the Soviet ing in view of the fact that Tito's Communist party with the Soviet Yugoslavia is federalized along the government. Now the Soviet Com­ principles of Soviet federalism, and munist party may be aiming to un­ in the last two years more articles dermine the Yugoslav national sov­ and books on Soviet federalism have ereignty, but there does not seem to been written in Yugoslavia than per­ be any indication that the Soviet gov­ haps on any other single subject; and ernment is thinking along similar yet now they are being accused of lines. We must be aware of that dual­ pursuing a nationalistic policy. ity in the Soviet tactics. MR. FISHER: To go back to this point which Mazour was raising MR. FISHER: That gives them a about that particular charge, there great advantage in calling their own is a rather interesting thing in that terms. I would like to ask you to sug­ connection. One of the bases upon gest one thing regarding this meeting which the Cominform was organized which is coming up, on July 21, of was the decision on the part of the the Yugoslav Communist party. You Soviet Union to come to the defense remember that all the Communists of of sovereignty. other countries were invited to attend. And, not very unexpectedly, MR. MAZOUR: Yes. they have all declined the invitation. MR. FISHER: And now you have That is perhaps one of the things this peculiar case in which it would which could have been very easily appear to the outsider that sovereign- predicted. THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ROUND TABLE 7

MR. MAzoUR: This Congress of MR. VUCINICH: All reported to July 21 reminds me of a good many be-by the United Press-under sur­ other congresses in which the ma­ veillance or interned; but we really chine of the Politburo worked very do not know anything about their beautifully. I cannot imagine any­ present situation. thing else happening but that the MR. MAZOUR: It sounds like some Congress will approve in toto Tito's of the opponents in Soviet Russia; conduct, because Tit9 is not going to they disappeared. call a congress to disapprove his pol­ icy. It will all be well prepared. MR. VUCINICH: But, gentlemen, if it is true, then, that Tito is going to MR. VUCINICH: It is very interest­ win the full confidence of the Yugo­ ing to note all who were attacked in slav Congress, what will the Soviet Yugoslavia. Take, for example, Kar­ Union, the Soviet Communist party, delj-after Tito, perhaps the most resort to? Could there be a Balkan important single individual and head economic blockade? of the Slovene Republic; Djilas, head MR. FISHER: There is not any evi­ of the Montenegran Republic; Ran­ dence of that, is there, Vucinich? kovich, head of the secret police; others have hurriedly expressed their MR. VUCINICH: There was some full confidence in Tito; Bakarich, the evidence that Albania and Rumania head of Croatia, and Padatrichal, have stopped exporting oil and lubri­ head of the Communist party-the cants to Yugoslavia, which is an im­ whole leadership of Yugoslavia is be­ portant material from the point of ing attacked. view of war, at least. MR. MAZOUR: It is an interesting MR. FISHER: Do you know anyone subject, Fisher. Suppose that Yugo­ whom they will put in Tito's place? slavia is really blockaded, are we in MR. VUCINICH: No, I do not. America going to take over oil to Yugoslavia? MR. MAZOUR: Assuming in theory that this group that now heads the MR. FISHER: That is a very im­ government is overthrown, do you portant point, and it brings us on to suppose that the Soviets have anyone what the United States is going to do. in mind to replace Tito? Are we going just to sit back and let nature take its course? MR. VUCINICH: Unless it would be MR. VUCINICH: In my opinion, Zujevich and Hebrang, the two that would be our biggest mistake. Communists who have recently been Naturally, we have to realize the fact purged by Tito's Communist party. that the Yugoslav form of govern­ MR. MAZOUR: Where are they ment and the Yugoslav dictatorship now? are not satisfactory and acceptable; EUROPE TODAY

Reprinted by special permission of the New York Times, Sec. 4, p. El, July 4, 1948. THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ROUND TABLE 9 but, nevertheless, it seems to me, we of the people whom we were going to should do everything we possibly can support in one part of the world or to promote this cleavage within the another. We have followed the policy Communist ranks. of supporting a lot of people of whose MR. MAZOUR: What do you mean, institutions and ideas we did not ap­ "promote"? How will you go about prove. And here I think that we it? might take the position that, under our obligations to the United Na­ MR. VUCINICH: In a rather cau­ tions and under the principles of the tious, subtle, and diplomatic way United Nations, when a government perhaps we can informally and un­ is suqject to great pressure to change officially advise Tito... its form of government from outside MR. MAZOUR: By "cautious," is rather than from within, we do have that tough diplomacy, or how is it? a certain obligation. :MR. VUCINICH: No, on the con­ MR. MAZOUR: That is all true, trary, I think that if we could infor­ Fisher. mally and unofficially pass on a mes­ MR. VUCINICH: We know very sage to Tito and his cohorts as to well against whom we are, but we what we would do in case of any must also know with whom we are. eventualities.... Are we prepared to go with the MR. MAZOUR: Yes, but if we do, people that we supposedly are to are we really prepared to back that assist now? I did not think that we up? A breach of promise, then, will should go into this business blindly. only produce a worse effect. I was hoping that we should go cautiously. MR. VUCINICH: I think that there is nothing that should stand in our MR. MAZOUR: Do you think that way, since that would be in complete we could go with open eyes to work with Tito? conformity with the principles of the United Nations. MR. VUCINICH: We can still wait, four, five, or six months, while our MR. MAZOUR: Fisher, I do not economic plans to assist Europe are agree with that, because I think it pending, to see whether this cleavage means that we are still promising aid will actually materialize. to Communists. Tito and the whole gang are still a Communist group. MR. MAZOUR: In other words, you Are we going, then, to work with want to wait. Well, that is my policy, Communists against Communists? Is too. that our ethics? MR. FISHER: How about looking MR. FISHER: We have not been al­ at it from this viewpoint? We hope together too careful in the selection to see what we think of as democratic 10 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ROUND TABLE

