The Trial of Mihajlo Mihajlov
On December 6, 1975, Mihajlo Mihajlov, the Yugoslav writer and teacher who is currently serving a seven-year prison term for disseminating "hostile propaganda" about the Tito regime, began a hunger...
...This includes the right to make mistakes...
...After each article is read aloud, he and a Russian linguist approve the Serbo-Croatian text for the court record...
...My fee depended on whether the editor requested the article [these were not] and the paper's circulation...
...Abrasive...
...His correspondence shows full awareness of his message...
...He is open, sincere and honest, perhaps to the point of naivete...
...Posev...
...They were in the emigre press without my consent, lifted from the other papers, badly retranslated from the English...
...Alexander Fira, the international expert on constitutional law in Novi Sad...
...But if it means expression of a point of view, then yes, I wanted to be persuasive...
...The President turns the questioning over to the Prosecutor...
...President: You say we are the greatest threat to peace in Europe...
...Their substance is of course different...
...The court knows the law, including constitutional law...
...Mihajlov feels a moral duty to express it...
...But to have kept silent would have been to lie...
...My work was banned after my 1970 release from prison...
...I have no connection whatever with the views of the Rightwing Sloboda...
...This pinpoints exactly what I argue for: the right to express publicly one's views on any subject...
...Mihajlov: No...
...7/ discusses the October 1974 trial of Djuro Djurovich, a former Chetnik, and declares that the Chetnik movement, led by Tito rival Draja Mihajlovich, has been misrepresented in postwar Yugoslavia...
...Authoritative, dignified, elderly, Kovacevic plays a vital secondary role in Mihajlov's defense...
...He wrote for foreign journals despite having been denied status as a correspondent...
...I have prepared a long speech for this occasion, but since the court has been very "correct" I will shorten it...
...To establish Mihajlov's alleged link with the Yugoslav emigre press, a Serbian translation of his "Open Letter to A Friend in the West" (The New Leader, September 17, 1973) is introduced from the emigre journal Nasa Rec...
...and a scattering of citizens...
...This is his fourth appearance in court on such charges...
...Mihajlov: I wanted to enlighten...
...In my opinion, this reversion is more tragic than suppression of the Prague Spring...
...Therefore he is certainly guilty...
...Did you know they were published in the Yugoslav emigre press...
...President: Why do you compare Yugoslavia with Spain in this article...
...These are the real issues here...
...The existence of many liberals like Djilas throughput Yugoslavia is confirmed by frequent attacks on them in the press...
...Spectators in the large, modern courtroom include a few friends, mostly foreign journalists...
...The papers were once filled with the opinions of Djilas, Marko Nikezic and Miko Tripalo [ousted leaders...
...Mihajlov: My style was adapted to each paper...
...Because certain publications have been banned, Mihajlov has tried to prove there is no freedom of expression...
...Mihajlov: I will not condemn the court for sentencing me...
...Prosecutor: I do not have to prove Mihajlov's statements false and malicious...
...Mihajlov is found guilty under Article 118, Statute 2, in connection with Statute 1 of the Criminal Code...
...The defense agrees not read these aloud...
...Mihajlov: Because of my reputation I knew they would not be published and I did not try...
...Mihajlov disavows the translation as unauthorized and inaccurate...
...President: Barovic phrases his questions suggestively...
...He denies the existence of freedom of thought and the confrontation of ideas...
...Prosecutor: Bosko Knezevic...
...We saw hostility to Yugoslavia in the letters and publications of the people he contacted...
...Furthermore, he has declared that Yugoslavia poses the greatest threat to peace in Europe...
...I taught because my superior was away...
...Human beings differ from animals because they think, and not uniformly...
...He is short, stocky, 40 years old...
...Posev, Number 2) Mihajlov: Under the Fifth Constitution, press freedom still exists only on paper...
...Prosecutor: We introduce photocopies of the Chetnik emigre paper Sloboda, published in the U.S., carrying the same article...
