UTICAJ OTVARANJA NACIONALNOG PITANJA U JUGOSLAVIJI NA KREIRANJE DRŽAVNE POLITIKE PREMA KOSOVU I METOHIJI 1964–1965.
THE EFFECT OF THE OPENING OF THE NATIONAL QUESTION IN YUGOSLAVIA ON THE CREATION OF THE STATE POLICY TOWARDS KOSOVO AND METOHIJA 1964–1965

Summary/Abstract: The opening of the national question in Yugoslavia was incited by a growing economic crisis caused by poor sustainability of the state system of socialist self-management. In order to combat irredentism which was spreading among the Albanians, who made up two thirds of the population of Kosovo and Metohija, Yugoslavia would not desist from further economic investments in the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija (APKM). In such circumstances, the leadership of the Provincial Committee of the League of Communists of Serbia for Kosovo and Metohija tried to obtain greater government investment for the APKM in the first half of 1964, addressing objections to the leadership of the Serbian League of Communists that they were negelcting the implementation the policy of faster development of Kosovo and Metohija. Accordingly, the Executive Committee of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (LCY) decided to frame the further development of the APKM into the development policy of the Yugoslav state and use the corresponding Fund that was established for this purpose. At the Eighth Congress of the LCY, held in December 1964, Josip Broz Tito supported the further development of undeveloped Yugoslav republics and the APKM as the interest of the whole Yugoslav federation and the policy of affirmation of the equality of national minorities was confirmed. With regard to the national question, the idea of creation of the Yugoslav nation was rejected and the need to develop individual national cultures united in socialist Yugoslavia was expressed. The law which established the Federal Fund for Lending for the Economic Development of Insufficiently Developed Republics and Regions came into force in March 1965. It was a major victory for the leadership of Kosovo and Metohija, which managed to use the opening of the national question in Yugoslavia to equalize the APKM in their economic claims with undeveloped Yugoslav republics of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro, as well as make the leadership from the APKM more present in the federal authorities.

• Details
• Contents