The Presidential Years 339
Russians. Fearing the return of Yugoslavia to the Soviet fold and its orthodoxy,
they tried to neutralize him with maneuvers that were more or less successful.
After Indonesian dictator Sukarno lost power, but conserved his post as nomi-
nal head of state, some in Belgrade said, “let’s Sukarnize Tito.” Many Slovenes
agreed with the Serbs, above all Kardelj, as did Lazar Koliševski, for years the
leading proponent of the Macedonians. In this atmosphere Stane Kavčič
attempted to deprive the marshal of control of the army, which he had always
had on a string thanks to General Gošnjak. But the initiative was fruitless.^411
The Croats, convinced that they would be able to exploit Tito’s political
weakness for their own aims, took an entirely different approach. The newly
elected president of the Croat League of Communists, Savka Dabčević-Kučar,
said to her inner circle: “If Tito supports us, we will win.”^412 It is evident that
the other republics did not want to have a strong personality at the helm of the
party and state, whereas Croatia wanted to invest in the marshal, provoking
resentment in Belgrade and Ljubljana. In the two capitals, the Croats were
bluntly accused of supporting an autocrat and preserving his power.^413
The “Young Guard”As correctly observed by the American ambassador to Belgrade, Charles E.
Elbrick, Ranković’s fall shattered the structure of power relations among the six
republics that had been forged during the Second World War and carefully nur-
tured and built thereafter. In his opinion, the decisions of the Fourth Plenum
also dealt a major blow to the “brotherhood and unity” principle that had hith-
erto cemented cohesion among party members. He further noted: “Probably
the immediate result of all this will be an increase in tensions among nation-
alities, as each component a party and nationality of Yugoslavia, availing itself
of new opportunities, presses its own interests which may not necessarily be the
same as general Yugoslav interests or which may more likely be in conflict with
those of other Republics.”^414
Elbrick’s prophecy was soon realized as reformist groups emerged in the
three main republics—a “national” one in Croatia, a “liberal” one in Serbia,
and a “technocratic” one in Slovenia. They wanted to modernize every field of
social life while complying with local traditions. Their supporters were middle-
aged people who had established themselves in the LCY thanks to its partial
restructuring. The League was transformed into a federal body made up of
nine relatively autonomous entities: six of which were republican while two
at a slightly lower level were provincial and one was military. Apart from the
latter, which was still under the control of the old Partisans, the homines novi
in Belgrade, Zagreb, and Ljubljana, but also in Skopje, did not contribute to the
weakening of the centrifugal tendencies present in the country as Tito may