Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 March 2010
Although it is now recognized that the Stalin-Tito dispute was sparked off by Tito's desire to intervene decisively in the Greek civil war, the ideological context of that decision has never been fully explored. This article suggests that, since the early days of the Second World War, Tito had been committed to establishing a popular front ‘from below’, i.e. under clear communist control. He did this not only in Yugoslavia, but used his position in the war-time Comintern to persuade other communist parties to do the same. As a result he was dissatisfied with the all-party coalition governments established with Stalin's consent throughout Europe in 1945. Tito favoured a communist offensive, while Stalin, aware of the international position of the Soviet Union, favoured a more cautious approach. When Stalin summoned the first meeting of the Cominform in September 1947 and made Tito its de Facto leader, Tito mistakenly assumed he was to head a new international committed to a revolutionary offensive not only in Eastern Europe but in Greece and even Italy and France.
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65 The fullest account of the founding conference of the Cominform is still that of Reale, E., Nascila del Cominfom (Rome, 1958).Google Scholar However, both Dedijer's Jiovi prilozi and Strbac's Suiob give new information. The source for both is, apparently, the minutes taken at the KPJ central committee meeting immediately after the conference which discussed its achievements; the minutes themselves are reproduced by Dedijer. Strbac reproduces the telegram inviting die KPJ to attend, and the relevant extracts from Kardelj's Mtmoirs, containing a summary of his speech. Amongst the new information provided by these sources is dear evidence of the hostility of die Polish communists to the whole venture. They asked the Russians quite bluntly what die purpose of the meeting was, and on being told an ‘information co-ordination bureau’ insisted that it, and all its activities, be legal. The Poles felt such a bureau should meet ‘only when necessary’ rather than every three or four months as the conference agreed. However, die Hungarians, Bulgarians and Yugoslavs joined in resisting die Soviet suggestion that die Cominform should have a permanent council: it was too reminiscent of die old Comintern executive. More details on die Polish atdtude to die Cominform can be found in Toranska, T., ONI: Stalin's Polish pmppets (London, 1987), pp. 282–3Google Scholar.
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67 For a lasting peace, for a people's democracy, 10 Nov. 1947.
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71 I am quoting from the version published in the KPJ daily Borba, on 28 Sep. 1947. Tito's speech was given wide international coverage; even an English edition was produced. See Borba, a Nov. 1947, 27 Dec. 1947.
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