"Everyone imposes his own system, as far as his army can reach"
Between 1948 and the Soviet dictator's death in 1953, Eastern Europe was exposed to the full measure of Stalinist paranoia and terror. Although his accommodation with Tito seemed temporarily to have secured the stability of the region, Stalin now sought to tighten his control over the people's democracies in order to discourage them from following Tito's example – thus destroying all hopes of independent, national roads to socialism – or, even more dangerously, falling under Tito's direct influence.
Of necessity, this was an unacknowledged goal: Stalin's aim, expressed by his continued encouragement of Bulgarian unification with Yugoslavia, was to assimilate Tito rather than embolden him through isolation. Thus, Stalinist accusations were targeted against 'small-state nationalism', 'bourgeois nationalism', and so on: Tito was never explicitly mentioned. Indeed, the nature of Stalin's rhetoric was such that 'national communists' could be targeted while at the same time Tito, with his plans for a unified Balkan state, could ironically be pointed to (if Stalin so chose) as an exemplar of 'proletarian internationalism'. Notably, many of the Stalinist charges had distinctly anti-Semitic overtones; indeed, 'Zionism' was from the beginning one of the most common accusations used [1].
And so, in September 1949, Hungarian Communists László Rajk, Tibor Szönyi, András Szalai, and others were tried, convicted, and executed for wartime collaboration with the fascist Arrow Cross Party, and for participation in a conspiracy to destroy Hungarian socialism and attach Hungary to the capitalist West. Humiliatingly, Rajk, one of the most active members of the wartime Communist resistance, was made to confess to an illusory German ancestry – the Reich family, their name magyarized to Rajk to avoid postwar expulsion [2].
This story was replicated in the other people's democracies, though the degree of repression varied by location and in timing. Future Polish leader Władysław Gomułka was arrested in 1951 on charges of Zionism and probably saved only by Stalin's death in 1953; while in Czechoslovakia, the trial of 'cosmopolitan Zionist ringleader' Rudolf Slanský had been completed, and its defendants executed, by May 1951 [3].
The situation was somewhat different in Yugoslavia, where Tito had been consolidating his power since 1945 and by 1948 had already eliminated most of his potential rivals. Nevertheless Tito, like Stalin, used charges of 'small-state nationalism' and 'cosmopolitanism' alike to his advantage. Ironically, the two men were employing identical means to achieve opposite ends: Stalin used the 'small-state' charge to discredit national communists who might be expected to show Titoist sympathies; Tito used it to secure the conviction of Enver Hoxha, who was denounced for his opposition to Albanian integration into Yugoslavia and executed in April 1949 [4]. Despite the systematic purge of Party members who had expressed any hint of loyalty to Moscow over Belgrade, however, Tito's Yugoslavia appeared noticeably relaxed in comparison to the rabid paranoia of Moscow and its satellites.
The most atypical case was that of Bulgaria, which was exposed to a significant level of Soviet and Yugoslav influence – the latter due to a process of economic and political integration kicked off by a new round of talks with Tito in February 1949. The Bulgarian purges were thus unusually schizophrenic even by Stalinist standards. In May 1949, the national communist and acting prime minister of Bulgaria, Traicho Kostov, was dismissed from his post by 'Muscovite' Party leader Vasil Kolarov; two weeks later the former was arrested on charges of espionage and imprisoned. Yet within six days Kostov was released on the initiative of loyalists in the Bulgarian Politburo, who then ousted Kolarov in a virtual palace coup. The rehabilitated Kostov ordered Kolarov's arrest on the same charges that he had been accused of just a week prior; the text of the Kolarov show trial, held in July, was copied word-for-word, with only the names changed, from the draft originally prepared by Kolarov's allies in the judiciary [5].
