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The Yugoslavs pressed the Soviet leader for a clear-cut renunciation of the Brezhnev doctrine and reaffirmation of the Belgrade and Moscow declarations of the mid-'50s. These had ended the Stalinist campaigns against Yugoslavia by proclaiming the right of all Communist countries to find their own path to Marxism. Brezhnev gave his hosts some satisfaction by seeming to dismiss "the doctrine of limited sovereignty" as a "fabrication" by the West and pledging his own support of the old declarations. However, Brezhnev's assurances were semantically slippery. He said that the Belgrade and Moscow declarations had to be understood in the context of "contemporary conditions"—which could mean anything.
In a speech to 2,000 workers in an electronics plant outside Belgrade, Brezhnev lauded the right of each country to build its own form of Communism. Then he turned around and implied that the Soviets reject the Yugoslav system of self-management, which grants considerable local initiative and democracy in contrast to the rigid, centrally controlled Soviet setup.
Breathing Space. In his private talks with Tito and the five-man Yugoslav delegation, Brezhnev irritated the Yugoslavs by praising at length the attitude of West German Chancellor Willy Brandt. While welcoming any easing of East-West tensions, the Yugoslavs are apprehensive that Brandt's Ostpolitik might be interpreted as an acceptance of Soviet overlordship in Eastern Europe—an idea the Yugoslavs strongly reject.
Even so, the Yugoslavs and Soviets were able to agree that some forms of economic cooperation and a general lessening of tension would serve their mutual purposes. Besides the fact that the Soviets want to build up defenses in the Balkans against Chinese diplomatic inroads, they also know that a calmer atmosphere there will speed their efforts in Western Europe to convene a conference on European security. For their part the Yugoslavs want a breathing space in which to carry out their political reform and get their badly inflated economy under control.
After Brezhnev flew back home via Budapest and Sofia at week's end, the two sides issued a reassuring communiqué about mutual respect and cooperation based on the principle of noninterference. The communiqué also disclosed that Tito has accepted a return invitation from Brezhnev to visit Moscow, but almost certainly not before he comes to the U.S. in late October. While neither side had made any binding promises or dramatic shifts in posture, and while the Yugoslavs clearly had no illusions about the present Soviet leadership's regard for diplomatic niceties, the political atmosphere in Belgrade reflected a cautious relief that Moscow now wants to promote the appearance of better relations.