Milovan Djilas occupies a unique and tragic position in the history of political thought: he was the maker of a revolution who became its most penetrating critic. A close comrade of Josip Broz Tito and a key figure in the Yugoslav Partisan struggle against fascism, Djilas rose to the highest echelons of Communist power only to be imprisoned by the regime he helped build. His seminal work, The New Class: An Analysis of the Communist System (1957), written from prison, is not merely a memoir of disillusionment but a structural critique that fundamentally challenged the socialist project. In it, Djilas argues that the revolution had been hijacked, not by a return to capitalism, but by the creation of a new form of exploitative class: the political bureaucracy.
Milovan Djilas was once a vice-president of Yugoslavia and a close aide to Josip Broz Tito. His public criticism of the regime led to his expulsion from the Communist Party in 1954 and several subsequent imprisonments. The New Class was smuggled out of Yugoslavia and published in the West, leading to international acclaim and further legal trouble for Djilas at home. The New Class milovan djilas nova klasapdf
“What is now happening in communism is the inevitable formation of a new class...” (Opening line) Milovan Djilas occupies a unique and tragic position
Djilas, a former high-ranking Yugoslav official, argued that Communist revolutions created a new political bureaucracy that controlled nationalized property. In it, Djilas argues that the revolution had
When the book was published in the West, the reaction was explosive. It was the first time a high-ranking communist official had denounced the system from the inside. To the West, it was a vindication; to the Communist bloc, it was heresy.