Titoism

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Josip Broz Tito. Photo taken in 1971

As Titoism is the real socialist system of Yugoslavia from 1948 to 1980, the year of death of Marshal Josip Broz Tito , respectively. Titoism arose in 1948 in conflict with the Soviet Union and saw itself as an alternative to the ideology and rulership of that time, Stalinism .

Break with the Soviet Union

The Democratic Federal Yugoslavia, the official name of the newly founded state in 1945, was initially a loyal ally of the Soviet Union. Under the leadership of Tito was communist dominated Yugoslav partisans in their fight against the troops of the German and Italian occupiers and the innerjugoslawischen rivals in World War II have been successful. Tito's reputation as partisan commander and his charisma had brought the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (CPJ), of which he had been chairman since 1937, to power in Yugoslavia. There she very quickly installed a party dictatorship based on the Soviet model. As in the other communist countries, there was repression against those who thought differently, especially against the Catholic Church , which was suspect due to its cooperation with the fascist Ustasha regime. Numerous people were murdered by the two secret services UDBA and OZNA or taken to forced labor camps such as Goli Otok . Industry was nationalized, agriculture forcibly collectivized , and a rigid Soviet-style industrialization program was passed. Yugoslav and Soviet companies signed contracts for numerous joint ventures. According to the US historian Adam Ulam , there was no other country in the Eastern Bloc where Sovietization took place "as quickly and as ruthlessly as in Yugoslavia".

Several aspects contributed to the conflicts with the Soviet Union that became apparent from 1947 onwards. During the war, with the successes of the Yugoslav communists in the resistance struggle, their self-confidence increased, for which there was no place in Stalin's thinking. After the war, the joint economic ventures proved to be fraught with conflict, because it soon became clear that the Soviet side, due to their economic superiority, benefited more from them than the Yugoslav side. The open conflict arose over the Balkan Federation , which Tito had drafted in 1947 together with the Bulgarian Prime Minister Georgi Dimitrov . It envisaged a federation of states of the two people's republics, which the other states of the region, including Greece , should also join in the future: In the civil war there , the communist guerrillas of the DSE were supported by Yugoslavia. Originally Stalin had promoted these plans, but worried that the federation might become too powerful and too independent, he called a federation premature in January 1948 and invited Tito and Dimitrov to Moscow for talks. The already suspicious Tito refused the trip. At the same time, Andrija Hebrang , the head of the Yugoslav planning authority, was arrested on the pretext that he had spied for the Ustaše, the Gestapo and the Soviet secret service NKVD . Hebrang was considered the only confidant of the Soviet Union in the Yugoslav government; he allegedly later committed suicide in prison. On March 1, 1948, the Central Committee of the CPY decided that they no longer wanted to bow to the directives from Moscow. According to Adam Ulam, this was the "hour of birth of Titoism". The CPY was excluded from the communist world organization ( Cominform ) on St. Vitus Day 1948 . The event was all the more surprising since the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was considered a loyal ally of the USSR. The decisive factor was the unauthorized behavior of Tito and his companions during the war and the Yugoslavs' recognizable will to implement their own political and social goals without Stalin's involvement and, if necessary, against him. Yugoslavia was the only country that had implemented the socialist social and state structure on its own after the Second World War. Belgrade was on the way to becoming a second center of communism, which was unacceptable to Stalin.

In the months that followed, there was a public polemic between the Central Committees (ZKs) of the CPJ and the CPSU . On the Soviet side, the Yugoslavs were accused of deviating both right and left from Marxism-Leninism as well as undemocratic methods. The Yugoslav side, on the other hand, described Soviet communism as a degeneration of Marxist teaching. Party members loyal to Moscow were excluded as so-called pro-Cominform elements and subjected to reprisals. The resulting break with the Soviet Union completed the "triple division of institutional Marxism": instead of a single bloc of socialist states, there was now a socialist world system divided between Titoism, Maoism and Soviet Marxism-Leninism , in which, as the political scientist Egbert Jahn writes, now "Wars between socialist states also became possible". As a result of the break, the Yugoslav leadership took decisive action against the supporters of Stalin, especially after the Comintern's barely veiled call for the overthrow of Tito. According to various sources, between 12,000 and 35,000 people were imprisoned as potential counter-revolutionaries under the most adverse conditions on the camp islands of Goli Otok and Sveti Grgur . At the same time, the Communist Party of Yugoslavia vehemently criticized the perversions of Stalinism and developed alternatives to Stalinist politics from this criticism.

