ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the communists' changing strategy toward cultural diversity both before and immediately after the party attained political control. It looks at the various ideas and programs with which the communists have addressed the national question, as well as the socio-political demography of communist support. The chapter assesses and explains the evolving state of political incorporation of the Yugoslav mosaic during the post-World War II period. The changing attitudes of the Yugoslav communists towards the multi-ethnic features of their environment before World War II can be divided into several stages. The disagreement on the national question in the mid-1920s was not the last time that the policies of Stalin and an international communist organization would collide with the views of the Yugoslav communist leadership. The Axis-led invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, rapidly followed by the collapse of the last interwar regime and the dismemberment of the country, added an entirely new dimension to the national question.
