Milovan Djilas | |
|---|---|
Milovan Đilas Милован Ђилас | |
 Djilas in 1950 | |
| President of the Federal People's Assembly of Yugoslavia | |
| In office 25 December 1953 – 16 January 1954 | |
| Preceded by | Vladimir Simić |
| Succeeded by | Moša Pijade |
| Deputy Prime Minister of Yugoslavia | |
| In office 14 January 1953 – 17 January 1954 | |
| Prime Minister | Josip Broz Tito |
| Preceded by | Blagoje Nešković |
| Succeeded by | Svetozar Vukmanović |
| Minister without portfolio of Yugoslavia | |
| In office 2 February 1946 – 14 January 1953 | |
| Prime Minister | Josip Broz Tito |
| Minister for Montenegro in theGovernment of Yugoslavia | |
| In office 7 March 1945 – 17 April 1945 | |
| Prime Minister | Josip Broz Tito |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Blažo Jovanović (asPrime Minister of Montenegro) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1911-06-12)12 June 1911 |
| Died | 20 April 1995(1995-04-20) (aged 83) |
| Resting place | Podbišće, Montenegro |
| Political party | League of Communists of Yugoslavia (1932–1954) |
| Spouses | |
| Children |
|
| Alma mater | University of Belgrade |
| Occupation |
|
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  Yugoslavia |
| Branch/service | Yugoslav Partisans Yugoslav People's Army |
| Years of service | 1941–1957 |
| Rank | Colonel general |
| Battles/wars | World War II in Yugoslavia |
| Awards | Order of National Liberation (1945) Order of the People's Hero (1953) |
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | 20th-century philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy Yugoslav philosophy |
| School | Marxism Djilasism |
| Main interests | Political philosophy |
| Notable ideas | New class |
Milovan Djilas (/ˈdʒɪlɒs/;Serbian:Милован Ђилас,Milovan Đilas,pronounced[mîlɔʋandʑîlaːs]; 12 June 1911 – 20 April 1995) was aYugoslav communist politician,theorist and author. He was a key figure in thePartisan movement duringWorld War II, as well as in the post-war government. A self-identifieddemocratic socialist,[1] Djilas became one of the best-known and most prominent dissidents inYugoslavia and all ofEastern Europe.[2][3]
Milovan Djilas was born inPodbišće nearMojkovac in theKingdom of Montenegro on 12 June 1911, into a peasant family.[4] He was the fourth of nine children.[5] His father Nikola, a recipient of theObilić Medal for bravery,[6] served in theMontenegrin Army during theBalkan Wars of 1912–1913,[7] thenWorld War I, after which he was awarded theAlbanian Commemorative Medal.[6] After that war he commanded thegendarmerie inKolašin, and opposed the incorporation of Montenegro into theKingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. His paternal grandfather, Aleksa, was an anti-Ottoman bandit leader, known as ahajduk, who was apparently assassinated at the direction of the Montenegrin king's father-in-law. Djilas's mother, Novka, was fromSiberia in theRussian Empire.[5] DuringWorld War II, Djilas's sister Dobrinka was murdered by theChetniks[8] and his father was killed during a battle with theBalli Kombëtar inKosovo.[9]
Djilas was educated in Podbišće,Kolašin andBerane. He was exposed toliterature during his schooling, and also to the works ofKarl Marx andVladimir Lenin. He commenced studying literature at theUniversity of Belgrade in 1929, by which time he was already a committedcommunist. In 1929, the name of the country changed to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Djilas was a radical student activist and opposed thedictatorship of KingAlexander I.[5] This brought him to the attention of the police; in March 1932 he was arrested for taking part in an anti-government demonstration and was jailed for eight days as a warning. Eleven months later, having not changed his ways, Djilas was again arrested, but this time he was tortured then sentenced to three years imprisonment in theSremska Mitrovica Prison. While in jail he met several senior members of theCommunist Party of Yugoslavia (Serbo-Croatian Latin:Komunistička partija Jugoslavije, KPJ), includingMoša Pijade andAleksandar Ranković. He was further radicalised while in jail, becoming a committedStalinist.[10][7]
