Titoism and Totalitarianism

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Titoism and Totalitarianism [1][2] are interwoven political systems that were part of the former Yugoslavia.[3] The term came about after the Tito and Stalin split. A single party, the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and its leader Josip Broz Tito, ruled the country.[4][5][6] Josip Broz Tito was a member of the Soviet Police-NKVD and the Soviet Communist Party. The NKVD executed the rule of terror and political repression in and out of the Soviet Union.[7] Tito and his comrades set up KGB style police units in the former Yugoslavia (UDBA and OZNA). These organisations conducted political repression on a grand scale.[8][9][10] The regime relaxed its authoritarian rule from the 1960s onwards.

Communist Propaganda & Cult of Personality Within the Former Yugoslavia

The Yugoslav Communist state propaganda machine shared much with the Soviet Union. The Soviet format was imposed and then slightly modified. Tito's cult of personality was no different.[11][12][13] The Yugoslav Communist state used youth indoctrination (Union of Pioneers of Yugoslavia), which were all too similar to the Soviet Union (Young Pioneer of the Soviet Union) and the People's Republic of China.

Communist political, historical and philosophical courses were all part of general education. They can be found in any Yugoslav primary school textbook from the 1970s. Encyclopaedias were written in the same style as the Great Soviet Encyclopedia. They were used as a propaganda weapon to show the superiority of Titoism and the Socialist Yugoslavia to other societies and political systems.[14]

Media and arts were used as a powerful means of propaganda and were all placed under heavy censorship. Josip Broz Tito was the main subject. Images, monuments, towns, street names, endless awards were given and a never ending production of books, films and poetry[15] were created. Financially a huge amount of resources were used to keep the Communist propaganda and political activities running on a daily basis.[16][17]

Josip Broz’s images, monuments, town names and street names are being removed. This started after the fall of the Berlin Wall and after the break up of Yugoslavia.

Ethnic cleansing, Concentration Camps and other post WW2 Camps

Ethnic cleansing of Germans, Hungarians and Italians (Foibe massacres) were carried out in Yugoslavia.[18][19][20][21] In 1946 the Yugoslav Camps[22] held 117 485 folksdojcera (58 821 women, 32 214 men & 24 422 children).[23][24]

Frank Waddams[25] a British Government representative who had lived outside of Belgrade, said:

“He knew first hand of ten concentration camps and had talked with inmates from nearly all of them. “ The tale is always the same, he said “ Starvation, overcrowding, brutality and death condition, which make Dachau and Buchenwald mild by comparison. Many Slovenes who were released from Dachau at the end of the war came home only to find themselves in a Slovene camp within a few days. It is from these people that the news has come that the camps are worse than Dachau.” Out of a Slovene population of 1,200,000, Waddams believes that 20,000 to 30,000 were imprisoned." [26]

“He knew first hand of ten concentration camps and had talked with inmates from nearly all of them. “ The tale is always the same, he said “ Starvation, overcrowding, brutality and death condition, which make Dachau and Buchenwald mild by comparison. Many Slovenes who were released from Dachau at the end of the war came home only to find themselves in a Slovene camp within a few days. It is from these people that the news has come that the camps are worse than Dachau.” Out of a Slovene population of 1,200,000, Waddams believes that 20,000 to 30,000 were imprisoned." [27]

On the 23rd of April in 1948, in a speech Harry Truman (the President of USA) stated:

"I am told that Tito murdered more than 400 000 of the opposition in Yugoslavia before he got himself established there as a dictator" [28][29]

Assassinations and purges were organised to eliminate individuals who were deemed anti-Yugoslavian or who were publicly critical of communism in Yugoslavia. Noted victims are Bruno Busic, Stjepan Djurekovic and Andrija Hebrang.[30][31][32]

Goli Otok

Goli Otok, a notorious prison gulag on the Croatian coast (former Yugoslavia’s Gulag). Austria-Hungarian government set up the prison during WW1.

The communist authorities of Yugoslavia in 1949 made into a high-security, top secret prison and labour camp. Until 1956 it was used to incarcerate political prisoners. They included alleged enemies of the communist state, other Communist Party members, regular citizens accused of exhibiting any anti-communist behaviour and Stalinists. Inmates were regularly beaten and humiliated.[33][34][35][36] The prison inmates were forced to do heavy labour in a stone quarry. Other camps that were used by the regime are KPH Zenica, Stare Gradiska and Sveti Grgur.

Franjo Tudman

Franjo Tudman who was the first President of Croatia, was sentenced to prison for his political activities in the former Yugoslavia.[37]

Milovan Djilas

Milovan Djilas a prominent Yugoslav Communist politician, latter theorist and author was imprisoned by the Yugoslav Government for being critical of the regime.[38]

Commission on Concealed Mass Graves in Slovenia

The Government of the Republic of Slovenia (a former republic of Yugoslavia) created "Commission on Concealed Mass Graves in Slovenia" in 2005. In October 2009 they issued their report to the Government of Slovenia. Significant factual statements came to light, concerning Yugoslavia in the aftermath of WW2. The Jutarnji newspaper reported on the 01/10/2009 commissions find, in all it is estimated that there are 100 000 victims in 581 mass graves.[39]

Barbarin Rov is one of the many sites. Investigation of the site began August 2008. They found around 350 unidentified bodies. The victims, among were also women who were stripped naked before being killed. By November 2009, 726 bodies where removed from the site. In Tezno, a district of Slovenia's city Maribor, the remains of thousands of victims of purges were found.[40] Kocevski Rog is a another site where thousands of people were executed.[41] The British author John Corsellis, a who served in Austria with the British Army, has written a historic book of these events, called "Slovenia 1945: Memories of Death and Survival after World War II".[42]

In neighbouring Croatia (a former republic of Yugoslavia) there are similar sites where mass murder was committed by Yugoslav Partisans. Jazovka is a pit that was rediscovered in 1990, after the fall of communism in Croatia. The pit is located in Zumberak and was already locally known. The bodies of thousands of civilians and Croatian soldiers were dumped their during and after the Second World War.

In Mr Dizdar's Scientific Journal [43] he stated, that Tito asked the "Croatian Home Guard" to surrender or face the consequences of not surrendering. After the war ended POWs who did not surrender were slaughter on mass, estimates are about 100 000 victims in total. These were the victims of the notorious Bleiburg massacre and Way of the Cross massacres.[44][45][46][47]

European Public Hearing on “Crimes Committed by Totalitarian Regimes"

Reports and proceedings of the 8th of April European public hearing on “Crimes Committed by Totalitarian Regimes”,[48] organised by the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the European Union (January–June 2008) and the European Commission, stated the following:

(a) Titoism and Totalitarianism: [49]

  • Abuse of national sentiment to carry out racial and class revolutionary projects;
  • Cult of a great leader, who permits his fanatics to murder, steal and lie;
  • Dictatorship of one party;
  • Militarisation of society, police state – almighty secret political police;
  • Collectivism, subjection of the citizen to the totalitarian state;
  • State terrorism with systematic abuses of basic human rights;
  • Aggressive assumption of power and struggle for territory.

(b) Mass killings without court trials:

“The Main Headquarters of the Yugoslav Army had already called attention to respecting the Geneva Convention on 3rd of May in its order on the treatment of prisoners of war. However, despite this injunction, both prisoners of war and civilians were killed on mass at the end of May and in the first half of June 1945 in Slovenia. Tito’s telegram on respecting the Geneva Convention was later revoked; however, it could only be revoked by the person who issued it in the first place, i.e. Tito himself.[50]

The post-war killings without a trial were on a massive scale and were executed in 1945 and 1946. Hidden graves that numbered 581, were found on the territory of Slovenia.

