230 The Postwar Period
advanced of the republics and the one from which he hailed. “This vision of
his,” said Tito at the end of his life, referring to Kardelj’s preoccupation with his
tiny homeland, “says everything.”^408
The reforms, in addition to the military budget, required financial expen-
ditures that exceeded the capacity of the Yugoslav economy. The population,
especially the urban one, lived on the edge of poverty, which resulted in an
increase in crime. The party theoreticians—Kardelj, Kidrič, Bakarić, Pijade,
Djilas—were critical not only of the Soviet system, but also of the Yugoslav
one and were conscious of the fact that after the split with Stalin they needed
to strengthen the popularity of the regime among the masses, who were often
hostile to Communism. They therefore decided to adopt more liberal economic
measures, as well as social and cultural ones. On 1 January 1950, an amnesty for
seven thousand political prisoners was proclaimed (excluding the Cominform-
ists), restrictions for traveling abroad were loosened, and pressure on religious
communities diminished. They also decided to review the Five-Year Plan,
which originally presupposed forced industrialization. On 12 November 1950,
Tito declared in an interview with a German press agency that the second
Five-Year Plan would not be similar to the first one, stressing that the Yugoslav
economy would be more oriented toward consumer goods, considering that “in
the coming five years, we have to improve the standard of living.”^409 He recog-
nized that the nationalization of the small artisanal businesses had been a mis-
take, and announced that some of them would be given back to their owners.
It did occur, although the real change happened with some delay. It was not
until September 1955 that a new economic course was implemented, aimed at
funneling investments from heavy to light industry, improving agriculture, and
strengthening foreign economic relations.^410
There were also significant changes in intellectual life. For instance, the
authorities abandoned the Russification policy and as early as January 1950
published a decree that equated the study of Russian in schools with that of
other foreign languages. Russian textbooks, especially those of the social sci-
ences, were replaced and, in August of the same year, the CPY ’s party organ
Komunist announced that Stalin’s History of the All-Union Communist Party
(Bolshevik): Short Course was no longer obligatory reading for party members.
Other aspects of intellectual life, especially in the arts, changed as well. An
exhibition by the painter Miodrag Popović opened that year in Belgrade on
23 September accompanied by a brochure in which the painter criticized all
kinds of censorship. The newspaper of the Serb Popular Front commented that
“some of Popović’s statements are not correct, but nobody will deny his right
to express them.”^411 This liberalizing trend was confirmed by the Second Writ-
ers’ Congress, convened in Ljubljana in October 1952. In his opening speech,