Letter to I. Broz-Tito, E. Kardelj, and the CC of the CPY, May 4, 1948

Source: Tom 18

To Comrades Tito, Kardelj, and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia

We have received your reply and the communication on the decision of the CC CPY Plenum of April 13, 1948, signed by Comrades Tito and Kardelj.

Unfortunately, these documents, especially the document signed by Comrades Tito and Kardelj, not only represent no progress compared with the previous documents of the Yugoslavs, but on the contrary, further confuse matters and exacerbate the conflict.

[On the undemocratic nature of the CPY:] The present-day situation in the Communist Party of Yugoslavia gives us cause for concern. It is an unusual fact that the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, while being the ruling party, has still not fully legalized itself and remains in a semi-legal position. Decisions of party organs as a rule do not appear in the press. Reports of party meetings are not published.

There is no internal party democracy in the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. The CC of the party is in its majority not elected but co-opted. There is no criticism and self-criticism in the party, or almost none.

[On the role of the People's Front:] In Yugoslavia, the main leading force is considered to be the People's Front, not the Communist Party, and the party is being dissolved in the People's Front. Comrade Tito said at the second congress of the People's Front: "Does the Communist Party have some other program that differs from the program of the People's Front? No! The Communist Party has no other program. The program of the People's Front — that is its program."

Lenin already characterized the Mensheviks who proposed similar ideas as vile opportunists and liquidators of the party.

[On the class struggle:] The Communist Party of Yugoslavia is lulling itself with the rotten opportunist theory of the peaceful absorption of capitalist elements into socialism, borrowed from Bernstein, Vollmar, and Bukharin.

By authority of the CC of the VKP(b)

V. Molotov

I. Stalin

May 4, 1948, Moscow