Out on Probation

In his effort to show the world that he was a Communist with a difference, Yugoslavia's Marshal Tito always let a few disgruntled critics of his regime run loose for the sake of appearances. He was particularly magnanimous about the idiosyncrasies of his fiery comrade in arms, Milovan Djilas, Vice President and head of Parliament, who talked of decentralizing the government and letting the state wither away. But Djilas began to be more and more critical. Tito drew the line in 1954 when Djilas, writing in the party paper, demanded more democracy and free discussion. The party Central Committee stripped Djilas of his party rank and parliamentary presidency, and Tito himself rose to testify against his old friend. In 1956, after Djilas announced publicly that "the revolution in Hungary means the beginning of the end of Communism generally," the stubborn rebel was arrested and sentenced to three years in jail.

But prison only sharpened Djilas' opposition to the abuses of the Communist system. In his notable book, The New Class, smuggled out to Western publishers, Djilas wrote: "The totalitarian tyranny and control of the new class which came into being during the revolution has become the yoke under which the blood and sweat of all members of society flow." As chief controller of the new class, Tito was forced to take the remark personally; his court ordered seven more years added to Djilas' sentence.

Since that day, Milovan Djilas has sat alone with his thoughts in the gloomy old Sremska Mitrovica prison.* The prisoner may not have changed, but Yugoslavia had. Tito had promised the nation many of the reforms that Djilas had advocated. The constitution, due in 1962, would, as Tito himself put it, feature "man as a producer and manager while the state should appear only as a coordinating factor."

With no further ideological reason for Djilas' imprisonment, and with many Western socialists clamoring for his release, Tito for months had dangled freedom before the prisoner's eyes in exchange for a written pledge not to re-enter politics. Djilas refused to sign. But last week came the bland announcement that Djilas had been freed under a statute that authorizes a prisoner's release, "provided that he will not indulge in the activities which resulted in his imprisonment."

In other words, Djilas was free so long as he kept his mouth shut. Those who knew him did not think this would be for long. "In essence, my views are unchanged," he said on his first day of freedom. But, he added, "some of the government's recent actions . . . are positive. I have hopes."

* Where he did his first stretch as a Communist agitator under the old royaiist government in 1933.

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