{"id":808,"date":"2019-06-05T00:00:07","date_gmt":"2019-06-04T23:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/thinking-wales\/?p=808"},"modified":"2022-04-13T17:25:10","modified_gmt":"2022-04-13T16:25:10","slug":"the-tito-from-tonypandy-bevan-and-yugoslavia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/thinking-wales\/the-tito-from-tonypandy-bevan-and-yugoslavia\/","title":{"rendered":"“The Tito from Tonypandy”: Bevan and Yugoslavia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This weekend Wales play a Euro 2020 qualifier in Osijek,\nCroatia, with travelling fans hoping to see a first-ever Welsh victory against\nCroatia. Wales have played Croatia 4 times in the past since it became\nindependent from Yugoslavia in 1991. However, the national team had visited Croatia\nonce before it was represented as an independent nation. In 1976, a Welsh team\ncontaining the likes of John Toshack and Terry Yorath travelled to Zagreb in\nCroatia. Wales lost 2-0 in the European Championship qualifier and while the\nteam salvaged a 1-1 at Ninian Park in the return leg, it was a 3-1 loss on\naggregate. It was an \u201coh-so-nearly\nmoment\u201d<\/a> of Welsh football as the defeat meant the team did not qualify for\nthe finals of the European Championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1951, twenty-five years before this match, Welsh politician Aneurin Bevan paid his first visit to Yugoslavia. He had recently resigned from the Labour government over charges to teeth and spectacles and accepted an invitation to holiday in Yugoslavia with his wife Jennie Lee, who recorded in her memoir My Life with Nye<\/em>: \u201cNo holiday was ever so timely. We both needed to get away, to see new places, new people, to make new and stimulating political contacts\u201d[1]<\/a>. The trip would prove fruitful in that regard as they developed new relationships with important officials in the Yugoslavian government and enjoyed hours of discussion over the nature of Marxism, politics, the international arena and other related subjects. It was on this holiday that Bevan began to put together his notes and write In Place of Fear<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bevan and Lee visited a number of different places in\nCroatia whilst on their visit, including Dubrovnik and Opatija, as well as the\nother federal states of Yugoslavia, but the most significant meeting took place\non the islands of Brijuni off the north-west coast of Croatia, the official\nsummer residence of Prime Minister (later retitled President) Josip Broz Tito.\nThis meeting was to be the beginning of Bevan and Lee\u2019s conflicted relationship\nwith the Yugoslav communists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Aneurin Bevan and Jennie Lee visiting Yugoslavia (The Sphere<\/em> 18 August 1951)
\u00a9 Illustrated London News\/www.maryevans.com <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At the meeting, Bevan and Lee met with Tito and a number of\nhis key government ministers. Michael Foot wrote that this was not a very formal\nmeeting: \u201cthey sat in a grey stone shelter on the beach, open to the sea on one\nside and furnished with plain wooden trestle tables and wooden forms, a kind of\noutdoor dining room but with the flavour, too, of a partisan company\u2019s\nheadquarters\u201d[2]<\/a>.\nFoot explained that Bevan \u201ccame away with indelible memories of the special\nquality of Yugoslav bravery, of their absolute resolve to resist Soviet\nencroachment, of the greatness of Tito, and with another possession more\npeculiar to Jennie and himself \u2013 an immediately established affinity with\nMilovan Djilas, who had acted as his host in his official residence in\nBelgrade\u201d[3]<\/a>.\nDjilas was a close ally of Tito\u2019s in the Yugoslav Partisan movement during World\nWar Two and later became Tito\u2019s deputy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Milovan Djilas<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Although they did not agree on everything, Bevan, Lee and\nDjilas enjoyed debating questions of Marxism, politics and philosophy. Lee\nreflected that the \u201caffinity between Nye and Milovan was not\u2026based on political\nagreements. It was a matter of temperament. They were both poets, romantics, unrestrainable\nindividualists, stormy, unpredictable mountain types\u201d[4]<\/a>.