This chapter talks about Marshal Tito's meeting with the Belgrade-based members of his leadership on 27 March 1941, when the anti-government demonstrations began in Belgrade and the Tripartite Pact was signed. It explains that the Belgrade demonstrations were a public reaction to Prince Paul's attempt to avoid involvement in the world war by joining the Tripartite Pact. It also emphasizes how the Serbian people did not want to take part in another wholescale massacre due to trauma from the two Balkan wars and the Great War. The chapter looks at Joseph Stalin's wire to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (CPY), instructing them to stay neutral. It examines Bulgaria's assurance as a signatory of the Tripartite Pact that it would not declare war on the Soviet Union.
