Memoari Milovana Đilasa, šesti deo: Petko Miletić

"Petko Miletić, budući je tek bio došao na robiju, bolje je od njih osećao stanje napolju, a naime – da u zemlji rastu novi i mladi borci, drukčiji u mnogočem od stare garde, koja se, sem pojedinačnih izuzetaka, povukla u pasivnost pred žestinom diktature, i u to ništa manjim razmerama ona koja je bila na levici od one na desnici. Petko je jasno shvatio da mora da se osloni na nove, borbenije drugove, odrasle pod diktaturom, ne samo ako hoće da ostvaruje svoje ciljeve na robiji, nego čak i one napolju."

https://www.noviplamen.net/glavna/vi-deo-petko-miletic/

Biografija Nikole Kotura, sekretara SKOJ-a i arhitekte koji je gradio Magnitogorsk

https://sh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Kotur

New video on my book just dropped 🔥

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pr4cxBnNhk&ab_channel=HeterodoxMarxism

Kratka priča povodom godišnjice Mađarske sovjetske republike, o jednom običnom neobičnom proleterskom borcu.

I spoke on the podcast "Reimagining Soviet Georgia" about the historical memory of communism and its political (ab)uses, as well as more controversial topics, such as: why I do not condemn Stalin, why being a "democratic socialist" is suicidal, and why the Baltic states should be proud of their revolutionary communist heritage.

Many thanks to Sopo Japaridze and Bryan Gigantino for inviting me!

You can listen to the podcast here:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-49-history-anti-communism-with-stefan-gu%C5%BEvica/id1555761205?i=1000699960257

Mugshots of Yugoslav communists Ante Ciliga (above) and Mustafa Dedić (below), arrested in Leningrad in May 1930 for running an underground Trotskyist organization. From the Archive of the Federal Security Service for Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast'.

Fotografije jugoslovenskih komunista Ante Cilige (gore) i Mustafe Dedića (dole), uhapšenih u Lenjingradu u maju 1930. godine za organizaciju ilegalne trockističke organizacije. Iz Arhiva Federalne službe bezbednosti za Sankt-Peterburg i Lenjingradsku oblast.

Napisao sam biografiju velikog Vlajka Begovića, španskog borca, učesnika francuskog pokreta otpora, predsednika Savezne planske komisije, i osnivača Fakulteta političkih nauka i Instituta za društvene nauke u Beogradu. Osim što je bio profesionalni revolucionar, Begović je bio ozbiljan naučnik, koji se bavio političkom ekonomijom, sociologijom i istorijom - ukratko, svim veštački razdvojenim disciplinama društvenih nauka koje marksizam objedinjuje.

https://sh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlajko_Begovi%C4%87

My book is a YouTube video now 🥰��
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TS3ug6pkbaI

Meni jedan od zanimljivijih delova Đilasovih memoara - veze koje je KPJ ostvarivala sa pribićevićevcima i ustašama početkom tridesetih.

"Polazeći od uobičajenih komunističkih socioloških postavki, mi smo se pre svega okomili na seljake da ih „prevaspitamo” i pridobijemo za svoju stvar. Ne samo da smo to radili s njima u toku nevezanih razgovora, nego smo u taj svoj rad unosili sve više plana, utoliko više ukoliko je i naše idejno obrazovanje – učenje teorije iz knjiga i predavanja, dobijalo organizovani vid. U sudskom zatvoru su za takvo što mogućnosti, a i iskustva, bili mali. Ali ipak se ponešto radilo. Rezultati su bili, činilo nam se, ogromni: seljaci su odobravali sve što smo mi pričali protivu gospode i sl."

https://www.noviplamen.net/glavna/v-deo-pribicevicevci-i-ustase/

I made a chart in order to explain more clearly to my students the idea of permanent revolution (and why the Bolshevik conception of the revolution was not "narodnik" as some of their Menshevik and Kautskyist detractors had claimed). I am dropping it here in the hopes some other people may find it useful too.

