The article outlines the biography of Petar Stambolić, a Communist, revolutionary, and highranking party and state official during Communist Yugoslavia. Stambolić, originally from Brezova near ...Ivanjica, became associated with the advanced student movement in Belgrade while still a student. He joined the banned Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ) in 1935 and rose through the hierarchy of the Provincial Committee, emerging as one of the prominent Serbian communists. His political breakthrough occurred after 1948 when he was elected Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Serbia and the Prime Minister of Serbia. In 1957, he transitioned to federal functions, initially serving as the President of the Federal People's Assembly from 1957 to 1963, and later as the President of the Federal Executive Council from 1963 to 1967. The peak of his career came after the fall of Aleksandar Ranković, where Stambolić played an active role in the preparations for Ranković's displacement. Consequently, Stambolić became the de facto most influential party official from Serbia. He retained key roles at the federal level, contributing to the presidencies of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia and the Socialist Federal Republic (SFR) of Yugoslavia. Stambolić retired in 1984 and lived quietly in Belgrade until his death in 2007.
The aim of the paper is to shed light on the ambiguities from the trial in Prizren against nine persons suspected of espionage, as well as the final annulment of this process twelve years later. The ...research was primarily based on unpublished material stored in the Archives of Kosovo in Pristina, in the folder “Prizren Process”, materials of the Central State Archives in Tirana, and the fund of the Security Information Agency of the State Archives of Serbia in Belgrade.
Complex structural changes of social realty in SFRY and Western Europe during
post-war decades have created the need for the largest Marxist parties of
Europe outside Eastern Bloc to accommodate ...their party policies to new
political challenges and social circumstances. Gradually, communist parties
of Mediterranean started to contemplate creation of a new Marxist ideology
for the welfare state era, which in practice meant seizing attempts to
adjust principles of Bolshevik socialist model to their unique local
circumstances, and moving away from the influence of Soviet party. League of
Communists of Yugoslavia supported the reformist fractions of Italian,
French, Greek and Spanish communist parties, which opened the path for
further expansion of international influence and prestige of the Yugoslav
communists. However, historical evolution of SFRY state policies and
Yugoslav party ideology eventually took a different course than the reforms
of party policies and ideologies of early Eurocommunist parties. The purpose
of this article is to contribute to further understanding of the long term
social and historical process which created a drift between the leading
reformist parties of Europe. This is to be achieved by applying comparative
method to the results of archival research conducted on historical sources
that testify about the cooperation between Yugoslav, Italian and French
communists at various time points during the twenty year long period, while
using the findings of numerous historical, sociological and philosophical
books and articles in order to bring the research results in the appropriate
social and historical context.
Tema rada je tretman političkoga tjednika Danas Predsjedništva Centralnoga komiteta Saveza komunista Hrvatske u prvoj godini njegova izlaženja, tijekom 1982. i 1983. Danas je počeo izlaziti u drugoj ...polovini veljače 1982., a već pola godine poslije postao je krupan politički problem. Tjednik se pojavio u razdoblju opće krize, s kritičkim, na trenutke i provokativnim pristupom izazvao je okoštalu i ostarjelu partijsku elitu odlučnu da brani svoj nedodirljivi položaj. U vrlo kratkom vremenu ustalio se na nakladi od oko 120.000 prodanih primjeraka, što svjedoči o njegovoj privlačnosti širokoj čitalačkoj populaciji, a s druge strane i utjecaju, što je zapravo zabrinjavalo partijski vrh. Pojavom Danasa počelo je nastajati kritičko javno mnijenje u socijalističkoj Hrvatskoj, što je dotad u većoj mjeri bila značajka Slovenije i Srbije. U obračun s tjednikom partijski vrh krenuo je u ljeto 1982. i privremeno ga je primirio početkom sljedeće godine. To je učinjeno smjenom glavnoga i odgovornoga urednika te dovođenjem novoga s mlađim pomoćnicima koji su bili na službenoj partijskoj liniji. Rezultat promjena bio je i drastičan pad naklade, što je tjednik doslovno svelo na životarenje i marginalan utjecaj.
The subject of this paper is the way the weekly Danas was treated by the Presidency of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Croatia in the first year of its publication, during 1982 and 1983. Danas started being published in the second half of February 1982 and half a year later the periodical turned into a huge political issue. The newspaper appeared at a time of a general crisis; with its critical approach, at times even provocative, it frustrated the hardened and obsolete party elite which was determined to defend its hitherto inviolable position. Within a short period of time, the weekly attained a circulation of 120,000 copies, which testifies to its wide appeal as well as to its influence, which in fact distressed the party leadership. With the appearance of Danas, a critical public opinion started to come into being. The party leadership started to deal with the weekly in the summer of 1982 and temporarily discontinued it at the beginning of the following year. This was done by the replacement of the editor-in-chief with a new one, along with young associates who were willing to toe the party line. The result of the changes was a drop in circulation, which literally reduced the weekly to eking out an existence and having only marginal influence. The penalization of Danas was in fact an example of shutting down any public opinion unacceptable to the party leadership, through the principle of democratic centralism and its concrete implementation in practice. It was actually a conflict within the party in which lower-ranking communists lost out.