In the course of 1949 the conflict between the Soviet Union and its satellites in the Eastern Bloc on the one hand and Yugoslavia on the other escalated. Talks on the Balkan Federation with the Bulgarian Communist Party broke off, and the Albanian Communists cut ties with Belgrade. Soviet troops were concentrated along the Yugoslav borders and the Belgrade leadership began preparing for war. American Ambassador-designate to Yugoslavia, George W. Allen, declared on December 29, 1949 that the United States would not remain neutral in the event of an attack on Yugoslavia. Until Stalin's death in 1953, the conflict with the CPJ was limited to a political war of positions.

elements

Constitutions

During the Tito era, four constitutions were passed, each expressing the development of Yugoslav socialism under Tito. The first constitution, dated January 31, 1946, was still heavily based on the Soviet Union under Stalin. In the second constitution of January 13, 1953, the break with the Soviet Union was carried out and a “socialist repositioning” was carried out. With the third constitution of April 7, 1963, the "Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia" (Federativna Narodna Republika Jugoslavija - FNRJ) was renamed into " Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia " (Socijalistička federativna republika Yugoslavija - SFRJ), an ideologically independent self-governing society was established and liberalized . The fourth constitution gave a strong boost to federalism . Despite these changes, there were three elementary basic principles in Titoism, which had high symbolic value and were the constitutive guiding principles of Yugoslav socialism for decades: in foreign policy, non-alignment, in economic policy, workers' self-government, in domestic policy, “brotherhood and unity”.

Foreign policy

The break with the Soviet Union and the other Eastern Bloc states initially isolated Yugoslavia internationally. In order to break out of this isolation, Tito made contact with the Western powers. Support for the DSE ceased in 1949, which helped bring the Greek civil war to an end quickly. In 1951 a military aid agreement was signed with the USA . In 1953 Tito made a state visit to Great Britain , and the Balkans Pact was concluded in 1953 with NATO members Greece and Turkey . Yugoslavia now found itself in the paradoxical situation of a socialist country that was allied with the capitalist states and which soon took advantage of their financial aid in addition to the military.

Tito then developed the doctrine of the coexistence of different social systems and advocated equality between states and non-alignment . On the initiative of Tito, the Egyptian head of state Nasser , the Indian Prime Minister Nehru and the Indonesian President Sukarno , the movement of the non-aligned states was created, which still exists today.

Liberalization in politics and economy

Domestically, Titoism was characterized by a comprehensive federal concept of state organization, which granted the six republics combined in the Yugoslav federation extensive rights of self-determination and the two autonomous provinces ( Kosovo and Vojvodina ) autonomy . Another characteristic of Titoism was the so-called workers' self-management . This allowed to influence the management to the employees of every company, for example, by choice of the director or co-determination on wages and salaries. In economic terms, Titoism was based on the socialist market economy , which enabled the establishment of private small and family businesses. Through Western financial aid and the controlled opening of its national borders to guest workers and tourists , Yugoslavia was able to ensure a standard of living that the socialist states of Southeast Europe never achieved.

However, this liberalization remained limited. The political scientist Edgar R. Rosen points out that democratic centralism , the chain of command from top to bottom typical in real socialist states, was weakened in Yugoslavia, but by no means abolished. Repressions against those who think differently were also part of Titoism: When Milovan Đilas , a close colleague of Tito, who had led the ideological debate with Stalinism since 1950, criticized the CPJ and its cadre of officials as a "new class" in 1954, he was initially removed from the Party excluded and imprisoned for almost ten years for "statements against Yugoslav interests".

