Letter from Nikita Khrushchev, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, to Tito and the Executive Committee of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia

To the Executive Committee,
Central Committee of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia
To Comrade Tito

We consider it important to inform you of an inappropriate formulation, which is at the same time contradictory to directives from the CC CPSU, that was allowed to pass through in the book “Historical Materialism” (Second edition), published by GOSPOLITIZDAT[1] in June 1954. In this book, contrary to our intentions, and as a result of an oversight by the author and GOSPOLITIZDAT, a disturbing provocation appeared aimed against the leadership of Yugoslavia.

The CC CPSU has discussed the question of this gross error, allowed in the book “Historical Materialism,” and has made an appropriate decision by harshly punishing those responsible for the violation of directives of the CC CPSU on the character of material on Yugoslavia that is published in the USSR. Enclosed please find the transcript of that decision.

We hope that from your side the case of the book “Historical Materialism” will be correctly understood and judged as an irrelevant misunderstanding.

The Secretary,
Central Committee of the Communist Party of Soviet Union
N. Khrushchev

Moscow, 27 September 1954

[1] State Publishing House for Political Publications.