\nDjilas later wrote a letter to Bevan expressing his joy at people from different\ncultures and different positions merging together and debating ideas:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is understandable that \u2013 in different countries under different conditions \u2013 identical or similar viewpoints are being born. Yet it is striking how ideas unite hitherto unknown people. I think that the personal relationship established between both of you and ourselves is only the beginning of something much more lasting and deeper, the beginning of that unbreakable link between people who through different methods and ways and even from different ideological positions truly fight for the freedom of men and peoples\u201d[5]<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Djilas wrote that he was impressed by Bevan and saw him as \u201ca\ndynamic personality with a lively, unconventional mind\u201d[6]<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bevan came away from Yugoslavia encouraged by what he saw.\nHe was particularly supportive of Tito\u2019s determination to chart an independent\ncourse to socialism without the interference of the Soviet Union. Bevan\ndedicated space in In Place of Fear <\/em>to acknowledge the path of\nYugoslavia after World War Two. He wrote of the revolutionary spirit of\nYugoslavia during the war:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe passionate desire for national freedom, which is the centuries-old tradition of the peoples of Yugoslavia, merged during the war with the revolutionary aims of the Yugoslav Communists. There was therefore a clear understanding between the two. For the urban workers, Socialism, for the peasants, land, and for both national independence\u201d[7]<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Bevan believed that this was contrary to the aims of the Soviet leaders. He argued that they had \u201cdeveloped the psychology of what Tito has described as the \u201cleading nation\u201d, which is a polite term for imperialism\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThrough the medium of the Cominform the Soviet Union wished to bind Yugoslavia to her as she had bound Poland, Rumania, Bulgaria and Hungary. Yugoslav institutions, ideas and policies were to follow the Soviet pattern\u201d[8]<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Bevan wrote that Yugoslavia had thrown down a gauntlet to\nthe Soviet Union by insisting on its independence, rather than exchanging\n\u201ctheir new-won liberty for the tutelage of the Soviet bureaucracy\u201d. He viewed this\nsituation as the \u201cmost striking modern illustration of what happens when\npolitical parties apply outworn categories to different national situations and\nto novel situations within nations\u201d[9]<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bevan and Lee visited Yugoslavia\nagain in 1952, spending time with Djilas in Montenegro before visiting Bosnia.\nWhen Bevan and Lee were taken to meet Tito, it would be the last time that\nDjilas saw Bevan. It was the end of what Djilas called \u201ca selfless common\nsearch within the socialist movement from two corners of Europe, two different\ncultures and types of experience\u201d[10]<\/a>.\nA couple of years later, Djilas would be expelled from the Central Committee of\nthe party and stripped of all political functions, being accused of socialist\nrevisionism after he had written articles calling for greater democratisation\nof Yugoslavia and criticising what he saw as the increased bureaucracy of the\nparty leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the Third Plenum of the\nCentral Committee in January 1954, Djilas was even accused of falling under Bevan\u2019s\ninfluence. Bevan was personally hurt by the news of his friend\u2019s expulsion: he\nwrote to Tito expressing his concern and to ask about the fate of Djilas and\nVladimir Dedijer, another friend from Bevan and Lee\u2019s first trip who was the\nonly person to speak out in defence of Djilas at the Plenum. Bevan also\ndismissed the charges that he had influenced Djilas\u2019 political ideas[11]<\/a>.\nIn 1956, Djilas was arrested and spent four years in prison, only to be sent\nback to prison in 1962 for another four years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the arrest of Djilas, Bevan\u2019s engagement with issues\nin Yugoslavia were not so prominent in his columns for Tribune<\/em>. He would\nstill praise Tito for standing up to Stalin[12]<\/a>\nand insisted that it was \u201ca significant historical fact that the two Communist\nParties which have been the most successful are those which were able to follow\ntheir own path \u2013 in China and Yugoslavia\u201d[13]<\/a>,\nbut he was also more willing to criticise Tito, specifically referring to the\nimprisonment of Djilas as evidence that there was a lack of liberty under the\nrule of the Communist Party[14]<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bevan and Lee agitated for Djilas\u2019 release from prison and\nafter Bevan died in 1960, Lee and Djilas would keep in regular contact. Djilas\nlater dedicated his 1961 book Conversations with Stalin <\/em>to Bevan.