Milovan Djilas

This classic by an associate of Yugoslavia's Tito created a sensation when it was published in 1957 because it was the first time that a ranking Communist had publicly analyzed his disillusionment with the system.

Milovan Djilas was one of four senior members of Tito's government until his expulsion from the Yugoslav Communist party in '54 & eventual imprisonment on political charges. He wrote Conversations With Stalin in '61, between arrests. The book is a diary of his three voyages to Moscow in '43, '44 & '48. Djilas, memories no doubt leavened by hindsight, titles the three meetings "Raptures", "Doubts" & "Disappointments". As these names indicate, the book chronicles his growing disillusionment with Soviet-led socialism. Djilas was an educated man, a sophisticated thinker & a writer. So that when we read passages in the "Raptures" section such as, "My entire being quivered from the joyous anticipation of an imminent encounter with the Soviet Union", it seems clear he was not the naïf that he makes himself out to be. Rather, given his circumstances at the time that he was writing, he was heightening the sense of his early fascination with all things Soviet so that his later disenchantment is all the more palpable. The book fascinates with its detail. He travels to Moscow as a foreign dignitary to discuss Yugoslav-Soviet policies. He must cool his heels for days before he's finally summoned to meet Stalin. Then the meetings are typically all night dinners with copious drinking & byzantine political subtext to the conversation. Stalin dominates the discussion so thoroughly that when he insists that the Netherlands was not a member of the Benelux union, nobody dares correct him. Djilas recognizes traits of greatness in Stalin, his ruthlessness & farsightedness. He describes these not out of regard or respect, but because they are precisely the qualities which make Stalin evil. "Every crime was possible to Stalin, for there was not one he had not committed." As doubts begin to creep in, he records the development of his own cynicism. "In politics, more than in anything else, the beginning of everything lies in moral indignation & in doubt of the good intentions of others". His portraits of Krushchev, open-minded & clever; of Molotov, Stalin's taciturn lieutenant; Dimitrov, the powerful Bulgarian kept on Stalin's string; Beria, sinister & drunk; & a host of other prominent figures make this book required reading for those interested in the era. The descriptions of machinations surrounding Yugoslav-Albanian-Bulgarian politics & his unflattering characterization of Croatian hero Andrija Hebrang are of great interest to students of Balkan history.

The autobiography of the youth of the former Vice President of Yugoslavia, which is also the story of a little-known land, Montenegro. Introduction and notes by William Jovanovich. Translated by Michael B. Petrovich.

An account of the partisan campaign in Yugoslavia during World War II, written from the author's unique perspective-as a key leader of Tito's forces.

A revealing, complex, and intimate portrait of Tito by his one-time, right-hand man. Milovan Djilas headed Yugoslavia's Communist Party with Tito before World War II; served with him during the war; and then became his vice president. But, in 1954, Djilas broke with the regime and afterwards was twice jailed as a dissident. Writing in prison and out, he produced this unequaled document, capturing Tito's aristocratic pretensions; appetite for luxury; relationships with women; betrayals; and brilliance as a leader--constantly defying the Soviets and always fearing for his country's future. 5 3/8 X 8 1/2.

"Now I felt that the world was so clear to me that I would be able to influence its destiny." That is the spirit of the 1930's, the period Milovan Djilas describes in "Memoir of a Revolutionary." He became a communist when the Communist movement in Yugoslavia was growing into the force that eventually gave form to modern Yugoslavia. Determined and heroically hardheaded, Djilas suffered brutalities at the hands of King Alexander's police. Undeterred, he continued to organize, write, publish, learn. For a while Djilas tried to combine his literary ambitions with his political ideals. But he soon realized that his "poetic passion" was in conflict with his revolutionary discipline. There is iron determination in this man who became, under Tito's leadership, a chief architect of the Communist revolution. The Yugoslav Communists built an organization strong enough to resist both Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia. A tightly knot group personally and politically, they enforced a personal morality that drove some dedicated men to despair. Djilas helped to mild minds; others organized cadres. With Tito, Djilas maintained a special "father-and-son relationship." With almost perfect recall, Djilas tells of these years of struggle and triumph, of the time spent in prison, which was, he says, "perhaps the most important school … for our spiritual transformation." This book is a rare study of human commitment.

