A marriage of convenience. The Romanian Workers’ Party and the Yugoslav emigration in the early 1950s

Ionuţ NISTOR

DOI: 10.47743/asui-2022-0006

Abstract: The emigration of Yugoslavs in the early 50s was a complex process, resulted from the ideological and propaganda conflict waged by Belgrade and Moscow alike. Approximately 200 out of 4,000 Yugoslavs, who crossed the border in order to escape the psychological pressure and pursuit of the secret surveillance authorities, according to their own statements, arrived in Romania. Coming in waves of migration between 1948 and 1953, the Yugoslav emigrants were placed by the Romanian state in several labor colonies, of which the largest was in Bucharest. The secret service surveillance included turning some emigrants into espionage agents as well as other political measures to control the new arrivals. The relationship between the Romanian state and these defectors was not linear. The secret police and party organs did not trust the emigrants’ statements; the verification procedures were repeated several times, even after some proved their loyalty to the regime. The Yugoslavs, on the other hand, did not fully trust the Romanian state; in many cases, they avoided to tell the truth about their own past, out of an understandable fear of reprisals and legal consequences. At the same time, a justifiable and complicit mutually interested relationship was established. The secret police needed information about the emigrants, about the political, social and economic system in Yugoslavia, while the emigrants needed training and professional advancement.

Keywords: Yugoslav emigration; Resolution of the Information Bureau; RomanianYugoslav communication; Tito.