(Yes, I am not the best at this, Graphic Design Is My Passion and all that, but I think the chart is really useful for grasping one of the most important and most misunderstood concepts of 20th century revolutionary politics)

Яндекс-архив оцифровал, выложил в свободный доступ и снабдил поиском «Известия» с первого выпуска 1917 года до сегодняшних дней. Это более 30 тыс. номеров.

https://yandex.ru/archive/catalog/4b29b52e-1776-4d64-9eb6-4c4439cc7890/years

"Why was it possible during the years of 1917–1921, when the old possessing classes still fought with weapons in hand, when they were actively supported by the interventionists of the whole world, when the armed kulaks sabotaged the army and the provisioning of the country – why was it possible then to discuss openly in the party the sharp questions of the Brest-Litovsk peace, the methods of the organization of the Red Army, the composition of the Central Committee, the trade-unions, the transition to the NEP, national policy and the policy of the Comintern? Why is it impossible now, after the ceasing of intervention, after the rout of the exploiting classes, after the successes of industrialization, after the collectivization of the overwhelming majority of the peasantry – to allow discussion of the tempos of industrialization and collectivization, of the co-relation between heavy and light industry, or of the policy of a united front in Germany? Why would any member of the party who demanded the calling of the next congress of the party in accordance with its constitution, be immediately expelled and subjected to persecutions? Why would any Communist who openly expressed doubt as to the infallibility of Stalin be immediately arrested? Where does such a terrible, monstrous, unbearable exercise of the political regime come from?

Reference to outside danger from capitalist governments does not in itself explain everything. We do not wish of course to underrate the significance of capitalist encirclement for the inner regime of the Soviet Republic: the very necessity of keeping up a powerful army is a great source of bureaucratism. However, hostile encirclement is not a new factor, it accompanies the Soviet Republic from the first days of its existence. Under healthy conditions within the country, the pressure of imperialism would have only strengthened the solidarity of the masses, especially the welding together of the proletarian vanguard."

- Leon Trotsky, "The Degeneration of Theory and the Theory of Degeneration" (1933)
https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1933/xx/problemssu.html

Pictured: "The Defense of Petrograd," by Aleksandr Deyneka (1928)

Milo Petrović, dugogodišnji predsednik Udruženja Španski borci 1936-1939. i urednik tribine Studentskog kulturnog centra u Beogradu, preminuo je juče ujutru. Kremacija će se održati na Novom groblju u Beogradu u sredu u 13:30. Osim što je bio neumorni čuvar sećanja na španske borce i veliki prijatelj svih nas istoričara radničkog pokreta, Milo je bio jedan divni, duhoviti čovek i sagovornik, vrstan poznavalac celog španskog govornog područja i njegovih društvenih, političkih i umetničkih prilika. Bilo je zadovoljstvo i privilegija slušati ga i učiti od njega.

Hasta siempre, druže Milo.

Filip Filipović (1878-1938), prvi komunistički gradonačelnik Beograda i jugoslovenski član Izvršnog komiteta Komunističke internacionale, kao student prve godine studija matematike u Sankt-Peterburgu 1899. godine.

Filip Filipović (1878-1938), the first communist mayor of Belgrade and a Yugoslav member of the Executive Committee of the Communist International, as a first-year student of mathematics in Saint Petersburg in 1899.

Moj dragi prijatelj, drug, i brat u ljubavi prema nemačkim ovčarima, Luka Matić, napisao je odličan polemički odgovor na moj članak o protestima u Srbiji. Preporučujem svakome koga tema zanima, a naročito one koji su tražili malo optimističnije viđenje događaja. Polemiku neću nastavljati, na pitanje ko je bio u pravu odgovoriće istorija, a ja delim i potpisujem Lukin odlični zaključak, koji je ujedno i konkretan poziv na akciju:

"Dakle, ako želimo govoriti o artikulaciji klasnih pozicija radničke klase u okviru postojećeg masovnog pokreta, onda pitanje nije kako nekoga "privući marksističkim idejama." Pravo pitanje bilo bi kako u okviru postojećeg pokreta organizacijski i akcijski ojačati sindikalni pokret te na sindikalnoj platformi graditi društvenu organizaciju koja će neminovni završetak pokreta nadživjeti. Sindikalni pokret u Srbiji sada ima priliku da se emancipira od sindikalne birokracije i da sudjeluje u izgradnji novog društvenog ugovora. Na taj način može ispraviti grešku koju je napravio 2000. godine, kada ga je DOS iskoristio za smjenu vlasti da bi ga nakon toga izigrao i prodao. No, odgovornost za to ne može biti na studentima ili njihovim pojedinačnim podržavateljima. Nju moraju preuzeti organizatori i organizacije radničke klase."

https://analihpd.hr/odgovor-stefanu-guzvici-zamke-neizvjesnosti-i-teret-buducnosti/

For those interested in the events in Serbia, a friend and comrade wrote an excellent polemical response to my previously published text. You can read his reply to me in English below.

https://analihpd.hr/en/odgovor-stefanu-guzvici-zamke-neizvjesnosti-i-teret-buducnosti/

Great thanks to дискурсивный рейвтрибунал for reminding me that today is the birthday of the great Bertolt Brecht, one of my personal favorites and one of the greatest proletarian poets of all time. For those who do not know, this channel owes its name to Brecht's wonderfully optimistic (and I optimistically hope, still prophetic) poem "Ulm 1592," written in exile in 1934, after the Nazis had just come to power, defeated Europe's largest communist party outside the Soviet Union, and destroyed all hopes for a working-class revolution in Germany. In what was one of the most tragic moments of human history, Brecht remembered a pioneer of human flight, a simple tailor from the German town of Ulm, who constructed a rudimentary (and ultimately unsuccessful) flying machine. He flew too early, but he showed us the way, and humanity eventually flew.

Ulm 1592

Said the Tailor to the Bishop:
Believe me, I can fly.
Watch me while I try.
And he stood with things
That looked like wings
On the great church roof-
That is quite absurd
A wicked, foolish lie,
For man will never fly,
A man is not a bird,
Said the Bishop to the Tailor.

Said the People to the Bishop:
The Tailor is quite dead,
He was a stupid head.
His wings are rumpled
And he lies all crumpled
On the hard church square.

The bells ring out in praise
That man is not a bird
It was a wicked, foolish lie,
Mankind will never fly,
Said the Bishop to the People.

Nastavak feljtona Milovana Đilasa:

"Pretres je bio kratak i površan. Ipak su uzeli neke knjige, koliko da ne odu prazni. Takav način pretresa bio je uopšte karakterističan za Upravu grada: dugim iskustvom ona je naučila da se ne pronalazi ništa traženjem, nego batinanjem."

https://www.noviplamen.net/glavna/iv-deo-hapsenje/

https://analihpd.hr/od-pada-nadstresnice-do-pada-rezima/
Kolega iz Hrvatske je preveo moju kratku impresiju o protestima u Srbiji

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRPa7faSUxA

The brilliant YouTube channel Heterodox Marxism has published an excellent English-language video on the history of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia until 1936. The author (who also runs this genius communist meme page on Instagram) is a college student from the US, but he has shown an amazing grasp of the history of Yugoslavia and its labor movement, especially for someone who is forced to work with scarce sources on a topic written in an obscure language no one reads. He gives an excellent 10-minute Marxist history of the historical development of Serbia and Croatia, which is frankly more informative than any of the school textbooks of those countries, framed around teleological nationalism. His account of the history of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia uses all of the relevant English-language literature and covers all the major figures and factions in the 20s and 30s really well. "Relevant English-language literature" also means there's some errors (or rather simplifications) in interpretations that he repeats based off his sources, but hey, it's not his fault I haven't published my doctoral dissertation yet. :) In any case, I wholeheartedly recommend this work, it's beautifully made, the story is engaging, and the topic is extremely relevant for anyone interested in Marxism and history of the communist movement.

My students generated a video based off the materials for my class on colonialism and dependency. Three icebergs off the coast of Novaya Zemlya were melted to generate this but I must admit it's lowkey goated