An unknown poem by Milovan Djilas: "A conversation between Njegos and an unknown hero"
Authors: Andrijasevic Nemanja 
Published: March 2023

The correspondence between Bishop Dr. Nikolaj Velimirovic and priest Aleksa
Todorovic contains an abundance of significant information. These two
clerics worked tirelessly on promoting creativity within the Serbian
Orthodox Church (SOC) in diaspora, helping to strengthen its organization
and connections, advancing its publishing and missionary activities,
enabling it to offer consolation to all, but especially to those who
decided to live their lives ?far from the warmth of their homeland?. One
day, a daily church service in SOC in Munich had been attended by Drag.
Janic, who gave a poem written in June 1955 by Milovan Djilas - one of the
discarded officials of the Yugoslav communist government, to parish priest
Aleksa. Even though in the years prior to writing this poem he denounced his
Serbian identity and furthermore fought diligently against it - as he
himself asserted later in his autobiographical writings, once he found
himself on the other side of the revolutionary legacy that he dedicated
himself to, ?something happened? to him. That incomprehensible ?something?
inspired him to search for the voice of the Mystic from Lovcen within
himself and express his doubts, suspicions and contemplations regarding the
national question in a short poetic genre, through the voice of two great
people: one famous and acknowledged, and the other unknown and acknowledged.
This differentiation mirrors his understanding of both Njegos and
everything that is Serbian, which he mentions several times. One could
argue that his lament over the fact that ?the Cross has been removed from
the Serbian coat of arms? expresses an incredibly difficult sadness of the
author, while the ending words of his poem are even more dreadful,
emphasising that ?there are no more Serbs in Serbia?. Drying of the author`s
ink did not, however, mark the end of his internal struggle - he decided to
tear the paper on which he wrote the poem, only to later tape it back
together. In the end, even though the author of this paper suggests that
Djilas must have been acquainted with the fact that there were circles in
Munich that gathered members of Zbor and supporters of Dimitrije Ljotic, and
that at the same place there was a parish of the SOC with comprehensive
publishing activity, that did not discourage him from making a peculiar
move. He turned his song over to Serbian Church - against which he sinned a
lot - and supported his decision with the desire that his poem be published,
even though anonymously. In the light of all the abovementioned, the readers
of ?Serbian Religious Library Svetacnik?, i.e. ?Svetacnik`s calendar with
the catechetical booklet? (precise names of the publications in 1956) could
get acquainted with this conversation and lament between Njegos and the
Unknown Hero over the suppressed and exiled Serbianhood, that is no longer
to be found even in Serbia itself - as implicated by the author of the
poem. Bishop Nikolaj must have been told about who the author of the poem
was, as well as the exciting details that determined the destiny of this
text written in decasyllabic style. Sixty five years later, everyone can
read this poem and discern about both its value and that of its author, with
affirmation of its authorship, and a review of its quite unusual destiny,
which in the end was that of Milovan Djilas as well, and which followed him
to his death.