This article analyzes the influence of the Communist Party of Spain on the development of bilateral relations between Yugoslavia and Spain until the official establishment of diplomatic relations in ...January 1977, with an important emphasis on the period after the death of Francisco Franco. Besides researching the cooperation of Yugoslav and Spanish communists on these matters, the paper examines the specific international circumstances and interests of the great powers in the context of Yugoslav-Spanish rapprochement.
The article analyzes the activity of the Presidency of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1984 to 1989, mainly on the basis of unpublished material from the Archives of Yugoslavia. The ...accent is on confrontation of the members of the Presidency with the rising crisis of the political system in Yugoslavia. The reactions of the Presidency to the turning events during the last two years of its mandate are presented in more detail.
The attitude of the new authorities in Yugoslavia (and Bosnia and Herzegovina) towards the officials of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, from the end of the Second World War to 1963, ...especially the state policy of separating „reactionary“ from „positive“ officials of this community, seems to be of the most important segments for the overall understanding of communist policy towards religious communities. So far, we cannot boast of fundamental work on this issue, not only because the original archival material is scarce, but also because there was a lack of good will to explain this problem factually and comprehensively. The issue of separating the „positive“ from the „reactionary“ officials of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina has been the subject of continuous attention of the federal and republican commissions for religious affairs, as well as other authorities that more or less participated in creating and implementing state policy towards religious communities, including the Islamic Community. This paper contextualises the legal and political post-war circumstances in which the Islamic Community operated and analyses the manifestations and effects of the communist policy of establishing differentiation among the officials of this community. Religious rights and freedoms prescribed by the federal and republican constitutions did not simultaneously imply their concrete implementation in practice. The practical application of religious rights and freedoms on the ground largely depended on the will of party organisations and their political goals. In the category of those who should be disempowered, the communist government included the Islamic Community, which according to the ideological views of this government should have been economically weakened by a series of restrictive laws. That is why, in the first months after its liberation, AVNOJ'S Yugoslavia began to speed up the adoption of legal regulations that limited the property and rights of religious communities, including the Islamic Community. The new government did not respect the specific elements of religious communities, treating them in exactly the same way as other landowners and private entrepreneurs. By 1963, the communist government had adopted a set of legal regulations on the basis of which the state proceeded to confiscate the property of the Islamic Community through legal mechanisms of confiscation, nationalisation, sequestration and expropriation. Along with the disempowerment measures, the measures to bring this community under control by the government were also applied. For this purpose, the policy of separating „reactionary“ from „positive“ officials of the Islamic Community was used, among other things. Numerous reports, analyses and letters from the Commission for Religious Affairs pointed out that, unlike the leading representatives of the Islamic Community in the lower structures of this community, the readiness to cooperate with the authorities was not at such a level. Due to such assessments, the Commission considered that the officials of the Islamic Community on the ground were for the most part „reactionary“, and that „in a sense there is a danger of separating the top“ from the lower officials of this community. Numerous materials from the Commission on Religious Affairs from the 1950s and early 1960s stated that there were still „reactionary elements“ within the Islamic Community who were opposed to the socialist social order. However, especially since the late 1950s, it has been pointed out that such individuals are few and are unable to have any decisive influence on members of the Islamic community. Therefore, the governing structures in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the late 1950s stated that in general it can be concluded that the situation in the Islamic Community is „very favourable“. In their opinion, the officials and the vast majority of officials are patriotic and willing to cooperate, as well as to accept all proposals that are in accordance with the Constitution and laws. The state policy of awarding decorations was also in the function of supporting and affirming the „positive“ officials of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Despite its good geographical position and connections with the developed Danube region, the system of work in the Port of Rijeka and the changes conditioned by the economic reform and the fierce ...competition influenced by the oversizing of port capacities in the country affected the financial and economic results of this company. Technical backwardness, the poor qualification structure of employees, and large redundancies of administrative workers were just some of the problems that burdened the port. Asking for help, in 1968 the company’s management turned to municipal, republican, and federal bodies, commercial banks, and the Chamber of Commerce. As there was no positive response to the stated requests, a way out of the difficulties was sought in a programme of economic measures that further lowered the living standard of employees. Dissatisfied workers responded to the austerity measures with a strike. Work was suspended on Sunday, 1 June 1969, at the initiative of 10 to 15 workers. Although the entire weekly shift ceased working, there was no indication that the dissatisfaction would turn into an open revolt, and then into a riot in which the general and commercial directors, chief accountant, analyst, director of economics, and president of the trade union were injured. The police took to the streets, and the authorities did everything to end the strike and at least temporarily eliminate the workers’ dissatisfaction. The austerity measures were abandoned, and the workers promised to work on Sundays in order to make up for what they had lost. Those employees who were considered the leaders of the protest had to bear the legal consequences. Criminal charges were filed against 20 people, investigations were opened against 14, and six people were detained.
The present paper contributes to the study of Serbia’s position in Yugoslavia after the death of Josip Broz. Based on insights into the disputes over the election of Serbian members and chair of the ...LCY Central Committee Presidium in 1981–1983, it analyzes the relations between politicians from Serbia on the one hand, and the relations of Serbia and other republics and provinces on the other. Prior insights from memoirs and historiographical literature were complemented by archival research.
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