Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Why did yugoslavia and albania not come under the direct control of the soviet union?

.....??Why did yugoslavia and albania not come under the direct control of the soviet union?
The reason was because Yugoslavia more or less on its own liberated itself from Nazi tyranny. Tito was an extremely popular leader and an effective general and military leader. In the Satellite countries Stalin had imposed imported communists to rule - nearly all of the new leaders had spent the war in Moscow being tutored in communist ideology. These new leaders were dependent on the Soviet Army to maintain their power.


Stalin asked Tito to come to Moscow in 1948 - probably to have him arrested, tried and executed and a more amenable leader put in his place. Tito refused to go. Stalin demanded that the Yugoslav Communist Party remove Tito and his Politburo - they refused. Stalin knew that Tito was a skilled general and, if the Red Army invaded they would face a determined military response and, because Tito was so popular, a hostile local population. And, as the agreement between Stalin, FDR %26amp; Churchill had agreed, Yugoslavia was only 50% in the Soviet sphere of influence.


Albania was liberated by Tito, and initially, was a Satellite of Yugoslavia. Only when Stalin %26amp; Tito fell out did they become arch Stalinsts. Tito was not prepared to invade because the Albanians were heavily militarised, and the Soviet Union would invade Yugoslavia to protect a ';fraternal'; communist country.


See:


Patrick Brogan - The Captive Nations 1945 - 1991Why did yugoslavia and albania not come under the direct control of the soviet union?
Albania supported the Chinese form of Communism and thus refused to align with Moscow.





Yugoslavia had a very powerful leader in Tito, and it was largely his stature that kept the Soviets at arms length. He was certainly aligned with the Soviets, but did not become a 'satellite' state.





The other issue may have been geographical as the Balkans were not in the direct 'road' of the West. The other Iron curtain countries were used as a military buffer against a possible US/allied attack. Yugoslavia and Albania were not required for this.
yugoslavia fell apart. Albania was a puppet state for the communist powers (russia/china) until the sino soviet split where they aligned with China. but then they ran into a sino-albanian split.

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