\nAlthough the events of Djilas\u2019 arrest soured Bevan and Lee\u2019s relations with the\nYugoslav Communists, the trip to the Brijuni Islands highlighted a desire to\nseek out new friendships and allies in a world increasingly divided into two\ndistinct and conflicting ideological blocs. It also represented an attempt to\ngrapple with the different interpretations of socialism in the midst of\nLabour\u2019s own internal struggles over its future. Bevan\u2019s sympathy towards\nYugoslavia might have been responsible for the nickname given to him by Conservative\nMP and former Secretary of the BMA Chares Hill: \u201cThe Tito from Tonypandy\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bevan\u2019s trip was not the last trip by a famous Welsh person\nto the Brijuni Islands. Richard Burton stayed there as a guest of Tito in 1971\nwhile preparing to play him in a Yugoslavian movie about the Battle of Sutjeska\nin 1943, where Tito led the Partisan forces against the Axis powers \u2013 but\nthat\u2019s a story for another post!
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

The newspaper cutting of Anuerin Bevan and Jennie Lee has been used with the kind permission of the Mary Evans Picture Library<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/a>\nLee, J. 1981. My Life with Nye<\/em>. Middlesex: Penguin Books, p. 227.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2]<\/a>\nFoot, M. 1975. Aneurin Bevan: 1945-1960<\/em>. London: Granada Publishing, p. 343.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[3]<\/a> ibid.\np. 344.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[4]<\/a>\nLee, J. 1981, pp. 228-229.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[5]<\/a> ibid.\np. 345.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[6]<\/a>\nDjilas, M. 1985. Rise and Fall<\/em>. London: Macmillan, p. 275.       <\/p>\n\n\n\n

[7]<\/a>\nBevan, A. 1952. In Place of Fear<\/em>. London: William Heinemann, p. 16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[8]<\/a> ibid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[9]<\/a> ibid.\np. 17<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[10]<\/a> Djilas,\nM. 1985, p. 327.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[11]<\/a>\nFoot, M. 1975, pp. 417-419.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[12]<\/a>\nBevan, A. 1954. I put a question mark against his judgement. Tribune <\/em>15 October\n1954, p. 4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[13]<\/a>\nBevan, A. 1956. Farewell to the Trojan Horse. Tribune <\/em>27 April 1956, p.\n5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[14]<\/a>\nSee Bevan, A. 1956. The last chance for statesmanship. Tribune <\/em>23\nNovember 1956, pp. 1&12: Bevan, A. 1957. The world of Gomulka, Tito \u2013 and\nDjilas. Tribune <\/em>27 September 1957, p. 6.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This weekend Wales play a Euro 2020 qualifier in Osijek, Croatia, with travelling fans hoping to see a first-ever Welsh victory against Croatia. Wales have played Croatia 4 times in […]","protected":false},"author":1043,"featured_media":813,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[86,65,89],"tags":[67,124,126,17,125,123],"class_list":["post-808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bevan-and-wales","category-history","category-theory","tag-aneurin-bevan","tag-croatia","tag-football","tag-labour-party","tag-socialism","tag-yugoslavia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8iFWs-d2","meta_box":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/thinking-wales\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/509\/2019\/06\/Bevan-and-Tito.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/thinking-wales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/thinking-wales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/thinking-wales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/thinking-wales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1043"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/thinking-wales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=808"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/thinking-wales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":825,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/thinking-wales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808\/revisions\/825"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/thinking-wales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/thinking-wales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/thinking-wales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/thinking-wales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}