Milovan Đilas and Josip Broz met for the last time on January 13, 1954, at the White Palace in Belgrade. The meeting was held the day after the session of the Executive Committee of the Central Committee of the Yugoslav Communist Party, at which it was decided to “politically liquidate” Đilas. Edvard Kardelj and Aleksandar Ranković were present at the meeting at the White Palace. It was a farewell meeting of the “big four” after 17 years of joint revolutionary and political work.
The meeting was short-lived. Just over half an hour. Tito, Đilas and Kardelj spoke at the meeting, while Ranković "remained sullenly silent the entire time, only noting that - when it came to my resignation as President of the Federal Assembly, I should do it myself, so that it would not turn out that it was done under pressure or through administrative means".
The meeting was more or less formal. Perhaps unnecessary, because the day before the meeting, everything about Đilas's "political death" had been agreed and resolved in the EC of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Yugoslav People's Republic. A possible reason for holding the meeting with Đilas should be sought in Tito's confusion, and even fear, as to whether there was anything organized about Đilas and his heresy or not. When he personally convinced himself "that there was nothing organized about it..." the meeting ended.
Tito absolutely dominated the Yugoslav political and social scene. Đilas was not a great opponent of his. But the cautious Broz feared any faction or similar “cell” that could infiltrate the Party and institutionalize itself as a potential opposition. The cautious Broz mentioned at the meeting the danger to the government from Ćopić’s satirical short story “Socrates”. And Kardelj added “how the other day at the funeral of a politician from the old system - I forget who it was - several hundred people were present”. Tito’s and Kardelj’s speeches at this meeting very directly pointed out to Đilas the seriousness of the situation that only his case could cause in society, given the high state and political position and reputation that he had in cultural, political, social and other circles in Yugoslavia.
Josip Broz was at the peak of his power. He had previously defeated: Hitler, Stalin or absolutely politically bypassed, and even overpowered, Churchill, Roosevelt, Truman... Resistant to any significant external influences, Broz powerfully and ecstatically dominated the internal Yugoslav scene. In other words, Josip Broz incarnated and behaved like Dostoevsky's Grand Inquisitor, who by the nature and logic of his power, can arrest faith and the dream of human freedom, and even Jesus Christ himself who gave freedom to nations. More precisely, he gave faith in human freedom.
The Grand Inquisitor, on the one hand, and Đilas's alternative in faith in the power of social freedom, on the other, is the less visible side of this meeting. But for Yugoslav society and its future it is a turning point, and even fateful in a way. Because after the Tito-Đilas conflict, the alternative was lost on the Yugoslav political, social and cultural scene. The devil won, the joke took away, as Dostoevsky writes.
And the very essence of government and its alternatives is better explained by the literature of the prophet-writer Fyodor Mikhailovich in the novel "The Brothers Karamazov" than by numerous scientific, journalistic, academic and similar writings.
A few words about FM Dostoevsky's The Grand Inquisitor to make the meeting of the "big three" (Tito-Kardelj-Ranković) with Milovan Đilas clearer.
Three Forces - Miracle, Mystery and Authority
Tito, like Dostoevsky's Grand Inquisitor, represents the Church (read Party) that rebelled against Christ's teaching on freedom. The Grand Inquisitor's thesis is that Christ based his teaching on human faith in freedom and that man is capable of living as a free being. The dream of freedom and faith in that dream requires enormous human courage, Fyodor Mikhailovich is explicit. (The degree of human courage is "measured" by the desert temptation and the role of Satan in that temptation, FM Dostoevsky explains.)
Driven by the power of his faith in human freedom, Christ was able to resist every temptation and ultimately lay down his head for his dream that man was not a slave.
