6th Congress of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia
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The
Communist Party of Yugoslavia The League of Communists of Yugoslavia, mk, Сојуз на комунистите на Југославија, Sojuz na komunistite na Jugoslavija known until 1952 as the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, sl, Komunistična partija Jugoslavije mk ...
held its sixth congress in
Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...
on 2–7 November 1952. It was attended by 2,022 delegates representing 779,382 party members. The sixth congress sought to discuss new policies, first of all in reaction to the Yugoslav–Soviet split and Yugoslav
rapprochement In international relations, a rapprochement, which comes from the French word ''rapprocher'' ("to bring together"), is a re-establishment of cordial relations between two countries. This may be done due to a mutual enemy, as was the case with Germ ...
with the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. The congress is considered the peak of liberalisation of Yugoslav political life in the 1950s. The congress also renamed the party the League of Communists of Yugoslavia. New policies were adopted, while old policies were replaced. The congress was particularly critical of
bureaucracy The term bureaucracy () refers to a body of non-elected governing officials as well as to an administrative policy-making group. Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments staffed with non-elected offi ...
, which was denounced as a remnant of
Stalinism Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory ...
. In this respect,
Josip Broz Tito Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito (; sh-Cyrl, Тито, links=no, ), was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman, serving in various positions from 1943 until his deat ...
, the
General Secretary Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...
of the party's Central Committee, called for gradual "
withering away of the state Withering away of the state is a Marxist concept coined by Friedrich Engels referring to the idea that, with the realization of socialism, the state will eventually become obsolete and cease to exist as society will be able to govern itself without ...
". The local party organisations were instructed to reorganise territorially by electoral districts. They were given greater decision-making autonomy, but their role was changed from being a virtual administrative arm of the government to a role in which they would be used to persuade and educate instead of direct. A decision was made to separate the party from the central government and that party secretaries would therefore no longer have corresponding functions in the central government. The congress also declared
Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
incompatible with performance or attendance of religious events.
Workers' self-management Workers' self-management, also referred to as labor management and organizational self-management, is a form of organizational management based on self-directed work processes on the part of an organization's workforce. Self-management is a def ...
was formally approved by the congress. This change of policy regarding decentralisation of the country led to a wider discussion about the nature of Yugoslav federalism in its immediate aftermath. In response,
constitutional amendments A constitutional amendment is a modification of the constitution of a polity, organization or other type of entity. Amendments are often interwoven into the relevant sections of an existing constitution, directly altering the text. Conversely, t ...
were enacted in 1953 to implement the approved changes in the political system. However, some of the sixth congress's adopted resolutions were reversed when relations with the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
were normalised. The resolutions and strategies adopted by the congress also led to a conflict between efforts aimed at further decentralisation and empowering of Yugoslav constituent republics on one hand and work to increase Yugoslav unity on the other. The principal authors of the documents adopted by the congress were
Edvard Kardelj Edvard Kardelj (; 27 January 1910 – 10 February 1979), also known by the pseudonyms Bevc, Sperans and Krištof, was a Yugoslav politician and economist. He was one of the leading members of the Communist Party of Slovenia before World War II. ...
and
Milovan Đilas Milovan Djilas (; , ; 12 June 1911 – 30 April 1995) was a Yugoslav communist politician, theorist and author. He was a key figure in the Partisan movement during World War II, as well as in the post-war government. A self-identified democrat ...
. The latter thought that the liberalisation policies should be reinforced and extended. This brought him in conflict with Tito, resulting in the removal of Đilas from leading positions in state and party.


