The Criminal Record of Titoite Yugoslavia

How Yugoslavia treated the Albanian people

The Svetlanist
9 min readMay 26, 2021

Albania, and consequentially Kosova, has always in Yugoslav history been subject to imperialism subjugation, and even forms of genocide. Not just in the Kosovo war. Yugoslavia has said about spreading “brotherhood and unity” and then doing the complete opposite of that. Being “peaceful” and then acting aggressive to nations around it. The Titoite clique brought about Yugoslavia into a capitalist bourgeois state and then inevitably led the development of nationalism and chauvinism among the members of the clique and in the different national groupings in Yugoslavia. As we saw, thanks to them, Yugoslavia collapsed brutally.

Policies of Minorities in the SFR Yugoslavia

To say that there was Brotherhood and unity is far from the truth. Brotherhood and unity was only for looks. Results seem to poll this as true as less than 10% of the population of Yugoslavia actually adheres that they are Yugoslavs (in the 1991 census, approximately 3.0% of Yugoslavia called themselves Yugoslavs.) Serbian chauvinism and nationalism was very dominant in Yugoslavia and this isn’t just something that happened after Tito died. The old nationalist and chauvinist Serbian and Croatian rivalries in the nation were revived and became more pronounced. The policies that the Titoites used as their national policy can be described as ‘inequal, full of oppression, exploitation, and economic and cultural discrimination.’ In particular the Titoites have applied the most ferocious terror and killings against the Albanian minority population in Yugoslavia. Miča Mijušković and Stanislav Gerković, who had been in charge of the Kosova and UDB up until
1966, have been dismissed and replaced by other “specialists”, or more accurately, goons of Tito and the League of ‘Communists’, such as Xhevdet Hamza and Duško Rustić. After this, incredibly harsh repressive measures and policies were imposed on any Kosovar Albanians who even had the slightest sympathetic feelings to the Stalinist policies of the PSR Albania and Enver Hoxha (From the IICK, The Kosovo report, page 35.) Rancovic, a very close colleague of Tito, sought to secure the position of the Serbs in Kosovo and gave them dominance in Kosovo’s administration. The nationalist Serbs from the 60s and onwards attempted to colonize Kosova. (State-society relations in Yugoslavia, 1945–1992. Page. 295.) Not only all of this but both Albanians and Muslim Slavs were encouraged or even forced to declare themselves to be Turkish and emigrate to Turkey(!) This is purely just colonialism and erasure of culture. Were the Yugoslavs killing any Albanians? Yes, they were. Hundreds or even Thousands were killed by the partisans and many more were killed and imprisoned in the Yugoslav gaols in the struggle that the Albanians had for Kosovar autonomy.

These crimes and this policy of genocide cannot be wiped from the memory of any honest person in the world, let alone from the memory of those who have suffered and are still suffering from them. The Albanian population in Yugoslavia will never forget the tragic event of autumn 1944 when the Tito-Ranković gang arrested 10,000 Albanians in Tetova and shot 1,200 of them out of hand without trial, not to mention those who died in the prisons. The same chauvinist policy has been pursued against the Albanians in both pre-war and post-war Yugoslavia. Over 277 thousand Albanians have been exterminated physically in the Albanian territories annexed by Yugoslavia. (The Selected works of Enver Hoxha, “Who is responsible for the genocide in Kosova?” Page 80.)

The Yugoslavs and their clique have been Erarsing and messing with the Albanian people and their Nation while the Albanians did nothing to them. The only “crime" of these people is their Albanian nationality. More than 2,000 Albanians in Mitrovica, more than 1,000 others in Gjilan, and more Albanians who joined the Yugoslav partisans to fight the fascists, were stabbed in the back and shot by very orders of the Yugoslav headquarters. These were not soldiers who acted against command, they were ordered to shoot the Albanians. To make matters worse, over 2000 Albanian boys from Macedonia were gassed by these Yugoslavians during the national liberation war as well. In later years, the UDB even tortured Albanian populace multiple times (under the call of “confiscating weapons.") Hundreds died and many more took their own lives as they could not bear a second or third round of tortures.

We have never interfered in the internal affairs of
Yugoslavia, and never shall do so, but the Tito revisionist clique, on the contrary, has raised interference in the

internal affairs of Albania and other countries to a system. Foe more than twenty years [as of 1966.] it has stopped at nothing in its fight against the Albanian people against the PLA, against the PRA, and against the socialist state and social order established in Albania. (The Selected works of Enver Hoxha, “Who is responsible for the genocide in Kosova?” Page 79.)

As we know, Tensions between Albanians and Serbs in Kosovo continued into the 21st century, we can pinpoint exactly where the modern tensions all started, and we know for a fact that it was all Tito and his clique’s fault. Albanians have been in the area for hundreds of years. Millions of Muslim Albanians have existed and will exist in the former Yugoslavia.

The Albanians living in Yugolsavia have been outstanding for their ardent patriotism and their strong links with their Homeland and their compatriots," I told Comrade Stalin in reply to his question. "They have always forcibly opposed the feverish expansionist efforts of the great-Serbian and great-Slav reactionary chauvinists and their attempts to assimilate them and have preserved their Albanian national identity in every respect, with fanaticism. (Enver Hoxha Memoirs from my Meetings with Stalin “Second Meeting March-April 1949" pg 63)

So now we know that Albanians have opposed to Serbian nationalists for a long time and this isn’t a new case for the 1960s in Kosova or even right now in the 21st century. The only reason Serbians have not completely assimilated Albanians in Yugoslavia is because of the correct stand the Albanians took against the Serbian deporters and jailers. It was only in the late 70s did the Yugoslavs give more autonomy to Kosova in an attempt to quell the Albanian population with a fire extinguisher. This is a step in the right direction but clearly not enough as the Serbians in the party still had intentions to assimilate Kosova. In addition, these changes created widespread fear amongst Serbs that they were being made second-class citizens in Yugoslavia by these changes. Serbs only began to hate Albanians even more. This came to haunt Serbia later when the Kosovo War started because the Serbian government removed all autonomy from the Kosova region. (Constitution of the Republic of Serbia, adopted on 28 September 1990.) So, in conclusion, the Yugoslavs and Serbians only have themselves and the Titoites to blame for Kosova declaring it’s independence in 2008!

Yugoslav foreign policy and Albania

So we just discussed about the internal polices in Yugoslavia, but what about external? As I said up above, the Albanians have never actually interfered with the Yugoslavs and state records of both Yugoslavia, Albania and the USSR confirm this. The Soviets did not even try to assasinate Tito, this was made up by Serbian nationalists to make Tito look better than he is. Stalin even scolded Hoxha for wanting to kill Tito, and said that they would never do acts similar to what Yugoslavia has done when it came to foreign policy (Enver Hoxha Memoirs from my Meetings with Stalin “Second Meeting March-April 1949" pg 83.) So it’s already questionable that Stalin supposedly wanted to kill Tito. There’s no source to say that Stalin tried to kill Tito, and the letter where Tito said “stop sending me assassins" was only 'discovered' in 1957 well after Stalins death. The Cominform did infiltrate some people into Yugoslavia, but they were not assassin’s. Their task was mostly propaganda, as opportune to organize communist cells. Sabotage was reported in Yugoslav media however it is most likely just a cover up for economic problems as there are no discussions of sabotage in the party leadership. If we look on the Yugoslav side, the Yugoslavs have influenced, tried to overthrow, and messed with eastern bloc countries much more than the USSR ever did to Yugoslavia. Most are aware of the former tense relations with Albania and Yugoslavia, but how did they come to be? For a number of reasons. The Soviet-Yugoslav split happened and the Soviets “kicked the Yugoslavs out" from the Cominform. There are a few actions that the Yugoslavs did against the Albanians, such as flying over their territory without asking, sending troops into their countryside, deploying divisions into the Albanian army, and the worst of all, Koci Xoxe and others. Xoxe was an agent, employed by the titoites, with the goal of overthrowing the Albanian government. Very strongly supported by Tito, his plot was to bring the nation into yugoslav territory. He was rightfully tried, imprisoned, and executed. As for the divisions, the Yugoslavs did this in complete secrecy. Stalin explained this to Hoxha in a meeting that the Yugoslavs did this without approval end with another intention to get rid of the current leadership.

Our letters addressed to the Yugoslav leadership do not contain everything, because there are many matters that emerged later. We did not know that the Yugoslavs, under the pretext of 'defending' your country [Hoxhas Albania] against an attack from the Greek fascists, wanted to bring units of their army into the PRA. They tried to do this in a very secret manner. In reality, their aim in this direction was utterly hostile, for they intended to overturn the situation in Albania. Your report to us on this question was of value, otherwise we would have known nothing about these divisions which they wanted to station on your territory. They implied that they were taking this action allegedly with the approval of the Soviet Union! (Enver Hoxha Memoirs from my Meetings with Stalin “Second Meeting March-April 1949" pg 44. Brackets added by me)

Albania, after the Soviet-Yugoslav split, was completely surrounded by enemies in all borders and sea borders. Tito and his gang was in no way correct in their stand towards Albania, and it’s because of yugoslavia that I justify Hoxha’s “immense" paranoia. Yugoslavia, the Anglo-American NATO collaborating nation, tried to overthrow Albania in the early years of the PLAs existence, and for the rest of its existence the party and nation were at the threat of war. Did the Soviet Union care for this? Did the Soviet Union condemn the Yugoslavian actions? At first they did! While Stalin was alive. It was only when Khrushchev came into power that the KPSS very quickly tried to reconcile with Yugoslavia (!) They even told Albania to rehabilitate Xoxe, however the PLA refused. The aggressions from Yugoslavia continued well after their expulsion from the Cominform as well, although not as much. For example the Yugoslavs and Bulgarians “accidentally” produced maps that had Albania in the borders of Yugoslavia, and another thing is that the USSR ended up favoring Yugoslavia over Albania. This ended up even happening with Mao, as he collaborated with Tito and his government. The Soviet Union preferred Tito and “wanted to please him" very much (an example of this is the USSR almost refusing Hoxha’s article against yugoslav revisionism to be printed in Pravda as Tito wouldn’t like it.) Mao, however not as bad as the Soviets, was still trying to not be on the bad side of Tito. He one time, when Hoxha was visiting China, said that “on this question [of the Yugoslav-Albanian split] you Albanians have not made mistakes towards the Yugoslavs, and neither have the Yugoslav comrades made mistakes towards you. The Information Bureau has made great mistakes here.” (Enver Hoxha The Khrushchevites pg 141) Both China and The Soviet Union have had contacts with Tito and at many times favoured Yugoslavia over the Albanians despite the Albanians describing their situation and the reasons for their hostile relations as well as why Stalin also kept these hostile relations. They saw Tito as a better partner economically, and they took this opportunity and fled with it. The PLA has been for a long time denouncing the titoites, and eventually were the only ones denouncing them. What justification is there to the Yugoslavs being incredibly aggressive towards the Albanians? None. The only reason that third largest military power in Europe would be at odds with Albania for the entire cold war is nationalism and especially Serbian chauvinism. Tito, such an upkeeper of brotherhood and unity threw this idea out into the garbage, especially when it came to the Albanians!

--

--

The Svetlanist

She/Her • Russian Hoxhaist • Open source extremist • Movie analyst • Transgender woman