Totalitarianism versus Democracy in Yugoslavia

...The members of Neditch's Government and his other collaborators were soon divided among themselves as to whether or not the Neditchist and Ljoditch ist armed forces should join the Germans in their attack upon Mikhailoviteh's military formations...

...They formed an independent group of from 150 to 200 terrorists, under the command of the old komitadji leader, Blasko...

...Bat as a destructive force and as a military force in war, Tito's army it a factor which must be reckoned with...

...I shall not attempt to guess why the Allies hsv* thus ranged themselves on Tito's side...

...The Germans rejoiced to see Yngoslavia's national revolution devouring her own children and wasting itself away in the internecine struggle of two revolutionary armies...

...The Communists penetrate the national revolution, and attempt to set up within it their own armed party machine which will enable them, after the war, to seize power in Yugoslavia...

...The situation than was aa follows: During March, 1944, th* Germans drove forward against General Mikhailoviteh's units in th* area between Belgrade, Smedersvo, Kragujevac and Cacak...

...Th* Allies will not restore their position in th* Balkans, but will greatly complicate and weaken it by the forcible disruption of the free popular army in Yugoslavis...

...It is, however, unfortunately tru* that the Alii** never supplied Mikhailovitch with th* material mesns of conducting successful and effective warfare...

...Gaa- « j Mikhailoviub's a m y new Jaw 170,000 rifles at S l j - r " ' MobsJsnirina could raita it to half a milgaj awn already formed into Military units...

...A great number of Neditch's political colleagues, nearly all the commanders of the Serbian State Guards and some of tha commanders of the Volunteer Corps (Ljotitchists) were opposed to making such sn attack, on the grounds that the entire population of Serbia supported Mikhailovitch, that during the fighting their forces would go over to Mikhailovitch and that such an operation could only result in the laying wast* of many Serbian villages...

...As there are not enough weapons, the main strength ajffarbia kw not baa* placed • war faotm...

...It interfered with tha internal struggle in Serbia and forced General Mikhailovich to withdraw his troops from in front of the Germans and to group them in strong mountain positions in the direction of the blow from Tito's troops...

...Before tha first World War ha waa tha Wader af the Serbian Socialist Party aad its representative at varieaa International Congress...

...This neglect of a people engaged in armed warfare has led finally to this extraordinary sitution, which makes ineffective the collaboration of tha most loyal and natural ally, the fervent and democratic patriot iam of a young and warlike people...

...There were already engaged in the lighting on both sides more than 30,000 men and about twice aa many were preparing for the next clash...

...All the young men of from eighteen to twenty-four years of age have received military training and they regularly serve their term...

...They pressed for th* destruction of Mikhailoviteh's forces, and they served the Germans...

...The wsr of national liberation was coming slowly to a standstill, while the scale of the civil war was assuming enormous proportions...

...The eatire Allied propaganda machine took up (he raase af Tito...

...That waa the state el affairs in Yagaelavia when I left that country for Lendoa...

...It is not true that General Mikhailoviteh's units aa not wish to fight th* Germans...

...Tha as* si* fore* against tha Yugoslavs gives rise to the justified fear that tha victory ef the Allies will not enable tha small State* to daeid* their own national problem*, but will bring with (t armed intervention from abroad in their . national affairs and th* suppression of their national independence...

...The Germans supplied them with automatic weapons and means of rapid transport...

...The social, political and moral ideals for which the army under King Peter II and General Mikhailovitch is fighting are accepted by the great majority of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes...

...Where Tito's movement predominates, children exercise authority over their parents...

...I beg to be believed: the Serbs apsl defend themselves and they will not surrender, lata when subjugated by force they will resist...

...A considerable quantity •f arms was captured on the railway* and from motor transports...

...The civil war in Yugoslavia was, therefore, at its height...

...And it is aa their would b* conJbstor that Tito appaara to them today...

...The enemy sustained great losses...

...As early as the1 beginning of 1943, all sensible Yugoslavs were deeply disturbed by the fact that our great strugglee for national liberation against the Invader was being more and more dangerously sidetracked...

...About 300 Chetniks were either killed or raptured in defensive battles, while the main forces retired towards Western and Eastern Serbia...

...The answer to this was that Mikhailoviteh's units destroyed Voivoda Blasko and tha greater part of his terrorists, and then afterwards in Belgrade, killed Colonel Masaiovitch and Caka Djordjevitch, th* Under-Secretary of Stat...

...The recall was a great aggravation af the civil war and aa raormoas reduction of tha scale af the struggle aad of the lighting fares* against the invader...

...This does not increase the people's affection for or confidence in the Allies, but rather creates s situation which will bring about fresh conflicts until the final emergence of what is desired by the majority...

...Neditch and Ljoditch and a certain number of their military and politics) collaborators made pressing demands on the Germans that they should break up Mikhailoviteh's forces before the spring, as that was the only way of preventing th* national insurrection which Mikhailovitch was preparing, to coincide with the expected Allied landing in the Balkans...

