The Postwar Period 159
which incorporated the various middle-class parties while also depriving them
of their autonomy. The presidency of the Front was assumed by Tito, with
Sreten Žujović, “the Black One,” as secretary general. Despite Washington’s
threat to halt economic aid if the elections for the Constitutional Assembly
were not free, the poll results on 11 November surprised no one: the Popular
Front, the only organization that took part in the race, achieved an absolute
majority.^49 Those who had the right to vote, including women (for the first
time) and minors who had fought in the Partisan ranks (“if they can carry a
gun, they can vote too”), could do so via a rubber ball, because of widespread
illiteracy. Voters could place the ball in the box belonging to the Popular Front,
or in the “black” box of no party, a mechanism designed to “guarantee” freedom
of choice. The Popular Front received 8,393,435 votes, while just 838,239 voters
were bold enough to put their rubber ball in the box without political affiliation.
It is known that many voters, especially soldiers, were transported by trucks
from one polling station to another in order to vote multiple times. There was
no independent control of the vote count.^50
On the basis of this electoral result, the Constitutional Assembly was con-
vened, comprising two chambers, one federal and one national. At its first ses-
sion, on 29 November 1945, it issued a declaration that abolished the monarchy
and announced the Popular Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Tito often said that
this was the happiest day of his life. The Assembly then began to discuss the
new constitution, which was solemnly proclaimed on 31 January 1945, despite
it being an exact copy of the Soviet constitution of 1936 (making it an object
of mockery in Moscow).^51 The constitution guaranteed the six federal republics
the right to self-determination and secession which, at the time, seemed just
a formula, but which would prove important later on with the dissolution of
Yugoslavia. The equality of all Yugoslav people was symbolically emphasized
with the reading of the text in Serbian, Croatian, Slovenian, and Macedonian,
but not in Albanian, despite the size of Albanian population in Kosovo.^52 The
question which status should be granted to the Albanians in Yugoslavia caused
fierce internal quarrels with Serbs, as Tito confessed in 1978 in one of his last
interviews, with George W. Hoffman, an American professor of Austrian origin.
In the end, Kosovo was declared, together with Vojvodina, an autonomous prov-
ince of the Republic of Serbia, a decision that did not meet the requirements
of the Albanians or the Serbs. Asked about his most difficult task in domestic
political life, Tito answered, “Convincing the Serbs to accept the provinces
of Vojvodina and Kosovo [within the framework of their republic].” He felt
that Kosovo should be the seventh autonomous entity within the boundaries
of Yugoslavia, along with Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro,