Talk:Leader of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia

Post-14th Congress existence of the party

@TheUzbek: does any literature you've encountered touch on the topic of de jure cessation of existence of the LCY? –Vipz (talk) 17:32, 20 September 2023 (UTC)

Good question!

The 14th LCY Congress went into recess on 23 January. On 4 February, the League of Communists of Slovenia declared independence from the LCY and stated, "[for] the Slovene LC, the 14th extraordinary congress of the LCY, has ended, and the LCY, in the form which it had up to the congress, has ceased to exist". On 30 March, the Central Committee of the 13th LCY Congress tried to convene but failed to muster a quorum. As you may know, LCY rules stipulated that for the Central Committee to meet, all republican and provincial branches had to be represented at the CC meeting. No representatives from the Slovene League of Communists showed up at the 30 March meeting. Most members from the Macedonian and Croatian leagues also chose not to participate. Moreover, the Bosnian-Herzegovian delegation left the 30 March meeting when President Milan Pancevski and acting secretary Petar Skundric tried to get the CC to resume the 14th Congress.

The remaining CC convened before the 14th Congress and elected Miomir Grbovic as acting president on 15 May; his term expired when the 14th Congress ended, which was 26 May. The 14th Congress elected a provisional leadership of sorts, the Committee for the Preparation of the Democratic and Programmatic Renewal of the LCY. This commission was headed by Miroslav Ivanović, whose main task was to convene the 15th LCY Congress in September 1990. This never occurred. On 22 January 1991, this commission accepted its failure and transferred all its funds and property to the League of Communists – Movement for Yugoslavia.

23 January 1990 is a reasonable date since it killed the federal party by the end of the day; the Slovenes left and made it impossible, according to Party rules, to convene meetings of the Central Committee. However, most Central Committee members attended the 30 March meeting (88 out of 165). 26 May is also reasonable since the 14th LCY Congress officially ended. Between 26 May 1990 and 22 January 1991, it is difficult to pinpoint what should be the date because, eventually, the League of Communists of Serbia gave up and began doing their things with the Montenegrins. 22 January 1991 is, officially, the end of all LCY activity. It's also fitting, but the party no longer existed by this point.

OK answer? TheUzbek (talk) 20:00, 20 September 2023 (UTC)

@TheUzbek: the answer is very insightful! Care to post sources for all of these claims? Would be great for expansion of relevant articles (whether on English or Serbo-Croatian-language projects). –Vipz (talk) 20:08, 20 September 2023 (UTC)

1. "Collapse of federal communist Party congress: Appointments": Keesing’s Record of World Events (Formerly Keesing’s Contemporary Archives 1931-2015) Volume 36 (1990), Issue No. 1 (January), Page 37172 http://keesings.com/index_new.php?page=article&article=37172n01yug&search=%22Central%20Committee%22 (sources 14th Congress 23 January claim)
2. "Independence declaration by Slovene communists" Keesing’s Record of World Events (Formerly Keesing’s Contemporary Archives 1931-2015) Volume 36 (1990), Issue No. 2 (February), Page 37255 http://keesings.com/index_new.php?page=article&article=37255n01yug&search=%22Central%20Committee%22 (sources SLovene league claims)
3. "Worsening crisis in LCY" Keesing’s Record of World Events (Formerly Keesing’s Contemporary Archives 1931-2015) Volume 36 (1990), Issue No. 3 (March), Page 37324 http://keesings.com/index_new.php?page=article&article=37324n01yug&search=%22Central%20Committee%22 (sources 30 March CC claim)
4. "New state President–Warning on country's disintegration–Non-communist governments in Slovenia and Croatia" Keesing’s Record of World Events (Formerly Keesing’s Contemporary Archives 1931-2015) Volume 36 (1990), Issue No. 5 (May), Page 37463 http://keesings.com/index_new.php?page=article&article=37463n02yug&search=%22Miomir%20Grbovic%22 (sources Miomir Grboic, Miroslav Ivanovic and the adjourned of 14th Congress claim)
5. "Kako su se socijalisti dočepali ogromne imovine početkom devedesetih: Leva ruka, desni džep" http://arhiva.glas-javnosti.rs/arhiva/2001/03/11/srpski/R01031002.shtml (informs about the Ivanovic commission and its self-dissolution).

