On the path of normalization: Yugoslav-Soviet trade negotiations in 1940

Based on available published and unpublished archival sources of Yugoslav and Soviet origin, as well as relevant historiographical and memoir literature, the paper analyzes the historical circumstances and motives that led to the opening of Yugoslav-Soviet trade negotiations in early May 1940. The course of the talks in Moscow, the character of the concluded agreement, and the scope of mutual trade relations until the outbreak of the Second World War in Yugoslavia, in April 1941, are highlighted. The reactions of the interested great powers-particularly Germany, Italy and Great Britainto the Yugoslav-Soviet economic and political rapprochement are also presented. The paper contains the author's assessment of the importance of economic negotiations as an introduction to the complete normalization of Yugoslav-Soviet relations