Dr Joze Dezman described the fundamental characteristics of the post-Second World War crimes:

"Killing civilians and prisoners of was after Second World War is the greatest massacre of unarmed people of all times in Slovenian territory. Compared to Europe, the Yugoslav communist massacres after the Second World War are probably right after the Stalinist purges and the Great Famine in the Ukraine. The number of those killed in Slovenia in spring of 1945 can now be estimated at more than 100,000, Slovenia was the biggest post- War killing site in Europe. It was a mixture of events, when in Slovenia there are retreating German units, collaborator units, units of Independent State of Croatia, Chetniks and Balkan civilians; more than 15,000 Slovenia inhabitants were murdered as well. Because of its brevity, number of casualties, way of execution and massiveness, it is an event that can be compared to the greatest crimes of communism and National Socialism." International Law Observer

Communist Party of Yugoslavia, Titoism & the Yugoslav Economy

Factual statements on economic realities of Josip Broz and his fellow Communists:

  • Encyclopaedia Britannica states: "At his death, the state treasury was empty"
  • BBC UK/History by Tim Judah: "The economy was built on the shaky foundations of massive western loans."
  • Ivo Goldstein 'Croatia A History': "People could obtain so much free or for less than the market price (e.g. apartments) that they could be obtain without work."

In Professor Ivo Goldstein’s book “Croatia a History” [51] ,Goldstein states that Josip Broz in economic matters as well as the Communists Party members, managed the Yugoslavia into economic failure.

Furthermore he states;

“Self-management as system was only slightly more efficient than the Soviet model. It was bureaucratised and cumbersome and could not compete with Western economies. People could obtain so much free or for less than the market price (e.g. apartments) that they could be obtain without work. All this made the settling of accounts in the 1980s and in the post-socialist age more difficult.” [52]

Media

  • New York Times: Evolution in Europe; Piles of Bones in Yugoslavia Point to Partisan Massacres.
  • Independent.co.uk World/Europe.The Massacre That Haunts Slovenia
  • BBC News: Italy-Croatia WWII Massacre Spat.
  • Mail Online-Word News: Gassed to Death: 300 victims of Yugoslavia's Communist Regime Found in Mass Grave.
  • China View: Croatia calls for joint investigation of WWII-era mass grave.
  • Slovenia Times: Post-war Killings Enter the Bloody History.
  • Croatia's-Index Net: Victims of Communist Regimes get Monument in Vodice.
  • Croatia's-Javno: Mass Grave Massacre Ordered By Josip Broz Tito.
  • Moje Vjest/Sarajevo: On the Island Daksa Exhumed 48 Victims of Communism.
  • Press Agency: Columnist Says Silence on Post-War Killings Needs to End (Interview). Ljubljana, 1 April (STA) - Alenka Puhar, an author who has written extensively about Slovenia's Communist past, has told STA in an interview that post-WWII killings need to be examined and discussed. "We need to talk about it and live with it, with this pain," she said.