government and institutions estab­ what we can do specifically ... eco­ lished in the world. We adopt a nomic aid, you mean? policy which is calculated to promote MR. VUCINICH: Yes, economic aid, that realization. We have to start and moral support. somewhere, and we have Tito now. We cannot change Tito, but our de­ MR. FISHER: We could perhaps, in cision has to be whether, by giving concluding, answer this question of the kind of aid or hint that Vucinich whether there has been a crack in the suggests, we shall be tending to get Iron Curtain by saying that there the change in government that we have been a good many cracks in the desire, or whether we shall be stand­ past, and now, due to certain causes, ing in his way. there has been a very obvious and big crack; and this crack is the result of MR. VUCINICH: Should we, then, political developments that come support Tito and Dimitrov's propo­ from the attempt of the Soviet gov­ sal for federation of the Balkans? ernment to impose its rule or influ­ ence upon another state through the MR. MAZOUR: Under whom? use of the Communist movement. MR. VUCINICH: This federation is This crack does not mean that Yugo­ envisaged as a loose federation under slavia is in our own camp now and which each of these three or four out of the other camp. But it does .countries that may become part of it mean that we are confronted with a retains its national sovereignty. problem of very great policy-great policy decisions as to the attitude MR. MAzOUR: What can we do which we must take in connection then? What can we do for Dimitrov with Yugoslavia or with any other or Simlich? Or will you tell me country that follows her line. THE COMINFORM versus YUGOSLAVIA * I. POLITICAL TRIALS IN SOUTH.EAST EUROPE! By KENNETH MATTHEWS

POLITICAL trials have been going on in south-east Europe ever since the war; but they have been "hotted up" in recent months to match the international temperature. Men and women who have held positions of the greatest honour, who have been known to many people in this coun­ try as old allies and friends, have suddenly been branded as traitors and sentenced to savage punishments. Nikola Petkov of Bulgaria, leader of a party which had ninety-nine elected members in the Bulgarian Parlia­ ment, has been hanged. Professor Furlan of Yugoslavia, condemned to death by Mussolini's Courts, has now had the bitter experience of hearing the same sentence from a court of his own fellow-countrymen; in his case the death penalty has been commuted to twenty years' imprisonment. Dr. Dragoljub Yovanovitch, leader of the Serbian Peasant Party, has been sentenced to nine years' imprisonment. The verdict on Julius Maniu, seventy-five-year-old Peasant Party leader, on trial in Rumania, is now being awaited. Still others, like the Prime Minister of Hungary and Mr. Mikolajczyk of Poland, have escaped from what they believed to be an imminent threat of trial and punishment. In England, a good deal of indignation has been expressed, by people of all parties. The execution of Mr. Petkov was described in a British Government note as "judicial mur­ der"-the most undiplomatic language could hardly go further than that. I do not propose to go into the question of the guilt or innocence of the accuse& I have not been able to attend any of the trials. British observers have, in general, been excluded. But I have recently had the opportunity

1 This article is reprinted by special permission of the British Broadcasting Corporation from the Listen~ and originally appeared in that weekly magazine on November 13, 1947. 11 12 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ROUND TABLE

of seeing the verbatim reports of the two big Yugoslav trials, those of Furlan and Yovanovitch; and from these and other sources I think it is possible to form an impression of the political background of all the trials and the mental atmosphere which surrounds them. For example, when we speak of "judicial murder," are we not assuming that our ideas of justice and judicial procedure are still accepted in the countries which are under the Russian influence? This is not the case. The Yugoslavs have just introduced a new code of penal law. Let me quote from one of the Yugoslav law journals-an official publication of the Yugoslav State-which makes clear the philosophy underlying the new code. "The law courts are not a non-political and independent instrument of justice. They are closely bound up with the popular masses and with state policy in generaL ... As Vyshinsky has written: 'The Soviet State was the first which threw overboard all the hypocrisy of abstract rights and demanded of its courts that they should wage war bitterly and consistently against all enemies of socialism and to eradicate the last remnants of capitalist mentality among the people. In this way, the Soviet system openly acknowledges the class character of the law and the law courts.' " The writer goes on to complain that not all the Yugo­ slav Courts are yet imbued with this spirit. I might add that before the war, Yugoslav lawyers were trained to believe that one of the measures of the civilisation of a country was how far the law courts were independent of the state. The English judicial system was held up as the model. But under the new philosophy of law, it would seem that political opposition by itself becomes a crime. Of course, the accused are charged with much more than simple political opposition. They are charged with conspiring treasonably to overthrow the Government. They are charged, like Furlan and his asso­ ciates, with giving information to foreign powers, or like Yovanovitch and his associates, with taking orders from foreign powers. In Petkov's case, the judges were all members of the Communist Party; they may well have been in the other trials, too; but I have not been able to discover the exact composition of the court in every instance. The greater part of the evidence falls very strangely upon English ears. I do not want to express any more opinions of my own than I have to; I shall simply read you a passage from the Furlan trial, as reported verbatim in a Yugoslav com­ munist newspaper. At the point where I begin, Professor Furlan has already admitted filling.in a questionnaire on social and economic condi- THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ROUND TABLE 13 tions in Yugoslavia for the American Red Cross representative. He has also admitted that, having used the phrase "bestiality of the Hitlerites" in one of his answers, he crossed out the word "bestiality"-and substituted a milder word, meaning "cruelty." The Public Prosecutor is a man who has been political officer to one of the partisan brigades during the war. He has both Furlan, and another of the accused, Sire, in the dock before him. PROSECUTOR: Accused Sire, in the preliminary investigation you stated that when Furlan asked you to translate into English the answers which were to be given to the representative of the American Red Cross, you said "Yes." SIRC: We discussed it between us. PROSECUTOR: What sort of questions were they? SIRC: They dealt with the history of the "Liberation Front." PROSECUTOR: We have another witness's statement, that there were twenty questions, among them questions about land reform, elections and nationalisation. THE PRESIDENT OF THE COURT: Who dictated the answers? SIRC: Partly I did, partly Professor Furlan. THE PRESIDENT: Did Furlan say for whom the answers were being prepared? SIRC : Yes, for the representative of the American Red Cross in Yugoslavia. (I omit a line or two, as repetitive] PROSECUTOR (breaking out into a tirade): Have you read a single line of these lies and perversions? What has been crossed out? The word "bestiality" has been crossed out. You wrote in: "cruelty of the Hitlerite occupation"; and you said yourself that "bestiality" was worse than "cruelty." Accused Furlan, have you read what we've been reading out to you? FURLAN: It's all nonsense. PROSECUTOR: You see, this is the basis of your scientific work! What sort of man could read through such a report and send it abroad for scientific purposes? How do our laws describe such an action? [Furlan is silent] PROSECUTOR: Are you acquainted with our laws? [Furlan remains silent] 14 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ROUND TABLE

