League of Communists of Yugoslavia
Encyclopedia
League of Communists of Yugoslavia (Serbo-Croatian
: Savez komunista Jugoslavije/Савез комуниста Југославије, Slovene: Zveza komunistov Jugoslavije, Macedonian
: Сојуз на комунистите на Југославија, Sojuz na komunistite na Jugoslavija), before 1952 the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (Serbo-Croatian
: Komunistička partija Jugoslavije, Slovene: Komunistična partija Jugoslavije, Мacedonian
: Комунистичка партија на Југославија, Komunistička partija na Jugoslavija), was a major Communist party
in Yugoslavia
. The party was founded as an opposition party in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1919.
After initial successes in the elections, it was proscribed by the royal government and remained an illegal underground group until World War II
; at times, it was harshly and violently oppressed. After the collapse of Yugoslavia in 1941, partisans led by Communists became embroiled in a War of National Liberation and defeated the Axis forces and their local satellites in a bloody civil war
. After the liberation from foreign occupation in 1945, the party consolidated its power and established a one-party rule in Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
, which lasted until the Yugoslav wars
of 1991.
The party, which was led by Josip Broz Tito
from 1937 to 1980, was the first communist party in power in the history of the Eastern Bloc
that openly opposed the common policy as directed by the Soviet Union
and thus was expelled from the Cominform
in 1948 after Joseph Stalin
accused Tito of nationalism and moving to the right. After internal purges, the party renamed itself the League of Communists and adopted politics of workers' self-management
and independent communism, known as Titoism
.
The party disintegrated in January 1990 on a congress of the party.
was created after World War I
, the different social democratic
parties that had existed in Austria-Hungary
, Serbia
and Montenegro
called for a unification of their parties. The idea was widely accepted by parties and organizations from all over the country and in April 1919 a Congress of Unification was held in Belgrade
, attended by 432 delegates representing 130,000 organized supporters of the workers’ class movement from all parts of the Kingdom except Slovenia. Ministerial branch of the Social democrat party of Slovenia
was minorized in April 1920, when the Slovenes joined ranks with other social-democrats turned marxist-leninist revolutionaries. Slovenes joined officially in Vukovar
(Croatia
) in late April 1920.
The congress was marked by opposing positions towards the concepts of the revolutionary and reformist currents. Bolshevik
influence was introduced by soldiers who during the war had been captured by Russia
n forces and had experienced the October Revolution
. The Congress decided to form a single political party (not a federation of parties) named Socialist Labor Party of Yugoslavia (Communists) (Socijalistička radnička partija Jugoslavije (komunista)) which would be a member of Comintern
. Its highest organs, to which all other organs were subordinate, were the Congress and the Central Committee, headed by Filip Filipović and Živko Topalović
as political secretaries and Vladimir Ćopić
as organizational secretary. The party program, the Basis of Unification, was a "synthesis of the Social Democratic ideological heritage with the experiences of the October Revolution", spoke in terms of an imminent revolution, while the Practical Program of Action was oriented to a long-term political struggle within the capitalist system. The party considered the national question to be solved by the events of 1918, supported a unitarian state merging the different "tribes" into one "nation" as the best basis of class struggle, and opposed ″federalism".
In the wake of the Congress, the United Socialist (Communist) Woman Movement (Jedinstveni ženski socijalistički (komunistički) pokret), and the Central Workers’ Trade-Union Council (Centralno radničko sindikalno vijeće) were also founded, while the Young Communist League of Yugoslavia
was formed later that year.
and the Hungarian Soviet Republic
, while the Central Workers’ Trade-Union Council organized many strike
s and demonstrations against employers and state authority.
Communist participation in these social and political disturbances the party's gains in many towns and villages during the local elections of March 1920 in Croatia and Montenegro, where Communists won majority in several cities (including big cities like Zagreb
, Osijek
, Slavonski Brod
, Križevci and Podgorica
) resulted in the anxious government using pressure against the party: it refused to confirm Communist administrations of these districts and imprisoned the party leadership, which however was subsequently released after a hunger strike
. These early successes convinced other groups, including Social Democrats in Slovenia
, to join the party.
Success continued in local elections in Serbia
and Macedonia
held in summer of 1920, in which the Communists won majorities in many districts (including Belgrade
, Skopje
and Niš
). Again, Communist administrations were suspended by the government.
Finally, in elections to the Constitutional Assembly
, held on November 28, 1920, the Communist Party received 198,736 votes (12.36% of all votes) and 58 of 419 seats in the assembly.
, stressing that the Kingdoms was an industrially underdeveloped state and not ripe for revolution, opposed an emphasis on class struggle and a close connection between the party and the trade-unions and favored participating in the political life by legal means and working towards social reforms. The decidedly Communist Revolutionaries, arguing that the prerequisites for a revolution already existed, favored a centralized party, a close alliance with the unions and the seizing of power by force, including terrorist
tactics.
The 2nd party congress, held in June 1920 in Vukovar
, saw the revolutionaries led by Filipović prevail. The party changed its name to Communist Party of Yugoslavia (Komunistička partija Jugoslavije) and elected Filipović and Sima Marković as political secretaries. The Congress also supported to the idea of a Balkan Communist Federation
. The Centrists objected to their marginalization and in September published their Manifesto, in which they denounced the October Revolution as "irrational" and as "violence on the course of history" and the Bolsheviks as using the Comintern as an instrument of their foreign policy, using "all foreign parties as their own blind agents" The manifesto was signed by 53 leading party members, which all were expelled from the leadership, while 62 members who had expressed solidarity with them were given party punishments. The centrists for a time formed they own party before they united with Social Democrats in the Socialist Party of Yugoslavia
.
: On the night from 29 to 30 December 1920, the government issued the Obznana (literally "announcement") decree, which prohibited all Communist activities until the adoption of the new constitution, excluding only the Communist deputies involvement in the Constitutional Assembly. The party's property was seized and several leaders arrested. The Assembly approved of the Constitution on 28 June 1921, against the votes of the Communist deputies.
The Communist Party reacted to the Obznana preparing a transition to illegal operation. In June 1921, it formed an Alternative Central Party Leadership, which would assume control of the Party if the Party leadership was arrested.
Some Communists reacted to the oppression by founding the terrorist group Crvena Pravda ("The Red Justice"), which organized assassination attempts: during the official proclamation of the constitution, they unsuccessfully tried to kill Prince Regent Alexander
, but on 21 July 1921 they succeeded in assassinating Milorad Drašković, minister of the interior and author of the Obznana. This act was widely condemned and resulted in a lasting drop of the party's popularity. The Assembly passed the Law of protection of public security and state order (Zakon o zaštiti javne bezbednosti i poretka u državi), which indefintely banned the Communist Party and all Communist activity. The ban was not lifted until the demise of the Kingdom in 1941.
At the same time all the Communist deputies were arrested and at the end of the year, some 70,000 Communists and trade-unions members had been arrested, while many members ceased activities altogether.
. However, soon conflict flared up on the issue whether the party should attempt to reconstruct legal forms of its work or devote itself entirely to illegal activity. A group of party leaders, led by former party secretary Sima Marković, formed the Executive Committee of the Communist Party in Emigration in September 1921, thus establishing a double leadership. The two factions reunited at the 1st state Conference, held at Vienna in July 1922: Marković argued for postponing the revolution and aiming at constitutional changes, while Novaković wanted to aim for "rapid revolutionary change". Marković persuaded the majority and the Comintern confirmed the "right-wing" majority but also appealed to the "left-wing" by criticizing the former leadership. The Communists succeeded in reestablishing re-opening for itself a way into public political life via the Independent Trade Unions and organizations like the Union of Workers' Youth of Yugoslavia and the Independent Workers' Party of Yugoslavia, which however won only 1% of the votes only and no seats in the parliamentary elections of March 1923.
The 2nd state conference held at Vienna in May 1923 saw a victory of the left wing, with Triša Kaclerović assuming leadership. The conference also decided that to create an illegal centralized cadre party, locate the leadership inside the country, infiltrate workers' organizations and set up combat units.
However, the Comintern denounced any federative organization and instead demanded the breaking up of the so-called "Versailles Yugoslavia", with Slovenia, Croatia and Macedonia forming independent republics. The Comintern, perceiving that the unsolved national question could be used to foster a new revolution, focused on Yugoslavia as the least stable of Balkan states.
The 3rd state conference also decided to strengthen the illegal party organization by the creation of party cells among industrial workers (instead of skilled craftsmen), the schooling party cadres and a united front with the trade-unions. This led to the increase of membership from 1,000 to 2,500 at the end of 1924.
