What if Tito went "Maoist" after splitting from Stalin?

raharris1973

Gone Fishin'
Donor
Monthly Donor
What if Yugoslavia brands itself as *more* revolutionary than Moscow, not less, for at least a decade after the Cold War.

In OTL they maintained or increased leftish rhetoric for awhile after the split, and remained strident on the Trieste issue, however, the Yugoslavs were still taking aid from the west in 1949 and moderating domestic policies from the early 1950s on.

What if instead Tito went in the direction of increasing domestic radicalism, and commitment to world revolution in general, and support for the Greek communists in particular, and chided Stalin for weakness vis-a-vis the west?
 
I'd expect Stalin gets free hands vis-a-vis Yugoslavia. Soviet tanks roll through Belgrade, and Western part of the country separates. But Tito was smarter than to do this. He knew consequences.
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
How Maoist are we talking here? Like, "You Soviets are pussies!" Maoist, or backyard factory Maoist?
 

raharris1973

Gone Fishin'
Donor
Monthly Donor
any degree of Maoism would be interesting.

It would be fun to discuss the full monty version of Maoism, like "you Soviets are pussies" and backyard furnaces and cultural revolutions.

At a minimum, I was looking for Yugoslavia that keeps on supporting Greek communists and indeed any out of power communists in the European and Mediterranean area who are willing to take Tito's help. This type of Tito would never start a "Nonaligned" movement with bourgeois leaders like Nasser or Nehru.

shaby - your thought was that a Yugoslavia going this radical is setting up for partitiion between Stalin east of the Drina and western backed breakaways west of the Drina? Like the Catholic lobbies in the west push for a neo-Ustasha agenda putting Stepinac in a powerful role in a greater Croatia? Or were you thinking both parts, east and west, would be Soviet satellites?
 
shaby - your thought was that a Yugoslavia going this radical is setting up for partitiion between Stalin east of the Drina and western backed breakaways west of the Drina? Like the Catholic lobbies in the west push for a neo-Ustasha agenda putting Stepinac in a powerful role in a greater Croatia? Or were you thinking both parts, east and west, would be Soviet satellites?

Yugoslavia was allowed to exist only as a useful buffer state. It was a backchannel for trade between the blocks and saved a frontline for NATO. If it starts any radical policy it stops being useful. I would guess Yalta becomes operative and country is divided as was foreseen. Supporting Ustasha might be somewhat embarrasing for the West. I'd guess they'll try something more moderate for Croatia.
 
Granted it's a trope, but some exiles and Western governments might have championed a royal restoration. Domestic support, however would have been constrained by memory of the Cetniks, who changed sides during WWII.
Hoxha's Albania suggests Yugoslavia would have been able to survive for a few decades as a proxy, say until the 1990's.
 
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