Resolution of the Information Bureau Concerning the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, June
28, 1948
The Information Bureau, composed of the representatives of the Bulgarian Workers' Party
(Communists), Rumanian Workers' Party, Hungarian Workers' Party, Polish Workers' Party,
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks), Communist Party of France, Communist
Party of Czechoslovakia and the Communist Party of Italy, upon discussing the situation in
the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and announcing that the representatives of the Communist
Party of Yugoslavia bad refused to attend the meeting of the Information Bureau,
unanimously reached the following conclusions:
1. The Information Bureau notes that recently the leadership of the Communist Party of
Yugoslavia has pursued an incorrect line on the main questions of home and foreign policy,
a line which represents a departure from Marxism-Leninism. In this connection the
Information Bureau approves the action of the Central Committee of the CPSU(B), which took
the initiative in exposing this incorrect policy of the Central Committee of the Communist
Party of Yugoslavia, particularly the incorrect policy of Comrades Tito, Kardell, Djilas
and Rankovic.
2. The Information Bureau declares that the leadership of the Yugoslav Communist Party
is pursuing an unfriendly policy toward the Soviet Union and the CPSU (B). An undignified
policy of defaming Soviet military experts and discrediting the Soviet Union, has been
carried out in Yugoslavia. A special regime was instituted for Soviet civilian experts in
Yugoslavia, whereby. they were under surveillance of Yugoslav state security organs and
were continually followed. . . .
The Information Bureau denounces this anti-Sovict attitude of the leaders of the
Communist Party of Yugoslavia, as being incompatible with Marxism-Leninism and only
appropriate to nationalists.
3. In home policy, the leaders of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia are departing from
the positions of the working class and are breaking with the Marxist theory of classes and
class struggle. They deny that there is a growth of capitalist elements in their country,
and consequently, a sharpening of the class struggle in the countryside. This denial is
the direct result of the opportunist tenet that the class struggle does not become sharper
during the period of transition from capitalism to socialism, as Marxism-Leninism teacbes,
but dies down, as was affirmed by opportunists of the Bukharin type, who propagated the
theory of the peaceful growing over of capitalism into socialism.
The Yugoslav leaders are pursuing an incorrect policy in the countryside by ignoring
the class differentiation in the countryside and by regarding the individual peasantry as
a single entity, contrary to the Marxist-Leninist doctrine of classes and class struggle,
contrary to the well-known Lenin thesis that small individual farming gives birth to
capitalism and the bourgeoisie continually, daily, hourly, spontaneously and on a mass
scale. . . .
Concerning the leading role of the working class, the leaders of the Yugoslav Communist
Party, bv affirming that the peasantry is the 'most stable foundation of the Yugoslav
state' are departing from the Marxist-LenI . nist path and are taking the path of a
populist, Kulak party. Lenin taught that the proletariat as the 'only class in
contemporary society which is revolutionary to the end . . . must be the leader in the
struggle of the entire people for a thorough democratic transformation, in the struggle of
all working people and the exploited against the oppressors and exploiters!
The Yugoslav leaders are violating this thesis of Marxism-Leninism. . . .
4. The Information Bureau considers that the leadership of the Communist Party of
Yugoslavia is revising the Marxist-Leninist teachings about the Party. . . .
The Information Bureau believes that this policy of the Central Committee of the
Communist Party of Yugoslavia threatens the very existence of the Communist Party, and
ultimatelv carries with it the danger of the degeneration of the People's Republic of
Yugoslavia.
5. The Information Bureau considers that the bureaucratic regime created inside the
Party by its leaders is disastrous for the life and development of the Yugoslav Communist
Party. There is no inner Party democracy, no elections, and no criticism and
self-criticism in the Party. . . .
It is a completely intolerable state of affairs when the most elementary rights of
members in the Yugoslav Communist Party are suppressed, when the slightest criticism of
incorrect measures in the Party is brutally repressed. . . .
The Information Bureau considers that such a disgraceful, purely Turkish, terrorist
regime cannot be tolerated in the Communist Party. The interests of the very existence and
development of the Yugoslav Communist Party demand that an end be put to this regime.
6. The Information Bureau considers that the criticism made by the Central Committee of
the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (B) and Central Committees of the other Communist
Parties of the mistakes of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, and
who ill this way rendered fraternal assistance to the Yugoslav Communist Party, provides
the Communist Party of Yugoslavia with all the conditions necessary to speedily correct
the mistakes committed.
However, instead of honestly accepting this criticism and taking the Bolshevik path of
correcting these mistakes, the leaders of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, suffering
from boundless ambition, arrogance and conceit, met this criticism with belligerarice and
hostility. . . .
7. Taking into account the situation in the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, and seeking
to show the leaders of the Party the way out of this situation, the Central Committee of
the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (B) and the Central Committees of other fraternal
parties, suggested that the matter of the Yugoslav Communist Party should be discussed at
a meeting of the Information Bureau, on the same, normal party footing as that on which
the activities of other Communist Parties were discussed at the first meeting of the
Information Bureau.
However, the Yugoslav leaders rejected the repeated suggestions of the fraternal
Communist Parties to discuss the situation in the Yugoslav Party at a meeting of the
Information Bureau. . . .
8. In view of this, the Information Bureau expresses complete agreement with the
estimation of the situation in the Yugoslav Communist Partv, with the criticism of the
mistakes of the Central Committee of the Party, and with the political analysis of these
mistakes contained in letters from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the
Soviet Union (B) to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia between
March and May 1948.
The Information Bureau unanimously concludes that by their anti-Party and anti-Soviet
views, incompatible with Marxism-Leninism, by their whole attitude and their refusal to
attend the meeting of the Information Bureau, the leaders of the Communist Party of
Yugoslavia have placed themselves in opposition to the Communist Parties affiliated to the
Information Bureau, have taken the path of seceding from the united socialist front
against imperialism, have taken the path of betraying the cause of international
solidarity of the working people, and have taken up a position of nationalism.
The Information Bureau condemns this anti-Party policy and attitude of the Central
Cominittee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia.
The Information Bureau considers that, in view of all this, the Central Committee of
the Communist Party of Yugoslavia has placed itself and the Yugoslav Party outside the
family of the fraternal Communist Parties, outside the united Communist front and
consequently outside the ranks of the Information Bureau.
[]
The Information Bureau does not doubt that inside the Communist Party of Yugoslavia
there are sufficient healthy elements, loyal to Marxism-Leninism, to the international
traditions of the Yugoslav Communist Party and to the United Socialist front.
Their task is to compel their present leaders to recognize their mistakes openly and
honestly and to rectify them; to break with nationalism, return to internationalism; and
in every way to consolidate the united socialist front against imperialism.
Should the present leaders of the Yugoslav Communist Party prove incapable of doing
this, their job is to replace them and to advance a new internationalist leadership of the
Party.
The Information Bureau does not doubt that the Cominunist Party of Yugoslavia will be
able to fulfill this honourable task.
Source:
Royal Institute of International Affairs, The Soviet-Yugoslav Dispute (London and New
York, 1948), pp. 61-70., excerpts
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© Paul Halsall, November 1998
