Yugoslavia wasn’t a Soviet ally—so why does that misconception persist in Western media? · Global Voices
A Yugoslav Partisans celebration featuring <PERSON> with the flags of all their allies: the USA, the USSR, and the UK; as well as portraits of allied leaders (out of frame) <PERSON>, <PERSON>, and <PERSON>. Vis, Croatia, 9 November 1944. Photo: znaci.net, public domain.
While reporting on the ratification of the protocol for North Macedonia's NATO accession in the US Congress on October 22, US website The Hill incorrectly asserted that Yugoslavia was an ally of the Soviet Union. This historical fallacy, frequently found in Western media, is considered an offensive stereotype by many citizens of post-Yugoslav countries.
The Hill is an influential publication in Washington DC and is read by top decision-makers in the United States. In fact, the article in question was tweeted by former US vice president, Senator <PERSON>.
I strongly support the Senate's approval of North Macedonia's NATO membership. The countries of the Western Balkans deserve to be part of a Europe whole, free and at peace and we should be supporting Euro-Atlantic integration across the region. https://t.co/UUyOWL20z7
— <PERSON> (@JoeBiden) October 24, 2019
While the article is accurate for the most part, its background section includes the following sentence:
Previously part of Soviet ally Yugoslavia, North Macedonia, was formally invited by NATO in July 2018 to start accession talks and 22 countries have since ratified its accession.
For most of its existence, the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia was not a Soviet ally – on the contrary, its independence from both the Eastern and the Western blocs was a key feature of its national identity.
Yugoslavia was established in 1943 at the height of the Second World War by the Yugoslav Partisans, the communist-led anti-fascist resistance which was supported by the Allies. While they received assistance from the US, the UK, and the USSR, the Yugoslav Partisans liberated large portions of the Axis-occupied country on their own. It was only in this broader sense that Yugoslavia was a formal ally of the Soviet Union – alongside all the other allies.
After the war, the relations between the two communist parties deteriorated. 739
By 1948, the Yugoslavs renounced Stalinism in order to create a distinct form of socialism. And between 1948 and 1955, during the Informbiro period, Yugoslavia was in direct opposition with the Soviets, to the point of preparing to fight off an invasion by the Warsaw Pact.
German soldiers passing by anti-fascist graffiti “Long live our allies: USSR, England, America!” after they temporarily re-occupied the Croatian island of Hvar on 2 April 1944. Source: znaci.net, public domain.
As evidenced by information released by John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, Yugoslavia heavily relied on US aid during the post-war period — for example, by receiving food supplies from the United States Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, which prevented mass famine in 1945. For part of its history, the US bestowed on Yugoslavia the status of the “most privileged nation” in trade, which boosted the Balkan country’s economic growth.
A map of Europe with the Iron Curtain (black lines) by Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
As part of its balancing act between the blocs, Yugoslavia was one of the founders of the Non-Aligned Movement in 1961. Unlike East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Bulgaria, it was on the western side of the Iron Curtain, the so-called line dividing the Soviet-dominated zone from the rest of Europe.
The incorrect assertion that equates Yugoslavia with the Soviet Union has popped up from time to time in Western media, mostly in its right-wing sphere. When intentional, it's constituent of a modern-day Red Scare discourse which degrades the reputation of political actors from the region. That discourse is usually aimed at conservative Western audiences who are still sensitive to “the communist threat.”
For instance, in October 2015, The Hill published an article by a lobbyist paid by VMRO-DPMNE, a Kremlin-friendly nationalist party that ruled North Macedonia from 2006 to 2017, that attempts to smear its pro-EU and pro-NATO opponents as pro-Russian. It says that Macedonia was “a former Soviet bloc country” whose “domestic opposition party, SDSM, is led by <PERSON>, the successor to the former ruling communist party during the Cold War.”
A 2016 article in the same publication, loaded with narratives pandering to right-wing concerns about migration, misrepresented <PERSON> as a “culprit” for Balkan instability and “the head of the Russia-leaning SDSM Socialist Party. 739