The International Newsletter of Communist Studies Online IX

The International Newsletter of Communist Studies Online 16/2003 23
Great Britain and the Soviet−Yugoslav Conflict (Djoko Tripkovi_)
Great Britain played a leading role in Western policy regarding Yugoslavia during World War Two. The British
statesmen Winston Churchill and Anthony Eden sought to maintain Western positions and influence in
Yugoslavia and to counter the increasing Soviet penetration in Eastern Europe. Their efforts appeared,
however, to have little effect. The ascendance to power of the communist regime headed by Tito immediately
after the war signified Yugoslavia’s complete turn towards Moscow. Soviet influence became absolute, since the
Yugoslav communists thoroughly applied the Soviet model of government as the most faithful allies of Stalin
and the USSR. Soviet predominance lasted until 1948 and the break between Tito and Stalin, which soon
evolved into a severe political conflict. The British government saw the breach as a chance to restore Western
positions in Yugoslavia and, together with the American administration, hastened to formulate a new political
strategy for Yugoslavia. Initially the new policy, figuratively referred to as »keeping Tito afloat«, offered guarded
support to Tito’s regime. Following Tito’s promise of denying further assistance to Markos’ partisans in Greece,
the West intensified the economic and subsequent military aid offered to Yugoslavia, through the program of
Tripartite Aid. Yugoslav relations with the West reached their highest point in this period, as demonstrated by
Tito’s visit to Britain in March 1953, his first trip to a Western country since the end of the war. Stalin’s death,
however, which coincided with Tito’s return from London, caused an abrupt turn in the situation, leading to
Yugoslavia’s speedy reconciliation with the Kremlin. The process of normalization in the relations between
Yugoslavia and the USSR was concluded in 1955/56. At the same time, Tito formed a long-term foreign policy
based on Yugoslavia’s non aligned position between the East and West. Great Britain and the US could not but
accept Tito’s position, and continued their program of cooperation and aid as the price that had to be paid to
prevent him from returning into the Soviet orbit.
Western Economic and Military Aid at the Time of Yugoslavia’s Conflict with the Cominform
(Dragan Bogeti_)
Yugoslavia’s cooperation with the West in the early 50s represented a novelty in international relations and a
precedent difficult to accept at the time of the world’s severe polarization. Economic relations with the West
were the basis for Yugoslavia’s new foreign policy directed at overcoming the isolation from the international
community, and the main factor of its political regime’s internal consolidation. Needless to say, these relations
were not founded on the principles of true economic cooperation between equal partners, but rather took the
form of unilateral aid to Yugoslavia, almost exclusively motivated by Western military and political interests. The
aid offered to Yugoslavia, however, was also used to direct Yugoslavia toward Western principles of economy,
which would serve as a basis for subsequent credit relations between the two sides and for the introduction of
more realistic economic programs in Yugoslavia.
Albania in the Cominform Campaign against Yugoslavia 1948-1950 (Djordje Borozan)