To the Central Committee
of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia

Your letters of May 17, 1948, and May 20, 1948, signed by Comrades Tito and Kardelj, have been received. The CC of the VKP(b) considers that the leaders of the Yugoslav Communist Party, with these letters, are taking a new step along the path of aggravating the grossest errors of principle, the harm and danger of which were pointed out by the CC of the VKP(b) in its letter of May 4, 1948.

1. Comrades Tito and Kardelj write that they feel "so unequal that we cannot agree to have this question examined at a session of the Cominform Bureau," and then hint that the Yugoslav leaders were placed in such an unequal position allegedly by the CC VKP(b).

The CC of the VKP(b) considers that there is not a word of truth in this assertion. In the Information Bureau of the nine Communist parties there is not and cannot be any inequality for the Yugoslav Communist Party.

When organizing the Information Bureau of the nine Communist parties, all the Communist parties, as is known, proceeded from the indisputable principle that every party must present reports to the Information Bureau on its work, and also every party has the right to criticize other parties.

These were the principles from which the conference of the nine Communist parties proceeded when at its sessions in September 1947 it heard the reports of the CC of all parties without exception. The conference of the nine Communist parties proceeded from the equal right of all parties to criticize one another, and it was then that the activities of the Italian and French Communist parties were subjected to stern Bolshevik criticism.

It is known that at that time the Italian and French comrades not only did not dispute the right of other parties to criticize them for their errors, but on the contrary received this criticism in a Bolshevik manner and drew the necessary conclusions for themselves.

It is also known that the Yugoslav comrades, together with all the rest, made use of the opportunity to criticize the erroneous activities of the Italian and French comrades, and did not consider, any more than the rest, that by criticizing the Italians and French, the other Communist parties were violating the equality of the Italian and French Communist parties.

But why do the Yugoslav comrades now make such a radical turn, demanding the liquidation of the established procedure in the Information Bureau? Precisely because they probably consider that the Yugoslav party and its leaders should be in a privileged position, that the existing status of the Information Bureau does not suit them, that they have the right to criticize other parties but should not be subjected to criticism on the part of other parties.

But such a, if one may call it that, morality has nothing in common with equality. This is nothing other than a demand by the Yugoslav comrades to obtain for the CPY privileges that not a single other Communist party has or can have.

We have upheld and uphold the principle without which the existence and activity of the Information Bureau is impossible: every party is obligated to present a report on its activity to the Information Bureau, every party has the right to criticize any other party.

The refusal of the Yugoslavs to present a report to the Information Bureau on their activity, the refusal to hear the criticism of other parties, constitutes a violation of the equality of Communist parties.

2. In their letter of May 17, Comrades Tito and Kardelj repeat, as in the previous letter, that the criticism of the errors of the leadership of the Yugoslav Communist Party on the part of the CC VKP(b) is based on allegedly incorrect information.

However, in confirmation of their statement the Yugoslav comrades adduce no proofs. Thus their statement remains an empty phrase; in response to the criticism of the CC VKP(b) we receive no concrete answer, although Comrades Tito and Kardelj write in their letter that they do not withdraw from criticism on principled questions. Perhaps the Yugoslav comrades simply do not know what to say in their own justification?

It is one of two things: either the Politburo of the CC CPY recognizes the seriousness of the errors it has committed but, wishing to conceal this from the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and to mislead it, fabricates versions about the absence of these errors, shifting its own guilt onto honest people who allegedly incorrectly informed the CC VKP(b); or the Politburo of the CC CPY truly does not understand that its errors lead it away from Marxism-Leninism.

In the latter case, one must acknowledge that the ignorance of questions of Marxism-Leninism among the members of the Politburo of the CC CPY is too great.

3. Refusing to answer the direct questions of the CC VKP(b) and aggravating their errors by their stubbornness, and not wishing to acknowledge and correct them, Comrades Tito and Kardelj verbally assure that in their deeds they will prove that they will remain faithful to the Soviet Union, to the teaching of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin.

After everything that has happened, we have no grounds to believe these verbal assurances. Comrades Tito and Kardelj have already given many promises to the CC VKP(b) that they subsequently did not fulfill. From the content of their letters, especially the latest one, we have become even more convinced of this.

The Politburo of the CC CPY and especially Comrade Tito must know that with their anti-Soviet and anti-Russian policy, which is being carried out in everyday practice of late, they have done everything to undermine confidence in themselves on the part of the Communist Party and government of the USSR.

4. Comrades Tito and Kardelj complain that they have found themselves in a difficult position and that the consequences of all this are very grave for Yugoslavia. This is, of course, true, but Comrades Tito and Kardelj together with the other members of the Politburo of the CC of the Yugoslav Communist Party themselves bear responsibility for having placed their own prestige and ambitions above the interests of the Yugoslav people. Instead of acknowledging and correcting their errors in the interests of their people, they stubbornly deny these errors, which are dangerous for the people of Yugoslavia.

5. Comrades Tito and Kardelj declare that the CC CPY refuses to be present at the session of the Information Bureau to examine the question of the situation in the Yugoslav Communist Party. If this is their final decision, then it means that they do not know what to say in their own justification at the session of the Information Bureau.

By this they are silently acknowledging that they are guilty and are afraid to appear before the fraternal parties. And the refusal to come to the session of the Information Bureau means that the CC CPY has taken the path of undermining the united socialist front of the people's democratic countries with the Soviet Union and that now the CC CPY is preparing its party and the Yugoslav people for the betrayal of the united front of people's democracy and the USSR. Since the Information Bureau is the party foundation of the united front, such a policy leads to the betrayal of the cause of international solidarity of the toilers, leads to a transition to the positions of nationalism, hostile to the cause of the working class.

Regardless of whether representatives of the CC CPY come or do not come, the CC of the VKP(b) insists on the examination of the question of the situation in the Yugoslav Communist Party at the next session of the Information Bureau.

In response to the request of the Czechoslovak and Hungarian comrades to postpone the session of the Information Bureau to the second half of June, the CC VKP(b) declares that it agrees with this proposal.

May 22, 1948, Moscow.

By authority of the CC of the VKP(b)

V. Molotov

I. Stalin