Conversations with Stalin Read online

  BLAGOJE NEŠKOVIĆ (1907– )

  Serbian Communist who fought in the Spanish Civil War and joined Tito’s Partisans in 1941. In 1945 he was Premier of Serbia. A member of the Central Committee of the Yugoslav Communist Party, he was accused of deviation in 1952 and stripped of his posts.

  ANNA PAUKER (1893– )

  Rumanian Jew (nee Robinsohn) who was a founder of the Rumanian Communist Party in 1921. She married its head, Marcel Pauker. In 1924 both left Rumania for Moscow to work in Comintern headquarters. In 1936 she returned to Rumania, where she was arrested; her husband, in Moscow, fell in the Great Purge. Returned to Moscow in an exchange of prisoners, she became a member of the Executive Committee of the Comintern. During the Second World War she directed the Soviet radio station for broadcasts to Rumania and helped organize the Tudor Vladimirescu Division of Rumanian prisoners of war in the USSR. She returned to Rumania with the Red Army, and on November 7, 1947 became Foreign Minister and, soon after, Vice-Premier as well. In 1952 she fell from power, as a “deviationist.”

  MOŠA PIJADE (1889–195?)

  Theoretician of the Yugoslav Communist Party. He was the oldest member in the Party when it was organized in 1920. Sentenced to twenty years in prison for spreading Communism in trade unions, he translated Marx’s Das Kapital while serving his term in Sremska Mitrovica Penitentiary, the same jail to which Djilas was later sentenced under the Tito regime. During the Second World War he and Djilas led the uprising in Montenegro, which gave rise to a ruthless civil war in that province. After the war he served as Vice-President of the Constituent Assembly and, later, of the Federal People’s Assembly. In 1954, as a result of the Djilas affair, he became President of the Assembly. A member of the Yugoslav Communist Central Committee and Politburo, he was, until his death, in the inner circle around Tito.

  KOČA POPOVIĆ (1908– )

  Scion of a prominent Belgrade family, Paris-trained lawyer, and poet. He joined the Yugoslav Communist Party in 1933 and fought in the Spanish Civil War. Upon his return he was arrested, but continued his underground activities after being released. In 1941 he joined the Partisans and rose to the highest military and Government echelons. He served as Chief of the General Staff from 1945 to 1953. Since 1946 he has held the post of Foreign Minister of Yugoslavia.

  ALEKSANDAR-MARKO RANKOVIČ (1909– )

  Yugoslav Communist Party leader, who joined the Serbian Youth Section of the Party in 1927. He spent five years in various prisons, where he got to know Tito and Pijade. In 1937, when Tito reorganized the Party, he was in the Politburo and has remained a top Communist ever since. After the liberation struggle, of which he was a leading organizer, he became best known as Minister of Interior and director of the Military and Secret Police. He and Kardelj are generally regarded as being next to Tito in power.

  KONSTANTIN KONSTANTINOVICH ROKOSSOVSKY (1896– )

  A native Pole who joined the Red Army in 1919 and made a brilliant military career in the Soviet Union. He was one of the USSR’s most outstanding generals during the Second World War. For his part in the defense of Moscow, Stalingrad, and Kursk, he was twice awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and became a Marshal in 1944. In 1949 he was officially transferred to the Polish Army and held the posts of Polish Minister of Defense, Commander in Chief, Deputy Prime Minister, and member of the Politburo of the Polish Communist Party. In November 1956 the Gomulka regime had him transferred back to the Soviet Union, where he has since served as Deputy Minister of Defense.

  PAVLE SAVIĆ (1909– )

  Paris-trained Yugoslav nuclear physicist and member of the Communist Party since 1939. He fought in the liberation struggle and was attached to Supreme Headquarters. In 1949 he received an award for his work with low temperatures.

  RUDOLF SLANSKY (1901–1952)

  Czech Communist leader. He became director of the Communist daily Rudé Právo in 1926. In 1928 he was elected to the Central Committee of the Party. He was a member of the Czechoslovak delegation to the last congress of the Comintern, in 1935. After Czechoslovakia’s partition by Hitler, Slansky fled to the USSR, where he worked until 1944 in the Comintern. He returned to Czechoslovakia with the Red Army and became Secretary General of the reconstituted Czechoslovak Communist Party. He attended the Cominform meetings of 1947, 1948, and 1949. In September 1951 he was demoted from his leadership and, three months later, was arrested for “criminal activities.” In 1958 he was hanged.

