Titoist Integration of Yugoslavia: The Partisan Myth & the Hungarians of the Vojvodina, 1945-1975

Abstract

The conflicts of different national groups living under one political authority have been a major problem in modern political history and continue to threaten the cohesiveness of many societies today. To gain a better understanding of the difficulties and to devise improved methods of integration, it may be instructive to examine the practices of Marxist governments in Eastern Europe. In this article, Andrew Ludanyi analyzes the rather imaginative efforts made by Yugoslavia to integrate its various nationalities in the post-World War II era through the Partisan Myth of World War II and the federal organization of governmental power. For his evaluation he uses the status of the Hungarian minority in the Vojvodina between 1945 and 1975. He finds that Tito's policies have reduced nationality conflicts and succeeded in creating a politically integrated multinational setting. However, he wonders whether the relative success will outlast Tito and provide a pattern to be emulated by other East European countri...