How a Yugoslav Vice President foresaw the bureaucracy’s quiet coup against communism.
Đilas argued that instead of creating a "classless society," Communist revolutions merely replaced the old ruling class with a new class of political bureaucrats Administrative Monopoly
Djilas begins by accepting the Marxist premise that history is a series of class struggles. However, he decisively breaks from Lenin and Stalin by arguing that a party-led revolution cannot abolish class per se . “The idea of a classless society,” writes Djilas (1957, p. 37), “has proved to be an illusion. The communists have not succeeded in creating a society without classes, but only in creating a new class of bureaucratic exploiters.” Milovan Djilas Nova Klasa.pdf
To understand the book, one must first understand the man. Milovan Djilas was not a detached academic but a central figure in the Yugoslav communist movement. Born in Montenegro in 1911, he became a committed communist as a law student at the University of Belgrade, joining the then-illegal Communist Party of Yugoslavia in 1932. He was a key wartime leader in the Partisan resistance, a close comrade-in-arms of Josip Broz Tito, and by the war's end, he was one of the most powerful people in Yugoslavia, serving as a leading minister and eventually Vice President of the country.
No paper on Djilas is complete without addressing central critiques: How a Yugoslav Vice President foresaw the bureaucracy’s
However, Djilas's personal break with communism was as dramatic as his rise. Increasingly disturbed by what he saw as the betrayal of revolutionary ideals, he began criticizing the Communist system, advocating for democratization. This led to his expulsion from the Central Committee in 1954. His vocal support for the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, which he hailed as "the beginning of the end of Communism," led to his arrest and the beginning of a long period of imprisonment by the very state he helped create. It was during this imprisonment that he smuggled out the manuscript for the book that would cement his global legacy.
"Milovan Djilas Nova Klasa.pdf" is far more than a simple digital file; it is a foundational document of Cold War political thought. It contains an insider's devastating critique of communism, penned by one of its highest-ranking officials, and a concept—the "new class"—that continues to be used to describe entrenched political elites and their privileges. Its status as one of the most influential books of the 20th century, combined with the availability of its digitized form, ensures that its powerful message continues to reach new generations of readers. “The idea of a classless society,” writes Djilas
The New Class: An Analysis of the Communist System Author: Milovan Djilas Year of Publication: 1957