ABSTRACT
The break with the Soviet Union in 1948 severely dislocated and disorientated the Yugoslav leadership. They had intended to build socialism on the Soviet model and with Soviet help. Now the first priority of Tito and his colleagues had to be to protect their party and their country against Soviet subversion and the intrigues of the pro-Moscow cominformists at home. Of the latter there were an estimated ten thousand, eight and a half thousand of whom were interned on Goli Otok by the UDBa, the successor to OZNa, but still under the leadership of Ranković. More dangerous than the rank and file cominformists were the few in the upper echelons of the party and the military who could have provided an alternative leadership had the Soviets decided upon drastic action. General Branko Petricević, deputy head of the political administration of the Yugoslav army, was captured trying to escape while General Arso Jovanović, Tito's wartime chief of staff, was reportedly shot on the Romanian border. The major political casualty, however, was the former Croat communist leader, Andrija Hebrang who was arrested and never seen again in public, the likelihood being that he was murdered in prison.
