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Yugoslavia Application of Stalinist Economics
With the victory of Josip Broz Tito and the People's Front in
November 1945, post-World War II Yugoslavia became a one-party
communist state. The new Communist Party of Yugoslavia (CPY) was
strictly Marxist-Leninist in economic outlook and fiercely loyal
to the centralized economic program of Soviet dictator Joseph V.
Stalin. Supporting the Soviet Union's foreign policy in most
issues and imitating its domestic policy, the party labeled
itself the vanguard of the proletariat. Nationalization of
industry, redistribution of private land, and
collectivization of
agriculture (see Glossary) were at the core of Yugoslav domestic
economic policy as the 1950s began.
Under the Land Reform of 1945, over 1 million hectares of
land were confiscated from private owners and institutions. A
state-controlled land fund was established to hold and
redistribute the land to peasants and state farms. Local
authorities set the exact amount of land peasants could retain,
within the state parameters of twenty to thirty-five hectares.
Despite the state landholding limits, a large share of
agricultural activity remained in the private sector. The state
extracted a share, however, by requiring delivery of surplus
products to state enterprises.
Following the example of the Soviet Constitution of 1936, the
Yugoslav constitution of 1946 initiated the process of bringing
all sectors of the economy under state control. At the program's
inception all mineral wealth, power resources, means of
communication, and foreign trade were nationalized. By 1948 all
domestic and foreign-owned capital, excluding some retail trade
and small craft industries and most of agriculture, had been
brought into the social sector.
Forced collectivization of agriculture was instituted in
January 1949, bringing the last privately owned portion of the
economy under state control. At the program's inception, 94
percent of Yugoslav agricultural land was privately owned; but by
the height of the collectivization drive in 1950, nearly 96
percent was under the control of the social sector. Yugoslav
planners expected that rapid collectivization and mechanization
of agriculture would increase food production, improve the
people's standard of living, and release peasants to work in
industry. The result, however, was a poorly conceived program
that was abandoned three years later.
Data as of December 1990
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