3925
The Later Years
Yugoslavia in Economic and Political Crisis
1973–1980
After the suicide of his only son, Borut, on New Year’s Eve 1972, Kardelj retired
to private life for several months, seeking refuge in alcohol. The Ninth Congress
of the LCY (27–29 May 1974) provided the necessary impetus to work on the
formulation of the fourth Yugoslav Constitution since the war, which gave him
the illusion that he might exert some influence on events. As Stane Kavčič said,
Kardelj was a sensible man, attracted to democracy and humanitarian ideals.
Aware that the defeat of the liberal elite and the following purge could have
adverse conse quences since it was not supported by public opinion (especially
in Slovenia and Croatia), Kardelj tried to find an escape from this dead end.
“He tried to give to democracy and to our ‘socialism with a human face’ more
than was taken away,” believing that he might find a solution in the new consti-
tutional law that he had been working on the basis of his Bolshevik and Proud-
honian ideas.^1 He was sure that self-management was a “socialist category, born
out of the fight with the bureaucratism of the state and an economic apparatus
typical of the Soviet Union.” He believed that this clash between “socialist self-
management” and “technocratic Stalinism” had produced a “new revolutionary
phase”: the constitution he was working on would define and complete its char-
acteristic features and traits. Its aim should be a conflict-free system in which
the proletariat and the entirety of the working class would be able to imple-
ment their leadership in society. As Kardelj said: “The constitution is born of
man, from his authentic interests and needs, but also from interpersonal rela-
tions, which develop on the basis of mutual rights and obligations, and not on
the basis of relations between the individual and the state.” From his point of
view, the question transcended the internal structure of Yugoslavia, and con-
cerned the very essence of socialism in its universal dimensions and meanings.^2
“Kardelj wanted to be, first of all, a theoretician,” noted Stane Kavčič. “He
wanted to handle the practice and to steer it according to theory. For him, theory