Milovan Đilas

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Milovan Đilas (1942)

Milovan Đilas ['milɔvan' d͡ʑilas] ( Serbian - Cyrillic Милован Ђилас , transcribed Milovan Djilas ; born June 12, 1911 in Podbišće , Kingdom of Montenegro ; † April 20, 1995 in Belgrade ) was a Yugoslav politician and writer from Montenegro .

Initially a staunch communist ideologue and agitator , he developed into a prominent critic of Josip Broz Titos , the League of Communists of Yugoslavia and the real communism itself. He lost his offices and spent nine years in Yugoslav prisons. His books were published in the West, where he was considered a communist dissident .

Life

Đilas as a prisoner in Sremska Mitrovica (1933)

Đilas was the son of a wealthy farmer and police officer. From 1929 he studied philosophy and law at the University of Belgrade and in 1932 joined the then illegal Communist Party of Yugoslavia (CPJ). Imprisoned from 1933 to 1936, he became a member of the Central Committee (ZK) in 1938 and of the Politburo of the CPJ in 1940 .

In 1941 Đilas took part in the preparation and organization of the armed uprising against the Italian fascists in Montenegro. During the Second World War he was a member of their so-called Supreme Staff ( Vrhovni štab ) and had the rank of lieutenant general of the Communist People's Liberation Army (NOV / POJ) .
In March 1944 he traveled to Moscow as a liaison officer as part of a Yugoslav military and party delegation . There he met Georgi Dimitrov , Molotov and Stalin several times, among others .

In the "Provisional Government" of March 8, 1945 ( coalition government Tito - Šubašić ) Đilas was Minister of Montenegro . From February 1946 he was a minister without portfolio in various governments. At the CPJ party congress from July 21 to 28, 1948, Đilas was elected to the Central Committee and the Politburo of the CPY. From January 1953 he was a member of the Presidium of the Federal Executive Council ( Savezno Izvršno Veće, SIV ).

In 1954, after the publication of an 18-part critical series of articles in the party organ Borba, there was a break with Tito and the League of Communists of Yugoslavia ( Savez Komunista Jugoslavije , SKJ ), the successor organization of the CPJ from 1952. The SKJ's central committee raised the charge against Đilas anti-partisan behavior and removed him from all functions in the party and state. The reason was his real sociological analysis, in which he, the Communist cadres with Marxist analysis as a new class worked out and condemned. He was sentenced to two more prison terms for "statements against Yugoslav interests" and spent the years 1956 to 1961 and 1962 to 1966 in prison. During his imprisonment he wrote his short story book Der Wolf in der Fall , which appeared in 1973 in German.

Memorial plaque with the portrait of Milovan Đilas (Belgrade)

After serving his prison sentence, Đilas traveled through the USA , Great Britain , Italy and Austria in 1967, only to return to Yugoslavia in 1968. In 1970 he was banned from leaving the country . In his exile in Belgrade he came close to the Serbian Orthodox Church , and at the end of his life he regretted having “participated in the process that had led to the break-up of Yugoslavia and the demonization of the Serbs”.

Đilas had a daughter from his first marriage to Mitra Mitrović (1912-2001) and a son ( Aleksa Đilas , * 1953) from his marriage to Štefanija Barić (1921-1993). After his death he was buried in the family grave at the Podbišće cemetery in Montenegro.

Works (selection in German translation)

memoirs

  • The young revolutionary. Memoirs 1929 - 1941. Molden, Vienna / Munich / Zurich 1976. ISBN 3-217-00514-7
  • The partisan war. Memoirs 1941-1945. Molden, Munich 1978. ISBN 3-88919-035-9
  • Years of power. Play of forces behind the iron curtain. Memoirs 1945-1966. Molden, Munich 1983 ISBN 3-88919-008-1 (New edition: Years of Power. In the Yugoslavian Power Game. Memoirs 1945-1966. Dtv, Munich 1992).
  • Ideas blow up walls. My years between torture and freedom. Molden, Munich 1984. ISBN 3-88919-036-7

Political Writings

  • The new class. An analysis of the communist system. [With an introduction by Alfred Kantorowicz .] Translated by Reinhard Federmann. Kindler Verlag, Munich 1957. - Title of the original Serbian manuscript: Nova klasa. Kritika savremenog komunizma. - Original edition: The new class. An analysis of the communist system. Frederick A. Praeger, New York 1957.
  • Talks with Stalin. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1962. ISBN 3-10-014501-1 .
  • Anatomy of a moral. An analysis in pamphlets. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main / Hamburg 1963.
  • The imperfect society. Beyond the "New Class". (Original title: Nesavršeno Društvo ). Molden, Vienna / Munich / Zurich 1969. (New edition: Ullstein, 1980, ISBN 3-548-38013-1 ).
  • Idea and system. Political essays. Molden, Vienna [a. a.] 1982, ISBN 3-217-01079-5 .

Biographies

  • Njegoš or poet between church and state. Molden, Vienna / Munich / Zurich 1968.
  • Tito. A critical biography. (Original title: Druženje s Titom ). From the Serbo-Croatian Peter Walcker, Molden, Wien a. a. 1980. ISBN 3-217-01158-9 ; an extract as a series in the magazine Der Spiegel under the title The Red Monarch. About Tito. From No. 28/1980 ff. Part 1 , Part 2 , Part 3 , Part 4 , Part 5 .

prose

  • Land without a law. (Original title: Besudna zemlja ). Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1958.
  • The execution and other narratives. dtv, Munich 1968.
  • Lost battle (novel). (Original title: Izgubljene bitke ). Rowohlt, Reinbek 1974. ISBN 3-499-11692-8
  • The wolf in the trap. Stories. Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main / Vienna / Berlin 1981. ISBN 3-548-38019-0
  • Manhunt. 4 novels. Nymphenburger, Munich 1985. (New edition: Das Dorf im Dreiländereck. Four novels. Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main / Berlin 1992. ISBN 3-548-22825-9 ). ISBN 3-485-00500-2
  • Worlds and Bridges (novel). Nymphenburger, Munich 1987. ISBN 3-485-00543-6

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Milovan Djilas in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)
  2. ↑ Djilas Milovan: Conversations with Stalin. Translated by Michael B. Petrovich. Rupert Hart-Davis Publisher, Soho Square London 1962, pp. 16-17.
  3. ↑ Djilas Milovan: Conversations with Stalin. Translated by Michael B. Petrovich. Rupert Hart-Davis Publisher, Soho Square London 1962, pp. 33-58.
  4. ↑ Aleksa Đilas: Hronologija života i rada Milovana Đilasa. on djilas.info, Belgrade 2011
personal data
SURNAME Đilas, Milovan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Djilas, Milovan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Yugoslav politician, writer and dissident
DATE OF BIRTH June 12, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Podbišće , Kingdom of Montenegro
DATE OF DEATH April 20, 1995
Place of death Belgrade