Milovan Djilas

Yugoslavian leader-dissident-author He risked death to build communism but became its most incisive critic. He was the last surviving member of the first Poliburo (Tito-Dedijer-Djilas-Rankovic) created during WWII in Yugoslavia. Djilas held the office of Vice-President and heir apparent to Tito. His place of birth was Podisce, Montenegro to a political family. At 18, Milovan attended the University of Belgrade. He joined the illegal Communist Party in 1932 and was promptly arrested by the Royal government, tortured and imprisioned for three years. At Tito's side throughout the war, he became a Partisan general. At war's conclusion, he headed many missions to Moscow meeting privately with Stalin. He defied Tito in 1952 with articles calling for greater personal freedoms. 1954 saw him dismissed from government service. His support of the Hungarian revolution (1956) brought him a prison term, extended in 1957 when his bomb-shell book, The New Class was published in New York, damming the Party. Released in 1961, he was jailed again in 1962-66. After his release, he continued writing and living in a small central Belgrade apartment keeping abreast of Yugoslavian developments and receiving journalist and well wishers. In early June 1995, experiencing chest pains, he was taken to the hospital and advised to be admitted. Refusing, he went home. The 83 year old passed away a few days later at his apartment. His body was quietly returned to his birthplace and interred in the family plot.