The hundredth anniversary of the birth of Milovan Đilas (June 12, 1911), our most famous foreign writer, as Matija Bećković said about him, with whom Đido had such a friendship that near the end of his life he decided to take care of his son Aleksa buried in his birthplace Podbišće near Mojkovac.
Milovan died on April 20, 1995 and, eulogized by four priests, was buried in his parents' tomb, next to him, his wife Štefica and a woman who had helped in the Djilas' house for many years, who once, hearing a conversation about the funeral, were buried next to him. , said that she has no one and does not know who will bury her, so Milovan and Štefica stopped, looked at each other, and Milovan offered her to be buried in the tomb with them.
They say that the friendship between Chetnik son, poet Matija Bećković and communist revolutionary, dissident and writer Milovan Đilas symbolizes the deep chasms Đilas overcame with his life. Matija, hearing in the bazaar that a new arrest was about to be made on July 5, 1980, wrote a letter to Đilas: "My dear Gido, I'm afraid that those Saturdays will come when you won't be able to come to me... No one believes that you were in prison as long as you were . And you were only with your friends - for nine years, and even our folk poetry does not know about a larger number... If even your son - who as a child visited his father 126 times in prison, will no longer be able to visit you - maybe I will be able to . And I know that there is already a boy in whose soul you will emerge now as you once emerged in mine. Blessed are you, and woe to us and your judges." Milovan must have cried when he read ("And I thought he was breaking up friendship"), and Matija when he wrote.
Đilas was a pre-war young writer, communist illegal, prisoner, member of the KPJ Politburo, one of Tito's closest collaborators, sharp as a saber both during the war and immediately after the war, general, minister, head of Agitprop and president of the federal assembly.
At the Seventh Congress of the Union of Communists of Yugoslavia, held from April 22 to 26, 1958 in Ljubljana, Tito calls Đilas a madman, a traitor, a renegade, a man who spits on the achievements of the revolution.
In the Soviet Union and the countries of Eastern Europe, Djilas received the names "the king of anti-communism", "the instigator of the Cold War", and "a puppet in the hands of the American imperialists".
He correctly diagnosed that communism carries within itself the germ of its own downfall, and the self-destruction of communism occurred long before he predicted - in the late eighties and early nineties of the twentieth century, four decades after the death of Stalin - whom Djilas, when he was a Stalinist, described as a revolutionary bigger than the sun, and then, in 1962, d Conversations with Stalin as a man whose conscience is unburdened by anything, despite the millions who were destroyed in his name and by his order and the thousands of his associates who he killed as traitors because they suspected that he was leading the country and the people to happiness, equality and freedom.
Đilas was the most notable ideologue in the Yugoslav conflict with the Cominform, whose co-founder he was and in which before the conflict he participated in condemning the defection of the Italian and French communists. The Sixth Congress of the CP - SKJ held in Zagreb from November 2 to 7, 1952 was a recapitulation of that anti-Stalinist course. "Nothing is so sacred that it cannot be changed!", it is written in the SKJ program adopted at the time. Đilas's ideas about the necessity of discussion and battle of opinions, about the fact that all party members should have the right to freely discuss the views of other party members in public, even if they hold the highest positions, were accepted. In the discussion, Đilas advocated, among other things, that people of different views, even "reactionary and anti-materialist", should not be prohibited from publishing their works, and that the fight should be primarily with "political and ideological arguments", and not with police and judicial prosecutions.
PROCESS AND ANATOMY: Already in June 1953, at the Second Plenum of the Central Committee, held in Tito's residence in Brioni, that course was questioned, but Đilas tried to maintain and develop it. In "Borba" from October 11, 1953 to January 7, 1954, he published a series of articles criticizing the party bureaucracy.
The articles aroused great interest, the circulation of "Borba" jumped to three hundred thousand copies, and the editorial office received about thirty thousand letters of support.
In January 1953, Đilas was also the initiator of the anti-dogmatic monthly "Nova Misao", whose editorial board included Dobrica Ćosić, Miroslav Krleža, Skender Kulenović, Oskar Davičo, Mihajlo Lalić... In the last issue of "Nova Misli", which bears number I for 1954 , with a passage from Andrićeva Damn yards and texts by Anica Savić–Rebac, Borislav Mihajlović Mihiz, Milan Bogdanović, Boga Grafenauer, Đilasova was published Anatomy of a Morality, in which he defended the actress Milena Dapčević, the wife of Peko Dapčević, who was exposed to the ridicule of the wives of other party officials (see excerpts Anatomy of a morality).