The 3rd conference's decisions were accepted in a party referendum but rejected by the local Belgrade organization, led by trade union functionaries and Sima Marković, who refused to recognize the leadership under Kaclerović. They especially opposed the Comintern's policy of dissolving Yugoslavia, seeing no chance for a revolution and hence no need to foster it by such a move. The conflict was heightened by Croatian Communists open support for nationalist groups like the Croatian Peasant Party
or the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (VMRO), and their directing complaints against Serbian hegemony
not against the Serbian bourgeoisie
but against the Serbian people
. The Belgrade opposition was defeated in a renewed debate in autumn 1924 and subsequently left the party. The conflict was reviewed by the Comintern, which condemned Marković's views as ″Social Democratic and opportunistic″.
The 3rd party congress held at Vienna in May 1926, convoked to overcome the internal conflict, agreed with Comintern's evaluation and confirmed the 3rd state conference's as "the foundations for its ideological and political Bolshevization″. The Comintern's program was made binding on any party member and the party's name supplemented by "Section of the Communist International". The Congress also defined Croatia
, Slovenia
, Macedonia
, Montenegro
and Vojvodina
as non-Serb territories that should secede from the remaining "area of the Serbian Nation". Members of both party wings practiced "self-criticism
", expressed their desire for unity and were subsequently elected into the Central Committee, with Marković returning as political secretary.
But the conflict was not truly resolved and began to spread into the lower party organizations, to which the party responded by anti-factional campaigns among the cadres. In January 1928, Đuro Đaković appealed to the Comintern, denounced both wings as blocking party work and marginalizing the party in the political life of Yugoslavia. He received the support of the local Zagreb organization, led by Josip Broz Tito
and Andrija Hebrang
. In April, after conferring with Moscow, the Comintern replaced the Central Committee with a temporary leadership in and call on party members to liquidate factionalism. Convoked in this atmosphere, the 4th party congress, held at Dresden in November 1928, saw sharp criticism of the factions, and especially of Marković, who submitted to party discipline and called upon to the Belgrade party to return to party discipline. The congress reaffirmed the centralism principles and demanded that the leadership must be composed of industrial workers educated in the spirit of Leninism. Jovan Mališić was elected political secretary and Đuro Đaković organizational secretary. The congress also predicted an imminent bourgeois revolution, adopted the Comintern's theory of Social fascism
, which regarded social democracy as a form of fascism, and reaffirmed the policy of breaking up Yugoslavia. Both the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and the Comintern would support these views until 1935.
dispensed with the constitution and introduced a royal dictatorship. The Communist party, encouraged by the Dresden congress, in response called upon workers and peasants to start an armed revolt, considerably overestimating their influence. The majority of Communists observed this appeal but their actions remained isolated and only resulted in an increase of repression by the government: the top leaders of the Young Communist League
and of the party, including Đuro Đaković, were killed, numerous members arrested and the party's organization destroyed. In April 1930, the Central Committee moved to Vienna and lost contact with the remaining organizations in the country.
Membership increased from 300 in January 1932 to almost three thousand in December 1934, when the Central Committee finally reestablished contact with the organization inside the country.
At the 4th state conference, held at Ljubljana, in December 1934, the party still clung to the concept of breaking up Yugoslavia and demanded the liberation of Montenegro from Serbian occupation - despite the opposition of Montenegrin Communists against such a declaration. However, the year 1935 saw the reversal of that position: In June, the Central Committee no longer insisted on a division of Yugoslavia but emphasized each nation's right to self-determination, which could be implemented within the framework of a federative Yugoslavia. In August, the party (in conjunction with the Comintern) adopted a plan for a preservation of reconstructed and federalized Yugoslavia under the slogan "Weak Serbia - Strong Yugoslavia".
In the same year, Yugoslavia's Communists also followed the Comintern, when it abandoned the theory of social fascism
in favor of a popular front
in cooperation with Social Democrats.
Under the conditions of Yugoslavia, such a cooperation helped to break the limitations of illegality and sped up the organizational reconstruction of the party, but also made differences between the leadership in exile and the party in the country more visible. The Central Committee therefore decided in mid-1935 to create a National Bureau (Zemaljski biro) to lead the Party from within the country. Some voices demanded a return of the Central Committee but the large numbers of party members living as political emigrants and the difficulties in running such a stretched party prevented this.
The party's increased activity provoked the authorities to sharp measures and during 1936 about two thousand members were arrested, including most of the members of the National Bureau and many regional leaders and some members of the Central Committee. The Comintern, during consultations in Moscow in August, severely criticized the Yugoslavian leadership and decided to nominate a new leadership and transfer the Central Committee's seat back inside the country.
In November, the leadership was installed with Milan Gorkić as general secretary and Josip Broz as organizational secretary, and in December Broz and other leaders returned to Yugoslavia, where they pursued an anti-fascist policy and initiated a campaign for solidarity with Spanish republicans, which channeled help through the Paris branch of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia.
Those leaders remaining in Moscow were hit by the Stalin's Great Purge
, in which many party members were arrested and shot, including the most prominent former leaders of Yugoslavia's Communists: Filip Filipović, Sima Marković, Jovan Mališić, as well as the current general secretary Milan Gorkić, who was deposed and shot in 1937.
, leader of the Bulgaria
n Communists, reached an agreement with the Comintern. Tito was authorized to reform the Central Committee within the country, which was accomplished in March 1939 with Tito as general secretary. Tito succeeded in removing the centers of "factionalism" and also lessened the party's financial problems.
The party was also faced with the controversy created by Stalin's purges
and the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, which both disturbed and alienated many intellectuals. Tito responded by trying to focus on Yugoslavian issues. Such controversy however gradually ceased due to the independent policy towards the Comintern.
With World War II
on the horizon, the issue of war became prominent. Yugoslavian Communists accepted the Comintern's evaluation of the "imperialistic character of war" but at the same time insisted on the right of a country to defend itself against aggression.
Economic difficulties and political oppression strengthened the Communist party's appeal, to which the government responded by a crack-down on the trade-union in December 1939.
After various regional party conferences analyzing the situation, the 5th state conference was held in October 1940 at Zagreb, which stressed two tasks: the defense of Yugoslavia's independence and the mobilization of the masses in the struggle to solve the most acute internal social and national problems. Regarding the national question, the conference espoused self-determination and cultural autonomy of all peoples, including smaller groups like Albanians, Germans, Hungarians, Romanians.
with British and Soviet help, King Peter II
ousted the pro-Axis
Prince Regent Paul
. In April 1941, Nazi Germany invaded Yugoslavia and quickly defeated the Yugoslav army. The Communist Party decided to organize resistance against the invaders and on 10 April set up a war committee in Zagreb to prepare a war for ″national and social liberation″.
When Hitler began his invasion of the Soviet Union
on 22 June, the Communists considered the moment opportune and issued a proclamation calling to the nations of Yugoslavia to resistance. Assisted by the British and the Americans, the Communist-led Partisans
used guerrilla tactics
to establish territories under their control, where they also introduced elements of socialist revolution, and used propaganda
to popularize their aims. At the end of the Yugoslav People's Liberation War in 1945, the Partisans consisted of 800,000 soldiers under the leadership of 14,000 members of the Communist party.
The other parties formed before the war were banned by the Communists. Eight of them entered the coalition with the Communists and founded the People's Front
of Yugoslavia (Narodna fronta Jugoslavije), while the Democratic Party of Milan Grol
boycott the first post-war elections of 1945 because the elections were held under undemocratic conditions.
The elections were held in the form of a referendum: the People's Front candidate list received 91% of the vote while the option of "no list" won 9%. Yugoslavia became a republic and the other parties were banned. The People's Front
(later called the Socialist Alliance of Working People of Yugoslavia
, Socijalistički Savez Radnog Naroda Jugoslavije) remained open to those who did not consider themselves to be communists, such as members of the clergy.
In 1948, the party held its fifth Congress. The meeting was held shortly after Stalin accused Tito of being a nationalist and moving to the right branding his heresy Titoism
. This resulted in a break with the Soviet Union
known as the Informbiro
period. Initially the Yugoslav communists, despite the break with Stalin, remained as hard line as before but soon began to pursue a policy of independent socialism that experimented with self-management
of workers in state-run enterprises, with decentralization and other departures from the Soviet model of a Communist state
.
Under the influence of reformers such as Boris Kidrič
and Milovan Đilas, Yugoslavia experimented with ideas of workers self-management where workers influenced the policies of the factories in which they worked and shared a portion of any surplus revenue. This resulted in a change in the party's role in society from holding a monopoly of power to being an ideological leader. As a result, the party name was changed to the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (Savez komunista Jugoslavije, SKJ) in 1952 during its sixth Congress. Likewise, the names of the regional branches were changed accordingly. LCY consisted of the following regional bodies:
of the League of Communists began to be dismantled with the fall of the hardline OZNA
and UDBA
chief Aleksandar Ranković
in 1966, culminating in the social and political movements that would lead to the de-centralized and regionalized Federal Yugoslavia of the Constitution of 1974.
