Zbornik Tito
131 John P. Kraljic Yugoslav Communities in North America and the Tito-Stalin Split World War II marked a watershed in the development of Yugoslav communities in North America.1 Croatian-Americans and Croatian-Canadians, by far the largest of the three major communities (Serbian and Slovenian being the other two), lived within the shadow of the Independent State of Croatia, which had declared war against, among others, the United States. However, their community’s leadership, strongly inÇuenced, alternatively, by Leftist, Communist or Liberal, pro-New Deal ideas, for the most part declared themselves in favor of the Partisans. ¹e leadership of the Serbian community in North America generally favored the restoration of King Peter II and the Chetnik movement. Nevertheless, Serbs in the US and Canada also had very strong and vocal pro-Communist organizations. ¹e Communist Party of Yugoslavia (CPY), which had relied on Ànancial contributions of immigrants in the pre-War years,2 placed great store on the sympathy of Yugoslav immigrants and followed these developments with sustai- ned interest.3 1 General histories of Croatian-Americans and Croatian-Canadians include Prpic, e Croatian Immigrants; Čizmić, Hrvati u životu; and Rasporich, For a Better Life. Serbian-Americans and Serbian-Canadians are dis- cussed in Marković, Doseljenje Srba u Kanadu; Jončić, Iseljeništvo; and Skorić, Serbs in Ontario. General treat- ments concerning Yugoslav-Americans are found in Govorchin, Americans From Yugoslavia; and Prpic, South Slav Immigrants. 2 See, e.g., Tito’s 20 October 1937 letter to Yugoslav communists in America in Tito, Sabrana djela 3:111-12. See also Dimitrijević, Odnos KPJ prema jugoslavenskoj, pp.
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