Abstract

Based on unpublished Yugoslav archival sources, this article sheds new light on relations between Italian and Yugoslav communists in the period ranging from the peace conference in 1946 to the Italian general election in 1948. New evidence has come to light on the Tito- Togliatti agreement in November 1946 being the latest in a series of Belgrade’s attempts to annex Gorizia and Monfalcone. In the months before the 1948 election, Yugoslavia tried to curry favor with the Pci by proposing to the Italian government a non-aggression pact and a settlement for the border issue like the protocol agreed upon in Belgrade two years earlier. Furthermore, records of the conversations Togliatti had in the Yugoslav legation in Rome demonstrate that the Pci ruled out a violent takeover to seize power in Italy.