...Both the armies, Mikhailoviteh's as well as Tito's, urgently continued their preparations for carrying on ' the civil war: Tito's units for an offensive from Mount Jastrebac, where the Allies had sent them a great quantity of arms, and Mikhailoviteh's forces for an offensive towards Central and Northern Montenego, whose clearance of Tito's troops would make complete the predominance of Mikhailoviteh's units in practically the whole of the Serbian territory in Yugoslavia...

...I merely take the liberty of skying that Yugoslav democracy as st present represented in the Yugoslav Democratic Union, and particularly the Labor and Socialist democratic groups to which I also have the honor to belong, consider that this policy is doing great injury to all the Yugoslsv peoples, as well as to the war effort snd aims of the great Allies themselves...

...They agreed to unite together all democratic movements on the basis of a common national democratic program...

...J . . TlTO represents s real military force...

...Topelevitch waa th* chief af tha International Itolatieas Section af tha 1LO...

...for they believe thst the Communists are bringing about a civil war, promoting the destruction of our independence as a state and imposing a new authority and a new social and political order, without awaiting the free expression of the people's will and with no connection with our national traditions and history...

...These asm will Arht like Hons against • new conqueror, for „,.» a fight is ia Ireepiag with tha past history of Hair country, which is fall of examples to inspire jtess...

...It has gathered round itself, apart from tha Communists who know what they want, a sssuis af malcontents who merely wish to give expression to their dissatisfaction...

...They never gav* up th* struggle, but they waged it realistically and within the limits of their power...

...But this difference was too insignificant to causa the formation of two separata armies, so passionately and stubbornly divided against each other that they were abandoning the stiuggl* against the invader to devote their energies in ever-increasing measure to fighting each other...

...Th* imposition of what Tito stands for upon the aagosiavs is giving rise to alarm and suspicion in all Ska neighboring Balkan States...

...If the Allies were to place Tito and his opponents on the same footing, giving similsr assistsnce to each or none to either, it would soon be seen that that side would be the more powerful which was supported by- the great popular masses...

...The other psrty in the national revolution, democratic, national and non-communist, have for that very reason become active opponents of the psrty under Communist leadership...

...I say this as a friend and it is with the greatest jpsfw that I find myself obliged to advise the Allies ^•ss to beg them not to follow this terrible course, (lath must lead to a life-and-denth struggle with | | p Serbian people...

...It had divided into two parties, marked with the names of their leaders...

...The battle between Tito's and Mikhailoviteh's forces was fought out in the mountainous area between the rivers Ibar and Drina, with varying fortunes, during five whole weeks, but it ended with the catastrophic defeat of the Partisans, who were driven out of Serbia and the Sandzak, across the River Lim, into Monte rjsgro...

...They also agreed to make every effort to unite both of the military organizations of the national revolution: Mikhailoviteh's and Tito's...

...This propaganda is a mere excuse to justify tha one-sided support of Tito...

...The civil war had swallowed nearly all the active fighting forces of the national revolution, all the arms and equipment manufactured in the country or received from the Allies...

...Tepaleviteh exercised impart sat ialaeac* th roughest Balkan Socialist aad labor circles...

...Out af this multitude, within which only th* Communists are constructive and united and whieh, therefore, they a ion* control, there can come nothing positive...

...The one-sided assistance given to Tito by the Allies snd their imposition of him upon the people is in the nature of a conquest by force and is deeply insulting to the sense of justice and to the dignity of the great msjority of the nation, who do not went what Tito represents...

...Would they also support this move towards pacification, or would they take up the cans* of one of the combatant* and attempt to solve th* Yugoslav crisis by aggravating th* civil wsr and helping one side to suppress the other by armed force and in cold blood...

...The national move sstat in Yugoslavia enjoys the sympathy of all papular democratic groups in the Balkans, but not of tha Communists...

...The Allies underestimate the military strength of General Mikhailovitch...

...Do sag force Tito on them with Allied arms...

...Communists have received great help from friends abroad who, as the war has developed, hsve come to have a powerful influence on everything that happens in the world...

...They differed in their conceptions as to how the national struggle against the invader should be csrried on...

...That is Tito's weakness ss well as his fighting strength...

...ZIVKO TOPALOVITCH ia asm af tha bast kaewa lender* af tha Balkan Socialist mev*m«at...

...The fight for liberation against th* Germans is th* highest idesl of all the soldiers round Mikhailovitch...

...It was just when the great clash between the Germans and their collaborators in Serbia, on the one hand, and General Mikhailoviteh's troops on the other, was expected, that there occurred the offensive of Tito's troops against Serbia...

...they made no effort i. furnish Mikhailovitch with tha meaae or carrying aa aacceaafat warfare, bat gave exclaaive help u Tito...

...I t was for th* sake of this ideal that they were the first people in the world to rise ia revolt against th* Axis...

...The ultimate aim of this national group ia not to destroy the Communist Party, but to persuade them to collaborate...

...This movement for the spiritual, political, organizational and military union of the nation made great progress during 1943...

...Their task wss to kill first General Mikhailovitch and then his more important collaborators...

...The Communists who control the movement have succeeded in winning over to it s considerable proportion of young people...

...Some Croats have already joined and conditions have been agreed upon preliminary to an understanding with the representatives of the Croatian Peasant Party, whose leader, Dr...

...The original strength of Tito's movement, the power that organizes it and dominates it, is the Communist Party...

...As the struggle developed, the split occurred slong the lines of internal social and political problems: as to what should be the future economic and social order in Yugoslavia, her internal political and national organization and her international orientation after the war...

...He waa a leading personality in Yagaslav poll ties aad secretary-general af th* Trade Union Congress, la Jaaaary, 1944, ha beeam* President af th* aadergroaad Parliament in Yageslsvia in which all political parties except the Cemmaaiato were represented...

...ThE success of this attempt to achieve internal pacification, tha cessation of tha civil war and th* resumption of the war of liberation against the invader, depended upon the behavior of our great Alli(l...

...At a national congress held in the free mountains of Yugoslavia at the end of 1943 a common national program was established snd the Yugoslsv Nstionsl Democrstic Union was formed...

...His movemint hss also attracted to itself a considerable number of persons who have been ruined—and there are, unfortunately, many such people during a war in which the Germans and Italians have been promoting murderous conflicts over all the old religious and nstionsl disputes, setting d s n against clan, nation against nation, faith against faith, and dixit i< i against district, and during which they have themselves plundered, burned and killed for three years...

...Whoever desires to subdue tha Serbs will have apsasd much blood...

...Mikhailovitch and Tito...

...Use Allied asm* to help drive the invader out and to ensure sjsjt, under Allied protection both Tito and his ©paaatnu leave tba people free to decide whether they ssjst Tito or King- Peter for their ruler, and whether mag prefer the constitutional, democratic snd federal Tngesiavl* desired by Tito'* opponents or the sort anointed by his supporters...

...The business of the Prime Minister's office wss carried on by the Under-Secretary of State, Ceka Djordjevitch and by Colonel Milos Masaiovitch, the chef de cabinet...

...Aa aatberity aa workers' mevemeata, Dr...

...General Mikhailoviteh's movement therefore enjoys the considerable support of all th* democratic, and national forces in th* neighboring States...

...Very serious snd representative persons in th* occupied territory, Croats and Slovenes, met together and took counsel of each other throughout the whole of 1943...

...Faced by so serious a crisis for his regime, Neditch handed in his resignation, which the Germans would not accept, but for a long time he did not come to his office, nor leave bis house...

...After tha war ha represented tha Yagaslav Socialist Party aad was a member af tha Eiaeatlve Committee af the Labor and Socialist International...

...Matchek, is undoubtedly supported by the great majority of the Croatian people...

...A large-scale operation against all General Mikhailoviteh's troops in Serbia was expected...

...This aim can be achieved only if both the military organisations of our national revolution can be fitted into a general war plan worked out with our allies, and devote themselves exclusively to military activities, and if they both respect the fundamental principles of democracy whereby military organisations ought not to concern themselves with political problems, but leave to the free decision of the people and their representatives all that relates to the future social order in Yugoslavia...

...We are convinced of this for the following reasons: General Mikhailoviteh's movement adopted the democratic national program worked out by the united democratic assembly...

...A friend af Karl Kaatsky and Albert Thomas, Dr...

...As for Mikhailoviteh's formatians, they increased their punitive measures against all Serbs openly working for the Germans...

...It led "to the establishment of the 'Yugoslav Nstionsl Democratic Union', in which are gathered together sll the Serbian and Slovene national and democratic groups except the Communists and an insignificant number of outsiders...

...Ilis movement covers snd hss completely organized the entire military power *f Serbia and large parts of Montenegro, Bosnis, Herzegovina snd Dslmatia...

...The ideals which Tito represents are imposed by force in the areas where the Allies help Tito by supplying him with the modern weapons which his opponents lack...

...The ultimate military aim of this group cannot be, through the force of circumstances, and in fact is not the destruction of one military organization and the elevation of the other, but the cessation of hostilities between them and the linking up of both with the general activity of world democracy...

...Tito's movement, under the leadership of the Communist party, has aaurgad and grow" itaingjfa h*H» eJarttarOd State fas) » disrupted aociety, aumsspaayiag tit* *ubvnr*ien af raligtea, th* rain of huewitWs* thousand, af families, incendiarism, devastation, misery, wild civil war, hatred and revenge...

...Jast as ear effort* at bringing together the great national groups weroabegiaaiag to shew results, at th* end ef 1941 sad th* beginning of |944, the Allies reregaised Tito...