When Christ rose a second time, returned to earth, and met again with the Grand Inquisitor, Dostoevsky claims with the strength of a Seville eyewitness from the 16th century, he (the Grand Inquisitor) read out a long letter to Christ in a burst, almost threatening manner with his finger:
"There are three forces, the only three forces on earth that could forever conquer and captivate the conscience of those powerless rebels, for their happiness - these forces are: Miracle, Mystery and Authority. You rejected both the first and the second and the third, and you yourself set an example for it... But I repeat, how many are there like you? And could you really think, even for a moment, that people would be able to endure such a temptation?... Oh, you knew that your feat would be preserved in books, that it would reach the depths of time and the last borders of the earth, and you hoped that, following you, man would also remain with God, having no need for miracles... You longed for free faith, not for miracles. You longed for free love, not for the slavish delights of prisoners before the power that once and for all terrified him. And here too you judged people too highly, because of course they are slaves, although they were created as rebels... I swear to you, man was created weaker and lower than you thought of him! Can he do what you did? By respecting him so much, you seem to have ceased to sympathize with him, because you demanded too much from him - and who is that, the one who loved man more than himself... So, unrest, confusion and misfortune - this is the fate of people today, since you suffered so much for their freedom!... What is the fault of a weak soul that it is not capable of receiving so many terrible gifts? And did you really come only to the chosen ones and for the chosen ones? And if so, there is a secret here, which we cannot understand. And if it is a secret, then we were right to preach the secret and teach people: that it is not the free decision of their hearts that matters, nor love, but the secret to which they must blindly obey, even against their conscience. And so we did. We corrected your feat, and we based it on: Miracle, Secret and Aurority. And the people rejoiced that they were once again led as a herd, and that, finally, the terrible gift that had brought them so much pain was removed from their hearts. Were we right, learning and working like that, say? Did we not love mankind when we so calmly acknowledged its weakness, when we lovingly eased its burden, and when we allowed its weak nature to sin even if only with our approval? And why have you come to bother us?... If you had received that third advice of a powerful spirit (authority - cf. VP), you would have fulfilled everything that man on earth is looking for, that is: to whom to submit, to whom to surrender his conscience, and in what way to finally unite all people into an indisputable general and unanimous anthill, because the need for universal unification is the third and last torment of people?
Oh, we will convince them that they will only become free when they give up their freedom for us, and when they submit to us… Receiving bread from us, they will, of course, clearly see that we take their bread, earned by their hands, from them, in order to distribute it to them again without any miracle, that we do not turn stones into bread… I repeat to you, tomorrow you will see an obedient flock, which, at the first sign of my hand, will fly to gather embers around the pyre on which they will burn you for coming to bother us, Because if there is anyone, anyone who deserves our pyre more than anyone else, it is you! Tomorrow I will burn you”.
And man would be burned. So, freedom (Christ) in man would be burned.
Translation into the local language
The famous quote by Fyodor Mikhailovich, translated, shortened and changed with the vocabulary of secret deliberation at the meeting of the "big three" with Đilas on January 13, 1954, could take on the following pragmatic, mundane party form. Let us quote the same quote with a few threatening ideological words "spoken" by the modern Grand Inquisitor, Josip Broz:
"They have three forces that can defeat the conscience of the proletarian and the man himself. These are: Communism, the Party and the Leader. You have rejected Communism, the Party and the Leader. But how many are there like you who follow you? Your feat has been preserved in stupid and some thick books and for a long time to come... You have gone crazy for free faith in man and for man, and not for the Miracle of Communism. You were realistic, shame on you. That is your mistake and curse. You judged your comrades, party members, revolutionaries too highly during the war. And believe me, I have deeper and more direct experience than you, from the USSR, they are slaves, they just don't see it. Nor can they see it, because they are slaves. You judge a human being too highly... Ridiculous... So, all you need to do is bring unrest, confusion, misfortune and the ghost of the past into society and it will be defeated. Remember Stalin, and above all the fate of Trotsky. Stalin is survived and spread its power by producing waves of evil, because man is a weak, vulnerable being, he is easy to corrupt, especially morally… We teach people that it is not the individual free decision that is important, but the Party to which everyone must blindly obey, even against their conscience. We corrected your feat and based it on the Leader and his authority. You see, now the people are happy because we have led them like sheep again… We even allow the mistake of an individual, only with our approval. And now you have come to bother us, shame on you. You wave, shame on you… If you wanted to accept the third advice of the powerful spirit and obeyed the Leader, you would have received everything that a man on earth can have. You were one of the “four”… We will ideologically convince the people that they will be free when they hand over freedom to us. You are already calling us a “caste”, and tomorrow you may also call us a “new class”. You are not aware that I give them bread, not you. You turn stones into bread... I manage the army and the militia. Not you... That's why I repeat to you, already tomorrow you will see an obedient flock that will take off at the first sign of my hand on January 16, 1954 at the Third Extraordinary Session of the IK CK SKJ to burn you, because you are bothering us. Because if there is anyone, anyone who deserves our bonfire more than all, it is you! I will burn you tomorrow".