After Tito's death in 1980 the party adopted a collective leadership model with the occupant of the top position rotating annually. The party's influence declined and the party moved to a federal structure giving more power to party branches in Yugoslavia's constituent republics. Party membership continued to grow reaching two million in the mid-1980s but membership was considered less prestigious than in the past.
Slobodan Milošević became president of the Communist League of Serbia in 1987 and combined certain Serbian nationalist ideologies with opposition to liberal reforms. The growing rift among the branches of the Communist Party and their respective republics led to the effective dissolution of the Communist League of Yugoslavia at its 14th Congress held in January 1990 with rifts between Serbian and Slovenian Communists leading to the breakup of the party into different parties for each republic. The Communist associations in each republic shortly changed their names to Socialist or Social-Democratic parties, transmuting into movements which were left-oriented, but no longer strictly communist.
One pro-Stalinist group, called New Communist Party of Yugoslavia
(NKPJ) claimed to continue in the tradition of the original Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ), but not of the Titoist Communist League of Yugoslavia (SKJ). Another Stalinist party under the name of Communist Party of Yugoslavia was established in 1990 by Tito's former Communist opposition.
Another attempt to revive the party was the League of Communists - Movement for Yugoslavia (SK-PJ), which was mainly a soldiers' party, and later joined the Yugoslav United Left (JUL).
There was also another party calling itself the Communist League of Yugoslavia, which organized what it claimed to be the party's 15th and 16th congresses, the latter in 1994 claiming that it continues the tradition of LCY. It later split into League of Communists of Yugoslavia in Serbia
and League of Communists of Yugoslavia-Communist Party of Serbia
There are several Titoist
parties in the Republic of Macedonia
.
The Workers' Communist Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina
is a pro-Yugoslav union party which respects but is also critical of the LCY and Tito.
The Socialist Labour Party of Croatia
adopted the first name of the party on its formation 1997 but it is not an all-Yugoslav party (nor does it have ambitions to be). The Communist Party of Croatia, formed in 2005 by dissidents from the Socialist Labour Party of Croatia, adheres to Titoism
, but they have never started functioning.
The remnants of the local branches were transformed:
Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian or Serbo-Croat, less commonly Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian , is a South Slavic language with multiple standards and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro...
: Savez komunista Jugoslavije/Савез комуниста Југославије, Slovene: Zveza komunistov Jugoslavije, Macedonian
Macedonian language
Macedonian is a South Slavic language spoken as a first language by approximately 2–3 million people principally in the region of Macedonia but also in the Macedonian diaspora...
: Сојуз на комунистите на Југославија, Sojuz na komunistite na Jugoslavija), before 1952 the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian or Serbo-Croat, less commonly Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian , is a South Slavic language with multiple standards and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro...
: Komunistička partija Jugoslavije, Slovene: Komunistična partija Jugoslavije, Мacedonian
Macedonian language
Macedonian is a South Slavic language spoken as a first language by approximately 2–3 million people principally in the region of Macedonia but also in the Macedonian diaspora...
: Комунистичка партија на Југославија, Komunistička partija na Jugoslavija), was a major Communist party
Communist party
A political party described as a Communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of communism through a communist form of government...
in Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
. The party was founded as an opposition party in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1919.
After initial successes in the elections, it was proscribed by the royal government and remained an illegal underground group until World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
; at times, it was harshly and violently oppressed. After the collapse of Yugoslavia in 1941, partisans led by Communists became embroiled in a War of National Liberation and defeated the Axis forces and their local satellites in a bloody civil war
Civil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
. After the liberation from foreign occupation in 1945, the party consolidated its power and established a one-party rule in Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
, which lasted until the Yugoslav wars
Yugoslav wars
The Yugoslav Wars were a series of wars, fought throughout the former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 1995. The wars were complex: characterized by bitter ethnic conflicts among the peoples of the former Yugoslavia, mostly between Serbs on the one side and Croats and Bosniaks on the other; but also...
of 1991.
The party, which was led by Josip Broz Tito
Josip Broz Tito
Marshal Josip Broz Tito – 4 May 1980) was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman. While his presidency has been criticized as authoritarian, Tito was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad, viewed as a unifying symbol for the nations of the Yugoslav federation...
from 1937 to 1980, was the first communist party in power in the history of the Eastern Bloc
Eastern bloc
The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...
that openly opposed the common policy as directed by the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and thus was expelled from the Cominform
Cominform
Founded in 1947, Cominform is the common name for what was officially referred to as the Information Bureau of the Communist and Workers' Parties...
in 1948 after Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
accused Tito of nationalism and moving to the right. After internal purges, the party renamed itself the League of Communists and adopted politics of workers' self-management
Workers' self-management
Worker self-management is a form of workplace decision-making in which the workers themselves agree on choices instead of an owner or traditional supervisor telling workers what to do, how to do it and where to do it...
and independent communism, known as Titoism
Titoism
Titoism is a variant of Marxism–Leninism named after Josip Broz Tito, leader of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, primarily used to describe the specific socialist system built in Yugoslavia after its refusal of the 1948 Resolution of the Cominform, when the Communist Party of...
.
The party disintegrated in January 1990 on a congress of the party.
Founding
When the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and SlovenesKingdom of Yugoslavia
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a state stretching from the Western Balkans to Central Europe which existed during the often-tumultuous interwar era of 1918–1941...
was created after World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, the different social democratic
Social democracy
Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
parties that had existed in Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
, Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
and Montenegro
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
called for a unification of their parties. The idea was widely accepted by parties and organizations from all over the country and in April 1919 a Congress of Unification was held in Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
, attended by 432 delegates representing 130,000 organized supporters of the workers’ class movement from all parts of the Kingdom except Slovenia. Ministerial branch of the Social democrat party of Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
was minorized in April 1920, when the Slovenes joined ranks with other social-democrats turned marxist-leninist revolutionaries. Slovenes joined officially in Vukovar
Vukovar
Vukovar is a city in eastern Croatia, and the biggest river port in Croatia located at the confluence of the Vuka river and the Danube. Vukovar is the center of the Vukovar-Syrmia County...
(Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
) in late April 1920.
The congress was marked by opposing positions towards the concepts of the revolutionary and reformist currents. Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
influence was introduced by soldiers who during the war had been captured by Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n forces and had experienced the October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
. The Congress decided to form a single political party (not a federation of parties) named Socialist Labor Party of Yugoslavia (Communists) (Socijalistička radnička partija Jugoslavije (komunista)) which would be a member of Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
. Its highest organs, to which all other organs were subordinate, were the Congress and the Central Committee, headed by Filip Filipović and Živko Topalović
Živko Topalović
Živko Topalović was a Yugoslav socialist politician. Topalović became a leading figure in the Socialist Party of Yugoslavia, founded in 1921....
as political secretaries and Vladimir Ćopić
Vladimir Copic
Vladimir Ćopić - Senjko was a Croatian communist, one of the leaders of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. During the Spanish Civil War, in the period from 1937 to mid-1938, he was the commander of the XV International Brigade....
as organizational secretary. The party program, the Basis of Unification, was a "synthesis of the Social Democratic ideological heritage with the experiences of the October Revolution", spoke in terms of an imminent revolution, while the Practical Program of Action was oriented to a long-term political struggle within the capitalist system. The party considered the national question to be solved by the events of 1918, supported a unitarian state merging the different "tribes" into one "nation" as the best basis of class struggle, and opposed ″federalism".
In the wake of the Congress, the United Socialist (Communist) Woman Movement (Jedinstveni ženski socijalistički (komunistički) pokret), and the Central Workers’ Trade-Union Council (Centralno radničko sindikalno vijeće) were also founded, while the Young Communist League of Yugoslavia
Young Communist League of Yugoslavia
Young Communist League of Yugoslavia, commonly known by its abbreviation SKOJ was the youth wing of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia from 1919 to 1948...
was formed later that year.
Period of legal activity
The newly formed party organized several protests against political situation in the country and rallies of support for Soviet RussiaRussian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , commonly referred to as Soviet Russia, Bolshevik Russia, or simply Russia, was the largest, most populous and economically developed republic in the former Soviet Union....
and the Hungarian Soviet Republic
Hungarian Soviet Republic
The Hungarian Soviet Republic or Soviet Republic of Hungary was a short-lived Communist state established in Hungary in the aftermath of World War I....
, while the Central Workers’ Trade-Union Council organized many strike
Strike action
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
s and demonstrations against employers and state authority.
Communist participation in these social and political disturbances the party's gains in many towns and villages during the local elections of March 1920 in Croatia and Montenegro, where Communists won majority in several cities (including big cities like Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
, Osijek
Osijek
Osijek is the fourth largest city in Croatia with a population of 83,496 in 2011. It is the largest city and the economic and cultural centre of the eastern Croatian region of Slavonia, as well as the administrative centre of Osijek-Baranja county...
