"I Wrote the Truth"

When the new class leaves the historical scene--and this must happen--there will be less sorrow over its passing than there was for any class before it. Smothering everything except what suited its ego, it has condemned itself to failure and shameful ruin.

--Milovan Djilas in The New Class

In a tiny courtroom in the little town of Sremska Mitrovica, 42 miles from Belgrade, Milovan Djilas went on trial last week on charges of creating hostile propaganda against Communism and the Yugoslav government. Djilas' trial had been inevitable ever since The New Class, his outspoken book indicting the new ruling class produced by Communism, was smuggled out of Yugoslavia and published in the U.S. two months ago (TIME, Sept. 9). And just as the trial was inevitable, so was its outcome.

Djilas, once a Vice President of Yugoslavia and second only to Marshal Tito in the country's Communist hierarchy, was already serving a three-year sentence imposed last year after he was convicted of "conspiring against the government." In the courtroom Djilas looked thin, but seemed in good spirits and health despite almost a year in jail. The government prosecutor began his case by reading excerpts from Djilas' book. Sample: "the totalitarian tyranny and control of the new class [i.e., the ruling Communist oligarchy] which came into being during the revolution has become the yoke from under which the blood and sweat of all members of society flow." Snapped Djilas: "I wrote the truth, from the first word to the last." The judges ordered the press and public removed from the courtroom. Warned Defendant Djilas: "If the proceedings of this trial are held in secrecy, and if the public and press are excluded, I will not say a single word."

The trial lasted just one day. The verdict of guilty was returned the following morning, and Milovan Djilas was sentenced to seven more years at hard labor. After the verdict was read, Djilas rose and started to protest not the verdict or the sentence, but the court's attempt to make it appear that he had had an open trial. He was not permitted to finish. Two guards hustled him out of the courtroom and back to prison.

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