Three days after the last article by Milovan Đilas on January 7, 1954, "Borba" published a statement from the Executive Committee of the Central Committee of the SKJ that Đilas' articles had caused confusion in the ranks of the SKJ, and already for January 16 and 17, 1954, the Third (extraordinary) ) plenum of the SKJ Central Committee (the case of Milovan Đilas). Đilas was informed about the plenum on the day of the session - he came on foot with his wife Štefica on one side and Dedier on the other, and no one showed him a seat in the conference hall. Before that, plenums were held at Tito's in the White Palace, now in the Central Committee building with radio transmission.
39 out of 106 members of the Central Committee speak against Djilas. Tito accused him of "revisionism", and then those heavy-hitters Kardelj, then Stambolić, Pucar, Marinko, Blažo Jovanović, Maslarić, and then, says Đilas, party weaklings like Čolaković, then the pathetically self-critical Vukmanović, Dapčević, Vlahović, Crvenkovski , "even Piades - yes, also Piades, who until the very plenum sweetly licked his lips over my articles."
He is defended only by Vladimir Dedier, whose speech is remembered for the sentence: "Which of these four fingers should I cut off?" Đido, Leka, Moša, Bevc..." According to anecdotes, Moša quips: "All four, fool!" Đilas defended himself on the first day, and behaved penitently on the second day. He later wrote that he secretly hoped in vain that the Central Committee would not exclude him from the party, perhaps not even from the plenum. He says that it was a Stalinist process pure and simple, bloodless perhaps, but no less Stalinist in every other dimension - intellectual, moral and political.
He voluntarily resigned from the party on April 19.
Djilas u Rise and fall describes the last conversation with Tito, Kardelje and Ranković in the White Palace. When he sat down, he asked for coffee, complaining that he hadn't slept, Tito got up to order coffee, then, shooting him a look, threw in: "We didn't sleep either."
Djilas began to philosophize about the fact that Tito created a lot of things that he defends, and that he, Djilas, is starting something that he has to defend. Comrade Gido says that his only intention is to advance socialism.
Tito, however, warns that the reaction is still strong and that critics of all kinds are eager to attack.
He mentions Socrates from Branko Ćopić's satire, in which the voters chose a dog named Socrates, naively convinced that he received a mandate "from above". In response to Djilas's explanation that it was an innocent joke, Kardelj says that several hundred citizens attended the funeral of a politician of the old regime a few days earlier!
The only comment from Ranković, who sat in gloomy silence, was that Đilas must take care of it himself by resigning from the position of Speaker of the National Assembly so that it does not appear that it was forced by pressure, and Tito only says: "What must be, must be!"
Djilasa warns that his case has the biggest foreign repercussions since the confrontation with the USSR. The latter says that he did not read the Tanjug reports, since they no longer send them to him. Tito recommends him to go to Tanjug to see for himself, which he will do later that day - he will be impressed and encouraged at the same time, but also worried about the fact that Western capitalist propaganda is rooting for him so much.
At parting, hatred and vindictiveness erupt from Tito's eyes.
When he returned home, Djilas signed his resignation, bitterly. Tommy tells the driver to take the car to the White House, and he had two - a "Mercedes" and a "Jeep" for more distant places. Two days later, Djilas' bodyguard, Luka Leskošek, comes to pick up a suitcase, which runs alongside the "Mercedes", and on which Djilas' initials were engraved...
TRACE OF MANUSCRIPT: He did not keep silent, which was expected of a "sinner" at that time. Due to an interview with the "New York Times" in which he criticized the political situation in Yugoslavia and emphasized the need for an opposition party as an agent of democratization, Đilas was sentenced on January 24, 1955 to a prison sentence of eighteen months, suspended for three years.
He was arrested again on November 19, 1956, and already on December 12, under Article 118, paragraph 1, of the Criminal Code on "enemy propaganda" he was sentenced to three years of rigorous imprisonment - for criticizing the Yugoslav position of neutrality as de facto support for the Soviet military intervention that suppressed the revolution in Hungary.