PROSECUTOR: Have you studied our laws? FURLAN: It is described in the charge sheet. PROSECUTOR: Exactly. It is described in the charge sheet as espionage and provocation to intervention. Thafs how our laws describe such actions as you have committed; and since you are a Professor of Law, you l<:now this-that the attempt at a crime is punished in the same way as the crime itself. I venture to think that, for the average member of a British jury, such accusations would hardly make sense, let alone carry weight in a life-and­ death matter. The filling-in of a Red Cross questionnaire, the substitution of one word for a roughly synonymous one in a report: these are things which, one might suppose, were as innocent of criminal content as any­ thing could be. Yet, in the highly charged emotional atmosphere of a Yugoslav People's Court, they are apparently capable of stirring up the worst suspicions of international intrigue and national disloyalty. In such an atmosphere, the most conventional phrase takes on sinister overtones. What, for instance, is one to make of the following snatch conversation, brought out in the course of the same examination: PROSECUTOR: When did Hoptner [that was the name of the Red Cross man] say goodbye? SIRC: Sunday, May 6. Professor Furlan and Hoptner were together at my house. We were talking about Hoptner's departure and the answers to his questionnaire. PROSECUTOR: Were you talking about U nrra? SIRC: Professor Furlan said he hoped that Hoptner would soon come back and distribute food in happier circumstances. EvideNtly this answer fully satisfied the Prosecutor. He did not pursue the, subject; and the phrase "in happier circumstances" is printed in leaded type in the newspaper reports. Ploughing through these reports it becomes impossible to avoid the conclusion that any communications with British or American subjects are regarded as heavy with suspicion. The implication of treachery could hardly be stronger if we were at war with the countries of eastern Europe. Hours upon hours, page after page, of the Prosecutor's examination are devoted to the meetings of the accused with this or that British Embassy official or newspaper correspondent. Trivial and social encounters are not believed in. One of the accused at the Yovanovitch trial, Gazi, of the Croat THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ROUND TABLE 15

Peasant Party, is questioned at extreme length about his relations with the British Press Attache, Stephen Clissold. For example: PROSECUTOR: When did Clissold leave Yugoslavia? GAZI: At the beginning of June, 1946. PROSECUTOR: How many meetings had you from April 1945 till June 1946? Were they regular meetings or were they just fixed up as oppor­ tunity offered? GAZI: They were just fixed up as opportunity offered. I wanted to get some English literature as well as the English newspapers which he was sending me. PROSECUTOR: Drop that literature stuff. You have the right to defend yourself as best you can, but you must realise that this is a serious accusa­ tion and that this right of yours to defend yourself consists in clarifying the real position. Why was Clissold interested in you? GAZI: He was interested in political conditions, especially in Croatia; and about the Croat Peasant Party. PROSECUTOR: Was he interested in the elections? GAZI: Yes, he was interested. PROSECUTOR: In what way was he interested? GAZI: There had been talk of the Opposition participating in the elec­ tions. He put me in touch with the British Members of Parliament who were here for the elections and asked me why the Opposition were not taking part in them. I may be asked if this sort of thing is the worst that the prosecution can do. I do not say this, though I think it is a fair example of that particular examination. Yovanovitch is taken through a number of interviews which he gave to British newspapermen, in one of which he admits having prophesied the fall of the Yugoslav Government through econom­ ic difficulties. The prosecutor continually suggests that the accused have worked for the fall of the Government by British or American armed intervention. It is impossible to say from the evidence of the trials whether this is a real fear of the Yugoslav rulers or a bogey to excite popular prejudice. There is frequent reference to "intervention on the Greek pattern." So far as I can judge, all the accused appear free to speak their mind. Their defence is quite "in character." They have not made any of the absurd confessions which have raised doubts about police methods in 16 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ROUND TABLE some eastern trials. One or two of the minor figures have pleaded "Guilty," but the big men have protested their innocence to the end. The most striking example of plain speaking from the dock is the last speech of Nikola Petkov: "I declare that I am not afraid of whatever fate awaits me, nor am I perturbed by shouts of 'Traitor,' for both my father and my brother were murdered in the streets of Sofia, denounced as traitors, only to be recog­ nised as heroes by the Bulgarian nation afterwards. I have never been of any service to foreign or internal reactionaries. I ask you to judge only on the basis of the evidence brought before the court and your own con­ science as judges. I ask for a verdict of 'Not Guilty.' " In judging these trials, we have also to remember the utter ruthlessness which has always characterised political struggle in the Balkan countries. Stambulisky, another Bulgarian Peasant leader, was mutilated before being assassinated in 1923. Radic, a Croat leader, was shot dead during a debate in the Yugoslav Parliament a few years later. Politics in the Balkans is a deadly game; and those who play it do so with their eyes open. The world-wide protests which have followed the recent trials may have had some effect. They did not save Petkov; but nine years' imprison­ ment for Yovanovitch in the most recent Yugoslav trial has surprised many people by its comparative leniency. What is perhaps most disturb­ ing is the attempt to pull down the law to the level of a politician's inter­ ests and to remove even the ideal of a justice which rises superior to the disputes and passions of men.-Third Programme

II. T~E COMINFORM DECLARATION ON T~E YUGOSLAV COMMUNIST PARTY LEADERS~lpl

THE Cominform asserts that the from Marxism-Leninism. In connec­ leadership of the Yugoslav Commu­ tion with that, the Cominform ac­ nist party has lately been undertak­ cepts the process of the Central Com­ ing an entirely wrong policy on the mittee of the All-Communist Union principal questions of foreign and in­ of Bolsheviks, which assumed the ternal politics, which means a retreat initiative in unveiling the wrong policy of the Central Committee of 1 This is the partial text of the Communist Information Bureau's indictment of Yugo­ the Communist party of Yugoslavia slavia on June 28, 1948. and especially the wrong policy of THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ROUND TABLE 17

