Rebel of conscience

Today, April 20, 2015, marks the 20th anniversary of the death of prominent communist revolutionary, dissident and writer Milovan Đilas.

Some people are said to have lived multiple lives. Milovan Đilas was one of those people from Montenegro. Đilas lived one life as a communist and revolutionary; another survived as an apostate from communism; he had a third life as a writer; the fourth as a prisoner, not to mention further. Milovan Đilas was not ashamed of or renounced a single life. On the contrary. He was rightly proud of every "piece" of his life. And already when it comes to the "lives" of Milovan Đilas, two observations about him - originally from Old Montenegrin - were not accidentally noticed. First, Milovan Đilas was a rare "mirror" of his time and how according to the challenge of the times "it is necessary to speak" and - secondly - that he chose his own life/destiny.

Milovan Đilas was a rebel against various evil "burdens" that his time produced and imposed. Whether it's about fascism, Stalinism, Titoism, nationalism and numerous other "isms" of the XNUMXth century, which were imposed on society in an imaginary and imperative way - from above, from imaginary human heights. And life and practice rejected precisely those "heights" as a counter-humane and liberal direction of social development.

It is not easy to rebel and stand in front of the "red wheel of history" (A. Solzhenitsyn). Djilas stopped. To make his feat higher and more unusual, Milovan Đilas rebelled from the top of the government. And that at a time when the "gods of power" were the strongest. Djilas rebelled against: Hitler in 1941; Stalin in 1948; Tita in 1953; Milošević, Tuđman, Izitbegović and other "gods" in the late 80s. Some biographical information about Milovan Đilas, given that he is almost unknown to our wider, even discretionary (scientific) public.

Milovan Đilas was born in 1911 in Podbišće, Mojkovac municipality. He was educated in Kolašin, Berane and Belgrade. He became a member of the KPJ very early, and at the age of 27 he became a member of the narrowest Yugoslav party leadership. Because of his anti-regime activities before World War II, he spent three and a half years in the Sremsko-Mitrovac prison. During World War II, he was a member of the Supreme Command and the Politburo. After the war, he held the most important party and state functions. Due to his alleged opposition to the party's policy and jeopardizing its unity, Đilas was excluded from the Central Committee of the Communist Party and all state functions.

Milovan Đilas spent nine and a half years in "Tito's" prison due to criticism of the Yugoslav stance on neutrality regarding the Soviet military invasion of Hungary in 1956 and the publication of the book New Class and Conversations with Stalin. He was the progenitor of the communist dissident movement and the first man from the top of the government who tried to reform and modernize Yugoslavia. Together with A. Solzhenitsyn, J. Brodski, E. Jonesko, A. Sakharov, he is the initiator of the globally recognized magazine Kontinent.

Milovan Đilas is the author of numerous short stories, novels, translations, plays, and essays. According to the assessment of the reference Oxford Forum, his book The New Class is on the 27th place in terms of the importance of books of the XNUMXth century that influenced the reshaping of Western culture. On the other side of the planet, and it is not known here at all, Đilas had a huge influence on the revaluation of China from a communist to a modern state. (Modern Chinese reformers Deng Xiaoping and Chu Enlai highly valued and used the books/experience of Milovan Djilas.)

For his revolutionary, dissident and literary work, he is the recipient of the highest Yugoslav and world awards and recognitions, from the Yugoslav order Narodni heroj, through the American Medal of Freedom to the Soviet Order of Kutuzov, the Mihailo Đurić award, etc.

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On this day, 20 years ago, the life of Milovan Đilas was drawn. Looking from the "blind spot", the conclusion that Montenegro remains a great debtor to Đilas easily surfaces. Starting with the non-publication of his books, collected works, renovation of the family house in Podbišće, memorials, organizing symposiums, etc.

Anniversaries - especially if they are "round", such as this one - are occasions for the domestic public to be reminded and reconsider whether we have made any progress towards reaching the civilizational liberal paradigm called Milovan Đilas. The conclusion is, unfortunately, devastating. The Milovan Đilas paradigm has long been inherited by the liberal world as part of its cultural heritage. Is Montenegro on the way to civilized behavior?