About the book "Milovan Đilas - Letters from Prison"
The book "Milovan Đilas - Letters from Prison" was recently published by "Vukotić-Medija" from Belgrade. The book is about letters exchanged between Milovan Đilas and his wife Štefica, while the "head of the family" was in prison from 1957 to 1961 and from 1962 to 1966. The book was edited, that is, the selection from the letters was arranged chronologically, by Dr. Aleksa Đilas, son of Milovan Đilas.
Spouses could exchange letters once a month on one sheet of A4 paper. Letters could not be received or sent in a closed envelope. Each letter had the initials of the prison warden, the book's introduction, Dr. Aleksa Đilas, meticulously explains.
In a very elegant and measured preface, A. Đilas skilfully avoids the trap of familiarity and, in this connection, subjectivity and bias. In the 31-page preface, Mr. A. Đilas directs the reader to various details of the book, i.e. letters and helps him to more easily penetrate into the internal and external circumstances in which the close family Đilas lived and functioned. Either that part of the family that was in prison, or the rest that remained imprisoned in their apartment in Belgrade and in some kind of house arrest and - freedom.
Someone once remarked that letters are "the mirror of the human soul." It's true. Letters are written with soul and heart. And the heart never lies. Nor can he lie. The letters of Štefica and Milovan Đilas help to understand more clearly their struggles, sufferings, emotions, passions, and even better understand the "spark" of touched wisdom that someone alone knows how to make, from the different inner corners of the writers' hearts.
Letters reveal the secret of miracles that only exceptional circumstances - and prison is an exceptional circumstance - create. (This was noticed even in "biblical" times.) And it is a real miracle that Milovan Đilas survived two and a half years in solitary confinement and nine years in an unheated cell in the cold Sremsko-Mitrovac prison. And to make the miracle even greater, Milovan Đilas wrote and created, as he explains in a letter, in woolen gloves with the tips of the fingers torn off. And yet, in prison Đilas wrote an excellent study about Njegoš, translated Milton's two-volume "Paradise Lost" from English, wrote numerous short stories and novels "Worlds and Bridges" and "Lost Battles". This last novel, not by chance, he dedicated to his tireless wife Štefica. (And speaking of dedications, M. Đilas also dedicated the book about prison experiences - "Dungeon and Idea" - to his son Aleksa, not by chance.)
I
In terms of their literary depth, the letters reveal the multidimensional characters of Štefica and Milovan, who meet and build the resultant: endure, endure and you will win. They help and elevate each other from various angles of heart power and mutual love. Mutual love is the strongest connective tissue of their separate lives. That word (love) is by far the most frequently mentioned in letters. The lives, hopes, faiths, struggles of prisoners and the rest of the family rely on that magic word. But on that word, letter writers ran away from prison and social reality and built their elevated "worlds and bridges". Due to the imposed circumstances, Štefica and Milovan fatefully explored themselves in the depths of their souls. In a letter dated May 2, 1963, Đilas reveals that the kind of prisoner he was "lives for another, for love, for a thought - for you." But the letters also have the strength of a determined, indomitable will that it is in prison that "one needs to justify one's existence here, right here" (June 2, 1963).