Comrades Tito, Kardelj, Djilas and Communist party of Yugoslavia, Rankovich [Edvard Kardelj is Vice slanderous propaganda, borrowed Premier of Yugoslavia, Milovan from the arsenals of counter-revolu­ Djilas has been said to be the Yugo­ tionary Trotzkyism, about the "de­ slav Communists' propaganda chief generation" of the All-Communist and Colonel General Alexander Ran­ Union of Bolsheviks and about the kovitch is Interior Minister]. "degeneration" of the Union of the The Cominform finds that the Soviet Socialist Republics was con­ leadership of the Yugoslav Com­ ducted. The Cominform condemns munist party creates a hateful policy these anti-Soviet conceptions of lead­ in relation to the Soviet Union and to ing members of the Yugoslav Com­ the All-Communist Union of Bolshe­ munist party as incompatible with viks. Marxism-Leninism and as suitable In Yugoslavia an undignified for nationalists only. policy of underestimating Soviet In their policy inside the country military specialists was allowed. Also, the leaders of the Communist party members of the Soviet Army were of Yugoslavia are retreating from discredited. Private Soviet specialists positions of the working class and in Yugoslavia were submitted to a parting from the Marxist theory of special system under which they were class and class struggle. They deny put under guard of the organs of the facts that capitalist elements in state security, and they were watched. their country are growing and, in The same system of guarding and connection with it, that the class watching was used in the case of the struggle is sharpening in the Yugo­ representative of the All-Communist slav villages. This denial comes from Union of Bolsheviks in the Informa­ an opportunist opinion under which tion Bureau, comrade Judin, and of the period of growing from capital­ many of the official representatives of ism toward socialist class struggle the Soviet Union in Yugoslavia. does not sharpen as is taught by All these facts prove that the lead­ Marxism-Leninism but gradually ing persons in the Communist party ceases to exist as it is ascertained by of Yugoslavia took a standpoint un­ opportunists of the type of Bukharin, worthy of Communists, on the line who were supporters of the theory of of which they began to identify the the peaceful growth of capitalism foreign policy of the Soviet Union into socialism. with that of the imperialistic powers, Leading Yugoslav politicians are and they treat the Soviet Union in carrying out a wrong policy in the the same manner as they treat the villages, ignoring the class differences bourgeois states. in the villages and are considering [a As a result of this anti-Soviet policy wrong] doctrine about classes and in the Central Committee of the the class struggle, despite the well- 18 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ROUND TABLE