  IVAN ŠUBAŠIĆ (1892–1955)

  Croatian politician. He was Governor (Ban) of Croatia from August 1939, and went into exile during the war. On June 1, 1944 he was appointed Premier of the Yugoslav Royal Government-in-exile at the insistence of the Allies. He merged his cabinet with Tito’s after the Tito-Šubašić Agreement concluded on the island of Vis. In the coalition Provisional Government, he served for a time as Foreign Minister.

  MIKHAIL ANDREYEVICH SUSLOV (1902– )

  Communist Party leader in the USSR. He joined the Party in 1921, entered the Central Committee in 1941, and was a high-ranking political officer during the war. In 1946 he became head of the Agitation and Propaganda Section of the Central Committee, and in 1947 Secretary. In 1949–1950 he served as editor in chief of Pravda. His chief posts since then have been chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Soviet Union (1954) and member of the Central Committee’s Presidium (1955). Generally regarded as a doctrinaire, he has nevertheless supported Khrushchev in defeating the “anti-Party group.”

  MIJALKO TODOROVIĆ (1913– )

  Yugoslav Communist leader. He began his Party career in the youth movement. He fought in the Partisan ranks during the Second World War. After the liberation he served in the Ministry of Defense, as Director of the Extraordinary Administration of Supply. Minister of Agriculture, and Chief of the Council for Agriculture and Forestry.

  ALEKSANDR MIKHAILOVICH VASILEVSKY (1895– )

  Leading Soviet general and Chief of the Soviet General Staff at the time of the Battle of Stalingrad. He was made a Marshal in 1943, and was commander of the Byelorussian Front in 1945. Since then he has served as Minister of War.

  NIKOLAI F. VATUTIN (1901–1944)

  Soviet general. With Konev and Malinovsky, he distinguished himself in the liberation of the Ukraine from the German Army.

  VELJKO VLAHOVIĆ (1914– )

  Montenegrin member of the Yugoslav Communist Party since 1935. He fought in the Spanish Civil War and was especially active in organizing the Communist Youth League of Yugoslavia. During the Second World War he directed the Free Yugoslavia radio station. He returned to Yugoslavia at the end of 1944 to serve as editor of the Communist daily, Borba, and as Deputy Foreign Minister. He has gained considerable reputation as a theoretician, especially since Djilas’s fall.

  NIKOLAI ALEKSEYEVICH VOZNESENSKY (1903–1950)

  Leading Soviet economist. During the Great Purge, he rose rapidly to the post of Chairman of the State Planning Commission (Gosplan), which plans and co-ordinates the whole Soviet economy. He was also Deputy Prime Minister in 1939 and a member of the State Defense Committee during the war. Candidate member of the Politburo in 1941 and full member in 1948, he was stripped of all his posts in 1949 during Malenkov’s campaign against Zhdanov’s followers, and was arrested and shot on Stalin’s orders.

  SVETOZAR VUKMANOVIĆ-TEMPO (1912– )

  Montenegrin who joined Yugoslav Communist Youth in 1933 and became a Party member in 1935. His specialty in underground work was organizing clandestine presses. During the Second World War he served in Partisan Supreme Headquarters and was Tito’s personal representative in Macedonia. In 1943 he was Chief Political Commissar in the People’s Liberation Army. After the war he was active in the Federal Assembly and Central Planning and Central Economic Commissions. He is one of the closest collaborators of Tito.

  KOČI XOXE (d.1948)

  Albanian Communist leader who, thanks to Yugoslav backing, became the most powerful man in the Albanian Communist Party just after the Second
World War, as Minister of the Interior and head of the Secret Police. At the time of the Tito-Cominform break, he was executed on charges of Trotskyite and Titoist activities.

  ANDREI ALEKSANDROVICH ZHDANOV (1896–1948)

  Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party Central Committee from 1935. He was a candidate member of the Politburo in 1934 and a full member in 1939. In charge of ideological affairs, he made Socialist Realism in the arts obligatory and directed the postwar campaign against Western cultural influences. During the Second World War he was a leader in the defense of Leningrad. He was prominent in the founding of the Cominform.