Background

The
Communist Party of Yugoslavia The League of Communists of Yugoslavia, mk, Сојуз на комунистите на Југославија, Sojuz na komunistite na Jugoslavija known until 1952 as the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, sl, Komunistična partija Jugoslavije mk ...
(''Komunistička partija Jugoslavije'', KPJ) was a political party established in the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia The Kingdom of Yugoslavia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Kraljevina Jugoslavija, Краљевина Југославија; sl, Kraljevina Jugoslavija) was a state in Southeast Europe, Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 unt ...
in 1919. By the end of the next year it was banned and forced to function covertly and abroad. Following the
invasion of Yugoslavia The invasion of Yugoslavia, also known as the April War or Operation 25, or ''Projekt 25'' was a German-led attack on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers which began on 6 April 1941 during World War II. The order for the invasion was p ...
by the
Axis powers The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were ...
in 1941, it organised and led Partisan resistance, The resistance grew increasingly successful and received recognition from the
Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
. Following a 1944 power-sharing agreement concluded with the
Yugoslav government-in-exile The Government of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in Exile ( sh, Vlada Kraljevine Jugoslavije u egzilu / Влада Краљевине Југославије у егзилу) was an official government of Yugoslavia, headed by King Peter II. It evacu ...
, the KPJ led the formation of the
Provisional Government of the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia The Provisional Government of the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia () was Democratic Federal Yugoslavia's temporary national government formed through the merger of the Yugoslav government-in-exile and the National Committee for the Liberation of ...
in March 1945. Later that year, the KPJ won the
1945 Yugoslavian parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Yugoslavia on 11 November 1945."Yugoslavia At The Polls", ''The Times'', 12 November 1945 Due to an opposition boycott, the governing People's Front, dominated by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, was the o ...
boycotted by its opposition. By 1947, the KPJ moved to suppress any political opposition. In 1948, the Yugoslav–Soviet split over a range of foreign-policy issues became public. The fifth congress of the KPJ, in reaction to the split, reaffirmed its support for
Josip Broz Tito Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito (; sh-Cyrl, Тито, links=no, ), was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman, serving in various positions from 1943 until his deat ...
's leadership, and he was reelected at the 1st Plenary Session of the Central Committee. Nonetheless, the fifth congress reaffirmed its opposition to the
capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for Profit (economics), profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, pric ...
of the
Western Bloc The Western Bloc, also known as the Free Bloc, the Capitalist Bloc, the American Bloc, and the NATO Bloc, was a coalition of countries that were officially allied with the United States during the Cold War of 1947–1991. It was spearheaded by ...
. In the immediate aftermath of the fifth congress of the KPJ, Yugoslav relations with the West deteriorated, particularly burdened by the dispute over the
Free Territory of Trieste The Free Territory of Trieste was an independent territory in Southern Europe between northern Italy and Yugoslavia, facing the north part of the Adriatic Sea, under direct responsibility of the United Nations Security Council in the aftermath ...
. As a result, it is said that the KPJ adopted a very rigid position towards the Soviet Union and its leader
Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
. Hilde Katrine Haug has described the Yugoslav position as more
Stalinist Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory o ...
than the one held by Stalin. Yugoslavia was compelled to ask the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
for economic assistance in the summer of 1948 due to the closure of
foreign trade International trade is the exchange of capital, goods, and services across international borders or territories because there is a need or want of goods or services. (see: World economy) In most countries, such trade represents a significant s ...
with the countries of the
Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...
. The United States Government cautiously approved the request, wishing to score a
Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
victory over the Soviet Union. By 1949–50 the scope of American aid increased to encompass loans and large grants. By 1951, faced with the prospect of a Soviet invasion, Yugoslavia joined the
Mutual Defense Assistance Program The Mutual Defense Assistance Act was a United States Act of Congress signed by President Harry S. Truman on 6 October 1949. For US Foreign policy, it was the first U.S. military foreign aid legislation of the Cold War era, and initially to Eur ...
, and began receiving US military aid as well. Given the circumstances and the ideological aspect of the Yugoslav–Soviet split, the KPJ found it necessary to differentiate the Yugoslav political system from the Soviet one. Since the KPJ labelled the USSR undemocratic, it was necessary to devise a new communist approach to governing. A unique communist project was started through several actions. In late 1949,
workers' council A workers' council or labor council is a form of political and economic organization in which a workplace or municipality is governed by a council made up of workers or their elected delegates. The workers within each council decide on what thei ...
s were introduced and complemented by
workers' self-management Workers' self-management, also referred to as labor management and organizational self-management, is a form of organizational management based on self-directed work processes on the part of an organization's workforce. Self-management is a def ...
in June 1950. Earlier insistence on the
unitary state A unitary state is a sovereign state governed as a single entity in which the central government is the supreme authority. The central government may create (or abolish) administrative divisions (sub-national units). Such units exercise only th ...
was questioned and criticised as a dangerous manifestations of Stalinism. The approach led to a period of ideological flexibility where even longstanding party dogmas were questioned. In the early 1950s, the KPJ introduced the concept of "struggle of opinions" to refer to such exchanges of ideas amid liberalisation of the economy and administration. Nonetheless, even though the self-management policy gave state-owned enterprises and their municipal-level KPJ patrons the freedom to decide on enterprise-level economic matters, funding of those enterprises remained highly centralised. By mid-1952, the KPJ leadership wanted to reaffirm its commitment to workers' self management and formally announce its intention to begin separation of the KPJ apparatus from the government offices. According to
Aleksandar Ranković Aleksandar Ranković ( nom de guerre Marko; sr-Cyrl, Александар Ранковић Лека; 28 November 1909 – 19 August 1983) was a Yugoslav communist politician, considered to be the third most powerful man in Yugoslavia after Jo ...
, the principal objective of the upcoming KPJ congress was to align the party with the reforms which took place in the preceding years.