In the aftermath of the partisan victory that gave the Communists control of Yugoslavia in 1944, Djilas became one of Tito's closest aides. A decade later, he was expelled from the Central Committee and imprisoned for nine years. His inside account of a revolution gone awry is a painful, passionate book of bitter truths. Index.

Djilas, Milovan, Unperfect Society, Beyond The New Class

He was a true believer in communism who became disillusioned with the totalitarianism and corruption of the Communist regimes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. A wartime partisan leader in Yugoslavia and later the number three man in the politburo, he broke with Marshal Tito in 1954 and spent most of the next decade in prison, where he began to write about the inner workings of the Communist system. Here, Milovan Djilas--who died in 1995-- discusses why communism failed in Europe, what its failure means for the future of the continent, and how he transformed himself from ideologue into humanist. Djilas's publication, in 1957, of The New Class, which was translated into sixty languages, caused a worldwide sensation with its description of the bureaucratization of the movement, of the special privileges accorded its leaders and cadres, and of its reliance on secret police and repression. His new book reemphasizes and enlarges on those themes, giving the reader intimate portraits of Tito and his colleagues, describing the wartime struggle against the Nazis and rival Yugoslav factions, and showing why Mikhail Gorbachev failed in his efforts to reform the Soviet system. Controversial and courageous to the end, Milovan Djilas sharply criticized Serbia's war on Croatia, and once again is the target of vilification in his native land. Fall of the New Class is the final testament of one of the most remarkable thinkers of the century.

This volume contains translations of the articles written by Milovan Djilas in the last months of 1953 in the official newspaper of the Yugoslav League of Communists, Borba, of which he was then the director. In them can be traced the development of his ideas from the critical analysis of the Soviet system to the conclusion that dictatorship by a Communist party (even the Yugoslav party) is incompatible with socialist progress. The essay which gives its name to the book, and is longer than the others, appeared in the review Nova Misao, also edited by Djilas. It was a savage attack an the new snobbery and respectability of the Communist upper caste, and especially of their wives, and was based on the case of the young actress wife of a Communist general who was boycotted and insulted by the wives of his colleagues. This essay, written in an immoderate style, brought the rage of the party bureaucrats, already annoyed by Djilas’s political articles, to the boil, and compelled Tito to call the special meeting of the Central Committee in January 1954 which expelled Djilas from its ranks and deprived him of his public offices. Djilas is an outstanding example of a social group that has played, and will continue to play, a leading part in the politics of the 20th century—the revolutionary intelligentsia of an underdeveloped society. The most interesting thing about Djilas is that he chose to challenge the regime at a time When he stood just below the apex of the power elite. Consideration of his own’ interests would have kept him where he was, as the chief mouthpiece of ideological orthodoxy. But he acted against his interests and according to his convictions. When his reflections, in the years from the breach with the Cominform to the end of 1953, led him to conclude that the party dictatorship no longer served a useful purpose, he did not hesitate to say so.In this Djilas is unique among all Communist leaders since 1917. The greatest of Communist rebels, Trotsky himself, did not oppose the regime created by the Bolshevik Revolution. In 1923 he disagreed on important issues of policy with the troika, and political controversy became still further embittered by personal conflict. The more fiercely Trotsky was persecuted, the more radically he criticized important features of the regime and of its leaders’ policies—the bureaucratic organization of the party, “socialism in one country,” the whole strategy of the Comintern in China. But he never questioned the necessity of dictatorship by the Bolshevik party over the peoples of the Russian Empire, never upheld freedom of opinion and organization as matters of principle. Djilas’s proposal, that the party be reduced to a “union of ideologically united men,” a debating society which should abandon its monopoly of power and “‘wither away’ as a classical party,” would have been summarily rejected by Trotsky. Djilas saw that concentration of power in one centralized party is bound to deprive of liberty not only the “class enemy” and the people at large, but also the members of the party. He argued that Lenin’s methods “were adapted to a specific time . . . the period of preparing for the struggle for power.” Once the revolution had triumphed, however, these methods were no longer suitable. “Our progress can proceed in two directions,” he wrote in Borba on January 4, 1954, “towards a Leninist form of state and parity which cannot be democratic today, at towards a renunciation of that form for a more democratic, free and decentralized form of political life and struggle.” None of other communist dissidents understood so clearly the essential political problem, or chose, as Djilas did, gratuitously to sacrifice a position of unchallenged power for a conviction reached by his own reasoning.--- by Hugh Seton-Watson

Djilas, Milovan, Leper And Other Stories, The

Njegos, Bishop Rade of Montenegro, is the greatest poet the southern slavic language has known. This massive and scholarly critical biography is an international literary event. Written by a man who himself has become a historical figure.

