The Soviet-Yugoslav Conflict and Its Consequences for Organizations of Slavic Emigrants (1948 – 1956)

The article examines the influence of the Soviet-Yugoslav conflict (1948 – 1955) on the activities of Slavic organizations in non-Slavic countries. Researching this entirely unexplored topic, the author for the first time uses the archive documents of the Slavic committee of the USSR. Those supporting the position of the USSR that strongly condemned the policy of Josip Broz Tito, the leader of Yugoslav communists, called on the leadership of Slavic organizations in the USA, Canada, Argentina, Uruguay , France and Australia to unequivocally condemn Tito’s regime. These demands made many Yugoslav activists from these organizations turn away from cooperating with them. As a result, the emigrant organizations which supported the Communist authorities in Yugoslavia, were weakened by strife and splits whereas numerous opponents of the communists stopped for the time being criticizing Tito’s regime. After the Soviet-Yugoslav conflict was settled in 1955–1956, thanks to the efforts of Soviet leader N.S. Khrushchev and I.B. Tito, reconciliation within Yugoslav emigrant organizations appeared extremely hard to achieve. It was hard due to the general weakening of the Slavic organizations as well as Tito’s refusal to grant an amnesty for his ideological opponents. In Yugoslav diasporas and organizations this led to strengthening the position of anti-communists, opponents of both the USSR and the socialist Yugoslavia.