known Lenin precept that a small leadership of the Yugoslav Com­ individual economy inexorably gives munist party is revising the Marxist­ birth to capitalism and the bour­ Leninist theory about the party. Ac­ geosie. cording to the theory of Marxism­ But so far the political situation in . Leninism, the party is the leading the Yugoslav countryside gives no basic power in the country, has its reason for self-appeasement and care­ separate program and does not dis­ lessness. In conditions such as those solve in the non-party mass. The in Yugoslavia, where an individual party is the highest form of organiza­ peasant economy prevails, where na­ tion and the most important tool of tionalization of the soil does not exist, the working class. where private property of the soil is In Yugoslavia, however, the the law and where everyone is People's Front, not the Communist allowed to buy and sell the soil, party, is considered the leading force. where considerable land is concen­ The Yugoslav leaders undervalue the trated in the hands of kulaks [rich role of the Communist party and, in peasants who resist collectivization], fact, have left the party dissolved in where people are hired for work, it is the People's Front, which includes not possible to educate a party [that quite different classes: workers, tries to] camouflage the class struggle working peasants with an individual and to appease.... economy, kulaks, traders, small fac­ The leading members of the Yugo­ tory owners, bourgeoisie, intellec­ slav Communist party are slipping tuals, etc., as well as various political off the Marx-Lenin path to the na­ groups, including some bourgeoisie tionalist, kulak road in the question parties. Yugoslav political leaders of [the role] of the working class, have stubbornly denied the fallacy of because they believe that peasants are their conception. The Communist the firmest basis of the Yugoslav state. party of Yugoslavia, they say, cannot Lenin teaches that the proletariat, and must not have its special program as the only revolutionary class of con­ but must be content with the program sequence in the present society; must of the People's Front. be the leader, hegemonous in the The fact that in Yugoslavia it is fight of all the people for a full, only the People's Front that is play­ democratic overturn in the struggle ing its part on the political scene, . of all workers and of the exploited whereas the [Communist] party and against their suppressors and ex­ its organizations do not act openly ploiters. under its own name before the The Yugoslav leaders are violating people, is not only diminishing the this knowledge of Marxism-Lenin- role of the party in the political life 1sm.... of the country but also is undermin­ The Cominform is sure that the ing the party as an independent THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ROVND TABLE 19 political force entitled to gain the party in the masses. Such an organi­ still greater confidence of the people zation can be called only sectarian­ and take under its influence still bureaucratic. broader masses of the working It leads to a liquidation of the people by its open political activity, party as an active, decisive organism. open propaganda and its program. It carries out within the party mili­ The principal tenets of the Yugo­ tary methods similar to those intro­ slav Communist party stem from the duced by Trotzky. faults of the ·Russian Mensheviks, In the Yugoslav Communist party which lie in the dissolution of the the rights of the party members are Marxist party into a non-party mass trod upon, the slightest criticism of organization. party procedure is followed by cruel All these conditions prove that reprisals. This must not be tolerated. there are tendencies to liquidate the The Information Bureau main­ Communist party in Yugoslavia. tains that such a shameful, purely The Information Bureau main­ Turkish terroristic regime must not tains that such a policy of the Cen­ be suffered in a Communist party. tral Committee of the Communist The very existence and progress of party of Yugoslavia endangers the the Yugoslav Communist party de­ very existence of the Communist mand an end of such a regime. party and, after all, contains a danger The Information Bureau main­ of degeneration of the Yugoslav tains that the criticism of the Central People's Republic. Committee of the Communist party The Information Bureau main­ of Yugoslavia that was made by the tains that the bureaucratic regime Central Committee of YKS(B) [this inside the party is pernicious for the reference was not explained] and by life and the progress of the Yugoslav the Central Committees of other Communist party. There is no intra­ Communist parties as a brotherly party democracy in the party, the help to the Yugoslav Communist electoral principle is not realized, party, creates for its leadership all the there is no criticism and self-criticism. conditions necessary for the correc­ The Central Committee of the tion of the faults committed. But the Communist party of Yugoslavia, in leaders of the Communist party of spite of verbal assurances of Com­ Yugoslavia, affected by exaggerated rades Tito and Kardelj, consists ambition, megalomania and conceit, mostly not of elected but of co-opted instead of honestly accepting this members. The Communist party is, criticism and taking the path of Bol­ as a matter of fact, half-legal. The shevik correction of these faults, re­ party meetings do not take place, or ceived the criticism with dislike, took take place secretly. This fact cannot a hostile standpoint toward it and in but undermine the influence of the an anti-party spirit, categorically and 20 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ROUND TABLE generally denied their faults, violat­ Finally, they proclaimed in mag­ ing the doctrine of Marxism-Lenin­ nificent declarations their love and ism ... and compounding their anti­ devotion to the Soviet Union, al­ party errors. though it is known that they have When the Yugoslav leaders pr:oved been carrying out a hateful policy unable to refute the criticism by the toward the Soviet Union. Central Committee of the VKS(B) The leaders of the Communist and Central Committees of other party of Yugoslavia declare a policy brotherly parties, they took a path of of liquidation of capitalist elements direct deception of their party and of in Yugoslavia. In the letter to the the people. They kept the criticism Central Committee of VKS(B) on of their wrong policy from the party April 13, 1948, Tito and Kardelj and from the people, and they kept wrote that the Politburo of the Cen­ secret also their actual reasons for tral Committee "works for liquida­ settling their accounts with Com­ tion of the vestiges of capitalism in rades Zujovitch and Hebrang. [Sre­ our country." ten Zujovitch, former Finance Minis­ In accordance with this conception, ter, and Andrija Hebrang, former Kardelj in his speech in the People's Minister of Light Industry, were Parliament of the Federated People's purged recently.] Republic of Yugoslavia on April 25 After the criticism of the Yugoslav declared, "In our country the days of leaders by the Central Committees of all exploiting of man by man are the VKS(B) and of the brotherly numbered." parties, these former [ministers] tried Such orientation of leading mem­ to put into effect many left-wing pro­ bers of the Communist party of visions-laws-by means of decrees. Yugoslavia for the liquidation of The Yugoslav leaders quickly issued capitalistic elements under the pres­ new legal provisions about the na­ ent conditions in Yugoslavia and tionalization of small industry and retail trade. The fulfillment of na­ therefore for the liquidation of ku­ tionalization has not been prepared. laks as a class cannot be described The speed with which these legal otherwise than as adventurous and provisions were made can only make non-Marxist. the supplying of the Yugoslav popu­ This problem is not to be solved lation more difficult. when there prevails in the country In the same haste they issued a new an individual economy, which in­ law about a grain tax on the peasants. evitably gives birth to capitalism; It was not well prepared, and there­ when the conditions for mass collecti­ fore cannot but disorganize the sup­ vization of agriculture are not pre­ plying of the town populations with pared and when a majority of the grain. working peasants is not convinced of THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ROUND TABLE 21 the advantages of a collective- econ­ fusal to confess their faults and to omy. correct them honestly. The experiences of VKS prove that With regard to the situation only on the basis of mass collectiviza­ created in the Communist party of tion of agriculture, liquidation of the Yugoslavia and in an effort to grant last and the most numerous exploit­ the leaders of the Yugoslav Commu­ ing class, the kulaks, is possible and nist party a possibility of finding a that liquidation of the kulaks as a way out of the situation, the Central class is an integral part of the collec­ Committee of VKS(B) and other tivization of agriculture. Central Committees of other brother­ To make successful a liquidation ly parties [decided] to discuss the of the kulaks as a class and, therefore, situation in the Yugoslav Communist a liquidation of all capitalist elements party at a meeting of the Information in the country, it is requested that the Bureau under the same formal party party carry out preliminary work principles under which activity of that tends to restriction of the capi­ other Communist parties had been talistic elements in the country, the discussed at the first meeting. But the consolidation of the union of the various proposals of brotherly Com­ worker class and peasantry under the munist parties to discuss the situation leadership of the worker class, the in the Yugoslav Communist party in the Information Bureau the Yugo­ development of socialistic industry. slav leaders answered with a refusal. Speed in this respect can bring only Trying to avoid the justified criti­ irreparable damage. cism of the brotherly parties in the Only on the basis of these meas­ Information Bureau, Yugoslav lead­ ures, carefully prepared and carried ers took a position about their -"not out, can the transition from restric­ having equal rights." It is necessary tions of the capitalist elements in the to say that not a word of this version country toward their liquidation be was true. It generally is known that made. Communist parties, while organizing Whatever the attempts of the the Information Bureau, went on the Yugoslav leaders may be to solve this incontestable principle that every problem in haste and by making de­ party had to settle the accounts of its crees in official offices, they mean activity before the Information either an adventure doomed to failure Bureau and that every party had a or boasting and a vast demagogical right to criticize other parties. declaration. During the first meeting of the The Information Bureau main­ nine Communist parties [in the tains that these left-wing decrees and bureau] the Yugoslav Communist declarations of the Yugoslav leader­ party made wide use of this right. ship are calculated to mask their re- The fact that the Yugoslavs refused 22 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ROUND TABLE

