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A dapper, stocky Serb who—like Tito —had served as a tailor's apprentice before becoming a revolutionary, Rankovic was known during World War II as "Marko," and survived Nazi torture to become Tito's left-hand man when the war ended. As Interior Minister from 1946 to 1953 and as boss of party cadres thereafter, he was clearly Yugoslavia's second most powerful man, and kept a close eye—and ear—on every person and activity in the nation. Always a close personal friend of Tito's, he was the obvious successor to the presidency. Tito himself has always been slow to adopt reforms, and Rankovic—never very perceptive—may well have held to the more conservative, hard-line Communist position out of loyalty to his leader. But pressures for reform and relaxation within Yugoslavia are far stronger than those in any other Red-ruled nation.
Though Tito called Western reporters to Brioni to deny any sellout toward Western-style "liberalism," it was clear that Yugoslavia's bellwether reformers had been given a big boost by the purge. Best served by the ouster were Slovenian Edvard Kardelj, 56, president of the Federal Assembly, and Croat Party Boss Vladimir Bakarić, 54—both reformers and both longtime rivals of Ranković for Tito's affection. The purge also made things easier for Yugoslavia's outspoken "Democratic Socialists," who, under the urging of Writer Mihajlo ("Moscow Summer") Mihajlov, have been pressing for an end to the one-party state. Mihajlov has felt confident enough to talk openly of plans to publish an "opposition" journal, and has been noisily pressing for the release from prison of the man who started the whole re form wave, Milovan (The New Class) Djilas. If last week's purge of the reactionaries is to bear fruit. Mihajlov and Djilas would be the obvious beneficiaries.
* Other former states: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Slovenia.