Decisions

Originally scheduled for 19 October 1952, the sixth congress of the KPJ convened on 2 November in
Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...
. The six-day event was attended by 2,022 delegates representing 779,382 KPJ members. The main venue was the then site of the
Zagreb Fair Zagreb Fair ( hr, Zagrebački velesajam) is a complex of exhibition pavilions in Zagreb, Croatia. The company which operates the venue carries the same name. The Zagreb Fair is the main venue in Zagreb for trade shows and fairs. Every year more t ...
, specifically the building which later became home of the
Nikola Tesla Technical Museum The Nikola Tesla Technical Museum ( hr, Tehnički muzej Nikola Tesla) is a technology museum located in Zagreb, Croatia, which collects and showcases scientific and technical appliances used in the countryćs history. It exhibits numerous historic ...
. The tone of the congress was set by Tito. In his speech, he criticised
Soviet imperialism ''Soviet Empire'' is a political term which is used in Sovietology to describe the actions and power of the Soviet Union, with an emphasis on its dominant role in other countries. In the wider sense, the term refers to the country's foreign po ...
and Russian chauvinism, and declared the KPJ went down the correct path of decentralisation, democratic economic management, and "
withering away of the state Withering away of the state is a Marxist concept coined by Friedrich Engels referring to the idea that, with the realization of socialism, the state will eventually become obsolete and cease to exist as society will be able to govern itself without ...
". At the congress, the leadership declared its intention to change the party's role in society. The intention was to change the party role from director to educator by influencing communists and everyday political and societal life. Another proposal that was approved was to reduce the central role played by the state
bureaucracy The term bureaucracy () refers to a body of non-elected governing officials as well as to an administrative policy-making group. Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments staffed with non-elected offi ...
. Furthermore, bureaucratism was determined as a major problem as a remnant of Stalinism. In pursuit of removal of the party from the central role in the government, the congress decided that party secretaries would no longer have corresponding positions in the government. The congress declared that this would leave the central party apparatus to pursue the development of policies and ideology, and act primarily through persuasion. The congress also endorsed the policy of workers’ self-management, and instructed the party members to control the workers' councils through persuasion instead of intimidation. At the same time, the congress took steps to restrict investment decision-making autonomy of the workers' councils and make it more difficult to replace their company managers. These were responses to frequent replacements of company managers and instances of misappropriation of investment funds by the workers' councils manipulated by local party officials. On the other hand, the local-level basic party organisations were granted greater autonomy, although it was explicitly noted that the autonomy would not allow them full independence. Their previous role of an administrative arm of the government was terminated as they were no longer expected to transmit government instructions on enterprise-level economic and administrative decisions. Instead, the basic organisations were given the educational role and told to reorganise in such manner that their one basic party organisation would serve one electoral district. To make the change more apparent, the KPJ changed its name. At the congress, Tito proposed to change the party name to "League of Communists of Yugoslavia" (''Savez komunista Jugoslavije'', SKJ). The name was inspired by the
Communist League The Communist League (German: ''Bund der Kommunisten)'' was an international political party established on 1 June 1847 in London, England. The organisation was formed through the merger of the League of the Just, headed by Karl Schapper, and the ...
, an organization that existed 1847–1852 of which the likes of
Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
,
Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ,"Engels"
'' Karl Schapper Karl Friedrich Schapper (December 30, 1812, Weinbach – April 28, 1870, London) was a German socialist and labour leader. He was one of the pioneers of the labour movement in Germany and an early associate of Wilhelm Weitling and Karl Marx. Youn ...