Following his expulsion from the top rank of the Yugoslav Communist government, Milovan Djilas was imprisoned from 1956 to 1961. This is one of three books he wrote in prison. It is a remarkable story, being part history and part fiction, a blend of reality and legend. The ballad-like tone of Montenegro, with its deep and clear awareness that violence both destroys and heightens life, resembles Land Without Justice, the autobiography of Djilas's early years. [from the dust jacket]

This haunting chronicle by Eastern Europe's foremost political dissident relates his tortured life and thoughts in Yugoslavian prisons under two dictatorships--royal Yugoslavia and Tito's regime

Dnevničke beleške Milovana Đilasa, pisane od januara 1989. do njegove smrti aprila 1995, odličan su pregled tragedije Jugoslavije i njenih naroda i vredan istorijski dokument. Ali, one su i mnogo više od toga. Đilas beleži svoja razmišljanja i osećanja, strahove i tugu. Piše o opštoj dezorijentaciji, vulkanu očaja i mržnje, beznađu i haosu, groteski i tragediji, krvavom ambisu i bezumnoj, neizmernoj bedi... Beleži da će izgleda umreti s Jugoslavijom, a kasnije zapisuje kako je nažalost preživeo njen raspad samo da bi bio svedok krvavog građanskog rata.Njegov stil pisanja je jednostavan i jasan, živ i zanimljiv, povremeno i duhovit. Čitalac ima utisak da mu se Đilas obraća kao bliskom prijatelju, rođaku - neusiljeno i bez imalo nadmenosti. Beležeći svoje razgovore sa našim i stranim novinarima, intelektualcima i umetnicima, ličnostima iz političkog života, stranim diplomatama, Đilas dodaje kako je govorio onako kako misli. U stvari, činio je to celog života i zato postao svetski poznat disident i dugogodišnji politički zatvorenik.Duboko je razočaran političkim vođama, posebno srpskim i hrvatskim, osuđuje „Miloševićevo vlastoljublje” i „Tuđmanove zlokobne koncepcije”. Govori o „zaplivanju Srba i Hrvata u krv – krv svoju, budući su u biti ako ne isti, a ono sličan narod” i „vidi i osjeća Jugoslovene u bezumnom, besciljnom međusobnom istrebljivanju”. Možda ipak najviše tuguje nad srpskom nesrećom. A jedno od njegovih proročanstava je da će Srbi biti najveći gubitnici. Predviđa da će Zapad pomoći antisrpsku koaliciju, rat se proširiti na Bosnu i Hercegovinu, na Kosovu izbiti ustanak. I da će u budućnosti drugi uređivati odnose između Južnih Slovena, da će oni biti nemoćni. A ipak, uverava sebe da će se najgore ipak izbeći, da će se rešenja pronaći. Nikad ne prestaje da se nada i nema sumnje da ni danas ne bi prestao.

English, Serbo-Croation (translation)

Set in the closed world of late-nineteenth century Montenegro, Under the Colors tells the story of a heroic people's struggle to free themselves from alien rule. Milovan Djilas describes in epic style an era and a way of life that have long since disappeared. Yet this majestic historical novel has an import for today, when the voices of political prisoners are stifled in the prisons of many countries. Djilas writes of the psychological and ideological effects of imprisonment and torture for both the victim and oppressor. Under the colors is a novel that explores the concept of courage under conditions that seem totally destructive to the human spirit. Montenegro of the last century, a "land without justice," is a world where in T. S. Eliot's phrase, "there is only the fight to recover that what has been lost/ And found and lost again and again."

