(6 of 10)
I was officially told there were only "a few hundreds" of
Yugoslavs in jail today. Ridiculous as that figure is, it is true that there are considerably more prisoners out of jail than in.
They are put to work on roads or other projects, so that they can pay their way. If they seem to see the error of their ways, they get more pleasant jobs. They are re-indoctrinated, and go through a re-educative process. The idea is not to keep them enemies of the state, but to make them love Big Brother Tito.
Strawberry in the Dew
The police, like the other great arm of the state, the army, are firmly and totally in the hands of the sole real repository of power in Yugoslavia: the Communist Party. Behind the facade of a puppet parliament and puppet courts, behind the sprawling and intrinsically meaningless organization of the People's Front, to which half of all Yugoslavs belong, stands that single real power. There are some interesting figures showing how authority over 15 million people is concentrated in the hands of a small group. Last official figures put membership of the party at 468,000, or some 3% of the population. In 1941 the party had only 12,000 members, and of these only 3,000 survived the war. The "old Communists" in Yugoslavia therefore represent less than 1% of this 3%.
Every member of the 63-man Central Committee is drawn from this magic 3,000. So are most of the 28 cabinet ministers.
Communists staff the top bureaucracy in the six republics. Nine out of ten officers in the army are Communists. The tight link between party and state apparatus can be understood from this figure: the 122 permanent officials of the Communist Politburo, Central Committee and Central Supervisory Committee (89 members and 33 substitutes) among them hold 823 key jobs in the government.
Atop this pyramid of power stands 57-year-old Josip Broz-Tito. There are a good many songs, mostly sung by the SKOJ (Communist youth movement), about him. Example: Comrade Tito, our red rose, Our famous country is with you; Comrade Tito, you strawberry in the dew, Our people are proud of you.
This 200-lb. strawberry has come a long way since he first left his home village of Kumrovec, in Croatia. The former lock smith apprentice, soldier, agitator, machinist and army marshal has a personality which exudes strength and assurance. He is a fierce patriot and a convinced Communist. He takes important decisions swiftly. He talks fluent German and Russian, smokes a lot of cigarettes in a curved holder, wears a diamond ring on his left hand, relaxes easily over a few drinks, likes to sing old partisan songs with intimates who call him "Start" ("Old Man")-Tito now lives luxuriously in his villa in Dedinje, a suburban district of well-paved streets, big houses and glittering automobiles. Tito also has a farm in the country, a barony on the Adriatic island of Brioni, and the old White Palace of the Serbian kings for ceremonial receptions in Belgrade.
Trusty Trio
Three faithful friends of Tito are the Nos. 2, 3 and 4 men in the land—Kardelj, Rankovic, Djilas.
Edvard Kardelj, Deputy Premier and Foreign