, Slavonski Brod
Slavonski Brod
Slavonski Brod is a city in Croatia, with a population of 59,507 in 2011. The city was known as Marsonia in the Roman Empire, and as Brod na Savi 1244–1934. It is the sixth largest city in Croatia, after Zagreb, Split, Rijeka, Osijek and Zadar. Located in the region of Slavonia, it is the...
, Križevci and Podgorica
Podgorica
Podgorica , is the capital and largest city of Montenegro.Podgorica's favourable position at the confluence of the Ribnica and Morača rivers and the meeting point of the fertile Zeta Plain and Bjelopavlići Valley has encouraged settlement...
) resulted in the anxious government using pressure against the party: it refused to confirm Communist administrations of these districts and imprisoned the party leadership, which however was subsequently released after a hunger strike
Hunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance or pressure in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke feelings of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most hunger strikers will take liquids but not...
. These early successes convinced other groups, including Social Democrats in Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
, to join the party.
Success continued in local elections in Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
and Macedonia
Macedonia (region)
Macedonia is a geographical and historical region of the Balkan peninsula in southeastern Europe. Its boundaries have changed considerably over time, but nowadays the region is considered to include parts of five Balkan countries: Greece, the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, Serbia, as...
held in summer of 1920, in which the Communists won majorities in many districts (including Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
, Skopje
Skopje
Skopje is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Macedonia with about a third of the total population. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre...
and Niš
Niš
Niš is the largest city of southern Serbia and third-largest city in Serbia . According to the data from 2011, the city of Niš has a population of 177,972 inhabitants, while the city municipality has a population of 257,867. The city covers an area of about 597 km2, including the urban area,...
). Again, Communist administrations were suspended by the government.
Finally, in elections to the Constitutional Assembly
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes Constitutional Assembly election, 1920
The 1920 Constitutional Assembly election of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes for the National Assembly took place on 28 November 1920....
, held on November 28, 1920, the Communist Party received 198,736 votes (12.36% of all votes) and 58 of 419 seats in the assembly.
Split with the Centrists
But the growth of the party also incited arguments about party's agenda and resulted in a split between two currents: The reformist CentristsCentrumaši
Centrumaši was a reformist faction in Communist Party of Yugoslavia, called the Socialist Labour Party of Yugoslavia in the early 1920s. After the Second Congress in Vukovar in 1920, the name was changed to Communist Party of Yugoslavia and Centrumaši became more marginalised and, after...
, stressing that the Kingdoms was an industrially underdeveloped state and not ripe for revolution, opposed an emphasis on class struggle and a close connection between the party and the trade-unions and favored participating in the political life by legal means and working towards social reforms. The decidedly Communist Revolutionaries, arguing that the prerequisites for a revolution already existed, favored a centralized party, a close alliance with the unions and the seizing of power by force, including terrorist
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
tactics.
The 2nd party congress, held in June 1920 in Vukovar
Vukovar
Vukovar is a city in eastern Croatia, and the biggest river port in Croatia located at the confluence of the Vuka river and the Danube. Vukovar is the center of the Vukovar-Syrmia County...
, saw the revolutionaries led by Filipović prevail. The party changed its name to Communist Party of Yugoslavia (Komunistička partija Jugoslavije) and elected Filipović and Sima Marković as political secretaries. The Congress also supported to the idea of a Balkan Communist Federation
Balkan Communist Federation
The Balkan Federation was a project about the creation of a Balkan federation or confederation, based mainly on left political ideas.The concept of a Balkan federation emerged at the late 19th century from among left political forces in the region...
. The Centrists objected to their marginalization and in September published their Manifesto, in which they denounced the October Revolution as "irrational" and as "violence on the course of history" and the Bolsheviks as using the Comintern as an instrument of their foreign policy, using "all foreign parties as their own blind agents" The manifesto was signed by 53 leading party members, which all were expelled from the leadership, while 62 members who had expressed solidarity with them were given party punishments. The centrists for a time formed they own party before they united with Social Democrats in the Socialist Party of Yugoslavia
Socialist Party of Yugoslavia
Socialist Party of Yugoslavia is a political party in Montenegro...
.
Ban of the Communist party
The government, already anxious about a destabilization of the Kingdom but also encouraged by the demise of the Communist regime in Hungary, took measures against the revolutionary Communist Party after a policeman and four miners had been killed in a miners' strike near Tuzla, BosniaTuzla
Tuzla is a city and municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the time of the 1991 census, it had 83,770 inhabitants, while the municipality 131,318. Taking the influx of refugees into account, the city is currently estimated to have 174,558 inhabitants...
: On the night from 29 to 30 December 1920, the government issued the Obznana (literally "announcement") decree, which prohibited all Communist activities until the adoption of the new constitution, excluding only the Communist deputies involvement in the Constitutional Assembly. The party's property was seized and several leaders arrested. The Assembly approved of the Constitution on 28 June 1921, against the votes of the Communist deputies.
The Communist Party reacted to the Obznana preparing a transition to illegal operation. In June 1921, it formed an Alternative Central Party Leadership, which would assume control of the Party if the Party leadership was arrested.
Some Communists reacted to the oppression by founding the terrorist group Crvena Pravda ("The Red Justice"), which organized assassination attempts: during the official proclamation of the constitution, they unsuccessfully tried to kill Prince Regent Alexander
Alexander I of Yugoslavia
Alexander I , also known as Alexander the Unifier was the first king of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia as well as the last king of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes .-Childhood:...
, but on 21 July 1921 they succeeded in assassinating Milorad Drašković, minister of the interior and author of the Obznana. This act was widely condemned and resulted in a lasting drop of the party's popularity. The Assembly passed the Law of protection of public security and state order (Zakon o zaštiti javne bezbednosti i poretka u državi), which indefintely banned the Communist Party and all Communist activity. The ban was not lifted until the demise of the Kingdom in 1941.
At the same time all the Communist deputies were arrested and at the end of the year, some 70,000 Communists and trade-unions members had been arrested, while many members ceased activities altogether.
Underground organization
As the party continued underground and abroad, the Alternative Central Party Leadership was headed by Kosta Novaković, Triša Kaclerović and Moša PijadeMoša Pijade
Moša Pijade , nicknamed Čiča Janko was a prominent Yugoslavian/Serbian Communist of Sephardic Jewish origin, a close collaborator of Josip Broz Tito, former President of Yugoslavia, and full member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.In his youth, Pijade was a...
. However, soon conflict flared up on the issue whether the party should attempt to reconstruct legal forms of its work or devote itself entirely to illegal activity. A group of party leaders, led by former party secretary Sima Marković, formed the Executive Committee of the Communist Party in Emigration in September 1921, thus establishing a double leadership. The two factions reunited at the 1st state Conference, held at Vienna in July 1922: Marković argued for postponing the revolution and aiming at constitutional changes, while Novaković wanted to aim for "rapid revolutionary change". Marković persuaded the majority and the Comintern confirmed the "right-wing" majority but also appealed to the "left-wing" by criticizing the former leadership. The Communists succeeded in reestablishing re-opening for itself a way into public political life via the Independent Trade Unions and organizations like the Union of Workers' Youth of Yugoslavia and the Independent Workers' Party of Yugoslavia, which however won only 1% of the votes only and no seats in the parliamentary elections of March 1923.
The 2nd state conference held at Vienna in May 1923 saw a victory of the left wing, with Triša Kaclerović assuming leadership. The conference also decided that to create an illegal centralized cadre party, locate the leadership inside the country, infiltrate workers' organizations and set up combat units.
National question and factional strife
In 1923, the party also began to rethink its position on the national question and distanced itself from its former view, that 1918 had created a unified Yugoslav nation. Communists began to question the structure of the Yugoslav state and supported a Danubian-Balkan Federation. Debates were summed up by the 3rd state conference held at Belgrade in January 1924 which supported the concept of a federative republic with fully developed local self-management.However, the Comintern denounced any federative organization and instead demanded the breaking up of the so-called "Versailles Yugoslavia", with Slovenia, Croatia and Macedonia forming independent republics. The Comintern, perceiving that the unsolved national question could be used to foster a new revolution, focused on Yugoslavia as the least stable of Balkan states.
The 3rd state conference also decided to strengthen the illegal party organization by the creation of party cells among industrial workers (instead of skilled craftsmen), the schooling party cadres and a united front with the trade-unions. This led to the increase of membership from 1,000 to 2,500 at the end of 1924.
The 3rd conference's decisions were accepted in a party referendum but rejected by the local Belgrade organization, led by trade union functionaries and Sima Marković, who refused to recognize the leadership under Kaclerović. They especially opposed the Comintern's policy of dissolving Yugoslavia, seeing no chance for a revolution and hence no need to foster it by such a move. The conflict was heightened by Croatian Communists open support for nationalist groups like the Croatian Peasant Party
Croatian Peasant Party
The Croatian Peasant Party is a center and socially conservative political party in Croatia.-Austria-Hungary:The Croatian People's Peasant Party was formed on December 22, 1904 by Antun Radić along with his brother Stjepan Radić. The party contested elections for the first time in the Kingdom of...
or the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (VMRO), and their directing complaints against Serbian hegemony
Greater Serbia
The term Greater Serbia or Great Serbia applies to the Serbian nationalist and irredentist ideology directed towards the creation of a Serbian land which would incorporate all regions of traditional significance to the Serbian nation...
not against the Serbian bourgeoisie
Bourgeoisie
In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...
but against the Serbian people
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
. The Belgrade opposition was defeated in a renewed debate in autumn 1924 and subsequently left the party. The conflict was reviewed by the Comintern, which condemned Marković's views as ″Social Democratic and opportunistic″.
The 3rd party congress held at Vienna in May 1926, convoked to overcome the internal conflict, agreed with Comintern's evaluation and confirmed the 3rd state conference's as "the foundations for its ideological and political Bolshevization″. The Comintern's program was made binding on any party member and the party's name supplemented by "Section of the Communist International". The Congress also defined Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
, Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
, Macedonia
Vardar Macedonia
Vardar Macedonia is an area in the north of the Macedonia . The borders of the area are those of the Republic of Macedonia. It covers an area of...
, Montenegro
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
and Vojvodina
Vojvodina
Vojvodina, officially called Autonomous Province of Vojvodina is an autonomous province of Serbia. Its capital and largest city is Novi Sad...
as non-Serb territories that should secede from the remaining "area of the Serbian Nation". Members of both party wings practiced "self-criticism
Self-criticism
Self-criticism refers to the pointing out of things critical/important to one's own beliefs, thoughts, actions, behaviour or results; it can form part of private, personal reflection or a group discussion.-Philosophy:...
", expressed their desire for unity and were subsequently elected into the Central Committee, with Marković returning as political secretary.
But the conflict was not truly resolved and began to spread into the lower party organizations, to which the party responded by anti-factional campaigns among the cadres. In January 1928, Đuro Đaković appealed to the Comintern, denounced both wings as blocking party work and marginalizing the party in the political life of Yugoslavia. He received the support of the local Zagreb organization, led by Josip Broz Tito
Josip Broz Tito
Marshal Josip Broz Tito – 4 May 1980) was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman. While his presidency has been criticized as authoritarian, Tito was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad, viewed as a unifying symbol for the nations of the Yugoslav federation...
and Andrija Hebrang
Andrija Hebrang (father)
Andrija Hebrang was a Croatian and Yugoslav Stalinist politician.-Early life:Andrija Hebrang was born in the village of Bačevac to father Andrija Hebrang and mother Cela Strasser. During World War I, he was stationed for a time in Osijek, Zagreb, and finally the battlefields in Gorizia, Italy...
. In April, after conferring with Moscow, the Comintern replaced the Central Committee with a temporary leadership in and call on party members to liquidate factionalism. Convoked in this atmosphere, the 4th party congress, held at Dresden in November 1928, saw sharp criticism of the factions, and especially of Marković, who submitted to party discipline and called upon to the Belgrade party to return to party discipline. The congress reaffirmed the centralism principles and demanded that the leadership must be composed of industrial workers educated in the spirit of Leninism. Jovan Mališić was elected political secretary and Đuro Đaković organizational secretary. The congress also predicted an imminent bourgeois revolution, adopted the Comintern's theory of Social fascism
Social fascism
Social fascism was a theory supported by the Communist International during the early 1930s, which believed that social democracy was a variant of fascism because, in addition to a shared corporatist economic model, it stood in the way of a complete and final transition to communism...
, which regarded social democracy as a form of fascism, and reaffirmed the policy of breaking up Yugoslavia. Both the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and the Comintern would support these views until 1935.
The armed revolt of 1929
On 6 January 1929, King AlexanderAlexander I of Yugoslavia
Alexander I , also known as Alexander the Unifier was the first king of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia as well as the last king of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes .-Childhood:...
dispensed with the constitution and introduced a royal dictatorship. The Communist party, encouraged by the Dresden congress, in response called upon workers and peasants to start an armed revolt, considerably overestimating their influence. The majority of Communists observed this appeal but their actions remained isolated and only resulted in an increase of repression by the government: the top leaders of the Young Communist League
Young Communist League of Yugoslavia
Young Communist League of Yugoslavia, commonly known by its abbreviation SKOJ was the youth wing of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia from 1919 to 1948...
and of the party, including Đuro Đaković, were killed, numerous members arrested and the party's organization destroyed. In April 1930, the Central Committee moved to Vienna and lost contact with the remaining organizations in the country.
Reconstruction of the party
The experience of the failed revolt helped the Communist Party of Yugoslavia to gradually liberate itself from ideological concepts, sectarianism and the dictate of the Comintern. After 1932, the party began reconstructing its cadres, who could work independently from their superiors in exile. The parliamentary crisis also led to numerous intellectuals joining the Marxist movement.Membership increased from 300 in January 1932 to almost three thousand in December 1934, when the Central Committee finally reestablished contact with the organization inside the country.
At the 4th state conference, held at Ljubljana, in December 1934, the party still clung to the concept of breaking up Yugoslavia and demanded the liberation of Montenegro from Serbian occupation - despite the opposition of Montenegrin Communists against such a declaration. However, the year 1935 saw the reversal of that position: In June, the Central Committee no longer insisted on a division of Yugoslavia but emphasized each nation's right to self-determination, which could be implemented within the framework of a federative Yugoslavia. In August, the party (in conjunction with the Comintern) adopted a plan for a preservation of reconstructed and federalized Yugoslavia under the slogan "Weak Serbia - Strong Yugoslavia".
In the same year, Yugoslavia's Communists also followed the Comintern, when it abandoned the theory of social fascism
Social fascism
Social fascism was a theory supported by the Communist International during the early 1930s, which believed that social democracy was a variant of fascism because, in addition to a shared corporatist economic model, it stood in the way of a complete and final transition to communism...
in favor of a popular front
Popular front
A popular front is a broad coalition of different political groupings, often made up of leftists and centrists. Being very broad, they can sometimes include centrist and liberal forces as well as socialist and communist groups...
in cooperation with Social Democrats.
Under the conditions of Yugoslavia, such a cooperation helped to break the limitations of illegality and sped up the organizational reconstruction of the party, but also made differences between the leadership in exile and the party in the country more visible. The Central Committee therefore decided in mid-1935 to create a National Bureau (Zemaljski biro) to lead the Party from within the country. Some voices demanded a return of the Central Committee but the large numbers of party members living as political emigrants and the difficulties in running such a stretched party prevented this.
The party's increased activity provoked the authorities to sharp measures and during 1936 about two thousand members were arrested, including most of the members of the National Bureau and many regional leaders and some members of the Central Committee. The Comintern, during consultations in Moscow in August, severely criticized the Yugoslavian leadership and decided to nominate a new leadership and transfer the Central Committee's seat back inside the country.
In November, the leadership was installed with Milan Gorkić as general secretary and Josip Broz as organizational secretary, and in December Broz and other leaders returned to Yugoslavia, where they pursued an anti-fascist policy and initiated a campaign for solidarity with Spanish republicans, which channeled help through the Paris branch of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia.
Those leaders remaining in Moscow were hit by the Stalin's Great Purge
Great Purge
The Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin from 1936 to 1938...
, in which many party members were arrested and shot, including the most prominent former leaders of Yugoslavia's Communists: Filip Filipović, Sima Marković, Jovan Mališić, as well as the current general secretary Milan Gorkić, who was deposed and shot in 1937.
Tito's early leadership
The party work was further hampered by factional struggles within the Paris branch, irregular contacts with the Comintern and the cessation of financial aid and the unclear position of the party's representative within the country, Josip Broz. However, Josip Broz (using the pseudonyms of "Walter" and "Tito") was able to unite the party and won the confidence of the Comintern. In May 1938, he set up a temporary leadership inside the country. In August he went to Moscow, through the mediation of Georgi DimitrovGeorgi Dimitrov
Georgi Dimitrov Mikhaylov , also known as Georgi Mikhaylovich Dimitrov , was a Bulgarian Communist politician...
, leader of the Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
n Communists, reached an agreement with the Comintern. Tito was authorized to reform the Central Committee within the country, which was accomplished in March 1939 with Tito as general secretary. Tito succeeded in removing the centers of "factionalism" and also lessened the party's financial problems.
The party was also faced with the controversy created by Stalin's purges
Great Purge
The Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin from 1936 to 1938...
and the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, named after the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and the German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, was an agreement officially titled the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union and signed in Moscow in the late hours of 23 August 1939...
between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, which both disturbed and alienated many intellectuals. Tito responded by trying to focus on Yugoslavian issues. Such controversy however gradually ceased due to the independent policy towards the Comintern.
With World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
on the horizon, the issue of war became prominent. Yugoslavian Communists accepted the Comintern's evaluation of the "imperialistic character of war" but at the same time insisted on the right of a country to defend itself against aggression.
Economic difficulties and political oppression strengthened the Communist party's appeal, to which the government responded by a crack-down on the trade-union in December 1939.
After various regional party conferences analyzing the situation, the 5th state conference was held in October 1940 at Zagreb, which stressed two tasks: the defense of Yugoslavia's independence and the mobilization of the masses in the struggle to solve the most acute internal social and national problems. Regarding the national question, the conference espoused self-determination and cultural autonomy of all peoples, including smaller groups like Albanians, Germans, Hungarians, Romanians.
Invasion and armed resistance
In March 1941, after a coup d'etatCoup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
with British and Soviet help, King Peter II
Peter II of Yugoslavia
Peter II, also known as Peter II Karađorđević , was the third and last King of Yugoslavia...
ousted the pro-Axis
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
Prince Regent Paul
Prince Paul of Yugoslavia
Prince Paul of Yugoslavia, also known as Paul Karađorđević , was Regent of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia during the minority of King Peter II. Peter was the eldest son of his first cousin Alexander I...
. In April 1941, Nazi Germany invaded Yugoslavia and quickly defeated the Yugoslav army. The Communist Party decided to organize resistance against the invaders and on 10 April set up a war committee in Zagreb to prepare a war for ″national and social liberation″.
When Hitler began his invasion of the Soviet Union
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
on 22 June, the Communists considered the moment opportune and issued a proclamation calling to the nations of Yugoslavia to resistance. Assisted by the British and the Americans, the Communist-led Partisans
Partisans (Yugoslavia)
The Yugoslav Partisans, or simply the Partisans were a Communist-led World War II anti-fascist resistance movement in Yugoslavia...
used guerrilla tactics
Guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare and refers to conflicts in which a small group of combatants including, but not limited to, armed civilians use military tactics, such as ambushes, sabotage, raids, the element of surprise, and extraordinary mobility to harass a larger and...
to establish territories under their control, where they also introduced elements of socialist revolution, and used propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
to popularize their aims. At the end of the Yugoslav People's Liberation War in 1945, the Partisans consisted of 800,000 soldiers under the leadership of 14,000 members of the Communist party.
Ruling party of Socialist Yugoslavia
People's Front
People's Front can refer to:* All-Russia People's Front* People's Front * Popular Front * People's Front * People's Front * People's Front * People's Front * People's Front...
of Yugoslavia (Narodna fronta Jugoslavije), while the Democratic Party of Milan Grol
Milan Grol
Milan Grol was a Serbian literary critic and politician.-Biography:Milan Grol studied in Belgrade and in Paris. He graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy, Department of Philology and Literature at the University of Belgrade in 1899. He studied literature and theatre for two years in Paris...
boycott the first post-war elections of 1945 because the elections were held under undemocratic conditions.
The elections were held in the form of a referendum: the People's Front candidate list received 91% of the vote while the option of "no list" won 9%. Yugoslavia became a republic and the other parties were banned. The People's Front
National Front of Yugoslavia
People's Front of Yugoslavia was an organization of antifascist and democratic masses of nations of Yugoslavia. The idea of its creation sprang up in the 1930s, especially during the May 5, 1935 parliamentary elections in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia....
(later called the Socialist Alliance of Working People of Yugoslavia
Socialist Alliance of Working People of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Alliance of Working People of Yugoslavia or SSRNJ , formerly the People's Front , was the largest and most influential mass organization in SFR Yugoslavia from August 1945 through 1990. In 1990 its membership was thirteen million, including most of the adult population of the country...
, Socijalistički Savez Radnog Naroda Jugoslavije) remained open to those who did not consider themselves to be communists, such as members of the clergy.
In 1948, the party held its fifth Congress. The meeting was held shortly after Stalin accused Tito of being a nationalist and moving to the right branding his heresy Titoism
Titoism
Titoism is a variant of Marxism–Leninism named after Josip Broz Tito, leader of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, primarily used to describe the specific socialist system built in Yugoslavia after its refusal of the 1948 Resolution of the Cominform, when the Communist Party of...
. This resulted in a break with the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
known as the Informbiro
Informbiro
Informbiro was a period in the history of Yugoslavia characterized by conflict and schism with the Soviet Union...
period. Initially the Yugoslav communists, despite the break with Stalin, remained as hard line as before but soon began to pursue a policy of independent socialism that experimented with self-management
Workers' self-management
Worker self-management is a form of workplace decision-making in which the workers themselves agree on choices instead of an owner or traditional supervisor telling workers what to do, how to do it and where to do it...
of workers in state-run enterprises, with decentralization and other departures from the Soviet model of a Communist state
Communist state
A communist state is a state with a form of government characterized by single-party rule or dominant-party rule of a communist party and a professed allegiance to a Leninist or Marxist-Leninist communist ideology as the guiding principle of the state...
.
Under the influence of reformers such as Boris Kidrič
Boris Kidric
Boris Kidrič was a leading Slovenian Communist who was, jointly with Edvard Kardelj, one of the chief organizers of the Partisan struggle in Slovenia from 1941 to 1945....
and Milovan Đilas, Yugoslavia experimented with ideas of workers self-management where workers influenced the policies of the factories in which they worked and shared a portion of any surplus revenue. This resulted in a change in the party's role in society from holding a monopoly of power to being an ideological leader. As a result, the party name was changed to the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (Savez komunista Jugoslavije, SKJ) in 1952 during its sixth Congress. Likewise, the names of the regional branches were changed accordingly. LCY consisted of the following regional bodies:
- League of Communists of Bosnia and HerzegovinaLeague of Communists of Bosnia and HerzegovinaThe League of Communists of Bosnia and Herzegovina was the Bosnian branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia.- Leaders :*Secretaries of the Central Committee of the League of Communists...
- League of Communists of CroatiaLeague of Communists of CroatiaLeague of Communists of Croatia was the Croatian branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia . Until 1952, it was known as Communist Party of Croatia .- History :...
- League of Communists of MacedoniaLeague of Communists of MacedoniaLeague of Communists of Macedonia was the Macedonian branch of the ruling League of Communists of Yugoslavia during the period 1943 – 1990. It was formed under the name Communist Party of Macedonia during the antifascist National Liberation War of Macedonia in the Second World War...
- League of Communists of MontenegroLeague of Communists of MontenegroThe League of Communists of Montenegro was the Montenegrin branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, the sole legal party of Yugoslavia from 1945 to 1990...
- League of Communists of SerbiaLeague of Communists of SerbiaThe League of Communists of Serbia was the Serbian branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, the sole legal party of Yugoslavia from 1945 to 1990. Under a new constitution ratified in 1974, greater power was devolved to the various republic level branches. In the late 1980s, the party was...
- League of Communists of KosovoLeague of Communists of KosovoThe League of Communists of Kosovo was the Kosovo branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, the sole legal party of Yugoslavia from 1945 to 1990.-History and background:...
- League of Communists of VojvodinaLeague of Communists of VojvodinaThe League of Communists of Vojvodina was the Vojvodina branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia.- Leaders :*Secretaries of the Central Committee of the League of Communists...
- League of Communists of Kosovo
- League of Communists of SloveniaLeague of Communists of SloveniaThe League of Communists of Slovenia was the Slovenian branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, the sole legal party of Yugoslavia from 1945 to 1989...
Dissidents
The Communists had a number of dissidents within its ranks at various periods:- From 1948 to 1953 during the conflict with Stalin, cf. Informbiro, a number of party members were accused of being pro-Moscow and jailed at Goli OtokGoli otokGoli otok is an island off the northern Adriatic coast, located between Rab's northeastern shore and the mainland, in what is today Croatia's Primorje-Gorski Kotar county. The island is barren and uninhabited...
- In 1954, Milovan Đilas was expelled from the party due to his criticisms and his proposals for a multi-party system with a decentralized economy.