were activists.
Milovan Đilas Milovan Djilas (; , ; 12 June 1911 – 30 April 1995) was a Yugoslav communist politician, theorist and author. He was a key figure in the Partisan movement during World War II, as well as in the post-war government. A self-identified democrat ...
claimed that it was he who originally proposed the new name. Similarly, the Politburo's name was changed to "Executive Committee". The congress elected 109 individuals to the Central Committee, 13 individuals to the Executive Committee, and six to the Executive Committee Secretariat. In turn, the Central Committee unanimously re-elected Tito as the General Secretary of the SKJ at its first meeting. Besides Tito, the Executive Committee consisted of Ranković, Đilas,
Edvard Kardelj Edvard Kardelj (; 27 January 1910 – 10 February 1979), also known by the pseudonyms Bevc, Sperans and Krištof, was a Yugoslav politician and economist. He was one of the leading members of the Communist Party of Slovenia before World War II. ...
,
Boris Kidrič Boris Kidrič (10 April 1912 – 11 April 1953) was a Slovene politician and revolutionary who was one of the chief organizers of the Slovene Partisans, the Slovene resistance against occupation by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy after Operatio ...
,
Moša Pijade Moša Pijade ( sr-Cyrl, Мoшa Пијаде; he, משה פיאדה; alternate English transliteration Moshe Piade; 4 January 1890 – 15 March 1957), nicknamed Čiča Janko (, lit. "Old Man Janko") was a Serbian and Yugoslav communist of J ...
,
Ivan Gošnjak Ivan Gošnjak ( sh-Cyrl, Иван Гошњак; 10 June 1909 – 8 February 1980) was a Yugoslav communist who held numerous important offices in Yugoslavia during and after World War II, serving as the Minister of Defence from 1953 to 1967. Iv ...
,
Svetozar Vukmanović Svetozar Vukmanović - Tempo ( sh-Cyrl, Светозар Вукмановић - Темпо; 3 August 1912 – 6 December 2000) was a leading Montenegrin communist and member of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia. D ...
, Đuro Salaj,
Đuro Pucar Đurađ "Đuro" Pucar "Stari" ( sr-cyr, Ђурађ Ђуро Пуцар, ; 13 December 1899 – 12 April 1979) was a Yugoslav and Bosnian politician. During World War II he was a member of the Yugoslav Partisans and was later decorated with the Or ...
,
Lazar Koliševski Lazar Koliševski ( mk, Лазар Колишевски ; 12 February 1914 – 6 July 2000) was a Yugoslav communist political leader in the Socialist Republic of Macedonia and briefly in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. He was clos ...
, Franc Leskošek, and
Vladimir Bakarić Vladimir Bakarić (; 8 March 1912 – 16 January 1983) was a Yugoslav and Croatian communist revolutionary and a politician. Bakarić helped to organise the partisan resistance in the Independent State of Croatia during World War II. From 1948 ...
. The congress also concluded that
Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
goes against any religious beliefs. The party charter were amended to explicitly note that SKJ membership was incompatible with performance of religious ceremonies or attending religious events. Kardelj and Đilas were the principal authors of the documents adopted at the congress. Due to the volume of congress materials prepared by the latter, the sixth congress is also referred to in some sources as Đilas's congress. The sixth congress was the high point of liberalisation in Yugoslavia in the 1950s. The party charter was amended at the congress as well, with decentralisation and socialist democracy reemphasised. However, the consensus reached the sixth congress would prove to be short-lived, and an ideological conflict would soon take place. One camp, formed around Đilas, Pijade and possibly
Blagoje Nešković Blagoje Nešković (11 February 1907, in Kragujevac – 11 November 1984, in Belgrade) was a Yugoslav communist politician and Doctor of Medicine in Spanish Civil War who served as the first Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party ...
, favoured a faster pace of decentralisation of the party and the country. Their opponents rallied around Kardelj, Ranković, Gošnjak, and Kidrič, who advocated a more cautious pace. At the time of the congress, Tito was correctly rumoured to favour the latter group's view. The sixth congress also signalled a decline in critical discourse. Namely, as the SKJ viewed the adopted changes as a formalisation of the reforms leading up to the congress, its membership was cautioned to refrain straying from the new party line. Even though criticism of the SKJ was allowed, limits of the criticism were imposed.