  GEORGI KONSTANTINOVICH ZHUKOV (1894– )

  Marshal of the Soviet Union. He served in the Bolshevik forces in 1917. In 1941 he was Chief of Staff of the Red Army and conducted the defense of Moscow against the Germans. He was First Vice-Commissar of Defense in 1942, and the following year was promoted to Marshal.

  VALERIAN ALEXANDROVICH ZORIN (1902– )

  Soviet diplomat. Among the posts he has held have been: Assistant General Secretary of the National Commissariat of Foreign Affairs (1941), Ambassador to Czechoslovakia (1945–1948), Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs (1948), and Ambassador to the German Federal Republic (1956–1958). Since 1960 he has been Permanent Soviet Representative to the United Nations.

  MIKHAIL MIKHAILOVICH ZOSHCHENKO (1895–1958)

  Soviet author best known for his satirical works and his treatment of the bewildered “little man” in Soviet society. In 1946 Zhdanov made him a prime target in the Party campaign to impose its control over cultural life. He was expelled from the Writers’ Union and lived in obscurity until his death.

  Index

  Albania, [>]–[>], [>], [>]–[>], [>], [>]–[>], [>], [>], [>]–[>], [>]

  Albanian Army, [>]

  Albanian Communist Party Central Committee, [>], [>]

  Aleksandrov, G. F., [>], [>], [>]

  Alexander I, [>]

  Andrejev, B., [>], [>], [>], [>]

  Antifascist Council, [>]

  Antonov, General, [>], [>], [>]

  Archangel, [>], [>]

  Army of People’s Liberation and Partisan Units, [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]

  Augustinčić, Antun, [>]

  Austria-Hungary, [>]

  Baghdad, [>]

  Bakarić, Vladimir, [>], [>], [>]

  Baku, [>]

  Balkans, [>], [>], [>], [>]

  Baltic states, [>], [>]

  Bari, [>]

  Belgrade, [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]

  Belgium, [>]

  Benelux, [>]

  Beria, Lavrenty Pavlovich, [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]–[>]

  Bessarabia, [>]

  Bishop of Uman, [>], [>]

  Black Sea Fleet, [>], [>]

  Bled, [>], [>], [>]

  Bodnaraš (Rumanian official), [>]

  Bolsheviks, [>], [>]

  Bosanski Petrovac, [>]

  British Commands and Missions, [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]

  British Intelligence Service, [>]–[>], [>]

  British Labour Government, [>]

  Bucharest, [>], [>], [>]

  Buděnny, Seměn Mikhailovich, [>], [>]

  Bukharin, Nikolai Ivanovich, [>], [>]

  Bulganin, Nikolai Aleksandrovich, [>], [>], [>], [>]

  Bulgaria, [>]–[>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]–[>], [>], [>]

  Bulgarian Communist Party, [>], [>]–[>], [>]

  Bulgarian Communist Party Central Committee, [>], [>], [>], [>]

  Bulgarian Communist Party émigrés, [>], [>]

  Bulgarian Royal Army. [>], [>]

  Bulgarian Socialist Party, [>]–[>]

  Byelorussia, [>]

  Cairo, [>]–[>], [>], [>]

  Caucasus, [>]

  Čhervenkov, Vlko, [>], [>]

  Chiang Kai-shek, [>]

  Chinese Communists, [>]

  Chinese revolution, [>], [>]

  Churchill, Sir Winston, [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]

  Cominform, [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]

  Comintern, [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]–[>], [>], [>]

  Communist Parties, see Bulgarian Communist Party; French Communist Party; Soviet Communist Party; Yugoslavian Communist Party

  Crete, [>]

  Crimea, [>], [>]

  Crnobrnja, Bogdan, [>]

  Czechoslovakia, [>], [>]

  Dapčević, Peko, [>], [>]

  Deakin, Major, [>]

  Dimitrov, Georgi, [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]–[>], [>], [>], [>]–[>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]–[>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]–[>]

  Dimitrov, Mrs. Georgi, [>]

  Dostoevsky, Fëdor, [>], [>]

  Drvar, [>]

  Duclos, Jacques, [>]

  Eastern Europe, [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]

  Eastern Front, [>], [>]

  East Prussia, [>]

  Egypt, [>]

  Ehrenburg, Ilya, [>]

  Fadeev, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich, [>]

  Far East, [>], [>]

  Finland, [>], [>]

  Foma Gordeev (Gorky), [>]

  For a Lasting Peace—For a People’s Democracy, [>]

  France, [>]

  Free Yugoslavia (radio station), [>], [>]

  French Communist Party, [>], [>]

  Gallipoli, [>]

  Gavrilović, Milan, [>]

  German Army, [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]

  German Social Democrats, [>]

  Germans, Germany, [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]

  Golubović, Ambassador, [>]

  Gomulka, Wladyslaw, [>]

  Göring, Hermann, [>]

  Gorky, Maxim, [>]–[>], [>]

  Gottwald, Klement, [>], [>]

  Great Britain, [>], [>], [>], [>]–[>], [>], [>], [>], [>], see also British Commands and Missions; British Labour Government

  Greece, Greeks, [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]–[>]

  Gundorov, General, [>]

  Habbaniya, [>], [>]

  Hebrang, Andrija, [>]–[>], [>]–[>]

  Hiroshima, [>]

  History of Western Philosophy (Aleksandrov), [>]

  Hitler, Adolf, [>], [>]

  Hoxha, Enver, [>], [>], [>]

  Hungary, [>], [>], [>]

  Iaşi, [>], [>]

  Italian Government, [>]

  Jajce, [>], [>]

  Japan, [>]

  Jovanović, Arso, [>]

  Kaganovich, Lazar Moiseevich, [>]

  Kalinin, Mikhail Ivanovich, [>], [>]

  Kapital, Das (Marx), [>]

  Kardelj, Edvard, [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]–[>], [>], [>], [>], [>]–[>], [>]

  Khrushchev, Nikita Sergeevich, [>]–[>], [>]

  Kidrč, Boris, [>]

  Kiev, [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]–[>]

  Kirov, Sergei Mironovich, [>]

  Kolarov, Vassil, [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]

  Kolomna, [>]

  Konev, Ivan Stepanovich, [>], [>], [>], [>]–[>]

  Königsberg (Kaliningrad), [>]

  Korneev, General, [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]

  Korsun’-Shevchenkovsky, [>]

  Kostov, Traicho, [>], [>]–[>], [>], [>]

  Kozovsky, Captain, [>], [>], [>]

  Kremlin, [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]–[>], [>], [>], [>], [>]

  Kuibyshev, [>]

  Kutuzov, Mikhail Ilarionovich, [>]

  Lehman, Herbert H., [>]

  Lenin, Nikolai, [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]

  Leningrad, [>], [>], [>], [>]–[>]

  Life of Klim Samgin, The (Gorky), [>]

  Lozovsky, A., [>]

  Luxembourg, [>]

  Macedonia, [>], [>]

  Malenkov, Georgi Maximilianovich, [>]–[>], [>], [>], [>], [>]

  Malta, [>]

  Manuilsky, Dmitri Zakharovich, [>],
[>]–[>], [>], [>], [>], [>]

  Marshall Plan, [>], [>], [>]

  Marxism and the National Question (Stalin), [>]

  Mesić, Commander, [>], [>]

  Metropole Hotel, [>], [>]

  Mikoyan, Anastas Ivanovich, [>]

  Mitrović, Mitra, [>]

  Molotov, Vyacheslav Mikhailovich, [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]–[>], [>], [>]–[>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]–[>], [>], [>]–[>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]–[>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]

  Montenegro, [>]

  Moscow, [>]–[>], [>], [>]–[>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]–[>], [>], [>], [>], [>]

  Moskva Hotel, [>]

  National Committee of Yugoslavia, [>], [>], [>]

  Neretva, [>]

  Nešković, Blagoje, [>]

  Netherlands, [>]

  New York, [>]

  NKVD, [>]

  Normandy, [>], [>]

  Nouvelle Democratie, La, [>]

  Novoe Vremia, [>]–[>]

  On the Opposition (Stalin), [>]

  Panslavic Committee, [>]–[>], [>]

  Panslavic Congress, [>]