244 The Postwar Period
Moral” article, claiming that it did not refer to Tito, who “unfortunately had to
live as he lived,” nor to his wife, Jovanka. “Often I have had some tiffs with you,
always nervous but short, partly because of my wild temperament; but never
have I done so in disingenuously.... I had no opportunity to say this in another
way. Djido.”^467
If Djilas hoped to soften Tito with this mea culpa and to preserve at least his
post in the Central Committee, he was wrong. This was so despite warnings
from one of Yugoslavia’s best friends and supporters, the Austrian ambassador
Walter Wodak, who observed that the regime was facing a delicate test in its
relations with the West. Three days after Djilas’s expulsion from the Executive
Committee, on 16 January 1954, an extraordinary plenum of the CC was sum-
moned to discuss his “affair.” The initiative was Tito’s, who charged Kardelj and
Ranković with its implementation. Djilas was not informed, only learning
about the session, in which 108 delegates took part, from newspapers.^468 This
was a bitter surprise for him, since he had hoped to overcome the rift with Tito
and his comrades without public discussion and without too much damage to
his career. He nurtured the illusion that he might remain in politics and might
still be able, although in a limited way, to further develop his theories. He was
aware that he had done a “stupid thing” in publishing what amounted to libel
in Nova Misao. “I am a man-child... I am not a statesman. If I led the country,
it would be a disaster,” he said.^469
A year before, Tito had gotten rid of Blagoje Nešković, the strong man of
Serb politics, by isolating him from his comrades (Djilas, Ranković and the
others), accusing him of Cominformist leanings, and removing him from
power. He would use the same tactics this time.^470 Before the CC session, he
had a series of conversations with those members whom he suspected of sym-
pathizing with Djilas. Invoking the unity of the party, and stressing the damage
done to the country, he managed to line them up on his side—except for Dedi-
jer.^471 At the plenum, which met in Belgrade in a tense atmosphere and was
broadcast live on the radio, Tito was first to speak. He dwelled on the dangers
of Djilas’s writings, as they undermined party discipline, which threatened the
existence of the state. According to him, Djilas was preaching an abstract
democracy, which was an end in itself and a call for anarchy.^472 Djilas took the
floor after him, pale from fatigue and concern, in order to defend his theories
without pretending, however, that the others would share them. “My main
fault was that I have exposed my ideas without discussing them before with
comrades,” he said, “certain that the moment had come, when it would be
acceptable to articulate them publicly, regardless of the official line.”^473 Kardelj,
charged to examine Djilas’s thought from a theoretical point of view, accused
him of following the worst “revisionism,” introduced into Marxist doctrine at