Tribute to a Brave Man
R., B.
Those who do not know the name Mihajlov, will have to conjure with it before long. Not since Milovan Djilas, a symbol of much that is best in politics, has a Yugoslav citizen asserted his...
...The magazine was to have been called Free Voice...
...If it ever is, we will have the likes of Mihajlo Mihajlov to thank...
...In the spring of this year Mihajlov announced that he and his friends, in conformance with the Yugoslav "Constitution and the Law on the Press and other Information Media" would establish a democratic socialist magazine (words he italicized in his quixotic statement of purpose...
...Tito, probably seeing too much of his own likeness in the portrait of another tyrant, cannot have been pleased...
...Not since Milovan Djilas, a symbol of much that is best in politics, has a Yugoslav citizen asserted his humanity with such conviction and at such cost to himself...
...He had taken the first step on a long road likely to terminate in political martyrdom...
...Those who do not know the name Mihajlov, will have to conjure with it before long...
...The second step should chasten everyone who is too easily consoled by the existence of Titoism and other such manifestations of polycentric unpredictability...
...Next, the Western press reported that Mihajlov was under arrest in Zadar, ac cused of violating public order, for having called a conference to discuss the found ing of his magazine...
...Mihajlov initially attracted attention with his book, Moscow Summer, a first-hand account of certain barbarities in contemporary Russia...
...In a way, he is guilty as charged, for Mihajlov did disseminate the false information that freedom was possible right now in Yugoslavia...
...The would-be editor was dismissed, re-arrested, tried kangaroo-style, spat upon by hooligans who did not call themselves Red Guards, convicted and sentenced to one year in prison for "disseminating false informa tion...
...No such Voice will be heard in Tito's land this year...
...Mihajlov was arrested, reprimanded, and fired from his job...
Vol. 13 • November 1966 • No. 6
