The Balkan Pact on the Eve of Stalin's Death
The end of the Stalin era turned out to be truly terrible - with a stampede and numerous victims on the days of farewell, as if at the coronation of the last emperor long before that. The funeral of the leader, who officially passed away on March 5, 1953, was, as you know, scheduled for Monday, March 9.
Delegations from the Soviet regions and far abroad, who hastily arrived in Moscow, asked to postpone Stalin's funeral at least a day, and preferably two days later. In order not to rush to say goodbye to the long-term leader of the Leninist Party and the Soviet Union. However, the "comrades-in-arms" and "disciples" were adamant: March 9, period.
But many foreign delegations were able to arrive in the capital of the USSR only on 10 and even 12-13 March. Well, their wreaths to the mausoleum almost immediately ended up in the Moscow River, in the Yauza and Setun. Where, according to contemporaries, due to an overabundance of flowers and wreaths, real "plugs" were formed that impeded the flow of these rivers...
The forgotten prophecy of the "iron" chancellor
On the other hand, in the Balkans and in Turkey, it seems, they were preparing in advance and well “prepared” for the end of the Stalin era, including politically. In this regard, it is impossible not to recall two predictions at once, or rather, real prophecies.
The legendary Chancellor of Germany, aptly nicknamed the "iron" Otto von Bismarck, had no doubt that
"The spark for a new war will be some damned stupidity in the Balkans."
The great helmsman Mao Zedong 80 years later, in 1969, directly repeated Bismarck's prediction:
"A new world war, if it starts, then first in the Balkans."
Between these forecasts, the truly tragic year 1953 fit. In Turkish Ankara on February 28, 1953 - literally on the eve of Stalin's death - the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between Turkey, Greece and Yugoslavia was signed. This treaty had an article (at number 6) on consultations on issues of joint defense, if any participating country would be threatened by a military invasion from outside.
This treaty soon became known as the military-political Balkan Pact. Which is quite objective, since Turkey and Greece have become NATO members since 1952, and Yugoslavia in 1951 concluded an open-ended Security Treaty with the United States. He drew the FPRY into the military orbit of the United States and NATO as a whole.
Thus, Yugoslavia "comprehensively" insured against the invasion of the troops of the USSR and its Eastern European allies: Soviet-Yugoslav relations in 1948-1953, we recall, were on the verge of a military conflict. It is noteworthy that some media in Greece and Turkey, on the eve of the Balkan Pact and in the first week after, drew attention to the absence of Stalin in public politics.
predict not guess
In Ankara and Athens, as it turned out, they rightly believed that a change in the leadership of the USSR could soon take place in Moscow. This is exactly what happened a week later, although the emigrant Radio Liberation, created by the US CIA (since 1959, Radio Liberty), we note, already on March 1, 1953 - in its first broadcast to the USSR - reported that Stalin was either dying or already deceased.
In the USSR, this message was not refuted - how, alas, this is typical of our propaganda. And the actual inclusion of Yugoslavia into the NATO system, which took place just in those days, showed that Moscow frankly went too far in the confrontation with Belgrade. Therefore, the Soviet side did not comment on the creation of the Balkan Pact.
Soviet intelligence, on the other hand, had facts about the periodic transfer in 1949-1953 of OUN members and emissaries of Western intelligence both to the USSR and back. On a variety of routes: through Yugoslav Slovenia, Croatia, Vojvodina to Hungary and Czechoslovakia.
However, according to the Yugoslav expert Mirko Drazic, in the late 1940s - early 1950s. Moscow simply did not risk "excessive pressure" on Warsaw, Prague and Budapest in matters of joint struggle against nationalists in the Baltic States and Western Ukraine. The Soviet leadership feared that Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary would “switch over” to the side of the “Tito clique”.
Stalin's last gift
At the same time, the USSR in the period from 1947 to 1951 supported, and quite actively, Belgrade's demand for the annexation of the Italian islands of Bishevo, Svetac, Palagruzha and Yabuka, located in the central Adriatic, to Yugoslavia.
As a result, at the beginning of 1951, they were included in the FPRY. But even this circumstance did not “turn away” Belgrade from signing the Balkan Pact. In a word, the very fact of signing this Pact on the eve of Stalin's death can be considered highly indicative.
He testifies that in Yugoslavia, and in the West, too, it was not without reason that they expected that the struggle for power in the Soviet leadership after Stalin would weaken the foreign policy of the USSR. Therefore, it is necessary to take advantage of this in advance and, accordingly, include the FPRY in the NATO orbit.
The duration of the Pact was 20 years. But official statements of the participating countries on the termination of its action did not follow. That is, since the mid-70s, it has become a kind of "reserve" bloc for Yugoslavia in case Soviet-Yugoslav relations escalate again.
Did the marshal know?
... Josip Broz Tito learned about the death of Stalin on the Galeb, a ship of the Yugoslav Navy, on which the FPRY delegation was heading to Great Britain. The Marshal's head of security, Colonel S. Zhezhel, came to Tito shouting:
"Comrade Marshal, Stalin is dead!"
Zhezhel handed Tito a telegram dated March 6 from the FPRYU embassy. Tito read it, then said:
"Yeah, I always knew he wouldn't die a natural death."
From Marshal Tito came an unequivocal instruction: to limit the expression of condolences only verbally and only on behalf of the government of Yugoslavia. It was also decided that Yugoslavia's charge d'affaires in the USSR, I. Djuric, would take part in the funeral ceremony.
And here, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR Yakov Malik defiantly extended his hand to Dzhurich. He considered the handshake so important that on the same day he sent a dispatch to Belgrade. It noted, among other things:
“... It seemed that Stalin began to interfere as soon as he died, so he was quickly buried ...”
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