Wartime [Paperback]

Milovan Djilas (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 22, 1980

An account of the partisan campaign in Yugoslavia during World War II, written from the author's unique perspective-as a key leader of Tito's forces. Index; photographs. Translated by Michael B. Petrovich.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Milovan Djilas (1911-1995), dissident Yugoslav Communist leader and writer, born in Polja, Montenegro. He studied law at the University of Belgrade, where he embraced Marxism, and was subsequently imprisoned for political activities. He became a good friend of Tito and by 1940 was a member of the Politburo of the Yugoslav Communist Party. Fighting with Tito's partisans during World War II, he held numerous high posts in the postwar government and was a leading supporter of Tito's break with the USSR in 1948. By 1953 he was vice president under Tito and widely believed to be his chosen successor. Djilas's criticism of Communist rule, however, led to his loss of all positions and his expulsion from the party in 1954. He was imprisoned in 1956. Upon publication in the West of his The New Class (1957), an exposé of the Communist hierarchy, his sentence was extended. His Conversations with Stalin (1962) cost him another four years in jail. Finally released in 1966, he continued to write and publish. Among his other books are Land Without Justice (1958), and Rise and Fall (1983; trans. 1985), an account of his own government career. The New Class was published in Yugoslavia in 1990.

Product Details

• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books; First Edition edition (September 22, 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156947129
• ISBN-13: 978-0156947121
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #673,870 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #38 in Books > History > Europe > Serbia
  • #78 in Books > History > Europe > Yugoslavia

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping, December 3, 2005

By 

R. Albin (Ann Arbor, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wartime (Paperback)

Wartime is the WWII memoir of the great Yugoslav dissident, Milovan Djilas. A leading prewar Communist activist and a high ranking member of the Yugoslav Communist leadership after the war, Djilas was expelled from the party and imprisoned (in the same prison where he had been jailed by the pre-war dictatorship) for his dissident opinions. During WWII, Djilas was a leading figure in the Communist (Partisan) resistance and participated in many of the major events following the German conquest of Yugoslavia. Written many years after the war, this is no panegyric but rather a stark and honest accounting enriched by Djilas' mature reflections on the outcome of the war and the subsequent development of an authoritarian Communist state in Yugoslavia.
Wartime has several striking features. Violent death is a constant companion. Hardly a page goes by without a death or mention of someone who dies in the course of the war. While the Partisans did fight the Germans and Italian occupiers, most of the combat described in Wartime is fratricidal. Christians versus Muslims, Croats versus Serbs, Serbian (Royalist) Chetniks versus Serbian Partisans, ethnic Germans versus everyone else. In Djilas' description of war in his native Montenegro, its implicit that conflict followed the contours of traditional clan rivalries. The Partisan leadership were convinced Communists, though the intellectual Djilas was perhaps the only real student of Marx. Ideology mattered greatly to them. While the leadership tended to be drawn from the more educated strate of Yugoslav life and somewhat educated industrial workers like Tito, the mass of the Partisan armies were poorly educated peasants. This gives rise to incongruous features. An army led by avowed Marxist revolutionaries carries Orthodox priests on its staff and major celebrations include recitation of traditional folk epics featuring bandits and the struggle against the Ottomans.
Djilas was a gifted writer. The often horrifying events in Wartime are presented in a matter of fact, quotidian manner that only emphasizes the grim nature of Yugoslavian life during the war. Djilas has a talent for the revealing anecdote and concise description of character. Djilas periodically interrupts his narrative to make rhetorically powerful statements about the nature of the events described. For example, of his native Montenegro he writes. "...Montenegro, where, from time immemorial, ideas found consumation in violence..."
In its way, this book is a masterpiece.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good way to understand the past of Yugoslavia, September 25, 2000

By 

"greg151" (Crestline, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wartime (Paperback)

I read this book after I had served in Bosnia, for the US Army. This book gave real insight into the creation of the Tito-era Yugoslavia, and what came afterwards. I was surprised at the violence of the three-way civil war that was within WW II in Yugoslavia, and how it played out into the war of the 1990's. I highly recommend this book to others interested in a good account of the history of the socialist Yugoslavia.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Eye-witness account of Yugoslavia in WWII, May 12, 2000

By 

brx "brxx" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wartime (Paperback)

Djilas was Tito's 2nd man in the communist partisan movement in WWII. They fought against Germans, Italians, Hungarians, Royal Serbs (Tschetnizi) and national Croats (Ustashi) and succeeded. Often left alone by their allies (east and west), they faced death more than once. But this is not a heroic recount of that time, no pro-communist biased official praise.

Djilan, who was arrested in the 50ies and 60ies for openly opposing comunism/stalinism here gives an evenhanded account on how things were, not sparing out the atrocities done by the partisans.

The book is easy to read, but a little short on background information, so you'll have to check some facts, names, places yourself.

One of the best books on WWII I've read.