Religious situation in the post-war Yugoslavia through the prizm of the soviet documents (1945-1948)
On the basis of the documents from the Soviet archives we analyze the data on the religious situation in socialist Yugoslavia in the period between the end of the Second World War and the conflict between Soviet Union and Yugoslavia started in June 1948, the time of the so called People's democracy in socialist Yugoslavia. The main interest of Soviet officials in religious affairs was focused on the relationship with the Serbian Orthodox Church and its patriarch Gavriil, who was seen as the most reliable partner in negotiations because of his course on normalization of Church-state relations in Yugoslavia as well as cooperation with socialist authorities in the country and in socialist Russia. At the same time his negative attitude towards Vatican and thereafter towards Western Europe made him attractive to the representatives of the Soviet side. In its turn the activity of Catholic Church in Croatia and Slovenia was considered as more hostile towards the socialist regime, first of all because of the negative perception of the Vatican’s Ostpolitik, but also because of the conservative position of Catholic clergy in Yugoslavia.