...But only pro-capitalist propaganda can be considered hostile in Yugoslavia...
...As a small nation, we must be careful to be consistent...
...Mihajlov: I do, and wish to add something...
...Kovacevic, upset, begins to interrupt, but changes his mind...
...FEBRUARY 27, 1975...
...Prosecutor: I protest...
...Attacks against it need not be taken too seriously, but they cannot be ignored...
...and that democratic opposition forces have dramatically coalesced, reflecting a hopeless situation and organized mass resistance...
...President: What kind of external intervention...
...Jovan Barovic and Veljko Kovacevic: Belgrade lawyers of Montenegrin origin...
...The Prosecutor yields to the defense attorneys...
...They are obviously false and malicious...
...Many pressures are applied to destroy Yugoslavia's unanimity and social order...
...President: Mihajlov's request is rejected...
...The Court should exercise Article 118 with great caution and in its narrowest sense...
...And an article in Politika criticizes the opposition, confirming its existence...
...Mihajlov has misrepresented the peoples' attitude toward their social order...
...The Trial of Mihajlo Mihajlov SESSION OF THE DISTRICT COURT OF NOVI SAD FEBRUARY 25, 1975?:45 A.M...
...Barovic: Did you try to work in Yugoslavia...
...This is propaganda against Mihajlov...
...Do not read it...
...Kovacevic: I will not indulge in politics...
...I do not wish to attract attention...
...Mihajlov: My fees gave me a very poor living...
...It will be yet another Yugoslav paradox if the court finds me innocent...
...The 1968 university uprisings and the banning of student publications support my view...
...On December 6, 1975, Mihajlo Mihajlov, the Yugoslav writer and teacher who is currently serving a seven-year prison term for disseminating "hostile propaganda" about the Tito regime, began a hunger strike...
...Shortly before Mihajlov's trial, Barovic's 24-year-old son was called for immediate military duty...
...He questions the Party's ability to maintain the status quo without the threat of outside military intervention...
...But he could have taken other positions...
...Court is adjourned at 8 P.M...
...Frits Ruter, a Dutch lawyer observing for Amnesty International...
...Mihajlov: The Italian Fascist Constitution was detailed in a prewar Paris publication by a Russian, and in other works...
...never my ideas...
...Three articles by Mihajlov from Posev and Ruska Misao are produced by the defense to show his belief in unity, brotherhood, socialism and self-management...
...Should the situation recur, I would join the Partisans as a lesser evil...
...The Prosecutor will now begin his summation...
...If Yugoslavs could describe their Stalinists as Solzhenitsyn did Russia's, that would reflect democracy...
...Truth and untruth become subjective perceptions when social questions and political judgments are at issue...
...Prosecutor: Did you discuss possible changes in the regime with people you contacted...
...Mihajlov: Yes...
...He quotes from them...
...If not, why not...
...Mihajlov: No...
...This reads: "Hostile Propaganda: 1) Whoever by means of writing, speech or in any other way maliciously and untruthfully represents the social situation in the country, shall be punished by strict imprisonment for not more than 12 years...
...President: Your questions are leading...
...Mihajlov's sentence is to be a deterrent to him, and in general...
...I have no connection with Sloboda...
...As for fees, everyone is paid for his work, including the President of the Court...
...The author is a provocateur or mentally ill, unknown to Mihajlov...
...The President orders the reading of the indictment...
...You can hardly say I invented it...
...other correspondence, invitations Mihajlov has received to lecture at foreign universities and many of his published works are introduced as testimony to his good character...
...If I am convicted, I will still believe that Stalinization will not be submitted to...
...Mihajlov: I have completely recovered from a mild attack of flu...
...The others present are participants in the trial...
...I would like to note that an article in the weekly Nin comments on enforced silence...
...Furthermore, I talked about lack of dedication, not organized resistance among new Party members...
...Prosecutor: Permission requested to introduce excerpts from Mihajlov's article "A Legal Tragedy," published in Ruska Misao, September 26, 1974, as additional evidence...
...The court is adjourned until 4 P.M...
...He declares that delegates from the self-management system chosen as Assembly representatives have no immunity, and can be removed at the first sign of independent action...
...President: The defense will summarize...
...Why did you write them...
...FEBRUARY 26, 1975...
...Second Professional Judge: He is consulted occasionally by the President...
...He was completely unknown to Mihajlov, and the Prosecutor finally dropped the point in closed court.] (The court recesses at 1:45 P.M., and when it reconvenes at 2:10 P.M...
...Posev...
...The threat is greater because of our position between the West and the Communist countries...
...Support of the Chilean junta by the Rightwing Russian emigre press is attacked in one...
...Solzhenitsyn and Yugoslavia" (New York Review of Books...
...Some Westerners even attacked them...
...Yugoslavia hopes for consistency from other nations when freedom is in question...
...The letter is public...
...Mihajlov: To express my views on Yugoslav trends which could lead to Stalinism...
...Mihajlov's articles reveal a patriotic wish for peace...
...I request the opinion of Dr...
...The article cannot relate to my case...
...He performs with spirit, despite extreme fatigue from his recent defense of Croat nationalists in a Zadar political trial...
...Mihajlov: From the USSR, as happened in Czechoslovakia...
...that the League of Students was united with the Party youth organization to neutralize a threat to Party monopoly...
...I am grateful to the Prosecutor for explicitly saying "although not a Party member, Mihajlov dared write about the Tenth Party Congress...
...The New Leader, January 21, 1974...
...This is not true, but the abuse of that freedom cannot be tolerated...
...It is hard to apply the phrase "untruthfully and maliciously," an often-disputed addition...
...However, he feels Yugoslavia and socialism would benefit from a multi-party system...
...Marx and many of his followers were emigres...
...Every man sees his own geese as swans...
...Our country owes a great debt to such men...
...Mihajlov: They are...
...But is it possible to achieve true self-management when the Party controls ideas...
...The Yugoslav Communist Party platform itself says: "Nothing is so holy that it cannot be replaced by something better...
...He has thus committed the crime of hostile propaganda, as defined under Article 118, Statute 2, in connection with Statute 1 of the Criminal Code...
...Students under 27 years are usually permitted to complete their studies prior to entering the Army...
...The proceedings are open to the public...
...The Constitution clearly guarantees freedom of speech...
...President: You offend the court's dignity...
...Fear makes big eyes,' the proverb says...
...Why did he seek help abroad...
...Freedom of thought is essential...
...The President of the Republic is correct in saying that the foreign press is wrong...
...Mihajlov: No...
...The question of intent is fundamental...
...Second defense summation...
...It can judge the truth of the comparison without the aid of an expert...
...Since Barovic's wife, crippled in a car accident, depends on the son when her husband is away, the call to service was seen as government pressure on the attorney...
...Mihajlov: Foreign religious and anti-Communist journals arrive unsolicited...
...He is not a Party member, yet he dares pass judgment on the Tenth Party Congress...
...Prosecutor: You criticize self-management...
...I subscribe only to Yugoslav news and religious papers...
...Since then I have usually written in Russian, because translators from Russian are easier to find than from Serbo-Croat...
...The regulations clearly guarantee immunity more than before...
...I know it is difficult to act according to one's convictions...
...A rebel with a high opinion of himself, he imagines his great importance to this country and the world...
...In attempting to establish their accuracy, Mihajlov is permitted to bring up newspaper stories that were his sources of information, but he is not allowed to read from them because this would constitute new evidence...
...Also, in my opinion, the delegate system is not sufficient to guarantee democracy in a one-party state...
...Free expression of opposing ideas cannot harm society...
...The foreign press has exploited Mihajlov's articles for anti-Yugoslav propaganda...