References

  1. ^ Yugoslavia's Bloody Collapse: Causes, Course and Consequences by Christopher Bennett
  2. ^ Totalitarian Dictatorship and Autocracy by Carl Joachim Friedrich & Zbigniew Brzezinski: Characteristics of a totalitarian regime; a total ideology, a single mass party, a terrorist secret police, a monopoly of mass communication, all instruments to wage combat are in the control of the same hands, and a centrally directed planned economy. Totalitarian dictatorships emerge after the seizure of power by the leaders of a movement who have developed support for an ideology. The point when the government becomes totalitarian is when the leadership uses open and legal violence to maintain its control. The dictator demands unanimous devotion from the people and often uses a real or imaginary enemy to create a threat so the people rally around him.
  3. ^ Tito's Imperial Communism by R. H. Markham
  4. ^ The League of Communists of Yugoslavia was the only legal party. Other parties were banned. Read the “CONSTITUTION OF THE SOCIALIST FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA”, adopted by the Federal People's Assembly April 7, 1963, at http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Yugoslavia_1963.doc
  5. ^ Encyclopaedia Britannica: History & Society-Josip Broz Tito
  6. ^ BBC-History
  7. ^ The Florida State University FSU study on three of the 20th century's bloodiest rulers by historian Robert Gellately.
  8. ^ Justice in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union by Lavinia Stan. Chapter 9/page 202. This book provides the most thorough and analytically sophisticated treatment yet available of this crucial topic. Mark Kramer, Cold War Studies Program, Harvard University.
  9. ^ Australia's Four Corners:UDBA activities in Australia from the 1960's- The Framed Croatian Six in Australia. Croatians in Australia: Pioneers, Settlers and Their Descendants by Ilija Sutalo
  10. ^ Great leaders, Great Tyrants Contemporary Views of World Rulers by Arnold Blumberg: Biographical profiles of 52 major world leaders throughout history, written by subject specialists, feature pro/con essays reflecting contemporary views of the creative and tyrannical aspects of their record. They provide librarians, students, and researchers with critical insights into the figure's beliefs, a better understanding of his or her actions, and a more complete reflection on his or her place in history. Coverage is global, from Indira Gandhi to Fidel Castro, and spans history from the Egyptian king Akhenaton to Mikhail Gorbachev. Among the leaders profiled are Otto von Bismarck, Oliver Cromwell, Charles de Gaulle, Elizabeth I, Ho Chi Minh, Lenin, Louis XIV, Mao Zedong, Napoleon I, Kwame Nkrumah, Juan Peron, and Tito. Page 312
  11. ^ Governing by Committee: Collegial Leadership in Advanced Societies by Thomas A. Baylis. Communist Collective Leadership, page 91
  12. ^ Leaders, Military Rulers and Political Activists: An Encyclopaedia of People Who Changed the World (Lives & Legacies Series)-By David W. Del Testa, Florence Lemoine & John Strickland/ page181 Legacy Chapter
  13. ^ Balkan Idols: Religion and Nationalism in Yugoslav States By Vjekoslav Perica
  14. ^ Democratic transition in Croatia: Value Transformation, Education & Media by Sabrina P. Ramet, Davorka Matic Chapter- History Teaching in the Time of Socialist Yugoslavia, page 198
  15. ^ Death of the Father: An Anthropology of the end in Political Authority by Di John Borneman
  16. ^ Religious Separation and Political Intolerance in Bosnia and Herzegovina by Mitja Velikonja. Ref/Chapter Integral and Organic Yugoslavism, page 192
  17. ^ Discontents: Post-modern and Post communist’ by Paul Hollander. “Virtually every communist system extinct or surviving at one point or another had a supreme leader who was both extraordinarily powerful and surrounded by a bizarre cult, indeed worship. In the past (or in a more traditional contemporary societies) such as cults were reserved for deities and associated with conventional religious behaviour and institutions. These cults although apparently an intrinsic part of communist dictatorships (at any rate at a stage in their evolution) are largely forgotten today.” “ Stalin, Mao, Castro, Ho Chi Minh, Kim Sung, Enver Hoxha, Ceascesu, Dimitrov, Ulbricht, Gottwald, Josip Broz Tito and others all were the object of such cults. The prototypical cult was that of Stalin which was duplicated elsewhere with minor variations.”Paul Hollander Ph.D in Sociology. Princeton University, 1963, B.A. London School of Economics, 1959 Professor Emeritus of Sociology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst Center Associate, Davis Center