to settle accounts of their activity processes of Central Committee of before the Information Bureau de­ the Communist party of Yugoslavia. notes a violation of the equal right of The Information Bureau finds that Communist parties and is tanta­ as a result of all this, the Central mount to a request to create a privi­ Committee of the Communist party leged position for the Yugoslav Com­ of Yugoslavia puts itself and the munist party in the Information Yugoslav Communist party outside Bureau. the family of brotherly Communist With regard to all that has been parties, outside the united Commu­ stated, the Information Bureau nist front and, therefore, outside the agrees with the evaluation of the ranks of the Information Bureau. situation in the Yugoslav Communist The Information Bureau main­ party, with the criticism of the faults tains that the basis of all these faults of the Central Committee of the of the leadership of the Communist Communist party of Yugoslavia and party of Yugoslavia is the incontest­ with the political analysis of these able fact that in its leadership in the faults as it was explained in letters of last five to six months openly nation­ the Central Committee of the alistic elements prevailed and were VKS(B) to the Central Committee formerly masked. It said the leader­ of the Communist party of Yugo­ ship of the Communist party of slavia in March-May, 1948. Yugoslavia had parted with the inter­ The Information Bureau comes to nationalistic traditions of the Yugo­ the unanimous conclusion that by slav Communist party and had taken their anti-party, anti-Soviet opin­ the path of nationalism. ions, incompatible with Marxism­ Yugoslav leaders, orienting them­ Leninism, by their attitude in their selves badly in the international situ­ refusal to take part in the session of ation and frightened by extortionate the Information Bureau, the leaders threats of the imperialists, think that of the Communist party of Yugo­ by a series of concessions to imperial­ slavia pitted themselves against the istic states they can gain the favor of Communist parties that are members these states to make an agreement of the Information Bureau, they with them about the independence of passed to secession from a united Yugoslavia and gradually to implant socialistic front against imperialism in the Yugoslav peoples the orienta­ and took the way of betrayal of the tion of these states; that is, the orien­ international solidarity of the work­ tation of capitalism. ing masses and they took the way of At the same time, they silently go transition on positions of national­ out on the well-known bourgeois-na­ Ism. tionalistic thesis under which the The Information Bureau con­ "capitalist states represent merely less demns this anti-party policy and the of a danger to the independence of THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ROUND TABLE 23

Yugoslavia than to the Soviet faithful to the united Socialist front. Union." The aim of these sound elements Yugoslav leaders presumably do of the Communist party of Yugo­ not understand, or at least pretend slavia is to force their present party not to understand, that a similar na­ leaders to confess openly and honest­ tionalistic conception can lead to a ly their faults and correct them; to lowering of Yugoslavia to the usual part from nationalism; to return to internationalism and in every way to bourgeois republic, to a loss of Yugo­ fix the united Socialist front against slav independence to the imperialis­ imperialism. Or if the present leaders tic countries. of the Communist party of Yugo­ The Information Bureau does not slavia prove unable to do this task, to Co~­ doubt that in the core of the change them and to raise from below munist party of Yugoslavia there are . a new internationalistic leadership of enough sound elements that are truly the Communist party of Yugoslavia. faithful to Marxism-Leninism, faith­ The Information Bureau does not ful to the internationalistic traditions doubt that the Communist party can of the Yugoslav Communist party and fulfill this task.

III. THE REPLY BY THE YUGOSLAV COMMUNIST PARTYl

THE Information Bureau's resolu­ party (Bolshevik) set forth their tion on the "position in Communist charges against the Central Commit­ party of Yugoslavia" has, as can be tee of the Communist party of Yugo­ seen from it, this history: slavia, the Central Committee of the Its basis is formed by letters of the All-Union Communist party (Bol­ Central Committee of the All-Union shevik) was simultaneously sent to Communist party (Bolshevik) [this all parties, members of the Informa­ is the Communist party of the Soviet tion Bureau, without the Central Union] addressed to the Central Committee of the Communist party Committee of the Communist party of Yugoslavia being informed about of Yugoslavia. it. The first letter dated March 20, Subsequently through the Central this year, in which the Central Com­ Committee of the All-Union Com­ mittee of the All-Union Communist munist party (Bolshevik), there came a letter from the Central Committee 1 This is the partial text of the Yugoslav Communist party's statement on June 29, of the Communist party of Hungary 1948, on the Cominform indictment. which in full supported the attitude 24 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ROUND TABLE

