Acta Universitatis Danubius. Relationes Internationales, Vol 8, No 1 (2015)

Abstract

The discrepancies arisen between the two totalitarian communist leaders - Joseph Vissarionovici Stalin (The Soviet Union) and Josip Broz Tito (Yugoslavia) – contained in themselves the seed of destruction of the political and economical Stalinist monopoly regarding the Danube. Our study proposes to identify, through scientific analysis of contemporary sources of the event, the aftermath of this conflict regarding the political evolution of the international regime of the Danube, as well as the manner in which the dissolution of the communist bloc affected the post-war international relations. Between 1948 and 1953, until the death of Stalin, the conflict blocked the Danube for both communist states from the river's basin as well as in terms of international trade that characterized the previous period (interwar). Stalin viewed the Danube River as a factor of influence and political pressure that meant to subordinate the small communist states. After Stalin's death (March 1953), Khrushchev had to make a series of major concessions regarding Yugoslavia and other communist states which led to the transformation of the international regime of the Danube and to a "thaw" between East and West.