Personality cult

Titoism was characterized by a strong personality cult , the focus of which was Marshal Tito, who was celebrated and revered in state-controlled rituals as the hero of a national myth . May 25, on which Tito narrowly escaped attack by German paratroopers, played a special role. This day was celebrated as the alleged birthday of the marshal, as a day of victory for the partisans and as the day of youth until 1987 with a nationwide relay race . Furthermore, on his symbolic 70th birthday, he was given the Museum of May 25th , which is now part of the Museum of the History of Yugoslavia .

References to a personality cult also played a role in the power struggle between Stalin and Tito. For example, a note from the Central Committee of the CPSU accused the Yugoslav communists of excessive veneration of Tito. "In Marxist parties, party conferences are not held to praise the leaders , but to critically examine the activities of the leadership and, if necessary, to renew and replace them with a new leadership."

External relations

In the Federal Republic of Germany , after lengthy preparations, the Independent Workers' Party of Germany (UAPD) was founded in March 1951 with Yugoslav support . A preparatory conference for the establishment in Ratingen took place as early as 1950 . A six-point paper was published there with the distinction between the SPD and KPD . A preparatory committee that was set up published the Free Tribune in July 1951 . Weekly newspaper for socialist politics. Organ of the preparatory committee for the formation of an independent workers' party in Germany . The formal founding of the party took place on March 24, 1951 in Worms . 144 delegates and 25 guest delegates were present. The founders were excluded or resigned KPD members, the Trotskyist International Communists of Germany (IKD) and Marxist intellectuals like Theo Pirker . Among them were Josef Schappe , Georg Fischer , Georg Jungclas and Wolfgang Leonhard , Harry Ristock was also involved in the preparations. The party had 500–900 members and the party newspaper “Freie Tribüne” had around 3,000 readers. She was only able to achieve electoral successes locally, for example in Worms and Geesthacht . Nonetheless, its founding attracted attention in the press and among the occupying powers . However, the party could not achieve greater support or win votes and mandates. It dissolved in October 1952 after internal conflicts - the Trotskyists were expelled just five months after the party was founded.

The End

After Tito's death in 1980, the principles of Titoism were visibly abandoned and hundreds of thousands of citizens left the country to escape economic hardship. The desire for better living conditions, the economic conflicts of interest, the right of peoples to self-determination , the introduction of a multi-party system and democracy , nationalisms and deficiencies in the federal constitution all caused the multi-ethnic Yugoslavia to collapse.

reception

Titoism was and is received very differently. During Stalin's lifetime, the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc reacted with undisguised hostility. Participants in alleged Titoist conspiracies , such as the GDR historian Walter Markov , were subjected to reprisals; some even show trials were staged that ended with death sentences, such as the Rajk trial in Budapest in 1949 or the Slansky trial in Prague in 1952. After Stalin's death, Soviet conspiracy theories declined; In the mid-1950s, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union even came closer together for a time. Nevertheless, Titoism was condemned as revisionism in the Eastern Bloc .

In Marxist circles in the West, it was considered a form of Western socialism alongside Eurocommunism . Political scientists understood it in the 1960s as a socialist form of nationalism . Adam Ulam sees him more critically and writes that Titoism has always " retained its (albeit mildly) totalitarian one-party character".

literature

  • Josip Broz Tito: Selected speeches. Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1976.
  • Adam Bruno Ulam : Tito, Titoism. In: Claus D. Kernig (Ed.): Soviet system and democratic society. A comparative encyclopedia. Volume 6: Social Revolutionaries to Chance. Herder, Freiburg (Breisgau) et al. 1972, ISBN 3-451-14376-3 , Sp. 451-465.