  18. ^ Communist Retaliation and Persecution on Yugoslav Territory During and After WWII by Dr. Ph. Michael Portmann -The following article deals with repressive measures undertaken by communist-dominated Partisan forces during and especially after WWII in order to take revenge on former enemies, to punish collaborators, and “people’s enemies“ and to decimate and eliminate the potential of opponents to a new, socialist Yugoslavia. The text represents a summary of a master thesis referring to the above-mentioned topic written and accepted at Vienna University in 2002.
  19. ^ Refugees in the Age of Total War by Anna Bramwell. Page 138
  20. ^ A Tragedy Revealed by Arrigo Petacco & Konrad Eisenbichler. Page 89
  21. ^ Where the Balkans Begin (The Slovenes in Triest-The Foiba Story) by Bernard Meares-During the early Communist occupation in Trieste, Gorizia and the Littoral, and the 40 days of Communist rule in Trieste city, some 6000 arrests were made and the prisoners carried off to Communist-controlled areas.
  22. ^ Crimes committed by totalitarian regimes Milko Mikola: COMMUNIST CONCENTRATION CAMPS AND LABOUR CAMPS IN SLOVENIA: In his paper, the author deals with concentration and labour camps established in Slovenia under Communist rule after the end of the war in Slovenia in 1945. Concentration camps were established already in May 1945 and were filled with members of the German and Hungarian national minorities, captured members of the Slovenian Home-guard (“domobranstvo”) and members of military units from other Yugoslav regions who fought against the partisans. The treatment of internees in these camps was as cruel as in the Nazi concentration camps. In certain Communist concentration camps, for example, such as the camp in Teharje and at the Bishop’s institutes (Skofovi zavodi) in St. Vid nad Ljubljano, the great majority of internees were killed without any trial. In the autumn of 1945, concentration camps in Slovenia were abolished. Communist labour camps in Slovenia were established already in 1945. These were camps for forced labour and were called “penal camps”. In 1949, “correctional camps” and camps for socially beneficial labour called “working groups” were established. All these labour camps were abolished in the beginning of 1951, when new criminal legislation, free of the concept of forced, correctional and socially beneficial labour, was adopted.
  23. ^ Hrcak Portal of Scientific Journals of Croatia by Mr Dizdar's Scientific Journal - An Addition to the Research of the Problem of Bleiburg & Way of the Cross.Page 66/Document page 182. Note: This paper dedicated to the 60th anniversary of these tragic events represents a small step towards the elaboration of known data and brings a list of yet unknown and unpublished original documents, mostly belonging to the Yugoslavian Military and Political Government 1945-1947. (Zdravko Dizdar a Croatian Historian/Croatian Institute for History in Zagreb)
    • Statement in Croatian: "Tako je 18. I. 1946. u jugoslavenskimlogorima bilo 117.485 folksdojcera (58.821 žena, 34.214 muškaraca i 24.422 djece).
    • Transated: ...... In 18/6/1946 in Yugoslav Camps there were 117.485 folksdojcera (58 821 women, 32 214 men & 24 422 children).
    • More info on Mr Dizdar's Scientific Journal in English: Hrcak Portal of Scientific Journals of Croatia by Mr Dizdar's.
  24. ^ European Commission/Slovenian Presidency of the-EU 2008.Page 154 Milko Mikola/Chapter: Communist Concentration Camps & Labour Camps in Slovenia
  25. ^ Crimes committed by totalitarian regimes Appendices/Appendix A: Foreign office documents on the 1947 show trial:
    • From Foreign Office to Belgrade, 15 August 1947 Waddams, vice-consul Ljubljana 1945, considers he may be the diplomatic representative referred to in the trial, as both Furlan and Sirc were the only people who helped him to get the Ljubljana consulate going when he first opened it. He considers this the probable reason for their sentence.
    • British Consulate, Ljubljana to British Ambassador Belgrade, 22 August 1947:
    A brief reading of the newspaper reports, however, will suffice to make it clear that the trial was first and foremost a gigantic political propaganda stunt whose double aim was first to show Britain and America as the irreconcilable enemies of the new Yugoslavia, and second, finally to frighten off anyone who might still think that it is possible to associate with officials of the Western countries and get away with it.
  26. ^ Frank Waddams, a British representative in the former Yugoslavia Death by Government by R. J. Rummel
  27. ^ Frank Waddams, a British representative in the former Yugoslavia Death by Government by R. J. Rummel
  28. ^ Keeping Tito Afloat by Lorraine M. Lees: Tito Afloat draws upon newly declassified documents to show the critical role that Yugoslavia played in U.S. foreign policy with the communist world in the early years of the Cold War. After World War II, the United States considered Yugoslavia to be a loyal Soviet satellite, but Tito surprised the West in 1948 by breaking with Stalin. Seizing this opportunity, the Truman administration sought to "keep Tito afloat" by giving him military and economic aid.
