Illyrian Spring
Marshal Tito's speech of last Saturday, in which he condemned the Soviet Union for its campaign of lies against Yugoslavia and the West for vulgar stupidity in thinking that capitalism could ever again take root in Yugoslavia, came at the end of a week in which a Bulgarian Vice-Premier, Mr. Kostov, had been dismissed, and a large- scale attack had been launched from Albania into Greece. Spring, in fact, has burst upon the Balkans with its usual exuberance. The temperature mounts most rapidly when the question of Macedonia is mentioned. The Premier of the Macedonian Federal Republic (one of the constituent states of Yugoslavia), following Marshal Tito at the People's Front Congress in Belgrade, attacked the Bulgarian Government for its ambitions in this explosive corner of the Balkans. The Greeks have every reason to fear both Bulgars and Yugoslays. And the Soviet Union may be willing, if necessary, to use the Macedonian question as one more stage in its implacable campaign against Yugoslavia. This has been so bitterly pursued that Marshal Tito hardly had much to lose when he attacked the Cominform in the most blasphemous terms (the phrase "deviation from Marxism- Leninism " was used) at Belgrade last Saturday. But the fact remains that Yugoslavia cannot stand on her own feet economically. It is therefore hard to know what the Marshal expected to gain from his simultaneous attack on the reactionary-Western-Imperialists. For them to seek to bring Marshal Tito into the capitalist camp (which was another of the accusations he made) that would surely be the height of perversity. The case for leaving Balkan politicians to their own peculiar devices could hardly be stronger than it is now.
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