Serbo-Croation

Iz pera najpoznatijeg istočnoevropskog disidenta i vrsnog pisca Milovana Đilasa upravo je izašla knjiga koja baca novo svetlo na političko delovanje i zatvorski život jednog od najviših funkcionera Komunističke partije, koji su stvarali SFRJ. Knjiga pod naslovom „Pisma iz zatvora” zbirka je do sada neobjavljenih originalnih pisama, koje je čuveni Đido slao supruzi Štefici. Iako pisma porodici, ona otkrivaju, otvoreno ili u nagoveštajima, veoma tople, sugestivne i lucidne poruke o onom što je Đilas, u dva navrata, doživljavao i preživljavao šest godina u komunističkim zatvorima. Rukopis je priredio dr Aleksa Đilas, Đidov sin, veoma pedantno i sa svim potrebnim objašnjenjima. Knjiga je bogato ilustrovana fotografijama iz tog turbulentnog perioda Đilasovog života.

Knjiga razgovora sa Ðilasom koja je 1989. godine probila domaću medijsku i političku izolaciju oko ovog komunističkog buntovnika i neposredno pred sunovrat Jugoslavije vratila Milovana Ðilasa u javnost na velika vrata. Izdanje dodatno sadrži: - tekstove Milovana Đilasa objavljene u Borbi i Novoj misli, u periodu od 1953-1954 godine, uključujući i Anatomiju jednog morala; - Nordijski san, Pismo Titu 1967. godine, Budućnost socijalizma ... ; - priloge o Đilasu: Mitre Mitrović, Dušana Bilandžića, Vladimira Dedijera.*pogovor: Žarko Puhovski*Knjiga je obilato ilustrovana fotografijama

La guerra partigiana in Jugoslavia, combattuta tra 1941 e 1945, viene raccontata in questo volume dal punto di vista di chi la visse da protagonista. È il diario di Milovan Djilas, figura chiave del movimento di Liberazione e della scena politica jugoslava nel secondo dopoguerra.L'Autore rievoca con grande efficacia eventi di alta drammaticità, approfondendone la lettura con un sapiente lavoro di introspezione psicologica unito a una lucida analisi politica. Il suo resoconto di imprese diventate epiche e di tragedie immani, come la sanguinosa battaglia della Neretva e le drammatiche ritirate attraverso le selvagge montagne del Montenegro e della Bosnia, le rivelazioni riguardanti retroscena ed episodi assolutamente inediti, la testimonianza dell'evoluzione dalla passione rivoluzionaria al disincanto nei confronti dell'utopia, fanno de La guerra rivoluzionaria jugoslava un libro fondamentale per la storiografia novecentesca.

"Tradicije su dobre samo onda kad ljudi nijesu njihovi robovi, kad se isključivo njima ne obrazlaže ono što jeste i što mora da bude; jer ovo se ne može obrazložiti isključivo njima, iz prostog razloga što ovaj život nije onaj koji je bio, nego je samo jedan dalji beočug u beskrajnom napredovanju života."Kao autentični revolucionar, Đilas je u idealističkom balastu blagovremeno prepoznao veliku i teško savladivu opasnost po Jugoslaviju i po socijalizam. “A taj idealistički balast”, veli on u ovoj knjizi, “koji kao mora još pritiskuje naše sopstvene mozgove, može se iz naših glava izbaciti samo perom, a ne mačem.” Đilas, stoga, ne piše o, nego povodom, i ne bavi se tumačenjem Njegoša, nego tumačenjem Njegoševih tumača.Legenda o Njegošu (1952), objavljena u izdanju beogradske Kulture. nije bilo štivo koje je pisano po partijskom nalogu, nego iz duboke lične potrebe (kao i tekstovi iz 1953 i 1954, koji će dovesti do Đilasovog pada); ta knjiga jeste u izvesnom smislu kontra-knjiga, odnosno odgovor na knjigu Isidore Sekulić, Njegošu, knjiga duboke odanosti (1951), ali je i mnogo više od toga. *Sadržaj: — Kako i zašto je došlo do ovog spisa?—Prije svega: Razgovor o metodi: A. O metodi uopšte, B. O metodi našeg idealizma;— Legenda o Njegošu: A. Predistorija legende, B. Nastanak legende;— Reakcionarna i kolonijalna duša našeg idealizma: A. Religiozni idealizam: nužna ideologija naše buržoazije; B. Nacionalna mistika: originalna crta našeg idealizma; V. Protiv nacionalne romantike; — I najzad, nešto o Njegošu_________"Buržoazije jugoslovenskih naroda se nikada nisu ni borile “prema vani”, pošto su uvek bile u vazalnom odnosu, nego “prema unutra”, gde su vazda ispoljavale “životinjsku bestijalnost” u svojoj “staroj i prljavoj trgovini i igri s krvlju”. Zvuči poznato? Da, i na sve postjugoslovenske kompradorske vrhuške bez ostatka primenljivo. Tu stižemo i do zapanjujuće aktuelnosti Legende o Njegošu. Kroz prizmu ove knjige, komunizam nam se ukazuje u doskora nezamislivom svetlu: kao herojski pokušaj da se zaustavi kapitalistička pošast uništenja nacija. U drugoj Jugoslaviji, onoj za koju je Đilas vojevao u ratu i prvoj deceniji mira – između ostalog i tako što je pisao o književnosti i njenoj društvenoj funkciji – nacijama je bio pridavan socijalni smisao, usled čega je i suverenitet te države bio takav da o njemu u savremenom svetu može samo da se sanja. Projekat jugoslovenskog socijalizma sastojao se u onom đilasovskom “podizanju društva” kao zajednice sa socijalnim, umesto sa identitetskim sadržajem. U identitetskim zajednicama, u kakve su se nakon razlaza kafkijanski preobrazile nekadašnje jugoslovenske republike, neminovno – a u srpskom slučaju: po isidorinskom [misli se na Isidoru Sekulić] "Kosovo-je-grob" obrascu – dolazi do ugrožavanja osnovnih tekovina prosvetiteljstva. Eto kako bi se mogao sumirati fundamentalni kulturološki i politički nalaz Đilasove knjige!"*ceo citat Isidore Sekulić: "Sve ide u iracionalno. Srpstvo, to nije hleb i škola i država, nego je Kosovo; a Kosovo je grob, grob u koji je sve zakopano; a vaskrs ide opet preko Kosova." (odlomak preuzet iz kritičkog članka: “Legenda o Njegošu” i “Legenda o Đilasu”, Predraga Brebanovića, REČ 84-30, str. 127)

