Blackwell Reference Online

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Milovan Djilas was one of the leading communist partisan commanders who led the successful anti-fascist People's Liberation War against the German and Italian occupation of Yugoslavia during World War II. He was also the internationally best-known Yugoslav dissident after World War II and a notable theorist and author. Djilas was born in the village of Podbisce in the Kingdom of Montenegro, which joined Yugoslavia after World War I. In his youth he became involved in political struggle. A student of Belgrade University, he joined the illegal Communist Party of Yugoslavia (CPY) in 1932. He was imprisoned for his political activities from 1933 to 1936. In 1938 he was elected to the Central Committee of the CPY. Two years later he was appointed a member of the Politburo, the highest leadership organ of the clandestine party. World War II was a decisive period in Djilas' life. Following the occupation of Yugoslavia in April 1941 by the Wehrmacht, the CPY started a campaign of armed resistance. Djilas was first sent into his native Montenegro to organize the partisan struggle against the occupying Italian forces in the summer of 1941. Later in the same year he joined the head of CPY Josip Broz Tito in the partisan stronghold of Uzice in Western Serbia. Djilas started to work for the paper Borba (Struggle), the CPY's main propaganda organ. After World War II Djilas was one of the ... log in or subscribe to read full text