Yet Kostov himself was an opponent of the Balkan Federation, no friend of Tito; and the feeling was mutual. By June 1950 Kostov too was dead, having been charged and tried yet again by the remarkably opportunistic members of the Politburo. These had come to sense that union with Yugoslavia was now inevitable, and that association with a known opponent of Tito's plans would hardly endear them to their future countrymen. With both Kolarov and Kostov out of the picture, and Dimitrov dead of (officially) natural causes since May 1949 [6], the Politburo selected as its new General Secretary one Anton Yugov, a colorless bureaucrat whose chief virtue was never having expressed opposition to Tito's plans – though he had never expressed support for them either.
Nevertheless, it was Yugov who led Bulgaria further into the process of unification with Yugoslavia. Dimitrov had been an advocate of Romanian inclusion in the Balkan Federation, going so far as to make an appeal to that country's Communist Party congress in early 1948 [7]. But with his death and with Stalin clearly opposed to the idea, Tito and Yugov resolved to go forward without Romanian cooperation (though this was still considered a desirable future goal); and, notably, without the Slav regions of Greek Macedonia that Tito had previously insisted be incorporated. In September 1950, the two men announced, after a series of conferences held in Pernik, that unification negotiations had been completed. The new state, to be called the Balkan Federative Socialist Republic (BFSR), would officially come into being on 1st January 1951.
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[1] As it was in OTL. In this timeline, though, since 'Titoism' is an unusable accusation, charges of Zionism are even more common and begin earlier too.
[2] This occurred in OTL.
[3] In OTL, the Slanský trial occurred in November 1951; here, it's held somewhat earlier due to the earlier advent of 'Zionist' accusations.
[4] In OTL it was Koci Xoxe (see part 1), the most prominent Albanian advocate of 'Titoism', who was executed in July 1949.
[5] This incident itself is invented, but similarly bizarre things did happen elsewhere...in OTL, the charges against László Rajk were exactly the same as those against Kostov, both trials having been scripted in Moscow. In OTL, Kostov was executed after a fairly straightforward show trial, with none of the complications described here.
[6] While on a visit to Moscow. The manner of his death led many Bulgarian Party members, in TTL as in OTL, to suspect Stalinist treachery. Here, this translates into greater hostility towards Moscow (and thus openness towards Belgrade) among Bulgarian Party cadres.
[7] This occurred in OTL.
Between 1948 and the Soviet dictator's death in 1953, Eastern Europe was exposed to the full measure of Stalinist paranoia and terror. Although his accommodation with Tito seemed temporarily to have secured the stability of the region, Stalin now sought to tighten his control over the people's democracies in order to discourage them from following Tito's example – thus destroying all hopes of independent, national roads to socialism – or, even more dangerously, falling under Tito's direct influence.
Of necessity, this was an unacknowledged goal: Stalin's aim, expressed by his continued encouragement of Bulgarian unification with Yugoslavia, was to assimilate Tito rather than embolden him through isolation. Thus, Stalinist accusations were targeted against 'small-state nationalism', 'bourgeois nationalism', and so on: Tito was never explicitly mentioned. Indeed, the nature of Stalin's rhetoric was such that 'national communists' could be targeted while at the same time Tito, with his plans for a unified Balkan state, could ironically be pointed to (if Stalin so chose) as an exemplar of 'proletarian internationalism'. Notably, many of the Stalinist charges had distinctly anti-Semitic overtones; indeed, 'Zionism' was from the beginning one of the most common accusations used [1].
And so, in September 1949, Hungarian Communists László Rajk, Tibor Szönyi, András Szalai, and others were tried, convicted, and executed for wartime collaboration with the fascist Arrow Cross Party, and for participation in a conspiracy to destroy Hungarian socialism and attach Hungary to the capitalist West. Humiliatingly, Rajk, one of the most active members of the wartime Communist resistance, was made to confess to an illusory German ancestry – the Reich family, their name magyarized to Rajk to avoid postwar expulsion [2].
This story was replicated in the other people's democracies, though the degree of repression varied by location and in timing. Future Polish leader Władysław Gomułka was arrested in 1951 on charges of Zionism and probably saved only by Stalin's death in 1953; while in Czechoslovakia, the trial of 'cosmopolitan Zionist ringleader' Rudolf Slanský had been completed, and its defendants executed, by May 1951 [3].
