„Misija dobre volje“. Dobrica Ćosić na drugom svesaveznom kongresu sovjetskih književnika (15–26. Decembar 1954)

Abstract

The article reveals the events of Yugoslav-Soviet normalization of contacts in the cultural sphere in 1954-1955. It focuses on the participation of Dobrica Ćosić as a member of the delegation of Yugoslav writers in the work of the Second Congress of Soviet writers, held in Moscow in the second half of December 1954, which, as new documents now have revealed, had a decisive effect on the later renewal of cultural ties between the two countries in 1955-1956. Not focusing so much on the political contexts of these developments, the authors have taken into account the main events in the political sphere, which took place in 1954. The authors consider the participation of Yugoslavs in the activities of the Congress and the speech delivered at the end of the event, as important inputs for the subsequent full restoration of cultural exchange between the two countries. Soviet archival documents reveal how D. Ćosić reacted to the different circumstances in Moscow, where changes of the slackening Stalinist approaches were already under way. The article demonstrates the role that Ćosić's trip played in the general normalization of Soviet-Yugoslav relations and even influenced the formation of the Soviet leadership's decision not to consider the Yugoslav way of socialist construction as an obstacle to normalization. Because the research prior to writing this article was conducted by the simultaneous and equal use of Soviet and Yugoslav documents from the archives in Moscow and Belgrade, a meticulous comparison of these documents of both sides makes it possible to verify the assessments made.