If by some heavenly miracle, Milovan Djilas rose from the grave and read a book Matije Bećkovoća "My friend Đido" (Vukotić Medija - Belgrade, October 2025, p.304), I believe he would have thought that he "had a chance to be born".
The main and only character in the book is Milovan Đilas, a high-ranking Yugoslav political and state official who was overthrown from the very top of power in a party coup in January 1954. He soon - arbitrarily - returned his party card, which bore the number 0004, which meant fourth from the top in the hierarchy of power.
All the other characters in the book, from Dobrica Cosic over Mihiza i Duško Radović until Deacon Joanikije, are unimportant extras. In sports terms, Matija gave a lot of "minutes" to his friendship with Đilas, a friendship that was above ideology and politics.
This book has not yet appeared in Montenegro. And it should as soon as possible, because it is healing for our and other surrounding societies.
Not long ago (2022), Milovan Đilas' book ""Disintegration and War - Diary, 1989 - 1995"The name Matija is mentioned several times on the page, so he is the main character and hero of Đilas's work. Diary(That's why this book could have been titled My friend Matthias or Matija in a hundred pictures.)
So Matija is Đilas' thread that tied together space, time and events in the country at that time, and the intertwining of the lives of these two men.
It is easy to conclude from these two books that the friendship between Matija Bećković and Milovan Đilas lasted and continues to last on both sides of life. Therefore, it would not be much of a mistake to describe and give dimension to their friendship: giant friendship.
We would also not be wrong if we concluded in the introductory part of this text that reading and understanding these books for the citizens of Montenegro - and especially politicians from both the government and the opposition - can be educational and healing. Mentally, of course.
It is often true to say that camaraderie/friendship is strongest and most widespread in times of war (dangerous). Đilas and Bećković lived and led a dangerous (dissident) life in the war after the war (World War II) in Tito's Yugoslavia.
From the aforementioned books, it is clear that in their different perceptions of Yugoslav and post-Yugoslav society, they had a difficult and painful experience of the then everyday ideological nonsense, cultural stresses, fears and even political follies that submerged Yugoslav society in the form of a well.
Socializing and bonding under surveillance
Milovan and Matija met by chance in a wider circle of friends (Jovan Barovic i Stevan Raickovic) in mid-1967 near the Faculty of Law in Belgrade. (This happened after Đilas was released from prison - after nine and a half years of strict imprisonment in Sremska Mitrovica. Đilas spent almost 24 months in solitary confinement. He was finally released from prison on December 31, 1966.)
From their first meeting, they met once a week (on Saturdays) - for the sake of equality - alternately in their apartments. The first meeting was in Palmotićeva Street where M. Đilas lived and "that agreement remained in force until Đilas's death" (p. 14).
It is interesting that in their communication with each other, which lasted for nearly 3 (three) decades, the two of them always addressed each other as - You, which means that in this way they also respected and valued each other.
In this regard, let us note. Authoritarian regimes, such as Tito's regime, are always afraid of creating factions within their own ranks. But they are also afraid of grouping opponents within the "opposition" ranks. Especially if this rapprochement comes from elite individuals in the field of culture and literature. Because they, with their criticism and even simple analysis of the government's behavior, can significantly influence its social and political stability.
Matija and Đilas came from that very sphere of the human spirit. But from different heights. Milovan Đilas came from a high position in Yugoslav state and party politics, which he held until 1954. Matija Bećković, on the other hand, came from the Yugoslav top of “pure” literature, known for his satirical verses.
Therefore, it was quite “natural” that Tito’s government monitored their socializing and rapprochement with great attention. The government engaged a large number of people. The so-called Japanese model of public, visible monitoring of the two was used. Milovan Đilas’s entire apartment was bugged. Probably Matija Bećković’s, at least the phone.
To that end, the then UDB had at one time as many as 24 employees - police officers and specialists of various professions - who monitored the work of M. Đilas 24 hours a day. In this way, they monitored and followed everyone who associated with him.
So, the pressure from the authorities on both of them was enormous and difficult to bear.
It is necessary to mention here that the "third" member of this "conspiracy" group, Borislav Mihajlović Mihiz - who approached Đilas before Bećković and offered him help after his fall from power in 1954 - could not withstand the pressure of the authorities. For a while, he distanced himself from Đilas. Mihiz directly informed Đilas of his departure from Đilas and his move to Novi Sad. Đilas greatly appreciated and respected this gesture by Mihiz. They remained great friends for the rest of their lives. So did Bećković. (Đilas considered Mihiz the most intelligent man he had ever met, regardless of the fact that he had been carried away and driven mad by an ideology, as he stated somewhere. Matija also held Mihiz in very high regard.)
So, Tito's and post-Tito's government used all state, police, para-police, media and information powers to try to make the "factionalists" (Đilas and Bećković) quarrel and separate. Various stories, fabrications, scandals were spread and anathemas were cast on both of them. Even "street" photographers were sometimes involved in these affairs.
But to no avail. The greater the pressure on the two of them, the more firmly they turned to each other. They relied on themselves. They built within us the first common dissident culture of rebellion by personal example, personal morality, personal differences, personal courage.
In this sense, their education - and ultimately their literature - were of secondary importance. Because it (literature) is not crucial to one's reputation for every true liberal dissident, but knowing how to not blink at the pressure of the authorities. In other words, never to bow down and be afraid of the pressure of the authorities.
They didn't try to win each other over to their side.
Đilas was a man of vast experience. He had experience in many types of life: political, revolutionary, war, ideological, dissident, literary, diplomatic, prison, family. And experience is crucial for every person and for recognizing the value of friendship between people. Because the feeling of a friend comes from (the experience of) the heart, not from the calculation, interest and deliberation of the brain. Only such people of freedom create friendship and unity.
And precisely, this type of people of freedom - who are partly influenced by historical circumstances - is rare (in short supply) on the political and cultural market of a political community. They are not easy to create. On the contrary. (The fact that both were - in a way - compatriots means absolutely nothing.)
Somewhere, Đilas wrote that all the friendships he had as a man at the top of the party (KPJ/SKJ) and at the very top of the Yugoslav (Tito) government and state, lasted from congress to congress, from plenum to plenum, from function to function, from conference to conference. And he wrote that he would give all these “friendships” for a page of his text, well written. In other words, he wanted to say that ideological friendships are short-lived, they are not human and sincere friendships. They have no spirit, nor even human morality and emotional depth.
In that sense, Milovan Đilas was a weak politician, because he did not know or could not lie, deceive, and mislead the people.
Neither Milovan nor Matija were better than other people because they were smarter or more educated than them, but because they "watched" the Yugoslav drama from the top of the hill or behind the hill, because they felt, experienced and expressed that drama more deeply, more personally, braver and more painfully than other people around them. Each in their own way. One nationally, the other non-nationally, even supranationally.
And it was precisely the meeting and combination of these individual and (extra)national personal characters that made their friendship special and timeless, especially for the Balkan circumstances.
The differences are more connectors rather, they separated, and each remained "their own" and with their own idea (faith).
Neither of them thought of converting their friend to their side. Politically and ideologically, of course, regardless of the fact that Matija knew how to "sting" Milovan Đilas (pp. 172,173,175, 49, 55, 56, for example).
Given the age difference between the two, many critics of the two say that the friendship between Matija and Milovan was like a father-son relationship. It's hard to say how great this nonsense, meanness, and madness is.
Let's understand each other and try to describe their friendship more broadly and deeply.
These two men had significant and fundamental ideological and political differences in many areas of politics. But both lived in great friendship in and with these differences. Both held on to the breadth and depth of the colorfulness of their "like-mindedness."
Both lived, each with their own ideology, their own faith, their own convictions, their own justice. In short, their own view of life. But also with responsibility - above all - to themselves and their superiority in relation to the government and its "elite", primarily party and academic.
Differences were more like magnets that attracted them than they pushed them away. This is how normal people who call themselves people of freedom act. Because at the beginning of the book, Bećković says “that not only do I not mind that we radifferent political motives, but it encourages me, and him, to find and strengthen differences for our friendship: politics is everything, but it is not above everything” (p. 7).
A local writer accurately called this type of people "free-hearted people and seekers of its unfathomable mystery(I guess he meant that the mystery of the heart is a greater human secret than any other rational calculation?)
In the silence of shared freedom
Đilas and Bećković were building themselves up almost every day in the silence of shared freedom. But freedom that is not a goal in itself, but a necessity that only some individuals can create and endure. So, they were building their own universe that was clearly tearing the ears of the authorities.
Their friendship frightened Tito and the post-Tito feudal nobility.
It is easy to learn from Bećković's book that their spirits did not tolerate violence and tutors. On the contrary. Perhaps it is the deepest and most hidden cry and echo of the culture from which these two people originated. A cry from the tribal and family community, of course. Regardless of the fact that one was born in the village of Podbišće, Montenegro, and the other in the small town of Senta, Serbia.
In a more figurative way, we can see these two men as hardened freedom fighters in relation to any imposed form of state or party rule.
They were building a superior form of similar lives expressed in mutual camaraderie and immense friendship. (“And the more he was chastised, (meaning MĐ - VP) "he was closer and dearer to me".)
This petrified essence of friendship was described by a Swiss Nobel laureate in a Buddhist way as "mastery of a skill waiting"And in this waiting for the challenge, Matija and Milovan do not have the same perception of looking at the moment and the same vision of the reality of the Yugoslav society of the time, to repeat once again.
One knew primarily from experience (Đilas) that the emergence of every new life situation and reality, i.e. politics, is always resolved with a new and adequate policy. The other (Bećković) turned the perception of the future of his people's life towards relying on tradition and the strength of patriarchal man and his values.
Let's conclude.
The Partisan commander (Milovan Đilas) literally died in the arms of the Chetnik commander's son in 1995. In that act, ideology and its politics were defeated in the face of the friendship of two men.
In 1995, Matija, in agreement with Đilas's son, Alex with the knowledge and approval of the already "deceased" Milovan Đilas, ordered that Đilas be buried in the family tomb in Podbišće with a church ceremony.
Foolishness has overcome single-mindedness
And beyond the end.
When you read the last sentence of this book and close its covers, and the thought takes wings, it is easy to see that the rule of law, the separation of powers, multi-party system, institutions and a few other things from current politics have not been accepted in Montenegro. (And not in Serbia either.) The book clearly points the finger that mindlessness has overcome single-mindedness, and the systematic creation of social chaos has defeated order, organization, knowledge, morality, governance... in our society.
Why this is so is partly explained by the book "My friend Gido".
Its protagonists Milovan and Matija are ultimately unimportant, but with their example of differences in friendship, they significantly transcended society, and even stepped out of it.
All in all.
On our political and cultural horizon, people of this or similar caliber have not yet appeared who respond to universal divisions and hatred with an example of unity and friendship. In other words, “Our tribe is sick.", as an old Montenegrin proverb says.
This is no wonder. Because for decades and decades, the official and governing state "elites" (academic, university, journalistic, and even so-called non-governmental organizations) have not known - and before that, they did not want to - elevate and educate the people to the level of true politics.
They ("the elite") have put politics down and left it to the streets. And nothing can grow upright from the asphalt of the streets.
Bonus video:
