28 The Young Broz
the party organization and to continue to enlist volunteers for Spain.^109 At the
beginning of December, he was once more in Vienna, together with Gorkić,
who had returned from Moscow full of self-confidence. In spite of the criticism
he has been subjected to, he had been confirmed secretary general of the party
and now had the right to veto any decisions taken by the leadership at home
or abroad. Until this point no one in the CPY had had such prerogatives. In
addition, the Comintern expelled his left-wing adversaries from the CC and
nominated new ones. One of the new nominees was Walter, but they also
included Sreten Žujović, called Crni (the Dark One), a former soldier of the
Foreign Legion, “so handsome that the women turned their heads after him,”
to quote Djilas, and Rodoljub Čolaković, Broz’s former prison mate. Gorkić,
aged thirty-three, was bursting with pride, since it was obvious that he had
powerful patrons in Moscow.^110
To Walter “it seemed strange” that Gorkić had the power of veto. This meant
that he was able to define the party line and to seek whatever alliances he wished
with the opposition in Yugoslavia. In fact, he did just that, hoping that the
CPY would be able to take part in the town and district municipal elections
in December 1936. Walter was charged with coming to an agreement with the
socialists “at all costs” and was not to worry about the name with which the
party would present itself to voters. Walter did not agree with Gorkić’s conten-
tion, developed in several brochures, that it was necessary to join the opposi-
tion, even at the cost of the party’s identity, especially since the socialists
demanded that the Communist Party should renounce its clandestine struc-
tures. According to Broz, the situation was similar to that in Russia during the
years 1907–14, when Mensheviks wanted to “liquidate” the clandestine party
committees in order to find a common language with the liberals. Lenin had
opposed this “liquidation.”^111 By the end of 1936, Broz was of the same opinion
as the father of the October Revolution. But he asked no questions and did not
protest, happy enough to be sent by the Comintern to work in his own country:
“I did not wish to say anything, since Gorkić had all the rights. I was just satis-
fied to go home.”^112
In mid-December 1936, he left Vienna with a false passport, but not the one
Gorkić had given him. Nor did he take the route Gorkić had recommended,
since “too often comrades to whom he had given a passport were arrested at the
Yugoslav border.”^113 Among other places, Walter visited Ljubljana, Zagreb,
Belgrade, and Split, with the task of organizing a large expedition of volunteers
to Spain. At the end of the year, while this work was in progress, he went
to Prague in order to discuss the details with Gorkić. The secretary general
informed him that the volunteers would be transported from the Dalmatian and
Montenegrin coasts to Spain by steamship, that the trip would be organized by