Anniversary of Tito-Stalin Split Marked in Croatia
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| Josip Broz Tito (left) and Joseph Stalin. Photo: Wikimedia Commons/photographers unknown. |
A scientific conference held by the Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Science and the Ljubljana Faculty of Arts in the Croatian capital from Thursday to Saturday is marking the 70th anniversary of the split between Yugoslavia and the rest of the Communist bloc.
On June 28, 1948, the Communist Information Bureau, a movement that brought together all the European communist and socialist states at the time, passed a resolution against the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, citing the presence of “nationalist elements” in Yugoslavia and expelling it from the bloc.
The split between Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito and the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin caused bad relations between Yugoslavia and the USSR until 1955.
One of the organisers of the conference from the Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Science, historian Tvrtko Jakovina, said that the split was “crucial and pivotal for the histories of all [post-Yugoslav] states”.
“However, this one of the rare events from our history that has global relevance. What happened exactly 70 years ago, had its repercussions and represents an event relevant for historians researching Cold War in Eastern Europe, but also those researching [Yugoslav] émigrés,” Jakovina told BIRN.
He said that the Tito-Stalin split heavily influenced relationships between Communist Eastern European states, as well as globally, because the Non-Aligned Movement – founded by Tito and comprising countries that did not belong to either NATO or the Warsaw Pact – “wouldn’t have been possible” otherwise.
Its most severe repercussions were the persecution of Titoists in other Communist states as well as “a sort of Stalinist-modelled persecution of Stalinists in Yugoslavia”.
At the conference, some researchers highlight the prison camp on the northern Croatian island of Goli Otok, which was opened in 1949 to hold Stalinists.
Some 16,500 prisoners went through Goli Otok between 1949 and 1956, of whom between 400 and 600 died due to beatings, illness or overwork.
The organisers will also take the conference participants to visit Goli Otok on Saturday.
On the day before the anniversary, Zagreb-based NGO Documenta – Centre for Dealing with the Past and the ‘Goli Otok – Ante Zemljar’ Association called on the Croatian Culture Ministry to invest funds and efforts into preserving the Goli Otok site.
They proposed that Goli Otok be turned into a memorial site and educational centre, also using EU funds.
Tuskanac cinema in Zagreb will also screen films about Goli Otok and the Tito-Stalin split on Thursday and Friday.
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