While he was in the penitentiary in Sremska Mitrovica as prisoner number 6880 (which will be changed to number 28 on April 1958, 1732), his A new class. The administration of the penitentiary was upset, because it was announced in the foreign press that he smuggled the book out of prison, and the very next day he was visited by a certain Udbovac Marković, whom he calmed down by saying that he would confirm in court that the manuscript was sent abroad, while he was on freedom.
He was taken to the trial early in the morning on October 4, 1957, on side roads, through a corn field, to the District Court in Sremska Mitrovica, where on October 5 he was sentenced to seven years in prison - in addition to the earlier sentence, to nine years.
Za A new class he received the French prize "Prix de la Liberte" for the year 1958.
In the summer of 1958, his cell regime was abolished and about thirty prisoners were brought to his ground floor, with whom officials of the Udba spoke individually, warning them to treat him decently, but also to communicate what he says or what he does...
APPLICATION WITH SUPPLEMENT: At the end of the winter of 1960, he had an attack of appendicitis and was taken to the hospital. A certain Raka, the assistant to the head of the prison Udba, was sleeping with him in the room as a "patient".
The deputy commander of the guard urged him to write to his "comrades upstairs" to release him from prison. He wrote a letter to Kardelj, but after a few days they told him that he should not have written to Kardelj, since he is not competent for it, so he wrote a letter to Ranković. In December, Vojin Lukić from the SUP of Serbia came to talk to him, but he left because Đilas was reserved.
After that, Slobodan Penezić Krcun, Prime Minister of Serbia, came. When Đilas told him that he had signed both the granting and cancellation of his pension, he replied: "But what! You would like a pension and free enemy work!"
He presented him to sign an already typed petition, skillfully composed from parts of letters to Kardelj and Ranković. It also contained a promise that Djilas would not print in the future A new class. He signed the application, but when they gave me a copy of the application later in my cell, there was a sentence at the beginning that he did not remember, and to which he would not have agreed: "Given that the practice itself and our entire post-war development, both internally and and foreign policy, having refuted all that I caused the opening of criminal proceedings and the pronouncement of a court verdict against me, I expect that the Federal Executive Council will positively resolve my release from prison."
A few days after Krcun's arrival, on January 20, 1961, he was released on parole. Upon his return to Belgrade, in September or October 1961, Vojin Lukić called him to warn him that his meetings with foreign journalists "can easily constitute a criminal offense", since those foreign journalists are agents of the intelligence services. He threatens: "We will, among other measures, publish your request for pardon." In it, you renounce and repent...!"
OLD SECRET: At the end of February in the "New York Times" columnist Sulzberger announced the new book by Djilas Conversations with Stalin. Lukić called Đilas again and begged him to give him the text of the book. This one changed his mind and made up his mind: they, the heads of the Udba, are in an awkward situation in front of Tito, how come they overslept and did not come to the text in time, and he is not in conflict with the Udba, she is doing the work that Tito and Ranković order her to do. he is in conflict with Tito... Lukić took from the table a typed text and a confirmation that they had received the manuscript from Đilas.
A few days after the conversation with Lukić, Slobodan Penezić called him: "You started again, did you miss the time you served? You won't get away with it this time! You connected with the Belgrade reaction and foreign spies. Who are your friends? Veljko Kovačević and Boja Grol, pure reactionaries! I didn't call you to argue with you! You better withdraw that book, otherwise you won't spend ten, twenty years in prison this time. It's not enough for you to be a revisionist, but now you're also betraying state secrets. The thing about Albania is inconvenient, very inconvenient... Now you can go, you've heard what you need to know!"
Two or three days after the conversation with Penezić, on April 7, 1962, agents and a judge came to Đilas' apartment. On May 14, Đilas was sentenced to five years in prison for divulging state secrets from the period when he was in office, presented in the book Conversations with Stalin. The secret related to the discussion with the Russians about the unification of Yugoslavia with Albania. Article 320 of the Criminal Code, according to which Djilas was tried for divulging official secrets, was introduced on March 17, two weeks before Djilas' arrest, and was derisively called "Lex Djilas" in the world public. This sentence was added to his previous sentences, so that the final sentence was: a prison sentence of thirteen years.