...I have no connection with the Yugoslav emigre press...
...Barovic: The Prosecutor refuses to examine in more than general political terms the relevant paragraphs from Mihajlov's writings that are under attack...
...In the past, all progressive ideas came from the West...
...He is in his mid-40s...
...Yugoslavia—The Approaching Storm" (Index, Volume 3, Number 1, 1974...
...Objective criteria for what is "untruthful and malicious" do exist...
...But to call all other forms of socialism hostile propaganda that undermines the Constitution is wrong...
...Sounding the alarm about Yugoslavia's future is one of their tactics...
...Mihajlov: The Prosecutor must refer to an American letter addressed to me...
...How much were you paid...
...Alienated by the united Tenth Party Congress, internal enemies seek coalition with enemies abroad, including the foreign emigre press...
...Both have represented Milovan Djilas...
...Did you try to influence your readers...
...In this article I have here, the author laments the passiveness of new members...
...He has claimed there is no freedom of speech...
...He elected not to, thinking it better to work for foreigners at high fees...
...Acknowledging that some followers of Mihajlovich were German collaborators, Mihajlov defends the Chetniks in general...
...Older man...
...It would be simple to add other passages against him, like those from "A Legal Tragedy...
...The accused is an intellectual, fully aware of what he has done...
...President: Mihajlov is recognized...
...Barovic, a former Partisan, had a fine Party career until he was expelled...
...When questioned, his belief in our ideals became obvious...
...If he really supports our social order, why were his views kept from the Yugoslav public...
...Obsessed by his vision, like Don Quixote...
...Number 1) Mihajlov: I submit clippings taken from the Yugoslav press, which reflect my contention about the Party's new control of ideas and its consolidation of power...
...Statements from the Yugoslav press reveal conflicts within the Party, despite the claim of unity...
...For the past 10 years I have been permitted to express myself publicly only in the courtroom...
...If press freedom exists, the President must prove that banned writers can publish their opinions...
...Posev, Number 8) Mihajlov: I contend that the League of Students was united with the young workers' organization to remove it as a threat...
...He has compared Yugoslavia to Franco's Spain, and our Constitution to Fascist Italy's...
...President: How can you compare our new Constitution with Fascist Italy's...
...President: Do you believe effective hostile propaganda is a delusion...
...My criticism of the delegate system is also substantiated by my press clippings...
...He maintains that democratic socialism, "Djilasism," is growing within and outside the Party, and would be more cohesive than single-party monopoly...
...Mihajlov: I believe in it...
...In the '60s, I was imprisoned for attempting to start an independent paper...
...Men willing to accept risk and self-sacrifice enrich their Society...
...He is seeking an end to his solitary confinement, more heat in his cell, a portable radio, and additional books...
...Mihajlov: I was unable to prove earlier the similarity between our delegate system and Fascist Italy's...
...Barovic later explained that Cooper had written a vulgar, threatening letter from America insulting President Tito and the Yugoslav state...
...When the session resumes, the articles Mihajlov wrote that have been cited against him—whose titles vary somewhat from those actually used in the West—are introduced individually for defense...
...Kovacevic: Are brotherhood, equality, unity, and self-management desirable...
...President: The letter from Raymond Cooper will be read in closed court for security reasons...
...But the Russian emigre publication, Posev, rendered my articles from the English journals...
...I wrote that publication of The Gulag Archipelago, rather than the earlier works, would e\press freedom...
...but if you must, read it in open court...
...Although under a ban, he ignored the law by continuing to write...
...Prosecutor: Did you try to have your works published in Yugoslavia...
...President: Does Mihajlov approve his defense...
...In politics and morals, what is real cannot be malicious...
...The writer Dobrica Cosic also confirms the critical nature of the Yugoslav situation...
...The court will also judge its malice...
...The assertion that delegates do not enjoy immunity maliciously misrepresents the facts...
...You are not expert in constitutional law...
...The sentence: Seven years strict imprisonment...
...Possible Stalinization of the Yugoslav social order obsesses Mihajlov...
...All or none should be read...
...The Defense: Protest...
...Prosecutor: I protest...
...He has served three and a half years in prison...
...Number 41 Mihajlov: I am accused of writing that publication of Solzhenitsyn's works docs not prove Yugoslavia a democracy...
...He should be sentenced to strict imprisonment and banned from all public expression as a security measure...
...Supported and influenced by foreigners, he has described our social situation untruthfully, with malice...
...President: Do you consider your articles propaganda...
...I do not know the author...
...President: If you continue this way, you will be stopped...
...The opposition that has developed is psychological, not ideological or political...
...Yet the Prosecutor did not try to do this...
...Non-Marxist ideology is identified with treason in a recent article, confirming the Party's control of ideas...
...Mihajlo Mihajlov: Self-possessed, never aggressive, quick to spot flaws in the Prosecutor's arguments...
...Mihajlov: In 1963 I was assistant lecturer in Russian language and literature in Zadar...
...Is Rumanianization Dangerous...
...It is equally clear that no one may abuse this freedom with the aim of undermining the social order...
...It is the court's duty to remain unprejudiced...
...Melanie Anderson for the International League for the Rights of Man...
...President: What anti-Communist and religious publications do you subscribe to...
...I will do so, point by point...
...I will not analyze the paragraphs from Mihajlov's articles for which he is indicted...
...He identifies the Yugoslav Constitution and social structure with Fascist Italy under Mussolini, as a single-party monopoly...
...President: How is your health...
...Its vague words "represents the social situation" resist interpretation...
...Prosecutor: Yugoslavia is a stable society...
...Coexistence, which we support, should apply within states as well as between them...
...Lay Assessors: Four private citizens who make up the rest of the court...
...President: What were your arrangements...
...He deliberately seeks conflict to attract attention...
...The burden lies with the Prosecutor to prove these statements untrue and malicious, not with Mihajlov to prove his innocence...
...President: Did you really teach Russian literature...
...The trial resumes at 1:30 P.M...
...I am an essayist...
...Prosecutor: I request the closed-court reading of a letter from a Raymond Cooper to Mihajlov...
...Democratic Socialism" is his disguise for attacking our social order...
...In view of his financial circumstances, the court will bear the costs of the trial...
...I stand on my opinion that liberal socialism is more cohesive than Communism...
...It is within human nature to differ...
...Among those present at the proceedings was Melanie Anderson, an observer for the International League for the Rights of Man, and from the notes she took at the trial Shirley M. Stewart, a free-lance journalist, has now constructed this record...
...President: Dragomir Cvetkovic...
...Prosecutor: With the aid of emigres in the West hostile to Yugoslavia, from January to September 1974, Mihajlo Mihajlov published articles in various Western journals and was paid...
...It is the wrong word...
...To answer the Prosecutor's claim that my democratic socialism is counterrevolutionary, I have always been against Rightwing ideologies...
...My passport was confiscated, so I could not accept foreign offers...
...He was paid...
...My position is well-intentioned and constructive...
...Such statements are untrue and malicious...
...In all he writes his motives are good, not evil...
...Mihajlov has said that we are returning to Stalinism...
...That is not my malicious misrepresentation...
...This is not criminal...
...Respect for freedom shields a small country...
...Mihajlov: Without external intervention, Stalinism would not be tolerated in Yugoslavia after 20 years of relative freedom...
...The court will decide this question...
...I am not attacking our ideals...
...Other documents reveal business contacts with Western editors and Russian, not Yugoslav, emigre editors...
...Court adjourns...
...Nor must the image of "emigre" be negative...
...Only when opposite views are confronted can the truth be found...
...Barovic: What other writers, like Djilas, are unable to publish in Yugoslavia...
...The defense that Mihajlov had to work to live, that he is an essayist, that his articles are not false and malicious—is unacceptable...
...He wants socialism for Yugoslavia, but by different methods...
...Barovic: Protest...
...Mihajlov is charged under Article 118 of the Criminal Code...
...Every commentator, including Walter Lippmann, can be accused of mistaken judgment...
...In The New Leader, the New York Review of Books, the International Herald Tribune, Index, and the Russian emigre journal Posev, he has maliciously and untruthfully represented our social and political order...
...He claims the publication of Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn's works in Yugoslavia strengthens the Party dictatorship and stifles diverse opinion...
...Arrested on October 7, 1974, Mihajlov was tried and sentenced in February of last year...
...He proclaims a sharp turn toward Party monopoly, more tragic than the Prague Spring, and that Yugoslavia threatens European peace...
...He certainly was not malicious...
...Mihajlov may have erred, but from mistaken judgment, not deliberate falsehood...
...Mihajlov: As one-party states, they have similar structures...
...But for this he needed honorable intentions...
...President: Do you understand the indictment...
...Prosecutor: The letter concerns the article in Sloboda and is important...
...May 30, 1974...
...Kovacevic: In what sense did you write for the Western press...
...Nothing came of it...
...The authorities do this...
...I wrote to President Tito and received an official promise of work...
...He further asserts that democratization has been stopped, but attempts to prepare for total Party dictatorship have failed...
...Yet he persists in these activities, as if to show that he recognizes no law but his own will...
...The President of the Republic has spoken about Mihajlov's trial...
...a four year ban on public expression to follow...
...Intelligent, urbane, formally correct...
...A January 1975 piece in the respected newspaper Politika says press freedom should be restricted to those who respect working-class interests...
...Who will print their views now...
...Why did he address them to foreigners...
...Should he have chosen to, Mihajlov could have expressed his views in the Yugoslav press...
...Mihajlov: I protest...
...It is nonsense to read it in secret...
...President: Read the entire article...
...It is reasonable, moreover, that he was not permitted to teach...
...Self-management was originated by Djilas, and I fully support it...
...You have seen that Mihajlov is not a malicious man...
...The papers that published my articles—Posev, Ruska Misao, the New York Review of Books, Index, The New Leader—are not hostile to Yugoslavia...
...President: The verdict: Guilty...
...Court adjourns after Mihajlov speech...
...This is done...
...2) whoever commits the offense specified in Paragraph 1 of this Article, assisted or influenced from abroad, shall be punished by strict imprisonment...
...I wrote the articles, published in English translation in The New Leader, Index and the New York Review of Books...
...I never replied...
...Djilas' and Solzhenitsyn's concepts are the first real contribution to Western thought from Slavic countries...
...I was paid because authors are usually paid...
...Barovic: Were you able to publish "The Fate of a Melody," about the tune for a national anthem, in Yugoslavia...
...His ideas seem absurd...
...Kovacevic: Did Mihajlov intend to present the social situation in our country "maliciously and untruthfully...
...The Constitution does not say that Party members alone are permitted to think about politics...
...I am not at all the greatest Yugoslav writer, but an essayist...
...Marking Time—Yugoslavia After the Tenth Party Congress" (International Herald Tribune, October 24, 1974...
...Mihajlov is an intellectual of exceptionally broad interests, who permits himself his constitutional rights...
...Although not mentioned, this appeared as "The Mihajlovich Tragedy" in The New Leader, February 3, 1975.] Barovic: I protest...
...Propaganda" implies falsehood...
...FEBRUARY 28, 1975?2:00 NOON Students from the Law Faculty now fill the courtroom...
...Mihajlov: Since 1970 I have gone to the employment bureau every month, in vain...
...President: Have you created hostile propaganda to arouse fear...
...In the words of the medieval Emperor Dusan, "The court should not judge in fear of the ruler, but according to the law...
Vol. 59 • January 1976 • No. 2