- Aleksandar RankovićAleksandar RankovicAleksandar "Leka" Ranković was a Yugoslav communist politician of Serbian origin considered to be the third most powerful man in Yugoslavia after Josip Broz Tito and Edvard Kardelj....
argued for a highly centralized system more akin to the Soviet model and was expelled from the party in 1966. - In the course of the Croatian springCroatian SpringThe Croatian Spring was a political movement from the early 1970s that called for greater rights for Croatia which was then part of Yugoslavia as well as democratic and economic reforms.-History:...
of 1971, some of the Croatian party members were disciplined due to accusations of liberalismLiberalismLiberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
and nationalismNationalismNationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
, along with Serbian communists accused of liberalism. Many of their ideas were ultimately adopted in the new 1974 Yugoslav constitutionConstitution of the Socialist Federal Republic of YugoslaviaThe Constitution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the supreme law of S.F.R. Yugoslavia and its predecessor, the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia .-Federal constitutions:...
. - The Praxis SchoolPraxis SchoolThe Praxis school was a Marxist humanist philosophical movement. It originated in Zagreb and Belgrade in the SFR Yugoslavia, during the 1960s.Prominent figures among the school's founders include Gajo Petrović and Milan Kangrga of Zagreb and Mihailo Marković of Belgrade...
- a Marxist humanistMarxist humanismMarxist humanism is a branch of Marxism that primarily focuses on Marx's earlier writings, especially the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 in which Marx espoused his theory of alienation, as opposed to his later works, which are considered to be concerned more with his structural...
philosophical movement that originated in ZagrebZagrebZagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
and BelgradeBelgradeBelgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
. Its members were critical towards the version of self-management socialism implemented by the LCY and were removed from their university jobs for their views.
Crisis and dissolution
In the 1960s, the centralized command structureDemocratic centralism
Democratic centralism is the name given to the principles of internal organization used by Leninist political parties, and the term is sometimes used as a synonym for any Leninist policy inside a political party...
of the League of Communists began to be dismantled with the fall of the hardline OZNA
OZNA
The Department for the Protection of the People was a security agency of the FPR Yugoslavia.-Founding:...
and UDBA
UDBA
The Department of State Security was the secret police organization of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.Although it operated with more restraint than other secret...
chief Aleksandar Ranković
Aleksandar Rankovic
Aleksandar "Leka" Ranković was a Yugoslav communist politician of Serbian origin considered to be the third most powerful man in Yugoslavia after Josip Broz Tito and Edvard Kardelj....
in 1966, culminating in the social and political movements that would lead to the de-centralized and regionalized Federal Yugoslavia of the Constitution of 1974.
After Tito's death in 1980 the party adopted a collective leadership model with the occupant of the top position rotating annually. The party's influence declined and the party moved to a federal structure giving more power to party branches in Yugoslavia's constituent republics. Party membership continued to grow reaching two million in the mid-1980s but membership was considered less prestigious than in the past.
Slobodan Milošević became president of the Communist League of Serbia in 1987 and combined certain Serbian nationalist ideologies with opposition to liberal reforms. The growing rift among the branches of the Communist Party and their respective republics led to the effective dissolution of the Communist League of Yugoslavia at its 14th Congress held in January 1990 with rifts between Serbian and Slovenian Communists leading to the breakup of the party into different parties for each republic. The Communist associations in each republic shortly changed their names to Socialist or Social-Democratic parties, transmuting into movements which were left-oriented, but no longer strictly communist.
Remnants
There were several attempts to reactivate the Communist League of Yugoslavia.One pro-Stalinist group, called New Communist Party of Yugoslavia
New Communist Party of Yugoslavia
The New Communist Party of Yugoslavia is a Marxist-Leninist party in Serbia.The NKPJ was formed in 1990. Its General Secretary is Branko Kitanović, a writer and a translator. The Party has a youth section, the League of Yugoslav Communist Youth formed in 1992...
(NKPJ) claimed to continue in the tradition of the original Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ), but not of the Titoist Communist League of Yugoslavia (SKJ). Another Stalinist party under the name of Communist Party of Yugoslavia was established in 1990 by Tito's former Communist opposition.
Another attempt to revive the party was the League of Communists - Movement for Yugoslavia (SK-PJ), which was mainly a soldiers' party, and later joined the Yugoslav United Left (JUL).
There was also another party calling itself the Communist League of Yugoslavia, which organized what it claimed to be the party's 15th and 16th congresses, the latter in 1994 claiming that it continues the tradition of LCY. It later split into League of Communists of Yugoslavia in Serbia
League of Communists of Yugoslavia in Serbia
League of Communists of Yugoslavia in Serbia is a political party in Serbia. SKJuS was formed following a split from the League of Communists of Yugoslavia...
and League of Communists of Yugoslavia-Communist Party of Serbia
There are several Titoist
Titoism
Titoism is a variant of Marxism–Leninism named after Josip Broz Tito, leader of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, primarily used to describe the specific socialist system built in Yugoslavia after its refusal of the 1948 Resolution of the Cominform, when the Communist Party of...
parties in the Republic of Macedonia
Republic of Macedonia
Macedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country located in the central Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...
.
The Workers' Communist Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Workers' Communist Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Workers' Communist Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina is a communist party from Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was formed in 2000 and strongly opposes the nationalism of the region and the collapse of Yugoslavia....
is a pro-Yugoslav union party which respects but is also critical of the LCY and Tito.
The Socialist Labour Party of Croatia
Socialist Labour Party of Croatia
Socialist Labour Party of Croatia is a far left Croatian political party with no parliamentary representation. It is often considered to be the leftmost of all registered parties in Croatian politics.-Ideology:...
adopted the first name of the party on its formation 1997 but it is not an all-Yugoslav party (nor does it have ambitions to be). The Communist Party of Croatia, formed in 2005 by dissidents from the Socialist Labour Party of Croatia, adheres to Titoism
Titoism
Titoism is a variant of Marxism–Leninism named after Josip Broz Tito, leader of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, primarily used to describe the specific socialist system built in Yugoslavia after its refusal of the 1948 Resolution of the Cominform, when the Communist Party of...
, but they have never started functioning.
The remnants of the local branches were transformed:
- the League of Communists of Serbia in 1990 into the Socialist Party of SerbiaSocialist Party of SerbiaThe Socialist Party of Serbia is officially a democratic socialist political party in Serbia. It is also widely recognized as a de facto Serbian nationalist party, though the party itself does not officially acknowledge this...
- the League of Communists of Croatia in 1990 into the Party of Democratic Changes of CroatiaSocial Democratic Party of CroatiaSocial Democratic Party of Croatia , commonly referred to in Croatia as simply Social Democratic Party , is the largest centre-left political party in Croatia...
(later merged in 1994 with the Social Democrats of Croatia and renamed party to Social Democratic Party of CroatiaSocial Democratic Party of CroatiaSocial Democratic Party of Croatia , commonly referred to in Croatia as simply Social Democratic Party , is the largest centre-left political party in Croatia...
) - the League of Communists of Macedonia in 1990 into the Social Democratic Union of MacedoniaSocial Democratic Union of MacedoniaThe Social Democratic Union of Macedonia is a centre-left political party in the Macedonia.It is the successor of the League of Communists of Macedonia, the ruling party during the communist regime which ruled SR Macedonia as a constituent republic of SFR Yugoslavia from 1945 to 1990. The current...
- the League of Communists of Slovenia in 1990 into the Party of Democratic Reforms of SloveniaSocial Democrats (Slovenia)The Social Democrats is a centre-left political party in Slovenia, currently led by Borut Pahor. From 1993 until 2005, the party was known as the United List of Social Democrats .-Origins:...
(in 1993 with smaller extra-parliamentary parties to become the United List of Social Democrats; in 2005 the name was shortened to Social Democrats) - the League of Communists of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1991? into the Social Democratic Party of Bosnia and HerzegovinaSocial Democratic Party of Bosnia and HerzegovinaThe Social Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina is a multi-ethnic social-democratic political party in Bosnia and Herzegovina.The party is the successor of the League of Communists of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and was enlarged by the inclusion of the Socijaldemokrati BiH party to the original...
- the League of Communists of Montenegro in 1991 into the Democratic Party of Socialists of MontenegroDemocratic Party of Socialists of MontenegroThe Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro is the ruling social-democratic political party in Montenegro....