There is not a single tearful, weeping word in the letters. On the contrary - only pride. Here are some quotes. "You are exactly mine - even in your fate, which I do not envy you, although mine does not seem bad at all and although, if I could, I would not choose a significantly different one". (July 14, 1963) or "The 'Gods' are still against us. And how could it be otherwise, when we only pretend to be 'gods' - to create new worlds? But even we, separated like this, find some content in each other - we live from dreams and crumbs of stolen reality. For us, even this current state is the most complete shared existence - the fullness of renunciation, waiting and sacrifice" (02. V 1965.) or "The first is my internal relationship with the prison, and the second is my conscious and emotional relationship with you. I found some kind of balance between one and the other. Maybe even relationships... Anything good you say to me in this regard - will only strengthen my feeling of freedom and be a source of inexhaustible hopes and joys." (March 07, 1965)
In one of his letters, Đilas writes that letters are an even greater joy for him than the visit of his wife and son, because (obviously) after the visit he was left with sadness, and after the letter he was left with a cheerful peace and the memory of happiness in the accident. It is very difficult to say which character is stronger and even the strongest in letters or to point a finger at the one who can withstand the strongest pressure. My opinion is that it is Štefica Đilas. Everything and everyone is in the shadow of her letters, and even Milovan Đilas himself. Štefici's letters brought Milovan Đilas back to life, gave him breath, air to survive because Milovan Đilas was buried alive. In support of her husband, Štefica Đilas was an indestructible rock of ancient Greek steadfastness and petrification. Caught between the past, which is in prison, and the responsibility for the future, which is in her son, Štefica Đilas, without the present, unraveled in both directions and time. And withstood everything. (To some extent, the character and strength of Štefica Đilas is reminiscent of Nadezhda Mandeljštam, the wife of Osip Mandeljštam, a Russian poet and Stalin's prisoner.)
II
Whenever a great historical name, such as Milovan Đilas, suddenly finds himself "behind bars", society is in a political and historical shock. Like any flash, the shock is short-lived and the history of the person "behind the bars" is being "built" anew. The goal is to forget the arrested person as soon as possible, cross out and bring him to a state of official interpretation, rest and forgery. Over time, the ideological (official) dust that covers and "squeezes" the personality intensively falls on the "number behind the bars". The dusty lies about the runaway member of the "new class" or Milovan Đilas, were called Milovan Đilas's "leftist mistakes". With the "mistakes of the left", an effort was made to morally discredit the "leper" in the general public. But he also scared the people and the "new class" and strengthened the government more deeply by eliminating the democratic alternative that Milovan Đilas started to form. It is about the magazine "Nova misao" which was started by Milovan Đilas in 1952. The publication of the magazine was approved by Josip Broz, and M. Đilas gave the magazine a non-coincidental title. (With this magazine, Đilas worked on the formation of the Yugoslav liberal cultural opposition to the then government.)
The letters reveal that, even if they were separated, over time the family was - contrary to earthly logic - more and more friendly, closer, stronger, more loyal. From the outside, the three-member family looked like a river stone pebble that the rapid mountain water element jumps over, but does not touch. The letters are an example of resistance to an elemental disaster that cannot move the "prisoners". Simply, all three of them set themselves in such a way that they would not give in, that they would not give up, shame and fail before fate and the finger of history.
And when we are talking about the three-sided forces of will in the letters, let's list the hierarchy of wills in order because it is important.
Djilas' willpower is original. It is in the orbit of highly nailed metaphysics, his pursuit of social but also personal responsibility and obligation. Štefici's strength lies in the strength of an atypical female heart that made the family of three "spiritually and morally great" (December 07, 1957). (Stefica Đilas could easily have become an important name in Tito's government and a top Yugoslav political name if only she had publicly renounced her husband and started talking intimately and writing memoirs about her "ex-husband".) And Aleksa's willpower, from the beginning, is probably in the intuition that his father is not guilty of anything. About 13 years later, when Đilas was finally released from prison, Aleksa was already aware that he was a "traitor and a madman", as JB Tito called the dissident Đilas, the most sincere Yugoslav patriot with the old Montenegrin brave face of the individual internal obligation to rebel against the undemocratic government and civilization fiction.
Đilas writes that during the blackout "he will remain himself and a man until the end, surrendering only to his duty: to write, think and love you" (October 05, 1957). In other words, Đilas calls for work and love. This is an important and atypical feeling of an innocent prisoner who suffers through letters received (from the other side of the world) and dreams of a new hope and a new life - but not revenge.
With their letters, Štefica and Milovan Đilas create a memory of themselves and their sorrows.
When the last page of the book is closed, the reader today is left with a clear answer to the question: who was in prison and who was not.
Bonus video:
