Prijelomno desetljeće (1962-1972) – od krize stabilnosti do stabilizacije krize
The decisive decade (1962-1972) - from stability crisis to crisis of stabilization

Summary/Abstract: The 1960s were the historical climax of the “Yugoslav experiment” (Rusinow). They began with a crisis of stability of the existing Stalinist system, the model of which was barely altered, and of the autocratic activity of SKJ (League of Communists of Yugoslavia). The process consisted of three stages: 1) 1962-1963: Tito’s project of overcoming the crisis through a radical, but inconsistent de-Stalinization in the programme of social self-government (assembly system with a functional representation), and economic and social reforms, with reliance on the trade union and the League of Communists as the main instruments of economic and political subjectivization of the working class; but on the basis of the Leninist model of the Party, strengthening of party unity and discipline, and suppression of the federative component. 2) 1966: failure of the project, and beginning of a new course; self-critical avowal of SKJ leaders that SKJ itself, dominated by political police, was the main obstacle to the de-Stalinization process; period of economic liberalization, political democratization and pluralization of intellectual life; Tito’s compromise with the prevalent coalition of republics’ leaderships, with reliance on the leadership of the League of Communist of Croatia; federalization of the League of Communists (Ninth Congress of SKJ in 1969) and of the state (1971-1974), and Tito’s struggle for political survival (1966-1972). 3) Tito’s political confrontation with the leaderships of the League of Communists of Croatia (1971) and of Serbia (1972), and the end of the decade of political and economic liberalization, of some sort of polycentric poliarchy system. The result of the denouement: the SKJ crisis from the early 1960s was not resolved, but stabilized through a structural compromise in the organization of the League of Communists and of Yugoslavia as a federation, with Tito as political arbiter; and historical regression of social, political and intellectual life caused by unsuccessful transformation of the inherited type of Bolshevik Party into a Marxist and democratic League of Communists.

• Details
• Contents