From Trotsky to TIto

by James Klugmann

208 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1951

About the author

Norman John Klugmann, generally known as James Klugmann, was a leading British Communist journalist and author who became the official historian of the Communist Party of Great Britain.

Reviews

[Tadici · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here we have the split between Stalin and Tito from the viewpoint of a British Soviet spy. He argues that the 'Tito clique' was in fact actually speedily working on putting liberated Yugoslavia back into Western dominion. This was written in 1951/2 and has a great amount of accusations of Tito and his associates of being Western stooges, basically Trotskyites and actually establishing a fascist form of governance to introduce capitalism back into war-torn Yugoslavia.

Obviously, a total integration into the Western system did not happen in the 50s but Klugmann shows how in many ways Tito's proud independence from the USSR was in fact extremely detrimental to Yugoslavia's development because of its (forced or not) embrace of Western capital and aid. This short history that mainly focuses on the time between '48 and '51 illustrates just to what extent Tito was going in a pro-western direction in that time. Of course, this book might as well be the official Soviet perspective and therefore has to be critically examined and yet there is still a good amount of evidence supporting Klugmann's claims in here. I'm very interested to look into the Yugoslav or (Titoite) view of the split.

[Voyager · Rating 5 out of 5]

An invaluable book detailing the history of fraud, treachery, and counter-revolution surrounding the Titoites and how they came to replace defeated Trotskyism as the main weapon of the imperialists against socialism in Europe.

Recounted in this book is history of Tito's split with the Cominform and early opposition to CPSU and Communist Parties of the other People's Democratic countries, how Tito reuses Trotskyite attacks against Bolshevism and assists the imperialists in their campaign against the Soviet Union and People's Democracies, the reorganisation of the Yugoslav economy along fascist lines, the conditions of workers in Yugoslavia, and how the Titoites repress Bolshevism in their own country. From cover to cover this book is an excellent indictment of Titoism as a terroristic and counter-revolutionary trend (and with the power of hindsight, this book also demonstrates how Titoism is the sister of Khrushchevism and Maoism).

All round, a first-rate book on the reality of Titoism with many criticisms that remain useful against Khrushchevites and supporters of China as well.