YUGOSLAVIA’S CHURCHES SQUEEZED BETWEEN EAST AND WEST DURING THE COLD WAR1

Yugoslavia’s faithful adherence to the Soviet Bloc ended in 1948 when the famous Stalin-Tito split gradually sent Yugoslavia onto its own separate socialist path and subsequently led to the policy of active non-alignment between the military blocs. This ideological policy change delineates two very distinct stages for the position of the churches. From 1945 to 1948 Yugoslavia was under strong Soviet influence and followed a Stalinist model of suppression of all religions. The Serbian Orthodox Church was able to maintain its traditional affinity to the Russian Orthodox Church but of little benefit to either Church. The Catholics and Protestants were under an even stricter surveillance because of their traditional ties to churches and cultures of the West. The government treated harshly all religious communities. It sought to ensure that foreign ecclesial leaders had a minimal influence on Yugoslavia’s churches, except to assure the flow of some relief aid from the West and its churches. The second period, from 1948 until the end of the Cold War in 1990 brought about changes that gradually improved the conditions for the churches caused by various factors, one of them being Tito’s regime successful attempt to distance itself from the Soviet bloc. Controls over church life gradually diminished. Du