The situation was somewhat different in Yugoslavia, where Tito had been consolidating his power since 1945 and by 1948 had already eliminated most of his potential rivals. Nevertheless Tito, like Stalin, used charges of 'small-state nationalism' and 'cosmopolitanism' alike to his advantage. Ironically, the two men were employing identical means to achieve opposite ends: Stalin used the 'small-state' charge to discredit national communists who might be expected to show Titoist sympathies; Tito used it to secure the conviction of Enver Hoxha, who was denounced for his opposition to Albanian integration into Yugoslavia and executed in April 1949 [4]. Despite the systematic purge of Party members who had expressed any hint of loyalty to Moscow over Belgrade, however, Tito's Yugoslavia appeared noticeably relaxed in comparison to the rabid paranoia of Moscow and its satellites.
The most atypical case was that of Bulgaria, which was exposed to a significant level of Soviet and Yugoslav influence – the latter due to a process of economic and political integration kicked off by a new round of talks with Tito in February 1949. The Bulgarian purges were thus unusually schizophrenic even by Stalinist standards. In May 1949, the national communist and acting prime minister of Bulgaria, Traicho Kostov, was dismissed from his post by 'Muscovite' Party leader Vasil Kolarov; two weeks later the former was arrested on charges of espionage and imprisoned. Yet within six days Kostov was released on the initiative of loyalists in the Bulgarian Politburo, who then ousted Kolarov in a virtual palace coup. The rehabilitated Kostov ordered Kolarov's arrest on the same charges that he had been accused of just a week prior; the text of the Kolarov show trial, held in July, was copied word-for-word, with only the names changed, from the draft originally prepared by Kolarov's allies in the judiciary [5].
Yet Kostov himself was an opponent of the Balkan Federation, no friend of Tito; and the feeling was mutual. By June 1950 Kostov too was dead, having been charged and tried yet again by the remarkably opportunistic members of the Politburo. These had come to sense that union with Yugoslavia was now inevitable, and that association with a known opponent of Tito's plans would hardly endear them to their future countrymen. With both Kolarov and Kostov out of the picture, and Dimitrov dead of (officially) natural causes since May 1949 [6], the Politburo selected as its new General Secretary one Anton Yugov, a colorless bureaucrat whose chief virtue was never having expressed opposition to Tito's plans – though he had never expressed support for them either.
Nevertheless, it was Yugov who led Bulgaria further into the process of unification with Yugoslavia. Dimitrov had been an advocate of Romanian inclusion in the Balkan Federation, going so far as to make an appeal to that country's Communist Party congress in early 1948 [7]. But with his death and with Stalin clearly opposed to the idea, Tito and Yugov resolved to go forward without Romanian cooperation (though this was still considered a desirable future goal); and, notably, without the Slav regions of Greek Macedonia that Tito had previously insisted be incorporated. In September 1950, the two men announced, after a series of conferences held in Pernik, that unification negotiations had been completed. The new state, to be called the Balkan Federative Socialist Republic (BFSR), would officially come into being on 1st January 1951.
__________________________________________________
[1] As it was in OTL. In this timeline, though, since 'Titoism' is an unusable accusation, charges of Zionism are even more common and begin earlier too.
[2] This occurred in OTL.
[3] In OTL, the Slanský trial occurred in November 1951; here, it's held somewhat earlier due to the earlier advent of 'Zionist' accusations.
[4] In OTL it was Koci Xoxe (see part 1), the most prominent Albanian advocate of 'Titoism', who was executed in July 1949.
[5] This incident itself is invented, but similarly bizarre things did happen elsewhere...in OTL, the charges against László Rajk were exactly the same as those against Kostov, both trials having been scripted in Moscow. In OTL, Kostov was executed after a fairly straightforward show trial, with none of the complications described here.
[6] While on a visit to Moscow. The manner of his death led many Bulgarian Party members, in TTL as in OTL, to suspect Stalinist treachery. Here, this translates into greater hostility towards Moscow (and thus openness towards Belgrade) among Bulgarian Party cadres.
[7] This occurred in OTL.