Web links

Wiktionary: Titoism  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Adam Bruno Ulam: Tito, Titoism. In: Claus D. Kernig (Ed.): Soviet system and democratic society. Volume 6. 1972, Col. 451-465, here Col. 451 f.
  2. ^ A b Holm Sundhaussen : History of Serbia. 19. – 21. Century. Böhlau, Vienna et al. 2007, ISBN 978-3-205-77660-4 , p. 351.
  3. ^ Tito versus Stalin. The dictators' quarrel in their correspondence. European publishing company, Hamburg 1949.
  4. ^ Egbert Jahn : Russian Federation / Soviet Union, foreign policy. In: Dieter Nohlen (Ed.): Lexicon of Politics. Volume 6: International Relations (= digital library. 79). Directmedia, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-89853-479-0 , p. 481.
  5. ↑ Exact figures are still not available today. See the information in: Dragan Marković: Istina o Golom otoku. Narodna Knjiga et al., Belgrade 1987, ISBN 86-3310051-7 , p. 229, (The truth about Goli Otok); Berislav Jandrić: Nacionalna i socijalna Struktura ibeovaca iz Hrvatske na Golom otoku u razdoblju 1949. – 1952. (The national and social structure of the Cominformists from Croatia on Goli Otok in the period 1949–1952). In: Časopis za suvremenu povijest. Vol. 25, No. 2/3, 1993, ISSN  0590-9597 , pp. 183-202, here p. 193; Dragoslav Mihailović: Kratka istorija satiranja (= Biblioteka Posebna izdanja. 111, ZDB -ID 2269587-4 ). Narodna Knjiga Alfa et al., Belgrad 1999, p. 81, (Brief History of Crushing); Richard West: Tito and the Rise and Fall of Yugoslavia. 2nd printing. Carroll & Graf, New York NY 1999, ISBN 0-7867-0332-6 , p. 237.
  6. ↑ Konrad Clewing, Oliver Jens Schmitt (Ed.): South East Europe. Of premodern diversity and national standardization. Festschrift for Edgar Hösch (= Southeast European Works. 127). Oldenbourg, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-486-57888-X ( restricted online version (Google Books) ).
  7. ↑ Edgar R. Rosen: Titoism. In: Carola Stern , Thilo Vogelsang , Erhard Klöss, Albert Graff (eds.): Dtv-Lexicon on history and politics in the 20th century. Volume 3: O - Z (= dtv 3128). Revised and revised edition. Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich 1974, ISBN 3-423-03128-X , p. 797.
  8. ^ Adam Bruno Ulam: Tito, Titoism. In: Claus D. Kernig (Ed.): Soviet system and democratic society. Volume 6. 1972, Col. 451-465, here Col. 461 f.
  9. ↑ Elmir Camic: Tito as a political hero. In: Peter Tepe, Thorsten Bachmann, Birgit Zur Nieden, Tanja Semlow, Karin Wemhöner (eds.): Political Myths (= Myth. Interdisciplinary forum for myth research. No. 2). Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2006, ISBN 3-8260-3242-X , pp. 194-213.
  10. ↑ Gerd Koenen : The great songs. Lenin, Stalin, Mao Tse-tung. Leadership cults and hero myths of the 20th century. Revised and supplemented new edition. Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 1991, ISBN 3-8218-1143-9 , p. 211.
  11. ↑ The SED and Titoism. Wolfgang Leonhard on his 90th birthday , Hermann Weber , Federal Agency for Political Education, German Archives, April 14, 2011
  12. ^ Tilman Fichter , Siegward Lönnendonker : Brief history of the SDS. The Socialist German Student Union from 1946 until self-dissolution , Berlin 1977, Rotbuch Verlag , ISBN 978-3-88022-174-1 , p. 149
  13. ^ Georg Hermann Hodos: Show trials. Stalinist purges in Eastern Europe 1948–1954. Chr. Links, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-86153-010-4 .
  14. ↑ Hans Hartl: Nationalism in Red. The patriotic changes of communism in Southeastern Europe (= series of publications of the study society for time problems e.V. Zeitpolitik . 1, ZDB -ID 187966-2 ). Seewald, Stuttgart-Degerloch 1968.
  15. ↑ Viktor E. Meier: New Nationalism in Southeast Europe. Leske, Opladen 1968.
  16. ^ Adam Bruno Ulam: Tito, Titoism. In: Claus D. Kernig (Ed.): Soviet system and democratic society. Volume 6. 1972, Col. 451-465, here Col. 463.