  29. ^ Woodrow Wilson and Harry Truman: Mission and Power in American Foreign Policy by Anne R. Pierce. Page 219
  30. ^ Assassinations Commissioned by Belgrade: Documentation about the Belgrade by Hans Peter Rullmann
  31. ^ The Three Yugoslavias: State-building and Legitimation, 1918-2005 By Sabrina P. Ramet
  32. ^ Amnesty International Report, 1984 by Amnesty International. In July Stjepan Djurekovic, a Croatian emigre was shot dead, near Munich in Germany. Amnesty International received allegations that he had been killed by agents of the Yugoslav state security police.
  33. ^ Discontents: Postmodern and Postcommunist by Paul Hollander. Page 397
  34. ^ Goli Otok: Yugoslavia’s Evil Island Gulag Josip Zoretic-Political prisoner of the former Yugoslavia's most notorious prison.
  35. ^ Vera Winter–Croatian Economist. Political prisoner of the former Yugoslavia's prison, Goli Otok. BBC 4
  36. ^ Alfred Pal-Croatian Artist. Political prisoner of the former Yugoslavia's prison, Goli Otok. BBC 4
  37. ^ The Breakup of Yugoslavia and the War in Bosnia by Carole Rogel
  38. ^ The Road to War in Serbia: Trauma and Catharsis by Nebojsa Popov & Drinka Gojkovic
  39. ^ www.jutarnji.hr U 581 Grobnici je 100.000 žrtava. English version-The Jutarnji newspaper reported on the 01/10/2009 commissions find, in all it is estimated that there are 100 000 victims in 581 mass graves
  40. ^ Forgotten Victims-Slovenian Mass Grave Could Be Europe's Killing Fields Spiegel Online 2007
  41. ^ www.independent.co.uk The Independent.co.ukWorld/Europe.The Massacre That Haunts Slovenia.
  42. ^ Slovenia 1945: Memories of Death and Survival after World War II by John Corsellis & Marcus Ferrar. Pages 87, 204 & 250.
  43. ^ Hrcak Portal of Scientific Journals of Croatia by Mr Dizdar's Scientific Journal - An Addition to the Research of the Problem of Bleiburg & Way of the Cross.
  44. ^ BBC-History Partisans: War in the Balkans 1941-1945
  45. ^ Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes in Europe by Jerzy W. Borejsza, Klaus Ziemer, Magdalena Hułas & Instytut Historii. Page 232.
  46. ^ Yalta and The Bleiburg Tragedy by C Michael McAdams/University of San Francisco, California-USA. Presented at the International Symposium for Investigation of the Bleiburg Tragedy Zagreb, Croatia and Bleiburg, Austria May 17 and 18, 1994.
  47. ^ Croatians: Webster's Quotations, Facts and Phrases by Inc Icon Group International
  48. ^ International Law Observer Responding to post-Second World War totalitarian crimes in Slovenia Posted on June 22, 2009 by Jernej Letnar Cernic
  49. ^ European Commission/Slovenian Presidency of the-EU 2008 Crimes Committed by Totalitarian Regimes- Reports and proceedings of the 8 April European public hearing on “Crimes committed by totalitarian regimes”, organised by the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the European Union (January–June 2008) and the European Commission. Page 197. Joze Dezman: COMMUNIST REPRESSION AND TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE IN SLOVENIA Additional chapter: COMMUNIST REPRESSION Of “INTERIOR ENEMIES” IN SLOVENIA In the greater part of this paper, the author deals with individual repressive measures that Communist rule imposed in Slovenia in the period from the end of the war in 1945 until the beginning of the 1950s. In this period, the Communist authorities in Slovenia implemented all the forms of repression that were typical of states with Stalinist regimes. In Slovenia, it was a time of mass killings without court trials, and of concentration and labour camps. Property was confiscated, inhabitants were expelled from Slovenia/Yugoslavia and their residences, political and show trials were carried out, religion was repressed and the Catholic Church and its clergy were persecuted. At the beginning of the 1950s, Communist rule in Slovenia abandoned these forms of repression but was ready to reapply them if it felt threatened. Thus the regime set up political and show trials against certain more visible opponents later. In the case of an “emergency situation”, even the establishment of concentration camps was planned in Slovenia in 1968, where around 1,000 persons, of whom 10 % were women, would be interned for political reasons. Page 161
  50. ^ European Commission/Slovenian Presidency of the-EU 2008 Ref: Milko Mikola Crimes Committed by Totalitarian Regimes. Page 163.
  51. ^ Croatia A History-Mcgill Queen’s University Press Publication by Ivo Goldstein.
  52. ^ Croatia: A History by Ivo Goldstein Chapter: Decentralisation & Repreession. Page 176.

External links

  • Croatian Medical Journal: Identification of Skeletal Remains of Communist Armed Forces Victims During and After World War II
  • BBC 4: Internal Security of Former Yugoslavia - Mitja Ribicic
  • BBC 4: Croatian Physicist, Philosopher, Writer, Playwright, Peace Activist Humanist & former Yugoslav Partizan - Ivan Supek
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