Published online by ALTERNATOR:  14.12. 2023

Abstract

On August 11, 1948, the Chief of the General Staff of the Yugoslav army, General Arso (Arsenije) Jovanović, left his home in Belgrade with the official intention of going hunting. In reality, he had reunited with other high-ranking officers loyal to Stalin, and, when he wandered into the woods on the border of Romania, he was killed by Yugoslav border guards. In all likelihood, his goal had been to reach Bucharest where, with the support of the Soviets and local authorities, he was expected to establish in exile a Yugoslav communist party loyal to Moscow. The personal story of Jovanović, a leading figure of the regime, tells us of the dilemmas experienced by the Yugoslav population following the Cominform Resolution of June 28, 1948. Moreover, he is a reminder of the other important international political issue with which Belgrade grappled during the post-war period: the Trieste crisis. In fact, Jovanović participated in meetings with Western diplomats regarding the crisis held in Belgrade in May 1945 as well as in negotiations organised in Duino the following month

Type: Research Article

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3986/alternator.2023.35

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.

Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by ALTERNATOR