TOWARDS THE SOCIALISM WITH A HUMAN FACE

Abstract

The takeover of power in Yugoslavia was carried out by the Communist Party in full accordance with the textbooks of the Bolshevik Party schools for establishing of the proletarian dictatorship. In this spirit, a state established after the Second World War was formed, whose declared aim was to change the regime and establish a new social order.

The first priority on the list of the leaders of the socialist revolution was the liquidation of the occupying forces and their domestic collaborators. In order to consolidate its power, the revolutionary power included in their number not just those who actively assited the occupying forces, but also those who were not in favour of the regime and did not actively fighty on the side of the partisans. The iron fist of vengeance thus struck thousands and thousands with all its might.

However, the firmer was the Communist Party’s grip on power, the greater was the weight of its internal opposition. It became a real danger after the split between Moscow and Belgrade in 1948. This is why the regime dealt with them mercilessly. A new series of mass arrests, convictions and deportations followed.

Initially, Tito’s regime responded to criticism from Moscow by radicalising the Stalinist line in eliminating the last vestiges of “capitalism” in Yugoslavia. Eventually, however, Yugoslav ideologues developed a new tpe of socialist system – Titoism. The showcase item, born out of creative opposition to Stalin and the Soviet system and fit for new ideologisation was workers’ self-management. Paradoxically, how this new system works, the regime tested in practice on the Goli Otok island and other “work sites” scattered around the state were so-called Stalinists were deported in order to be re-educated.