48 The Young Broz
Walter’s long absence had given the sectarian groups a chance to catch their
breath, since they were convinced he was already doomed. Even some com-
rades in Paris, Spain, and Canada started to waver. Dimitrov, however, inter-
vened in his favor, asking the French Communist Party to back him in his
struggle against his adversaries, which they did.^229 The CPY ’s close alignment
with Moscow at that time is evident from a meeting of the provisional leader-
ship on 15–18 March 1939, on the shores of Lake Bohinj in Slovenia. Kardelj,
Djilas and Ivo Lola Ribar, among others, took part. Unanimously and “with
joy”—as Walter wrote to Kuhar—they decided to expel from the party all
Yugoslav communists recently arrested or killed in the Soviet Union as “Trotsky-
ists” and “sectarians,” as well as those who were causing trouble in Paris and at
home (Marić, Kusovac, Miletić). This decision demonstrated that Walter, in
spite of the fear he had had to cope with in Moscow, was not critical of Stalin’s
terror but accepted his ruthless methods. Not just his enemies but friends like
Vladimir Čopić were among those expelled from the party.^230 When he returned
from the USSR, Walter confided to his comrades that according to Dimitrov,
in the recent purges the Soviet Union had at times “exaggerated” charges, but
that in any case it was better to cut into healthy flesh in order to completely
extirpate the “malignant tumor.”^231 Evidently Broz agreed with this idea, since
he implemented similar practices during his leadership, although in a less cruel
way than that of Stalin. From the very start he could count on the solidarity of
his collaborators: “We were proud to be faithful to Stalin,” remembered Djilas,
“and to be Bolsheviks of firm character. The highest ideal of the party was to be
a Bolshevik, and for us, Stalin was the incarnation of Bolshevism.”^232
In 1939, Walter returned from Moscow firmly convinced that the party should
be financially autonomous (largely through party membership fees). He was
extremely satisfied when told that, in this regard, the CPY was finally inde-
pendent from the Comintern. “This was the first emancipation,” comments
Djilas, “much more important than it seemed at the moment.”^233 In truth, this
was only partially the case, for in 1940 a false-bottomed suitcase came from
Moscow with secret instructions and a respectable amount in US dollars.^234
One of the most important successes achieved by the CPY during that
period was the organization of communist youth (the SKOJ), in particular high
school and university students. Once the distrust toward young people, long a
feature of the party, disappeared, membership in the SKOJ increased, especially
at the three Yugoslav universities where its activities were “legal.” “In Belgrade
alone ten thousand young people are studying at the university,” wrote the Brit-
ish ambassador in his dispatch to the Foreign Office. “If more than half of
these, perhaps even three-quarters, are Communist in their views, it is above all
out of anxiety for their future; Yugoslavia has a cultured proletariat screaming