taken by the Central Committee of munist party in Yugoslavia is in the the All-Union Communist party main a recapitulation of the letters of (Bolshevik). The letter of the Hun­ the Central Committee of the All­ garian Central Committee was also Union Communist party (Bolshe­ sent to other parties. Afterward the vik). Central Committee of the Commu­ In these letters the Central Com­ nist party of Yugoslavia received mittee of the All-Union Communist similar letters from other parties­ party (Bolshevik) has accused the members of the Information Bureau, Central Committee of the Commu­ excepting the Italian and French. nist party of Yugoslavia and asks The Central Committee of the them to admit errors such as: Communist party of Yugoslavia First, that leading personalities in points out that the aforesaid parties the Communist party of Yugoslavia have accepted in substance the atti­ in words extol the U.S.S.R. while tude of the Central Committee of the secretly they slander both the Soviet All-Union Communist party (Bol­ Union and the Central Committee shevik) before having heard the All-Union Communist party (Bol­ opinion or any argument to the con­ shevik). trary on the part of the Central Com­ Second, that leading personalities mittee of the Communist party of of Yugoslavia slander the Soviet Yugoslavia. Army and that Soviet technicians are After the aforesaid letter on the surrounded with enmity and Soviet part of the Central Committee of the citizens and Comrade Judin have All-Union Communist party (Bol­ been followed by organs of the state shevik) and of the foresaid letter of security. the other Central Committees, as well Third, that party cadres have been as after the reply of the Central Com­ placed under surveillance of the Min­ mittee of the Communist party- of istry of the Interior, and that inside Yugoslavia to the Central Commit­ the party there is no democracy or tee of the All-Union Communist criticism, but that a system of mili­ party (Bolshevik), the Central Com­ tary leadership prevails. mittee of the Communist party of Fourth, that the Yugoslav Govern­ Yugoslavia received other letters ment wished through its spy service from the Central Committee of the to secure favors of imperialistic states, All-Union Communist party (Bol­ and to place itself under their con­ shevik) dating from the fourth and trol. twenty-second of May which were Fifth, that the party is diluted more or less on the line of the first within the People's Front, and that letter. it cannot be considered a Marxist­ The resolution of the Information Leninist organization, and that it is Bureau on the position in the Com- being lulled by Bernstein, Bukharin THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ROUND TABLE 25 and Folnarov's theory on peaceful fu­ Committee of the Communist party sion of capitalist elements in social­ of Yugoslavia sent to the meeting of Ism. Information Bureau and which are Sixth, that an envoy of one of the enclosed here, the Central Commit­ big imperialist states acts in Yugo­ tee of the Communist party of Yugo­ slavia as host and that friends and slavia could not carryon the discus­ relatives of the hangman of Yugoslav sion on the basis of such charges put peoples [Milan] Neditch easily find forth by the Central Committee of good positions in the state and the the All-Union Communist party party apparatus of Yugoslavia. (Bolshevik) grounded on slanders, Seventh, that Yugoslav leaders fabrications and the absence of identify Soviet foreign policy with knowledge of the situation in Yugo­ that of an imperialist state. slavia. Eighth, that leading personalities Until the facts were ascertained of the Communist party of Yugo­ and the untruths separated from the slavia have digressed from the Marx­ real principles of the objections either ist-Leninist party relative to the lead­ on the part of the Central Committee ing role of the proletariat. of the All-Union Communist party Ninth, that German parachutists (Bolshevik) or any other Central routed "Partisans" headquarters in Committee parties, members of the Yugoslavia, that this was followed by Information Bureau in connection a grave crisis in the National Libera­ with the publication of the men­ tion movement, and that the Soviet tioned resolution of the Information Army then came to assistance and Bureau, Central Committee, Com­ liberated Yugoslavia and created con­ munist party of Yugoslavia, declared ditions. for the Communist party to as follows: come to power. 1. The criticism expressed in the Tenth, that the Communist party resolution is based on incorrect and of Yugoslavia did not cease boasting unfounded assertions, and represents about its successes in the war, al­ attempts to impair the prestige of the though it cannot boast of greater Communist party of Yugoslavia, merits than the Communist parties both abroad and at home. It is aimed of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Ru­ at creating confusion among the mania, Hungary, Albania, Bulgaria, masses in the country and the inter­ etc. national workers' movement, and To these charges should be added weakening the unity of the Com­ those cited also in the resolution munist party of Yugoslavia and its which will not specifically be given leading role. here. This is stranger when it is borne It can be seen from the statements in mind that the Central Committee which the Politburo of the Central of the All-Union Communist party 26 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ROUND TABLE

(Bolshevik) refused to confirm its passages in Lenin's writings, which assertions on the spot as was proposed also the drafters of the resolution, had by the Central Committee, Commu­ they taken trouble to do so, could nist party of Yugoslavia, in their let­ have read in published party docu­ ter of April 13, 1948. ments and articles, and could have 2. The resolution, without giving become convinced of the practical a single proof, asserts that the leader­ implementation of this policy. ship of the Communist party of That is why the accusations leveled Yugoslavia is conducting a hostile in the resolution and by the Central policy toward the Soviet Union. The Committee, All-Union Communist contention that Soviet military spe­ party (Bolshevik) are in fact only cialists are belittled and that civilian pounding on an open door and objec­ technicians were subjected to shad­ tively, inescapably lead to the encour­ owing by security organs is entirely agement and backing of reactionary devoid of truth. and capitalist elements in town and During the entire period prior to village and to creating confusion their withdrawal, no single Soviet among the population as though representative called attention in this blame for objective difficulties espe­ respect to Yugoslav representatives. cially in supply in the period from It is entirely false to say that anyone the transition from capitalism to so­ of the Soviet representatives [was] cialism. shadowed in Yugoslavia, and least of To the contrary, our statement as all Comrade Judin. This claim, and set forth in the letter to the Central particularly the one pertaining to Committee of the All-Union Com­ Comrade Judin, was aimed solely at munist party (Bolshevik) of April discrediting the Communist party of 13, and which is founded on a series Yugoslavia and its leadership in the of statements by members of the eyes of members of other parties. Communist party of Yugoslavia 3. The resolution criticizes the made to their party organizations, as policy of the Communist party of well as those of other citizens of our Yugoslavia with respect to the con­ country since liberation to date, and duct of the class struggle, especially which consists in that organization against the mutual policy of the of the Soviet intelligence service ruth­ Communist party of Yugoslavia. lessly tried to enlist them is correct. This criticism is accompanied by The Central Committee of the well-known excerpts from Lenin's Communist party of Yugoslavia con­ writings. The Central Committee of sidered and still considers that such the Communist party of Yugoslavia an attitude to this country in which stresses that in its policy of limiting Communists are the party in power, capitalist elements in the countryside and which marches to socialism, is an it is guided by quoted and similar impermissible relationship, and leads THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ROUND TABLE 27 to demoralization of the citizens of munists? Assertions that there can be Yugoslavia. It weakens and under­ no criticism in the party and similar mines state and party executives. ones are terrible insults to every mem­ The Central Committee of the ber of our party.... Communist party of Yugoslavia con­ The People's Front of Yugoslavia sidered and still considers that Yugo­ is fighting in practice for socialism, slav relationships toward the Soviet which undoubtedly could not be the Union must be exclusively founded case if "all kinds of political groups" on a basis of confidence and sincerity. played any serious role in it-bour­ Abiding by these principles, the geois parties, kulak, tradesmen, Yugoslav state organization did not small manufacturers and similar ele­ even dream of following or exercising ments, as it is stated in the resolu­ any control whatever over Soviet citi­ tion.... zens in Yugoslavia. It is monstrous to rebuke a central ... The Central Communist party committee of the Communist party, of Yugoslavia holds that in assessing which in war lost ten of its members the policy of the Communist party of for having in their places co-opted Yugoslavia and other parties, party seven comrades mainly from ranks of practice must be considered ... name­ candidates to the Central Committee ly, whether the party achieves or does of the Communist party of Yugo­ not achieve successes in the struggle slavia. for socialist transformation of the The Central Committee of the country. Communist party of Yugoslavia re­ The Central Committee of the jects as ridiculous ... all allegations Communist party of Yugoslavia ... on illegality of the Communist refutes assertions that the leading fac­ party of Yugoslavia and considers tors of the Communist party of Yugo­ that it, in addition to all else, is con­ slavia are swerving onto the road to a firmation of the lack of understand­ kulak party, on the road of liquida­ ing for the form of work ofthe Com­ tion of the Communist party of Yugo­ munist party of Yugoslavia under slavia, that there is not democracy in given conditions and circum­ the party, that methods of military stances.... leadership are being fostered in the 5. The Central Committee of the party, that party members' essential Communist party of Yugoslavia re­ rights are violated and that mildest jects as unworthy accusations that in­ criticism of incor,rectness in party is side the Communist party prevails a met with severe repercussions, etc. Turkish regime and that Yugoslavs Would party members who in concealed before their party and thousands of battles faced death fear­ people the real causes of squaring lessly tolerate in the party a situation accounts with Comrades Hebrang unworthy of both men and Com- and Zujovitch. The Central Commit- ~28 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ROUND TABLE

