Djilas, Milovan (1911–1995)

Milovan Djilas was a Yugoslav politician, activist, and dissident writer. He became known for his daring critique of Tito's communism and for his innovative analysis of the communist bureaucracy. Djilas was born in Podbišće (Montenegro) to a peasant family. He studied law and literature in Belgrade, though he never completed his studies due to his engagement in the communist movement and his imprisonment for anti-royalist activities. Acquainted with Josip Broz Tito, who from 1937 headed the Yugoslavian Communist Party, Djilas joined the Central Committee in 1937 and the Politburo in 1940. He was actively involved in the resistance movement against the Nazi occupation and in the War of National Liberation. He headed the diplomatic mission to the Soviet Union and personally met Stalin, which he later detailed in his book Conversations with Stalin. In 1945 he became the Minister for Montenegro in the Yugoslav Government of National Unity;in 1948 he became the head of the Propaganda Department (Agitprop), and in 1953, he became vice president of the Yugoslav Republic. In 1950, together with Edvard Kardelj and Boris Kidrić, he formulated the doctrine of “worker's self-management”and advocated policies of economic decentralization.

Djilas expressed his views about Yugoslav communism in the newspapers Borba, Nova Jugoslavija, and Nova Misao. His democratic-socialist criticism of the undemocratic and centralizing reforms, as well as the authoritarian leadership style of the party, brought him in direct conflict with Tito. As a result, Djilas was denigrated at the Third Party Plenum in 1954 and removed from the government. Djilas subsequently resigned his party membership.

After an interview with the New York Times in 1955, Djilas was tried for spreading anti-state propaganda. He was imprisoned in 1956 for his support of the Hungarian Uprising and remained in prison for the next decade because of the publications abroad of the New Class: An Analysis of the Communist System of 1957 and Conversations with Stalin of 1962. In the New Class, Djilas argued that Soviet-style communism failed to realize the egalitarian claim of Marxism and instead facilitated the emergence of a privileged social stratum of party bureaucrats. As a result, the communist societies were devoid of the bonds of solidarity and comradeship. Commentators on the New Class have also emphasized that while it was written from the perspective of revisionist Marxism, it also signified Djilas's initial doubts regarding the accuracy of Marx's dogma of historical materialism.

During his imprisonment Djilas continued his literary activities;writing novels, political essays, a memoir titled Land Without Justice (1958), and a translation of Milton's Paradise Lost into Serbo-Croatian. When he was released from prison, Djilas continued his dissident writings while being subject to state persecution in the form of a travel and publication ban. In 1980, Djilas wrote Tito's biography, Tito: The Story from Inside, which was published abroad.

Djilas was officially rehabilitated in 1989. In postcommunist Yugoslavia, he opposed the Serbian nationalist politics of Milošević's era. He died in Belgrade on April 20, 1995.