Did Stalin Wish a Federation in the Balkans? The End of the Federal Idea in Bulgarian-Yugoslav Relations
Did Stalin Wish a Federation in the Balkans? The End of the Federal Idea in Bulgarian-Yugoslav Relations

Summary/Abstract: The analysis of some written sources and the estimation of Stalin’s political behaviour bring to the conclusion that in the Balkan politics of the Soviet leader did not exist real wish and targeted actions towards creating a communist federative union in the Balkan peninsula, despite the fact that many historians support the opposite opinion – that the Soviet leader aimed at establishing such federation. Stalin used the federative idea to understand in details and to use the contradictions between the Balkan countries with communist rule on the question of federation. With this manipulative policy Stalin wanted to strengthen the role of Moscow in the relationships between the Balkan communist states as part of the main strategy – the creation of a block of countries in Eastern Europe under the power of Kremlin. The article shows how the federative idea came down from the Balkan political stage. This process occurred after the famous Soviet-Yugoslav-Bulgarian meeting on February 10, 1948 in the Kremlin and it was connected with the outbreak of the Soviet-Yugoslav conflict in 1948. The article also reveals how the communist leaders in the Balkans did not understand the manipulative policy of Stalin on the question of federation.

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