Stalin and the national-territorial controversies in eastern Europe, 1945-47 (part 1)

Cold War History

Volumn 1, Issue 3, 2001, Pages 161-172

  Murashko, Galina P ^a   Noskova, Albina F ^b  

^a Research Centre on the History of Stalinism in Eastern Europe   (United Kingdom)

^b RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES   (Russian Federation)

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EID: 79957615511     PISSN: 14682745     EISSN: 17437962     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/713999933     Document Type: Article

References (2)

1. In a conversation with A.I. Lavrentyev, Soviet Ambassador to Belgrad, in the spring of 1946, J.B. Tito continued to insist on Yugoslav territorial claims to Rumania, Hungary and Austria, though he had altered his position on several questions. For instance he was counting on a bilateral settlement of relations with Rumania. As far as Hungary was concerned, the Ambassador informed Moscow that 'Tito understands perfectly that Yugoslavia's ethnic arguments for these demands are relatively weak'. Now economic considerations were dominating in his reasoning. Claims to Austria over Karinthia remained unchanged. They were rejected only after the breakdown of Soviet-Yugoslav relations in 1948 (See Sovetskii faktor v Vostochnoi Evrope, 1944-53. Vol. I, 1944-48. Moscow, 1999, p.281)
2. However, by early 1948 Stalin's position on this matter had changed radically. In a conversation with the Bulgarian (G. Dimitrov, V. Kolarov, T. Kostov) and Yugoslav (E. Kardelj, M. Djilas, V. Bakaric) delegations the Soviet leader criticized the actions of the Yugoslav and Bulgarian leadership, who had signed an eternal bilateral treaty 'without consulting the Soviet government' and 'even before the peace treaty with Bulgaria comes into force'. This 'formal' aspect reflected Stalin's changed attitude towards the idea of a federation and confederation of the two Slav states. In the new situation, when Moscow had already initiated the process of building up the Soviet bloc in Europe, Stalin came to regard the federation idea as having an anti-Soviet edge (for details see the publication of documents on Soviet-Yugoslav relations in 1948 prepared by V.K. Volkov and L.Ya. Gibiansky, Instorichesky Arkhiv 4 (1997), pp.92-123).