League of Communists of Kosovo


The League of Communists of Kosovo was the Kosovo branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, the sole legal party of Yugoslavia from 1945 to 1990.

History and background

Unlike the various factions throughout Yugoslavia which composed the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, the Communist Party of Kosovo was founded in 1944 after the new country was formed. The status of an honorary autonomous province was presented to ethnic Albanian communists who helped the Yugoslav partisans in their struggles during World War II, carved out from the section of the former Ottoman province within the Socialist Republic of Serbia. The new party was given the task of running certain local affairs. In 1952, the party was renamed the League of Communists of Kosovo.
From its creation, Kosovo's administration lacked real power. With various revisions of the constitution, the LCK was granted more and more power until when the new constitution was ratified in 1974, greater power was devolved to all branches.
During the early 1990s, growing ethnic tensions between the republics of Yugoslavia led to the breakup of the federal party — the Kosovo Communists wanted to upgrade Kosovo from an autonomous republic within Serbia to the 7th socialist republic of Yugoslavia, with the same status of Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Macedonia, Slovenia and Serbia proper.
On October 12, 1990, it ceased to exist due to amendments to the constitution reverting Kosovo to its pre-1974 status by Slobodan Milosević.

Party leaders

  1. Miladin Popović
  2. Đorđije Pajković
  3. Dušan Mugoša
  4. Velli Deva
  5. Mahmut Bakalli
  6. Velli Deva
  7. Sinan Hasani
  8. Ilaz Kurteshi
  9. Svetislav Dolašević
  10. Kolë Shiroka
  11. Azem Vllasi
  12. Kaqusha Jashari
  13. Remzi Kolgeci
  14. Rrahman Morina

    Flag of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia and Kosovo

Emblem of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia and Kosovo