6th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia

6th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia

Deputies meeting at the 6th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia.
Date	2–7 November 1952 (1952-11-02 – 1952-11-07)
Location	Zagreb, FPR Yugoslavia
Type	political convention
Organised by	League of Communists of Yugoslavia

The Communist Party of Yugoslavia (CPY) convened the supreme body for its 6th Congress in Zagreb on 2–7 November 1952. It was attended by 2,022 delegates representing 779,382 party members. The 6th Congress sought to discuss new policies, first of all in reaction to the Yugoslav–Soviet split and Yugoslav rapprochement with the United States. The congress is considered the peak of liberalisation of Yugoslav political life in the 1950s. The Congress also renamed the party the League of Communists of Yugoslavia.

New policies were adopted, while old policies were replaced. The congress was particularly critical of bureaucracy, which was denounced as a remnant of Stalinism. In this respect, Josip Broz Tito, the General Secretary of the party's Central Committee, called for gradual "withering away of the state". The local party organisations were instructed to reorganise territorially by electoral districts. They were given greater decision-making autonomy, but their role was changed from being a virtual administrative arm of the government to a part in which they would be used to persuade and educate instead of direct. A decision was made to separate the party from the central government, and party secretaries would no longer have corresponding functions in the central government. The Congress also declared Marxism incompatible with the performance or attendance of religious events.

Workers' self-management was formally approved by the 6th Congress. This policy change regarding the country's decentralisation led to a wider discussion about the nature of Yugoslav federalism in its immediate aftermath. In response, constitutional amendments were enacted in 1953 to implement the approved changes in the political system. However, some of the 6th Congress' adopted resolutions were reversed when relations with the Soviet Union were normalised. The resolutions and strategies adopted by the congress also led to a conflict between efforts aimed at further decentralisation and empowering Yugoslav constituent republics on the one hand and work to increase Yugoslav unity on the other. The principal authors of the documents adopted by the congress were Edvard Kardelj and Milovan Đilas. The latter thought that the liberalisation policies should be reinforced and extended. This brought him into conflict with Tito, removing Đilas from leading positions in the state and party.