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Luka Filipović, PhD
Institute for Contemporary History, Belgrade, Republic of Serbia

 

THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM: THE ROLE OF LEAGUE OF COMMUNISTS OF YUGOSLAVIA IN THE FORMATION OF THE EASTERN AND WESTERN CAMP OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNIST PARTIES IN 1967

Vol. XLIII, 2/2025, pp. 465–484
https://doi.org/10.29362/ist20veka.2025.2.fil.465-484

 

ABSTRACT/RESUME:

Mo­re than a year be­fo­re the Czec­ho­slo­va­ki­an cri­sis be­ca­me the formal ca­u­se for the beginning of a gre­at split on Eu­ro­pe­an far left, which was a vi­si­ble and sud­den esca­la­ti­on of a ten year long pro­cess du­ring which re­for­mist frac­ti­ons ga­i­ned power and influence wit­hin in­di­vi­du­al Marxist par­ti­es as well as wit­hin the in­ter­na­ti­o­nal lef­tist organizations, lar­gest com­mu­nist par­ti­es of both Western and Ea­stern Eu­ro­pe star­ted for­ming in­ter­est gro­ups. The­se gro­ups, la­ter cal­led re­for­mist and an­ti-re­for­mist, or the Western and the Ea­stern camp of Eu­ro­pe­an com­mu­nist par­ti­es, stri­ved for dominance wit­hin the growingly global and com­plex sphe­re of re­la­ti­ons between Wor­ker’s mo­ve­ments, and plotted aga­inst each ot­her, trying to eit­her as­sert the­ir independence from the power­ful So­vi­et party, or to ga­in recognition from Brezhnev’s party le­a­ders­hip, which was tac­ti­cally still ac­ting in­de­ci­si­ve and si­lent on the mat­ter of re­for­ming party po­li­ci­es of the in­di­vi­du­al com­mu­nist par­ti­es. In the­se cir­cum­stan­ces, Yugo­slav com­mu­nists tri­ed to expand the­ir in­flu­en­ce in sphe­re of re­la­ti­ons between the lar­gest par­ti­es of the Eu­ro­pe­an far left and wit­hin the in­ter­na­ti­o­nal com­mu­nist in­sti­tu­ti­ons whi­le at the sa­me ti­me ai­ming to con­tri­bu­te towards wea­ke­ning of the he­ge­mo­nic in­flu­en­ce of the So­vi­et party. To this end, Le­a­gue of Com­mu­nists of Yugo­sla­via in­ve­sted growing fi­nan­ci­al power and in­ter­na­ti­o­nal in­flu­en­ce of the Yugo­slav sta­te in or­der to or­ga­ni­ze nu­me­ro­us ini­ti­a­ti­ves of the Western Eu­ro­pe­an com­mu­nists and ot­her smal­ler for­ces on the Euro­pe­an far left, as well as to strengt­hen its le­a­ding po­si­ti­on among the par­ti­es of the re­for­mist bloc. Whi­le the plans of Yugo­slav and Ita­li­an com­mu­nists abo­ut or­ga­ni­zing a lar­ge international con­fe­ren­ce that would di­scuss the que­sti­on of reforming party po­li­ci­es and ideology of in­di­vi­du­al Marxist par­ti­es were not successful in the end, Yugo­slav com­mu­nists still ma­na­ged to as­sert the­ir in­flu­en­ce on the Eu­ro­pe­an far left, which will only expand in the fol­lowing years.

 

KEYWORDS: Eu­ro­com­mu­nism, de­mo­cra­tic so­ci­a­lism, Cold War, Czec­ho­slo­va­ki­an cri­sis, Jo­sip Broz Ti­to, Lu­i­gi Lon­go

 

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