He was released on December 31, 1966, without conditions, except for a five-year ban on making any statements or publishing anything, which Djilas did not comply with. In 1967, he wrote a letter to Titus in which, addressing him as Ti, he invited him to reflect on his role in history in view of the burgeoning crisis (see box.)
Đilas then gave public support to the democratic reforms called "socialism with a human face" and the "Prague Spring" in Czechoslovakia under the leadership of Aleksandr Dubček, which were interrupted by the Warsaw Pact states, which militarily occupied Czechoslovakia in August 1968.
FREEDOM HOUSE: That August, Djilas is given a passport and from October 4 to 13, 1968, he stays in Great Britain - publishes two articles in "The Times" and gives a TV interview about Soviet imperialism as a danger to Yugoslavia, gives lectures, including one at Oxford University . Then he travels to the USA, where from October 16 to November 20 he is a visiting professor at the "Woodrow Wilson" School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.
On November 10, 1969, the American "Freedom House" ("Freedom House" founded by Eleanor Roosevelt) awarded him the Freedom Award, which had previously been given to Walter Lippmann, Winston Churchill, Willy Brandt, Jean Monet and Pablo Casals.
Together with Andrei Sakharov, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Eugene Ionsky, Joseph Brodsky and others, in 1974 Djilas was one of the initiators of the magazine "Continent", dedicated to literary, social, political and religious topics of the countries of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, which was published in Western Europe in English, German, French, Russian, and some other European languages.
After the Czechoslovak crisis, Tito again began rapprochement with the USSR, Đilas's passport was confiscated on March 3, 1970, and requests to have it reissued to him would be rejected several times - he received it only on January 19, 1987.
In the meantime, he was arrested once again - on April 20, 1984, together with twenty-seven listeners of the "Free University", who had been secretly meeting in private apartments for years. Đilas was supposed to give a lecture on the pre-war position of the KPJ on the national question in Yugoslavia. His apartment was thoroughly searched and around fifty different books and sets of articles, as well as some of his manuscripts, were temporarily taken from him. He was released home in the morning, but was threatened that he could be tried. Six people were put on trial, and technician Radomir Radović, the initiator of the formation of an independent labor union, was found dead in a cottage.
From 1954 to 1988, Đilas could not publish any of his political or literary texts in Yugoslavia, not even a translation of an English song from the seventeenth century. Paradise Lost John Milton. The decision of the Federal Secretary of the Interior dated October 3, 1969 prohibited the introduction and distribution in the country of Đilasov An imperfect society, printed in the USA in May 1969, and on June 29, 1981, it was forbidden to import and distribute in Yugoslavia the German, English, French, Swedish and Italian editions of Djilas' memoir about Tito.
In the summer of 1972, the magazine "Savremenik" accepted to publish his short story "The Leper", but due to political pressure, it had to give up. A similar thing happened with the studio "Njegoš", which he offered to the publishing houses Prosveta, Obod and Nolit in the early seventies.
His books began to be printed only at the time of the breakup of Yugoslavia: An imperfect society: and beyond the New Class published in Belgrade, Narodna knjiga in 1990, Hanging out with Tito Screen 1990, Power and rebellion Literary newspaper 1991, Conversations with Stalin Literary newspaper 1990, Revolutionary War Literary newspaper 1990, A new class People's Book, 1990...
Desimir Tošić, one of the leaders of the youth of the Democratic Party before the Second World War, upon his return to the country, will be among the few who will point to the forgotten Đilas.
To the rhetorical question of whether we should make peace with Đilas, Tošić answers negatively in one text. "No, we should not make peace with Milovan Đilas because he himself in his comprehensiveness is reconciliation with the past." He summed up in himself and in his sufferings revolutionaries and converts, tormentors and tortured, past and present." Despite those words, in the cacophony of disintegration, the impact of those acts on neither the then government nor the anti-communist opposition could be seen. The one who was insulted and vengefully rejected by the new class was not gladly accepted by this latest class either.
And how is the situation with Dedinje and the ballerinas now? Will they hold a plenum on that issue again? They kept it for us...
