Talk:President of the League of Communists of Kosovo

Azem Vllasi & Kaqusha Jashari

Can someone explain why on multiple articles for Azem Vllasi, Kaqusha Jashari & the greater conflict it mentions that BOTH of them were forced out of their positions in November 1988? This article clearly shows that their terms as president of the LKK didn't/couldn't overlap. Other articles speak about them holding the two highest offices in Kosovo at the time; so if the President of the LKK was one, what was the other office? Was Azem Vllasi still an official in the LKK after he left the presidency in April 1988? Please make sense of this so that we may clarify this on the articles dealing with their dismissals in November 1988. Criticalthinker (talk) 09:45, 15 October 2023 (UTC)

@Criticalthinker: I'm no specialist on this, but I presume that both were removed from the LKK Provincial Committee, the SKS Central Committee, the SKJ Central Committee and the SKJ Presidency. Vllasi probably continued serving in the LKK Provincial Committee and probably the SKS Central Committee too.. But this, I only presume.

... A quick search [1] clarifies some, and this one on how they were removed. It is clear that Vlassi was only an ordinary member of the LKK Presidency at this point.--TheUzbek (talk) 10:23, 15 October 2023 (UTC)

@TheUzbek I guess I've used up my previews for the books as it's not letting me see them. I will probably log into my google account later. In any case, do you mean that the LKK was setup like the other organs in Yugoslavia with a collective presidency? I did kind of consider that, but was not able to find how the LKK was structured. But, it'd make sense if they had a "President of the Presidency" kind of setup, and that after Jashari replaced Vllasi, he simply reverted to being one of the "regular" members of the presidency. Anyway, thanks. If you find anything else showing the exact setup of the LKK leadership structure, let me know. Criticalthinker (talk) 11:10, 15 October 2023 (UTC)

@Criticalthinker: The army LC, the provincial autonomous provinces, the republics and the federal level had their own presidency. The difference is that the autonomous provinces did not have "central committees" but "provincial committees" (and the YPA had the "committee"). See this source. --TheUzbek (talk) 12:46, 15 October 2023 (UTC)

Okay, thanks. Looks like you've also updated the articles for these two figures. So if I'm reading this correctly, Vllasi term as president ended at the end of April 1988 after which he was replaced by Jashari (who has sat in the presidium of the league since 1982). It'd then appear that since each member got 4-year terms and the previous election was in 1986, each of their terms would have ran until 1990, correct? It seems like Vllasi simply went back being a "regular" member of the presidium in May 1988 before they were both removed from the committee in November.

If all this is correct, I have a few follow-up question: 1. When was Vllasi elected to the provincial committee? The way his page is currently written, it'd seem to imply 1986, but that was also the year in which is shows he was president of the committee. He wasn't elected president of the commmittee the same year he joined it, was he? And 2. right after it mentions he'd become leader of the provincial committee in 1986, it then says he became "president of Kosovo." I assume that this means that becoming president of the provincial committee also meant simultaneously becoming "President of Kosovo" as well? Criticalthinker (talk) 11:31, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

@Criticalthinker: Good questions.

1. He was elected to the Provincial Committee at the 12th Conference of the League of Communists of Croatia, held on 11–12 May 1978. Before that he was a member of the Presidium "Federation of Youth of Yugoslavia" according to the directory, which I presume is the "League of Socialist Youth of Yugoslavia".
2. The directory of officials says that he joined the LKK Presidency in November 1980 (he was, in all probability, by-elected to the position by a session of the LKK Provincial Committee). I can check in Who's Who in the Socialist Countries when I'm home if it says anything specific.
3. He was a member of the Central Committee of the 12th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia and the Central Committee of the 13th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia.
4. As far as I know, there was only a term limit for the offices of President of the LKK Presidency and not for individual members. My reading of the LCY party statutes confirms this.
5. The LKK had to convene at the latest four years after the last conference but could convene earlier. The 14th Conference in 1986 was followed up by the 15th Conference on 21 January 1989.
6. As far as I can see, he was never president of Kosovo (or President of the Presidency of SAP Kosovo). There were rules in place to reduce the overconcentration of powers of leaders so, except Tito, no one could from 1978 onwards hold both executive functions in both party and state.

--TheUzbek (talk) 12:14, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

Again, thanks for ALL of your help with this! It's all so fascinating to me. I've recently been doing some personal research into both the disintegration of Yugoslavia and the Bosnian War, and the structure of the state and party is all so Byzantine, but it makes it fascinating.

Back to Vllasi, wow. It sounds like he rose pretty quickly in the ranks. Went from being elected a regular committee member in 1978 (I assume you meant "Kosovo" inf you point 1. and not "Croatia") and then not even having completed his term before being elected to the Presidency by 1980, and then not that many years later to being elected to be President of the Presidency. Criticalthinker (talk) 04:59, 18 October 2023 (UTC)

Glad to help!

Meant Kosovo, sorry.

It depends on what you mean; in some ways, it was less byzantine than the other socialist states. Power was more dispersed, and fewer people had immense informal powers. Formal institutions were more important than, let's say, the USSR or modern-day China.

Many in Vllasi's generation did. Most of the revolutionary generated had retired at the 8th LCY Congress in 1964 or the 9th LCY Congress in 1969, and between 1978 and 1982, people such as Petar Stambolić, who joined the SKJ in 1941 left politics (popularly called the "Club of 1941"). The new generation mostly took control at the 12th LCY Congress and gained complete control by the 13th LCY Congress in 1986. TheUzbek (talk) 05:45, 18 October 2023 (UTC)