After his release from prison in 1936,[11] Djilas decided to give up his study of literature and concentrate on revolutionary activities with the KPJ. When the leader of theSoviet Union,Josef Stalin, tried to gain greater control of the KPJ, Djilas aligned himself with the general secretary of the KPJ,Josip Broz Tito. Djilas also helped recruit about 1,500 Yugoslav volunteers to fight on theRepublican side in theSpanish Civil War, but Tito would not permit him to travel to Spain to take part in the war as he needed him in Yugoslavia. In 1938, Tito appointed him to theCentral Committee of the KPJ, and to itspolitburo the following year.[5][11]
In April 1941,Axis powersNazi Germany,Fascist Italy and theKingdom of Hungaryinvaded Yugoslavia and quickly defeated her armed forces. Yugoslavia was partitioned, and as part of this, most of modernMontenegro was subjected tomilitary occupation by the Italians, who installed a civil commissioner. Initially the Italians were lenient towards the Montenegrins, but local people quickly developed grievances against them, relating to expulsions of Montenegrin people from elsewhere in occupied Yugoslavia, an influx of Serb refugees fleeingUstaše persecution in the neighboringIndependent State of Croatia, loss of traditionally Montenegrin territory and financial restrictions imposed on them.[12]
Around 400 former Yugoslav Army officers returned to Montenegro, along with many non-commissioned officers, civil administrators and KPJ members.[13] During the invasion, the YugoslavZeta Division, composed mostly of Montenegrins,[14] had briefly counter-attacked into Albania, but had largely returned home with their weapons and equipment following the Yugoslav surrender.[13]
Djilas helpedJosip Broz Tito to establish theYugoslav Partisan resistance and became aguerrilla commander during the war following Germany's attack on theSoviet Union on 22 June 1941 (Operation Barbarossa) when the Communist Party of Yugoslavia's (KPJ) Central Committee decided that conditions had been created for armed struggle.
On 4 July, the KPJ passed the resolution to begin the uprising. Djilas was sent to Montenegro to organize and raise the struggle against the Italian occupying force, which on 12 July 1941 proclaimed the fascist puppet entityKingdom of Montenegro, to be run bySekula Drljević and closely controlled by the Italian authority ofAlessandro Biroli, Mussolini's confidant. Djilas had an important role in theUprising in Montenegro which was a national example, spanning ideological lines. Large parts of Montenegro were quickly liberated. Djilas remained in Montenegro until November.[citation needed]
In early November 1941,[15] Tito dismissed Djilas from the command of Partisan forces in Montenegro because of his mistakes during the uprising, including what were called his "leftist errors".[16] Tito emphasized that Djilas made mistakes because he organized a frontal struggle of armies against a much stronger enemy, instead of connecting the Partisan struggle with the people's uprising, and adopting the Partisan methods of resistance. Djilas was appointed as editor of the paperBorba, the Party's main propaganda organ.[17]
Djilas left for the communist-controlled town ofUžice inSerbia, where he took up his work forBorba. Following the withdrawal of Supreme Commander Tito and other Party leaders toBosnia, Djilas stayed inNova Varoš in theRaška (on the border between Serbia and Montenegro). From there he retreated with the units under his command, in the middle of winter and in difficult conditions, to join the Supreme Staff. At this time, the Partisans did not have serious divisions between communists and non-communists.[citation needed]
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In March 1942, Djilas returned to Montenegro, where a civil war between Partisans andChetniks had broken out. The historian Momčilo Cemović, who has dealt mostly with this period of Djilas's war activities, believed that theCPY Central Committee and the Supreme Staff had sent Djilas to ascertain the actual state of affairs and to dismiss the communist leaders responsible.