Aftermath

Within a year of the congress, there were complaints of improper implementation of adopted congress policies. Lower-ranking party officials continued to accept instructions from superior levels without exchanges of opinions. In other instances, party organisations interpreted the policy as a call for passivity and an opportunity to work less. Also, there were examples where lower-level party bodies interpreted the new policies as giving them the option of ignoring instructions from above, avoiding meetings, or performing their financial obligations. Seeking to reduce bureaucracy, lower-level party officials consolidated the functions of smaller organisations (known as party cells) into larger local and municipal districts. The drive to reduce bureaucracy led to a reduction in the number of SKJ professional party officials to 369 by late 1954. The change of policy also spurred a debate on the Yugoslav federal system – the role of constituent republics and status of various peoples in Yugoslavia. The debate was framed around the dilemma of achieving decentralisation and guaranteeing equality of different nations comprising the Yugoslav federation on one hand and increasing Yugoslav unity on the other. The SKJ deemed the national question solved by establishment of the Yugoslav federation in 1945, and it did not anticipate conflict in relations among constituent republics stemming from the national question. Instead the congress sought to promote further
rapprochement In international relations, a rapprochement, which comes from the French word ''rapprocher'' ("to bring together"), is a re-establishment of cordial relations between two countries. This may be done due to a mutual enemy, as was the case with Germ ...
between the nations. The SKJ portrayed the diverse national heritages of peoples of Yugoslavia as components of a shared Yugoslav culture while avoiding all forms of forced assimilation. While changes to the political system approved by the congress were formally enshrined in legislation through
1953 Yugoslav constitutional amendments The 1953 Yugoslav Constitutional Law was a big packet of constitutional amendments to the 1946 Yugoslav Constitution, with the goal of introducing the idea of self-management in the constitutional matter of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavi ...
, by 1954, Kardelj held that the existing constitution was suffering from mechanical use of Soviet ideas on federalism. While comparatively minor in importance at the time, the issues would be revisited in the late 1960s and early 1970s and lead to the adoption of a new Yugoslav constitution. Stalin's death in 1953 substantially reduced the Soviet threat to Yugoslavia, taking away a significant reason for the far-reaching extent of the reforms embraced by the SKJ. In particular, Tito was concerned about maintenance of the leading position of the SKJ in the society, fearing that the adoption of Western ideas might undermine the party's dominance. He was also suspicious of the Western intentions towards Yugoslavia as the Trieste Crisis remained unresolved. In June 1953, Tito and Ranković organised the second plenary session of the central committee at the
Brijuni The Brijuni () or the Brijuni Islands (also known as the Brionian Islands; same as it, Brioni) are a group of fourteen small islands in the Croatian part of the northern Adriatic Sea, separated from the west coast of the Istrian peninsula by t ...
Islands. There, the central committee instituted new rules virtually reversing many elements of the policy adopted at the sixth congress. Most significantly, the committee began to backtrack on the congress's plans for a reduction in the SKJ's role in government and for a gradual "withering away of the state". Furthermore, the group favouring a slower pace of reforms won Tito's favour and prevailed. Đilas, on the other hand, held that the resolutions of the sixth congress did not go sufficiently far. He wrote a series of articles for publication in the party newspaper ''Borba'' effectively advocating the introduction of a multi-party system. The party leadership reacted by expelling him in January 1954. The removal of Đilas was interpreted as a prerequisite for improvement of relations with the USSR. Months later, the Yugoslav leadership commended Stalin’s immediate successor
Georgy Malenkov Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov ( – 14 January 1988) was a Soviet politician who briefly succeeded Joseph Stalin as the leader of the Soviet Union. However, at the insistence of the rest of the Presidium, he relinquished control over the par ...
. In May 1955, when
Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...
and
Nikolai Bulganin Nikolai Alexandrovich Bulganin (russian: Никола́й Алекса́ндрович Булга́нин; – 24 February 1975) was a Soviet politician who served as Minister of Defense (1953–1955) and Premier of the Soviet Union (1955–1 ...
visited Belgrade, Yugoslavia and the USSR agreed to rebuild their relations on new grounds, marking the end of the
Informbiro period The Informbiro period was an era of Yugoslavia's history following the Tito–Stalin split in mid-1948 that lasted until the country's partial rapprochement with the Soviet Union in 1955 with the signing of the Belgrade declaration. After Wor ...
. Tito found out that he could maximise his negotiating power by keeping Yugoslavia neutral in the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. Therefore, regardless of the rapprochement with the Soviets, Yugoslavs informed the United States their policy towards the West would remain unchanged. In turn, the American officials were confident that Yugoslavia would not become allied with the Soviet Union.


Footnotes


References

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{League of Communists of Yugoslavia
1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, becomes m ...
Government of Yugoslavia Politics of Yugoslavia Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 1952 in Yugoslavia 1952 in politics 1952 conferences Congresses of communist parties