tee of the Communist party of Yugo­ well as the Soviet press and that of slavia could not make public letters some other parties, has lately failed from the Central Committee of the to publish a single report of successes All-Union Communist party (Bol­ of economic construction in Yugo­ shevik) since this was not done by slavia, such as, for instance, measures the latter itself. However, the active for further weakening of capitalist Communist party of Yugoslavia is elements, successes in realizing plan, acquainted with contents of the let­ mass pre-congressional competition ter from the Central Committee of of working class and working people the All-Union Communist party rallied in the people's front, etc. (Bolshevik) and the entire party But facts remain facts. Glossing membership is acquainted with the over them cannot hush up arbitrary Hebrang and Zujovitch case. and entirely unfounded criticism of The Central Committee of the the Yugoslav Government's econom­ Communist party of Yugoslavia ic policy and the line of the Central cannot but express their surprise at Committee of the Communist party the fact that representatives of the of Yugoslavia on economic matters. party's members' information bureau The Central Committee of the could attempt to plead a defense of Communist party asserts that not one Hebrang and Zujovitch without ask­ of its leaders considers that Yugo­ ing the Central [Committee] of the slavia in its struggle for construction Communist party of Yugoslavia for of socialism and safeguarding of in­ particulars.... dependence does not need help of The Central Committee of the countries of people's democracy and Communist party of Yugoslavia re­ the Soviet Union and only men who jects as absurd allegations that lately have lost all touch with reality could Yugoslavia, with great haste and out assent anything like it. of demogoguery, repressed measures The Central Committee of the for nationalizing small industry and Communist party of Yugoslavia, small trades. These measures were in however, finds it necessary to stress in fact prepared as far back as six this connection that this help and months preceding the mentioned cooperation does not only depend on accusations for the Central Commit­ it but also in the countries of people's tee of the All-Union Communist democracy and the U.S.S.R.... party (Bolshevik) against the Cen­ Assertions that Yugoslav leaders tral Committee of the Communist are preparing to make a concession party of Yugoslavia and are the to imperialists-and now bargain result of a strengthened and develop­ with them on the independence of ing Socialist sector. Yugoslavia-are completely fabri­ ... It is incomprehensible why an cated. organ of the information bureau, as They rank among the most serious THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ROUND TABLE 29

slanders against Yugoslavia. The but invites members of the Com­ Central Committee of the Commu­ munist party of Yugoslavia to revolt nist party of Yugoslavia must, how­ in the party, to break up the party's ever, underline that party, and state unit. officials in certain countries of The Central Committee of the people's democracy undertook a Communist party of Yugoslavia whole series of completely unpro­ would never agree to have its policy voked acts which offend peoples of discussed on the basis of fabrications, Yugoslavia, their state and state rep­ uncomradely relations, without mu­ resentatives and which lead to a tual confidence. weakening of mentioned coopera­ Such a basis is not one of principle tion, to injuring of relations with and in that and only in that sense did Yugoslavia. the Central Committee of the Com­ The Central Committee of the munist party of Yugoslavia consider Communist party of Yugoslavia that it did not have equal standing in does not hold itself down in the fu­ discussions and could therefore not ture to pass over similar acts in si­ accept them on such a basis. lence.... Furthermore, in view of the above, 8. The Central Committee of the the Central Committee of the Com­ Communist party of Yugoslavia does munist party of Yugoslavia has not consider that because it refused to adopted a nationalist line with its discuss a state of which it is not whole internal policy, whereas par­ guilty it has in any way injured the ticularly in the course of the struggle unity of Communist front. of national liberation, war and cor­ Unity of this front does not consist rect solution of the national question in admitting as true fabricated and in Yugoslavia, the Communist party invented mistakes, and slanders, but of Yugoslavia has proved exactly the on facts of whether the policy of a opposite to be true. party is truly conducted on interna­ With the mentioned unjust accu­ tional lines or not. sations, our party, our working class However, it is impossible to pass and working masses of Yugoslav in silence over the fact that the In­ peoples in general, as well as their formation Bureau shattered the prin­ selfless and heroic struggle, have been ciples on which it was founded and dealt the grossest historical injustice. which provided for free will of each The Central Committee of the party with regard to the adoption of Communist party of Yugoslavia is decisions. fully aware that the accusations of The Information Bureau, however, the Central Committee of the All­ not only presses leaders of Commu­ Union Communist party (Bolshevik) nist party in Yugoslavia to confess against the Central Committee of the mistakes which they did not make, Communist party of Yugoslavia will 30 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ROUND TABLE

be exploited by hostile propaganda party unity and calls upon working­ with the aim of slandering the Soviet class and other working masses ral­ Union, Yugoslavia and other demo­ lied in the People's Front to continue cratic countries.... with even greater determination the The Central Committee of the work of construction of our Socialist Communist party of Yugoslavia homeland. calls upon party members to close their ranks still further in the struggle That is our only way to prove in for realization of party line policy practice the injustice of mentioned and still further strengthening of accusations.

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