[ ... ]
Reached an agreement with Druzkov [Stalin] and Alekseev [Molotov] that the publication of signed treaties between Bulg[aria] and Yu[goslavia] would be dated i August at Bled and that they would be given a copy of the act of signing.
[ ... ]
• 25 November 1947 •
Meeting Tito’s delegation.478
An enormous rally in front of the Council of Ministers. Tito’s speech and my speech in response.
In the evening, a reception at the Council of Ministers. After that, departure for Varna.
• 26 November 1947 •
We spent the night at the Kurilo train station.
The train started early in the morning. Everywhere people were welcoming us enthusiastically. Small rallies in Mezdra, Cherven Briag, Pleven, Gorna Oriahovitsa, Shumen, Kaspichan, Provadiia, Varna. In the evening, in Evksinograd.
Dinner.
• 27 November 1947 •
Evksinograd.
Delegation conference.
The results of the specific agreements in Bled and the new initiatives were discussed.
Exchange of opinions on the international situation and on the situation on the Balkans in particular.
Complete unanimity on all issues.
Signing of the treaty of alliance in the afternoon.
In the evening, a friendly dinner. My toast. Tito’s toast.
Tito’s delegation and some of our ministers are leaving for southern Bulgaria at twelve.
• 28 November 1947 •
Flight to Sofia of two hours and ten minutes.
We had a good flight.
In the evening, a reception at the Military Club organized by the Yugoslav embassy.
Seeing the delegation off at the train station.
At 11:30 Tito and his people departed, accompanied by Yugov and other Bulgarian comrades.
[ ... ]
On 24 January 1948 Stalin sent Dimitrov a strongly worded letter of protest against the “rash and injudicious” statements that Dimitrov had made at a press conference during a visit to Romania. Although Stalin did not elaborate, he was not just furious at “unauthorized” references to the federal and confederative plans in Communist Eastern Europe; he was especially alarmed at Dimitrov’s inclusion of Greece among the “people’s democracies.” Yugoslav penetration into Albania was becoming an additional cause of alarm for Stalin, who saw Yugoslav expansionism as opening the way to armed confrontations with the West in neighboring Greece, itself in the throes of civil war. Dimitrov and Tito were summoned to Moscow in late January. In an affront to Stalin, Tito sent his second-in-command, Edvard Kardelj.
The tongue-lashing at the Kremlin by Stalin and Molotov was in many respects the beginning of Dimitrov’s political eclipse. His health rapidly deteriorated and, concentrating on various ceremonial duties, he offered no personal perspective on the increasingly serious dispute between Stalin and the Yugoslavs. Dimitrov remained loyal to Stalin (one of his letters to Tito is touted as a “remarkable Stalinist document”) and courteous to Tito (sending him birthday greetings in May 1948). This posture became impossible after the Cominform resolution of 28 June 1948, in which the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ) was expelled from the Cominform by all the other member parties, including the Bulgarian party.
By the summer of 1948, Dimitrov was no longer involved in everyday decisions. From 15 September to 21 November he was treated in the USSR, his condition having only marginally improved. Again at Moscow in early December, he basked in Stalin’s attention to his views on the possibility of transition from capitalism to socialism without a dictatorship of the proletariat. But he could only be alarmed by Stalin’s references to Trai-cho Kostov as somebody who was repeating Tito’s mistakes. Reconciled to increasingly bad health, petulant on occasion (Kolarov’s voyage to Paris in September 1948 he saw as “a big mistake”), he stumbled through the party congress in December 1948. The last entry in his diary (increasingly telegraphic in 1949) was made on 6 February 1949: “I am gradually getting better.” Dimitrov died on 2 July 1949 during medical treatment in Moscow.—i. b.
[ ... ]
Received the following coded message:
To Ivanov [Dimitrov]
We consider it our duty to bring to your attention the fact that the part of your statement at the press conference in Romania (in Sofia) concerning the federation or confederation of people’s democracies, including Greece, Poland, Czechoslovakia, etc., is viewed by the Moscow friends as harmful, causing detriment to the countries of the new democracy and facilitating the struggle of the Anglo-Americans against these countries.
We consider your statement about a customs union between allied coun-tries—i. e., between countries having treaties of mutual assistance—equally careless and harmful. It might be interpreted to mean that you include the Soviet Union, which has or will have in the near future treaties of mutual assistance with these countries.
It is hard to figure out what could have made you make such rash and injudicious statements at the press conference.
24 January 1948 Druzhkov [Stalin]
The following response was sent:
To Druzhkov [Stalin]:
I confirm the receipt of your telegram. I am grateful to you for your remarks. I shall draw the proper conclusions.
Ivanov [Dimitrov]
World History
