(COLD WAR: 1945-49 – continued)
COLD WAR: 1945-49 (4 of 9)
Where the communists had come to power without the Soviet army – in Yugoslavia – resentment arose over the Soviet Union's attempt at domination, threatening in Stalin's eyes the unity that was needed among Slavs in facing a possibility of war with the capitalist West. There was tension also between the Soviet Union and Yugoslave concerning the economics. In 1947 the Yugoslavs discovered that from the Soviet Union they could not get the machinery they wanted. Instead they received bad quality consumer items at a price well above retail prices in Western Europe.
Meanwhile,Stalin was offended by Tito's independence. This was the nationalism that the Soviet Union's Communist Party and its Cominform were complaining about. The Soviet army moved to Yugoslavia's border. The Soviet Union charged Tito with "pursuing an unfriendly policy to the Soviet Union." It ceased trade and called Tito a Trotskyite. It was trying to encourage an anti-Tito among communists within Yugoslavia. The Yugoslav Communist Party was expelled from Cominform. This would not work well for well for Stalin.
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