Blackwell Reference Online

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tito had spent the Second World War in Yugoslavia and had freed most of the country from German occupation without outside assistance. He was therefore self‐confident and independent of Soviet control. stalin expected Yugoslavia to concentrate on agriculture and accept Soviet economic domination but Tito devoted only 6 per cent of investment to agriculture in his Five Year Plan which began in 1947. However, it was over foreign policy that the major rift with Stalin arose. Tito occupied Trieste and so was in conflict with Italy: Stalin ordered him out, as he was not prepared to risk another war. Stalin also disapproved of Tito's support for the communists in the greek civil war and of his talk about a Balkan federation, which Yugoslavia would lead. He insisted that Yugoslavia should consult the USSR on all foreign policy questions and vastly overrated his authority when he said: ‘I will shake my little finger and there will be no more Tito’. In 1948 Yugoslavia was expelled from the cominform , a break which resulted in a savage purge of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, during which 50,000 were tortured and killed, accused of putting the interests of the Soviet Union before those of Yugoslavia. The split also enabled Tito to pursue a Yugoslav ‘road to socialism’ by introducing self‐management of factories. After the break with Stalin Tito was supported economically by the ... log in or subscribe to read full text