A leader caught between revolutionary national politics and party centralism
After the 1948 break with the Soviet Union, he was arrested as a Soviet spy and disappeared from a Belgrade prison.
Andrija Hebrang was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and wartime leader of the Communist Party of Croatia who helped organize resistance to occupation and political institutions in liberated territory. After the war he directed economic reconstruction and a heavy-industry development plan, becoming one of Yugoslavia’s most influential figures after Tito. Tensions over Croatian political autonomy and economic strategy brought him into conflict with the party center. After Yugoslavia’s 1948 break with the Soviet Union, he was accused of links to Soviet intelligence, expelled and arrested, and disappeared from a Belgrade prison in 1949.
Career Timeline
- 1919Joined the Communist Party of Yugoslavia
- 1925–1928Worked in the Zagreb party organization
- 1941–1944Political secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Croatia
- 1943–1944Member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia
- 1944–1946Worked in AVNOJ and administered industry and trade
- 1946–1948Chairman of the Economic Council and Planning Commission
- 1948Expelled from the party, placed under house arrest and arrested
- 1949Disappeared from a Belgrade prison and was recorded as dead