TheUzbek (talk) 20:22, 20 September 2023 (UTC)

It also seems that some Slovene, Macedonian and Croat representatives attended the meetings of the "Ivanović Commission" as observers: [1]

Sadly, in the English language, I can't find one single scholarly article devoted to this. But there is a lot in the news archives. TheUzbek (talk) 20:28, 20 September 2023 (UTC)

An the september date was 29 September 1990: "UNtil the congress convenes, on September 29, 1990, the 15-member committee will act as the leadership of the LCY under its chairman, Miroslav Ivanovic". [2]

I didn't know that.. Miroslav Ivanovic should probably be added to this list as a leader. --TheUzbek (talk) 20:31, 20 September 2023 (UTC)

Sorry to ping you... 882 delegates with voting rights and 107 delegates with non-voting rights attended the may 1990 session of the 14th Congress: 882 elected delegates and 107 SKJ members with delegate rights (989 in total) participated in the continuation and completion of the work of the 14th extraordinary congress of the SKJ. From SK Bosnia and Herzegovina participated 205 parts from SK Gata (187 plus 18), Montenegro 103 (84 plus 19), from SK Croatia 22 (19 plus 3), from SK Macedonia 18 (14 from SK Serbia 339 plus 4) , (316 plus 23), from SK Kosovo 75 (66 plus 9), from SK Vojvodina 143 (126 plus 17), SKJ in JNA 79 (65 plus 14) and from SK Organization in the federation 5... [3]

That is.. a majority of the delegates opted to attend. TheUzbek (talk) 20:38, 20 September 2023 (UTC)

Don't be sorry about pinging me, I'm very interested in these responses, in fact I subscribed to this talk page section for that reason. Thank you so much! –Vipz (talk) 20:43, 20 September 2023 (UTC)

Good! The compositon of the Committee for the Preparation of the Democratic and Programmatic Renewal of the LCY was as follows: [4]

1. SKBiH Ivan Brigić, Dževad Tašić and Nijaz Duraković
2. SK Montenegro Miroslav Ivanović (born 1955), Miodrag Vuković and Momir Bulatović
3. Serbia Radoš smiljković, Petar Skundrić and Bogdan Trifunović
4. SK Kosovo Jagoš Zelenović and Rahman Morina
5. SK Vojvodina Predrag Jereminov and Nedjeljko Sipovac
6. SKJ in JNA Simeon Bunčić and Božidar Grubišić

TheUzbek (talk) 20:44, 20 September 2023 (UTC)

Post-14th Congress list of leaders might deserve a new section in the article if it is further expanded, don't you think? I agree with the suggestion to document Ivanović on the list. It would be great to document other information presented above, but I'm not sure where, would the party's last efforts to organize be seen as given excessive focus for League of Communists of Yugoslavia § Decline and dissolution? Would planned 15th Congress information be excessive to document on the 14th Congress article? –Vipz (talk) 20:54, 20 September 2023 (UTC)

After thinking about it... The formal end of the LCY should be the 22 January 1991. Since the 14th Congress decided that the Committee for the Preparation of the Democratic and Programmatic Renewal of the LCY should take over leadership functions until the convocation of the 15th LCY Congress, it makes sense that its self-dissolution is the party's end. This doesn't mean that 23 January is not essential - it certainly is, and it dealt the LCY a death blow - but formal dissolution and a death blow are two very different things.

I feel it should be mentioned there, but it probably should have its own article as well. I can create that article!

To be honest, I would like to move the entire LCY article to History of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia and create an article structured similarly to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union article. TheUzbek (talk) 08:21, 21 September 2023 (UTC)

There is definitely room for improvement of LCY article. You should probably draft your new LCY article in userspace first, then propose the overhaul with your version on the talk page of LCY. –Vipz (talk) 14:32, 22 September 2023 (UTC)

@TheUzbek: By the way, how are you using Keesing’s Record of World Events, have you obtained a registration and where? Above sources just like using the search function on the website asks me to log-in. –Vipz (talk) 15:56, 22 September 2023 (UTC)

I have access to it through the university I work at. If you have added an e-mail address to your Wikipedia account I can send you the articles above by mail. TheUzbek (talk) 19:20, 22 September 2023 (UTC)

@TheUzbek: That would be awesome, thank you! Yes, my account is attached to an e-mail. –Vipz (talk) 19:32, 22 September 2023 (UTC)

Sendt! Did you get them? TheUzbek (talk) 20:15, 22 September 2023 (UTC)

Received, yep, thanks! –Vipz (talk) 20:19, 22 September 2023 (UTC)