144 World War Two and the Partisan Struggle
to Eden on 11 March 1945, he wrote that from then on he would leave Tito to
stew in his “bitter” Balkan sauce, and would turn his attentions to Italy in order
to preserve it “from the Communist plague.”^488 He had in mind, first of all, the
strong Italian Communist Party in the north, and the danger of a territorial
union between it and the CPY in the Julian March, the contested region at
the head of the Adriatic. Tormented by this not at all groundless suspicion,
he observed with worry the territorial demands of the new Yugoslavia in that
ethnically mixed area, including Trieste, where the Slovenian Liberation Front
had begun organizing a strong resistance movement in 1942. He was aware
that, in such a contested territory, it was necessary to prevent any immediate
contact between the Italian partisans and Tito’s forces.^489
While the threat of a serious conflict with the Western Allies had already
appeared on the horizon and relations with Moscow were not at all idyllic, the
main body of the Yugoslav troops was still fighting the forces of General Löhr,
which were trying desperately to reach the Austrian border and surrender to
the English. The last struggles took place in Southern Carinthia in mid-May,
although peace had already reigned for a week in other parts of Europe. On
15 May the Third Army, under the command of General Kosta Nadj, succeeded
in taking prisoner more than three hundred thousand soldiers—among them
twelve Ustaša generals and Montenegrin Chetnik leaders—and about twenty
thousand civilian fugitives.^490 The national liberation struggle was finished, but
the civil war continued nearly everywhere in Yugoslav territory over the course
of the following months and years, until all of the groups who resisted the vic-
torious communist regime were completely liquidated.^491 Although its adver-
saries were mostly routed by 1947, the ethnic and ideological feuds sown before
the war and sharpened in the course of the conflict would continue to smolder
among the Yugoslav people, in spite of the official propaganda that celebrated
the nearly mystical unity of the new state: “We are Tito’s, Tito is ours!”^492
VictoryArriving in Belgrade on 27 October 1944, Tito immediately visited the royal
palaces on Dedinje Hill on the right bank of Sava River, and ordered their
restoration. This was a symbolic act, signaling the arrival of a new, revolution-
ary power. In fact, as Dušan Bilandžić wrote, the new proprietor, who installed
himself in what was once the residence of the Karadjordjević dynasty, was a
“shepherd” from Zagorje who was viewed with horror by more than just the
Serb bourgeoisie.^493
The royal residences were more neglected than ruined, with furnishings
and interior decorations still intact. Tito chose the White Palace for himself,