Reason for the second trial Milovan Đilas were the events in Hungary in 1956. Namely, Đilas criticized the “neutral” position of the Yugoslav delegation in the UN Security Council regarding the Soviet military invasion of Hungary in the same year. (The position of “neutrality” actually meant support for the Soviet military intervention.) He gave the criticism on October 29, 1956, to a journalist from a French news agency France pressu (AFP).
Also, the reason for the second trial of Milovan Đilas was his article published in a New York magazine. New Leader. (Milovan Đilas sent the article “Bura in Eastern Europe” to New York on November 12, 1956 by mail. The article was published on November 19, 1956.) The article discusses the resistance of the Hungarian people to Soviet military intervention...
Đilas was arrested on November 19, 1956 and sentenced on December 12 of the same year to three years in prison.
DON'T MISS IT
It is interesting that when the police arrested Milovan Đilas, they found a copy of the book in his apartment. The New Class - An Analysis of the Communist System, andThey did not attach any importance to this "discovery". (Probably because they naively believed that it was Đilas's rejected and harmless theorizing.)
SECRET TRIAL AGAIN
Based on the publicly filed indictment, the District Court in Belgrade scheduled a (again secret) trial for December 12, 1956. Thus, Đilas found himself before the District Court in Belgrade again. He was charged with the criminal offense of hostile propaganda under Article 118, paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code - verbal offense.
The district public prosecutor was Aleksandar AtanackovicThe President of the Judicial Council was Vojislav Janković.
Before the indictment was filed, he was deprived of his liberty and was tried while in prison.
Milovan Đilas' lawyers were Veljko Kovacevic, Voja Grol i Nikola Barović.
The British Labour Party leader came to Belgrade for this trial. Jenny Lee, wife A. BevanaThis means that her presence gave the trial international significance and character.
This elite “triumvirate” of lawyers clearly speaks to Milovan Đilas’s position that he did not want to go to prison, that he preferred to stick to his family rather than live a life separated from his family. (Somewhere later in the book Dungeon and idea and explained that the very thought of life in prison was very difficult for him.)
In other words, Đilas had not yet - in the so-called "first prison sentence" (1956-1961) - mastered and built his new personal psychology of (higher) life in prison or, more precisely, life above prison. With this above-prison psychology and new mental (liberal) life, Đilas will ideologically embody (incarnate) himself with a very strong and diverse literary creation. Therefore, in the so-called "second prison sentence" (1962-1966.) Đilas "master the time", as he writes about one of his heroes F. Dostoevsky. With this kind of psycho-mental and physical preparation (Djilas had no heating in his cell during his entire imprisonment), prison would not be too difficult for Djilas. On the contrary. He claimed in the same book Dungeon and idea), that he could have stayed in prison ""as much as you want".
BORA IN EASTERN EUROPE
The District Public Prosecutor presented the indictment against Milovan Đilas. In a very well-written indictment, he outlined the “legal” grounds that constitute the indictment by stating “On October 29, 1956, in Belgrade, he gave a statement to the French news agency (AFP), which the agency immediately published, regarding the presentation of the views of the FNRY delegates to the UN Security Council and the abstention from voting in favor of the events in Hungary... that this position of the Yugoslav government means a deviation from the principle of sovereignty and the right of every people to independent internal development". (Momcilo Cemovic: The Secret Trial of Milovan Đilas, Dnevnik Novi Sad, 1997. p. 163.)
Đilas was also tried for the article Bora in Eastern Europe published in an American magazine New Leader in which he claims that "The experience of Yugoslavia seems to confirm that national communism is not capable of transcending the boundaries of communism as such, i.e., of carrying out such reforms that would gradually transform and lead it to freedom. This experience seems to confirm that national communism is only capable of separating itself from Moscow and building one and the same communist system at its own national pace and in its own way... If the revolutionary past was an advantage for Yugoslavia while it was fighting for independence from Moscow, it became an obstacle as soon as it was necessary to take a step further - into political freedom.
The indictment further sets out Đilas' elaboration that ""Yugoslav national communism is not even capable of going beyond its narrow ideological and class-bureaucratic interests in foreign policy."
During the trial breaks - in whispers with his wife Stefica i am a lawyer Kovačević - the three "conspirators" discussed what to do with the manuscript of the book A new class. "In this regard, I emphasized to Štefica and Kovačević: We should decide for ourselves: the book should be printed - it broke wherever it broke." (Milovan Đilas, Vlast i pubuna, Liber, Zagreb, 2009, p. 402.)
As in any “legal” proceeding, Đilas had the right to defend himself. But unlike his previous defense written on about 30 pages of typed text, Đilas gave a relatively short oral defense. This means that Đilas was no longer “naive” enough to trust the judicial institution of the system. (It is clear that the prosecutor's office and the court are a front behind which the Party, i.e. Tito.)
In his “defense,” Đilas emphasized that he disagreed with Yugoslavia’s foreign policy before the UN in the “Hungary 1956 case” and the actions of the Yugoslav government in that regard. He emphasized that his statement to AFP was not of a propaganda nature, but rather an objective and harsh criticism of the Yugoslav government.
This defense of Đilas lacks the intellectual depth and duality of his “defense” in the previous trial. His defense does not even have a polemical tone, but only the correctness of proving his view of the truth about the “Hungary 1956 case.” Simply put, the defense lacks the necessary passion or brilliant rhetoric.
This kind of psychological and intellectual charge clearly shows that Đilas was outside the court and outside the judicial process.
He stepped into new spaces of the struggle for individual and collective freedom. (It is no coincidence that in the aforementioned whisper with his wife he said "whatever may happen”.) In this defense, it is clear to Đilas that it is not important what is the subject of the trial, but who is the subject of the trial. Justice in this trial does not have its ethical function. But (party) law and the law does. It is above justice.
Two lawyers also spoke in support of the defendant's defense. They (collectively) emphasized that this was not enemy propaganda and that their client did not commit the crime he is accused of and should be released.
Everything was in vain. The infamous and dangerous Article 118 of the Criminal Code hung over his head like the sword of Damocles. By decision of the District Court in Belgrade, Milovan Đilas was sentenced to 3 (three) years in prison.
WORLDWIDE SUCCESS OF THE “NEW CLASS”
A lengthy appeal was filed by lawyers against the verdict of the Belgrade District Court, with the aim of acquitting the defendant.
Nothing worked. The appeal was rejected at the second instance Supreme Court and the (first instance) verdict of the District Court in Belgrade of December 12, 1956 was confirmed.
He was immediately sent to serve his sentence in the prison in Sremska Mitrovica. The authorities considered that the "Đilas case" was over.
However, while he was serving his sentence - the already written manuscript of the book "A new class” - which was stored in two places in Belgrade - was smuggled into the USA (New York) through a journalist. (The entire book was not smuggled, but only one, the first part.)
The book was published by a somewhat left-leaning publishing house. Frederik A. Preger from New York. While he was at liberty, contemplating a publisher for the book, Đilas insisted to his wife Štefica - in whom he had endless support and trust - that the book be published by a (politically) left-wing publisher or by a left-wing sympathizer. This was a clear sign of Đilas's - still - "left-wing view" of ideology and politics.
The book quickly caused a sensation, and not only in political circles.
The book, which is about 200 pages long, became a worldwide bestseller, although it was sold in the US at the then extremely high price of $3,95.
The book had the effect of a political bombshell. But its effect on the culture of the political spirit of the West was far greater. It was ranked by a specialized Oxford institute as the 27th most important book of the second half of the XNUMXth century.
Bonus video:
