Tito and His Comrades

150

3

The Postwar Period

Consolidation of Power and

Confrontation with Stalin

1945–1953

During the final military operations of May 1945, Yugoslav armed forces cap-
tured 125,000 collaborators and 280,000 German soldiers, making a concerted
effort to prevent Gestapo members from escaping.^1 Toward the end of 1944,
Tito had twice promised amnesty to all collaborators who had fought with the
Nazis but had not participated in war crimes if they agreed to join the Parti-
sans. After his agreement with Šubašić, numerous Domobrani seized that
opportunity, deserting the regular army of the Independent State of Croatia.
However, as Šubašić had no influence in Serbia and Slovenia, Chetniks and
other right-wing groups such as the Slovenian Domobranci failed to follow their
example.^2 On 14 May 1945, Tito issued an order prohibiting the killing of pris-
oners, while those suspected of war crimes were to be put before military tribu-
nals to be organized by both the Slovene and Croatian General Staffs. As early
as 18 May, however, he abolished the autonomy of these bodies, annexing their
units to the Yugoslav Army and thus putting them under his direct control:
a decision informed partly by the threat of an armed conflict with the British
and Americans on the Western borders, but accepted reluctantly, especially in
Slovenia, where the population was very proud of its army.^3
When, on 1 May 1945, Partisan forces liberated and occupied Trieste and
Gorizia, with their mixed Italian and Slovene population, serious tensions arose
between Belgrade and the Allies. The Allies demanded an unconditional Par-
tisan withdrawal from this strategically important area in the north Adriatic,
which Italy had annexed after the First World War after a dire diplomatic
dispute with the newly created Yugoslav Kingdom. In order to strengthen their
position in Italy and show that they would not allow “Communists” to “grab
land” at their pleasure, the Americans and the British were ready to use force
against Tito’s units and to march all the way to Ljubljana, if necessary. The level