In March 1944, he went as part of the military- and party-mission to the Soviet Union.[18] During this time he met withGeorgi Dimitrov,Vyacheslav Molotov andJoseph Stalin, among others.[19]
Returning to Yugoslavia, he fought with the Partisans to liberateBelgrade from theWehrmacht. With the establishment of theFederal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, Djilas became Vice-president in Tito's government. Djilas later claimed to have been sent at that time to pressure the Italians to withdraw fromIstria.[citation needed]
Djilas was sent to Moscow to meet Stalin again in 1948 to try and bridge the gap between Moscow and Belgrade. He became one of the leading critics of attempts by Stalin to bring Yugoslavia under greater control by Moscow. Later that year, Yugoslavia broke with the Soviet Union and left theCominform, ushering in theInformbiro period.[citation needed]
Initially the Yugoslav communists, despite the break with Stalin, remained as hard line as before. But they began to pursue a policy ofindependent socialism that experimented withself-management of workers in state-run enterprises. Djilas was very much part of that, but he began to take things further. Having responsibility for propaganda, he created a platform for new ideas and he launched a new journal,Nova Misao ("New Thought"), in which he published a series of articles that were increasinglyfreethinking.[citation needed]
Djilas was widely regarded as Tito's possible successor and in 1953 he was about to be chosen asPresident of Yugoslavia. He became President of theFederal People's Assembly of Yugoslavia, but he only held office from 25 December 1953 to 16 January 1954. Between October 1953 and January 1954, he wrote 19 articles (only 18 were published) forBorba, the official newspaper of theLeague of Communists of Yugoslavia, wherein, encouraged by Tito, he developed the Yugoslav critique of over-bureaucraticStalinism in the Soviet Union, in favour of a shift away fromcentral planning towards more economic autonomy.[20]
His advocacy of greater democratic input into decision-making led him eventually to argue against the one-party state itself, suggesting a relaxation of party discipline, and the retirement of the state officials he saw as profiteering from their position and blocking the road to further reform.[21] At that point, Tito and other leading Yugoslav communists saw Djilas's arguments as a threat to their leadership.[22] In January 1954. Djilas was expelled from the Central Committee of the party, of which he had been a member since 1937, and dismissed from all political functions for his criticism. He resigned from the League of Communists soon afterwards, in March 1954.[citation needed] On 25 December 1954, he gave an interview toThe New York Times in which he characterized the situation in Yugoslavia as "totalitarian", adding that his country was ruled by "undemocratic forces" and "reactionary elements". He also appealed for the formation of "a newdemocratic Socialist party", and thus for a two-party system. For this "hostile propaganda" he was brought to trial and given an 18-month suspended prison sentence.[22]
On 19 November 1956, Djilas was arrested following his statement toAgence France Presse opposing the Yugoslavabstention in theUnited Nations vote condemningSoviet intervention in Hungary and his article toThe New Leader magazine[23] supporting theHungarian Revolution. He was sentenced to three years imprisonment.[24] In 1957, Djilas published abroadThe New Class: An Analysis of the Communist System, which he had already sent to the American publisherPraeger before he was jailed.[25] In the book he argued that communism in Soviet Union and Eastern Europe was notegalitarian, and that it was establishing anew class ofprivileged party bureaucracy, who enjoyed material benefits from their positions. The book was a great success and was translated into more than 40 languages. ForThe New Class, Djilas was sentenced in 1957 to another seven years imprisonment, or ten in all, taking into account his previous term.[24]
In prison, Djilas completed a massive scholarly biography of the great Montenegrin prince-poet-priestNjegoš as well as fictional novels (Montenegro) and short stories. In 1958, he published abroad the first volume of his memoirs, about his youth in Montenegro, entitledLand Without Justice, which he had finished in 1954, but was rejected by Yugoslav publishers.[citation needed] In this book, Djilas described theŠahovići massacre, a massacre of the Muslim population of theYugoslav village of Šahovići (modern-dayTomaševo inMontenegro) and its neighboring area on 9–10 November 1924 by a mob of 2,000 Orthodox Christian men fromKolašin andBijelo Polje who sought revenge for the earlier murder of Boško Bošković. The description was based on the testimony of his father Nikola, who participated in the massacre.[26]
Djilas was conditionally released on 20 January 1961, after completing four years and two months in prison.[27] During 1961, Djilas was repeatedly threatened by the Yugoslav government of being sent back to jail for his contacts with foreign journalists and scholars. The Italian magazineTempo Presente which featured one of his short stories entitledThe War was banned in the country.[27] He would be imprisoned again in April 1962 for publishing abroadConversations with Stalin, which became another international success and which Djilas personally considered his greatest work (seeRise and Fall).Conversations with Stalin was written in 1961 after his release, although it had long been on his mind before (Rise and Fall, p. 396).[citation needed] The manuscript was not smuggled out of prison, as it has been stated, including byDavid Pryce-Jones in "Remembering Milovan Djilas".[28] ForConversations with Stalin, Djilas was sentenced in August 1962 to another five years – or fifteen, added to the earlier punishments – allegedly for having "revealed state secrets", which he denied. The book's references toAlbania and its possibleunion with Yugoslavia were considered embarrassing by Yugoslav communist leaders.[citation needed] During his internment, Djilas also translatedJohn Milton'sParadise Lost intoSerbo-Croatian by utilizing toilet paper.[29] On 31 December 1966, Djilas was granted amnesty and freed unconditionally after four years in jail. He was never to be imprisoned again. He continued as a dissident, living in Belgrade until his death on 20 April 1995.[22]
Djilas opposed thebreakup of Yugoslavia and the descent into nationalist conflict in the 1980s and 1990s, but predicted in the 1980s that a breakup would happen. In 1981, he predicted that this would happen on ethnic and bureaucratic nationalist lines due to the loss of Tito:
"Our system was built only for Tito to manage. Now that Tito is gone and our economic situation becomes critical, there will be a natural tendency for greater centralization of power. But this centralization will not succeed because it will run up against the ethnic-political power bases in the republics. This is not classical nationalism but a more dangerous, bureaucratic nationalism built on economic self-interest. This is how the Yugoslav system will begin to collapse."[30]
He was critical ofSerbian PresidentSlobodan Milošević in the late 1980s and predicted that his actions would arouse separation of other republics, ethnic war, and the demise of Yugoslavia:
"Milošević still has possibilities.... The liberalization you see has a bad cause. It is the consequence of national competition between Serbia and the other republics. Eventually Yugoslavia might be like the British Commonwealth, a loose confederation of trading nations. But first, I am afraid, there will be national wars and rebellions. There is such strong hate here."[30]
"Milošević's authoritarianism in Serbia is provoking real separation. Remember whatHegel said, that history repeats itself as tragedy and farce. What I mean to say is that when Yugoslavia disintegrates this time around, the outside world will not intervene as it did in 1914.... Yugoslavia is the laboratory of all Communism. Its disintegration will foretell thedisintegration in the Soviet Union. We are further along than the Soviets."[30]
In 1987, Djilas was interviewed by theneoconservative magazineEncounter on the subject of Soviet leaderMikhail Gorbachev's economic and political reforms in the Soviet Union. Djilas described Gorbachev's actions as a "strict necessity. They have come to realize what other Communists in Yugoslavia, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and China realised much earlier—namely that Communism doesn't work. It works neither at the economic level nor at the level of satisfying essential human needs and liberties... Communism is a 19th-century relic and a prescription for disaster."[31]
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Djilas made great contributions toMontenegrin literature andhistoriography with his works. Later in life, from the mid-1980s, Djilas referred to himself as "Serb" (as does his Belgrade-born son Aleksa, research associate at the Russian Research Center, Harvard University). After he left the party, Djilas denied there existed a separate Montenegrin ethnicity and national identity, especially in his booksNjegoš: Poet-Prince-Bishop andRise and Fall.
Djilas was a contributor for the 1992Radio Television of Serbia documentary series entitledYugoslavia in War 1941–1945. Djilas is mentioned inSaul Bellow's fictionHumboldt's Gift, where he writes aboutJoseph Stalin's "twelve-course all-night banquets" and the theme of boredom.[32]
Members of thePresidency of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia | |||||
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| 6th term (1952–1958) | |||||
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| 11th term (1978–1982) |
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| 12th term (1982–1986) |
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Chetniks | |
Germany | |
Italy | |
Albania.svg) | |
Independent State of Croatia | |
German-occupied territory of Serbia | |
Italian governorate of Montenegro | |
Province of Ljubljana | |
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| Academics | |
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