Đilasovi ratni memoari, prvi put objavlni u emigraciji. Beograd 1990. Tvrd povez, 456 strana. Napomena : knjiga je veoma dobro / odlično očuvana.

De tous les communistes qui, de leur propre gré, se sont séparés de leur parti, Milovan Djilas est le seul qui, devant une dernière alternative, ait abandonné tous les privilèges du petit groupe d'hommes qui, depuis quelque vingt ans, domine la Yougoslavie. Il n'a cessé d'indisposer les maîtres de son pays depuis janvier 1954. Tout seul, sans armure, il mène une lutte inégale dont l'issue ne paraît pas incertaine.Dans son pays, le Montenegro, les enfants apprenaient à connaître une seule peur : celle d'en montrer. Ils s'exerçaient à faire toujours preuve de ce courage exaspérant qui pousse à chercher le danger ou à le créer par des défis insensés.Depuis sa rupture avec Tito et son régime, Djilas pratique ce défi dans un isolement effroyable. Pour justifier le régime il était parti à la recherche d'arguments de propagande et rencontra en route la vérité sur la dictature. Il découvrit alors dans son miroir un homme qu'il fallait combattre tout autant que son grand ami Tito et tous ses frères d'armes.Comme Victor Serge, Ignazio Silone, Arthur Koestler et d'autres écrivains-témoins de notre époque exaltante et terrible, Djilas se mit à écrire dans le no man's land, non pour retrouver une patrie mais pour justifier sa propre survie.Les récits réunis dans ce recueil, écrits après la Nouvelle Classe et l'autobiographie Pays sans justice, révèlent un remarquable poète épique, un écrivain qui vient de loin.Des nouvelles comme l'Exécution, le Lépreux ou la Guerre qui relatent, chacune d'une façon particulière, des expériences étranges, nous émeuvent et ébranlent nos certitudes. Comme toute vraie création littéraire, elles mettent en question le sens de notre existence, tout en rapportant des événements et des faits d'une guerre lointaine, d'un pays qui nous reste bien étranger.Si Milovan Djilas demeure aux yeux de ses juges et de ses geôliers un contre-révolutionnaire, les lecteurs, eux, découvrent en lui un des écrivains révolutionnaires les plus inquiétants de notre temps.

Serbo-Croation

درباره اصلاحات در شوروی، چین، و یوگسلاویچاپ اول ۱۳۶۸