Synopsis
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.
About the Author
Milovan Djilas was born in 1911 in Kolasin, Montenegro. In 1929, he enrolled in the University of Belgrade, where he began his involvement in political activity, becoming a member of the Communist Party in 1932. After serving a three-year prison sentence for his revolutionary activities, he assumed a leading role in the Party organization in Serbia and eventually entered the innermost circles of the Politburo and Central Committee under Marshal Tito.
Over the years, Djilas became one of the leading ideologists and theoreticians of the Yugoslav Communist Party, taking an active and prominent role in the government. But after the confrontation that erupted between his country and the Soviet Union in 1948, he began to criticize the Party bureaucracy and to develop his ideas on the democratization of Yugoslav society. His open commitment to reform led to his expulsion from the Central Committee in 1954; two months later he submitted his resignation from Party membership.
Djilas spent the next twelve years in and out of prison. Unable to publish any of his writing in Yugoslavia until 1989 (the majority of his works were published abroad), he still exerted great influence in the political arena of his country until his death in Belgrade in 1995.
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