And man would be burned. So, freedom (again) in man would be burned.
Let's continue thinking in the direction of "burning" freedom.
Dostoevsky resolves the dualism of the understanding and (mis)use of freedom between the Grand Inquisitor and Christ by saying that “suddenly He, silently, approaches the old man, and quietly kisses him on his bloodless ninety-year-old mouth. And that is the whole answer.” The Grand Inquisitor emerged victorious. Christ (read: Man) agreed that his work, his Church, had turned its back on freedom and chosen Miracle, Mystery, and Authority instead of the human person.
Many great opinions, ruling ideas, ideologies, and even religions have experienced such a tectonic metamorphosis. The Far East is full of them, and they are even the cornerstone of the culture and spirituality there. This is nothing new in the human culture of thinking and action. On the contrary. The inherited inquisitorial Bolshevism in our country is therefore not the only one. But the dogma and its enthusiasm have only just emerged from the Second World War. The Grand Inquisitor was the first to see clearly, the first to direct and subordinate to his will - power. But the Grand Inquisitor also gave a part of the power to his "cardinals", his entourage, his "new class". The "triumph of the Leader, who will lead the people straight into defeat" was born (Mirko Kovač).
"The devil won, the joke took away"
Let's return to the end of the meeting participants at the White Palace, or rather the manner of their parting.
At parting, "Tito, hesitantly, extended his hand to me, looking at me with a blurred gaze of hatred and revenge."
But the detail of the farewell of yesterday's comrades is also very important. It reveals in a theatrical gesture (a handshake) the escalation of Tito's deep hatred for the newly discovered heretic in his vicinity.
The scene of parting, "dark looks" and deliberations about whether to shake hands with his opponent or not, had to be almost surreal and ominous. (Still, quietly ominous, because danger always lurks in silence). And Đilas was already surrounded by silence, excommunication and lack of information. He found out about the meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia in January 1954, at which the "Đilas case" would be discussed, by chance - from the newspaper. According to protocol, Đilas did not even have to attend the Plenum, because he had not been properly invited. In other words, Đilas had already been mourned, and even trampled by the party. But, for the sake of the wide public and the dramatic scene, it was necessary for the heretic himself to "sprinkle ashes on his head".
This is how all the great “Moscow trials” from the late 1930s in the USSR ended, Josip Broz knew. And the “Đilas case” was the first and only “Moscow trial” on Yugoslav soil. This psychology of self-repentance of every supreme believer, the skilled Josip Broz had seen and learned long ago in the USSR, and applied it in the “Đilas case”.
Let's conclude.
Regardless of whether we are sure how Tito and Đilas looked at each other (gloomily) as they parted, or how the meeting ended, we can be absolutely sure of one thing. The handshake on both sides must have been dead-limp and lukewarm, a clear sign of the future ferocity of the conflict and mutual intransigence.
And in conclusion, let's go back to Dostoevsky when he says "The devil has won, the joke has taken away."
Today, Dostoevsky's words could be translated as "the devil has returned, everything has become serious." Because when the devil takes the form of Joaniki's church robe and his recent words about Pavle Đurišić, everything in Montenegro can become neo-fascism in a new guise...
Bonus video:
