Fundamenta l ideology and technology in the takeover of government in Yugoslavia in 1944-1945 Cover Image
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Temelji ideologije i tehnologije preuzimanja vlasti u Jugoslaviji 1944.-1945. godine
Fundamenta l ideology and technology in the takeover of government in Yugoslavia in 1944-1945

Author(s): Jera Vodušek Starič
Subject(s): History, Recent History (1900 till today), Special Historiographies:, WW II and following years (1940 - 1949), History of Communism, Fascism, Nazism and WW II
Published by: Hrvatski institut za povijest
Summary/Abstract: The author contends that it is necessary to have a good understanding of the ideological basis on which the construction of a socialist state was then taking place in order to understand all the complicated levels on which the takeover of government by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ) occurred during the war and in the years 1945-1946. This basis in the widest sense was the theoretical work whose aim was to delineate a new proletarian state, and that was Lenin’s State and Revolution of 1917. Stalin, as Lenin’s «sole rightful» heir, praised and awarded that work with great authority in the 1930s. In this context, the author analyzes the phases by which Yugoslavia became a one-party state during 1945 in which all the levers of power and society was in the hands of the KPJ. Special attention is paid to developments in Slovenia and Croatia. In this sense the author draws attention to the fact the the communists did not only settle accounts with all those who did not belong to their political party, but that in an effort to create a centralized and unified Yugoslavia many leaders of the party from these two federal states suffered. Following the creation of AVNOJ as the apex of federalization, the attempt at centralization that followed led to conflict with the concepts that were winning over Slovenia and Croatia under the aegis of SNOS and ZAVNOH already in 1944. That is why the party leadership of Slovenia and Croatia was disciplined in the fall of 1944. At the end of this process, in December 1945, the Central Committee of the KPJ called the Central Committees of the Communist Parties of Slovenia and Croatia to talks in Belgrade. In settling accounts with poltical opponents the OZN (Odjeljenje za zaštitu naroda – Department of National Defense) and the judiciary (especially the extraordinary courts and the military courts) played a key role. Indeed, the OZN was by decree of the party the main executor of the party in the process of taking power. The manner in which government was taken ensured a monopoly of power to the party, while the methods used were very similar to those used in the Soviet Union.

  • Page Range: 25-36
  • Page Count: 12
  • Publication Year: 2005
  • Language: Croatian