Party leaders
The party was first led by the Secretaries of the Central Committee and later by the Presidents of the Presidium:| Name | Term | position, notes |
|---|---|---|
| Filip Filipović Živko Topalović Živko Topalović Živko Topalović was a Yugoslav socialist politician. Topalović became a leading figure in the Socialist Party of Yugoslavia, founded in 1921.... |
April 1919 - June 1920 | political secretaries |
| Vladimir Ćopić Vladimir Copic Vladimir Ćopić - Senjko was a Croatian communist, one of the leaders of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. During the Spanish Civil War, in the period from 1937 to mid-1938, he was the commander of the XV International Brigade.... |
organizational secretary | |
| Pavle Pavlović Jakov Lastrić |
June 1920 - August 1921 | Presidents of the Central Party Committee |
| Filip Filipović Sima Marković |
political secretaries | |
| Vladimir Ćopić Vladimir Copic Vladimir Ćopić - Senjko was a Croatian communist, one of the leaders of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. During the Spanish Civil War, in the period from 1937 to mid-1938, he was the commander of the XV International Brigade.... |
organizational secretary | |
| After being banned in 1921, the Alternative Central Party leadership, formed in June 1921, assumed leadership of the Communist Party: | ||
| Kosta Novaković Triša Kaclerović Moša Pijade Moša Pijade Moša Pijade , nicknamed Čiča Janko was a prominent Yugoslavian/Serbian Communist of Sephardic Jewish origin, a close collaborator of Josip Broz Tito, former President of Yugoslavia, and full member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.In his youth, Pijade was a... |
August 1921 - July 1922 | Alternative Central Party Leadership |
| A split in the leadership led to the formation of the Executive Committee of the Communist Party in Emigration in opposition to the leadership: | ||
| Sima Marković | September 1921 - July 1922 | Executive Committee of the Communist Party in Emigration |
| The factions were reunited at the First State Conference held at Vienna, in July 1922. | ||
| Sima Marković | July 1922 - May 1923 | secretary |
| Triša Kaclerović | May 1923 - May 1926 | secretary |
| Sima Marković | May 1926- April 1928 | political secretary |
| Radomir Vujović | organizational secretary | |
| The Central Committee was deposed in April 1928 by the Comintern and replaced by a temporary leadership. | ||
| temporary leadership under Đuro Đaković |
April - November 1928 | |
| Jovan Mališić | November 1928 - before 1934 | political secretary |
| Đuro Đaković | November 1928 - 1929 | organizational secretary |
| Since 1930 the party leadership was in exile in Vienna with no contact to the country until 1934. | ||
| Milan Gorkić | December 1934 - November 1936 | political secretary |
| November 1936 - 23 October 1937 | general secretary; murdered in Moscow in 1939 | |
| Josip Broz Tito Josip Broz Tito Marshal Josip Broz Tito – 4 May 1980) was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman. While his presidency has been criticized as authoritarian, Tito was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad, viewed as a unifying symbol for the nations of the Yugoslav federation... |
November 1936- May 1938 | organizational secretary; since December 1936 present in Yugoslavia |
| temporary leadership under Josip Broz Tito Josip Broz Tito Marshal Josip Broz Tito – 4 May 1980) was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman. While his presidency has been criticized as authoritarian, Tito was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad, viewed as a unifying symbol for the nations of the Yugoslav federation... |
May 1938 - March 1939 | |
| Josip Broz Tito Josip Broz Tito Marshal Josip Broz Tito – 4 May 1980) was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman. While his presidency has been criticized as authoritarian, Tito was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad, viewed as a unifying symbol for the nations of the Yugoslav federation... |
March 1939 - 4 May 1980 | general secretary, later President of the Presidium |
| Name | Term | Representing |
| Branko Mikulić Branko Mikulic Branko Mikulić was a communist politician and statesman in the Yugoslavia. Mikulić was one of the leading communist politicians in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the communist rule in the former Yugoslavia.-Biography:... (acting President) |
19 October 1978 - 23 October 1979 | SR Bosnia and Herzegovina Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina , known until 1963 under the name of People's Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was a socialist state that was a constituent country of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia... |
| Stevan Doronjski (acting President until 4 May) |
23 October 1979 - 20 October 1980 | SAP Vojvodina Socialist Autonomous Province of Vojvodina Socialist Autonomous Province of Vojvodina , also known shortly as SAP Vojvodina , was one of the two socialist autonomous provinces of the Socialist Republic of Serbia from 1963 to 1990 and one of the federal units of the Socialist Federal... |
| Lazar Mojsov Lazar Mojsov Dr. Lazar Mojsov was a Macedonian journalist, politician and diplomat from SFR Yugoslavia.Mojsov received his doctoral degree from the University of Belgrade's Law School. He fought for the anti-fascist partisans in World War II and continued to rise through the ranks of the Communist Party after... |
20 October 1980 - 20 October 1981 | SR Macedonia Socialist Republic of Macedonia The Socialist Republic of Macedonia was a socialist state that was a constituent country of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia... |
| Dušan Dragosavac Dušan Dragosavac Dušan Dragosavac is a former Yugoslav politician of Serb ethnicity from Croatia who was Chairman of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia from 20 October 1981 until 20 June 1982.... |
20 October 1981 - 29 June 1982 | SR Croatia Socialist Republic of Croatia Socialist Republic of Croatia was a sovereign constituent country of the second Yugoslavia. It came to existence during World War II, becoming a socialist state after the war, and was also renamed four times in its existence . It was the second largest republic in Yugoslavia by territory and... |
| Mitja Ribičič Mitja Ribičič Mitja Ribičič is a former Slovenian Communist official and Yugoslav politician. He was the only Slovenian prime minister of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia... |
29 June 1982 - 30 June 1983 | SR Slovenia Socialist Republic of Slovenia The Socialist Republic of Slovenia was a socialist state that was a constituent country of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1943 until 1990... |
| Dragoslav Marković | 30 June 1983 - 26 June 1984 | SR Serbia Socialist Republic of Serbia Socialist Republic of Serbia was a socialist state that was a constituent country of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. It is a predecessor of modern day Serbia, which served as the biggest republic in the Yugoslav federation and held the largest population of all the Yugoslav... |
| Ali Shukrija Ali Shukrija Ali Shukrija was a political figure of Kosovo, during its period as an autonomous province of Yugoslavia. He served as Prime Minister of Kosovo , and later as President of Kosovo .-Early life:... |
26 June 1984 - 25 June 1985 | SAP Kosovo Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo was one of the two socialist autonomous areas of the Socialist Republic of Serbia incorporated into the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1974 until 1990... |
| Vidoje Žarković Vidoje Žarkovic Vidoje Žarković was a chairman of the Executive Council , president of the People's Assembly , secretary of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Montenegro , and president of the Presidium of the League of Communists of SFRY .... |
25 June 1985 - 26 June 1986 | SR Montenegro Socialist Republic of Montenegro Socialist Republic of Montenegro or SR Montenegro in shortened form, was a socialist state that was a constituent country in the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. It is a predecessor of the modern day Montenegro... |
| Milanko Renovica Milanko Renovica Milanko Renovica was a Yugoslav politician. He was the president of the Yugoslav League of Communists and served as president of Bosnia-Herzegovina. He is an ethnic Serb.-References:... |
28 June 1986 - 30 June 1987 | SR Bosnia and Herzegovina Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina , known until 1963 under the name of People's Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was a socialist state that was a constituent country of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia... |
| Boško Krunić | 30 June 1987 - 30 June 1988 | SAP Vojvodina Socialist Autonomous Province of Vojvodina Socialist Autonomous Province of Vojvodina , also known shortly as SAP Vojvodina , was one of the two socialist autonomous provinces of the Socialist Republic of Serbia from 1963 to 1990 and one of the federal units of the Socialist Federal... |
| Stipe Šuvar Stipe Šuvar Stipe Šuvar was a leading Croatian and Yugoslav politician and sociologist. He entered top politics in 1972 being co-opted to the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Croatia . Two years later he became Croatian minister of education and performed a controversial educational reform in... |
30 June 1988 - 17 May 1989 | SR Croatia Socialist Republic of Croatia Socialist Republic of Croatia was a sovereign constituent country of the second Yugoslavia. It came to existence during World War II, becoming a socialist state after the war, and was also renamed four times in its existence . It was the second largest republic in Yugoslavia by territory and... |
| Milan Pančevski | 17 May 1989 - 30 June 1990 | SR Macedonia Socialist Republic of Macedonia The Socialist Republic of Macedonia was a socialist state that was a constituent country of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia... |
Ethnic composition
| Nationality | Total members | Percent of membership | Percent of total population |
|---|---|---|---|
| Serb | 541,526 | 51.77 | 42.08 |
| Croat | 189,605 | 18.13 | 23.15 |
| Slovene | 70,516 | 6.74 | 8.57 |
| Macedonian Macedonians (ethnic group) The Macedonians also referred to as Macedonian Slavs: "... the term Slavomacedonian was introduced and was accepted by the community itself, which at the time had a much more widespread non-Greek Macedonian ethnic consciousness... |
67,603 | 6.46 | 5.64 |
| Montenegrin | 65,986 | 6.31 | 5.24 |
| Muslim | 37,433 | 3.58 | 5.24 |
| Albanian Albanians Albanians are a nation and ethnic group native to Albania and neighbouring countries. They speak the Albanian language. More than half of all Albanians live in Albania and Kosovo... |
31,780 | 3.04 | 4.93 |
| Hungarian | 12,683 | 1.21 | 2.72 |
| Others | 28,886 | 2.76 | 4.90 |
| Total | 1,046,018 | 100.00 | 100.00 |