World War Two and the Partisan Struggle 55
to speak, he had tears in his eyes. “But when the session was over and I was still
tense... he came to me and invited me for a stroll. Generally, he didn’t come
often to Zagreb, so as to avoid meeting anyone who knew him. But now he did
it. He started to speak about commonplace matters, mostly about my private
life and situation. From time to time he smiled mildly. In all this there was
something human and warm, and when we separated I went happy as a child
whose father has recognized that he has punished him unjustly, although he
doesn’t wish to admit it.”^22
In Zagreb, Broz and Krleža once more confronted each other. Krleža twice
promised he would stop the propaganda against the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact,
but he did not keep his word. During the months when Broz was extremely
busy strengthening the party and circulating its program among the masses,
Herta Haas said that at least half his time was spent in discussions with Krleža
and his friends.^23 Because he could not convince them, he branded them “Trot-
skyists” again and published a volume of essays edited by Vladimir Dedijer to
refute their writings.^24
Krleža was particularly critical of the Soviet Union, above all because he was
hard-hit by the tragic fate of his acquaintances and friends, “who gave their life
for Bolshevism and have been liquidated under their own banners.”^25 Broz’s
answer to these moral considerations regarding Stalin’s terror was: “What can
we do in a situation like the present one, with the war knocking at our door?
Upon whom can we rely? We have no other protector than the USSR, whether
we like it or not.”^26 But Krleža, believing that the revolution was “a suicide mis-
sion,” did not change his mind. During the war he did not take part in the
Partisan struggle, although Tito invited him to join on several occasions, con-
vinced that as a “revisionist” he would be “butchered” if he ventured into the
liberated territory.^27 Because of this attitude, Tito himself had some difficulty
protecting the writer after the war, although he made peace with him. When,
in August 1945, the writer came to Tito’s residence, the White Palace in Bel-
grade, for the first time, he was received with marked coldness. Without offer-
ing to shake hands, Tito said sharply: “Sit down!” But after half an hour he
invited him to lunch. Their comradeship, formed during the First World War
in the same barracks, obviously survived.^28
The change in the Muscovite political line also changed the attitude of the
communists toward the internal situation in Yugoslavia. Prior to the signing
of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, they had tried to dialogue with all those
forces that might accept collaboration. After August 1939 they looked at local
events through a new ideological lens, in accordance with the Comintern’s