He was a true believer in communism who became disillusioned with the totalitarianism and corruption of the Communist regimes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. A wartime partisan leader in Yugoslavia and later the number three man in the politburo, he broke with Marshal Tito in 1954 and spent most of the next decade in prison, where he began to write about the inner workings of the Communist system. Here, Milovan Djilas - who died in 1995 - discusses why communism failed in Europe, what its failure means for the future of the continent, and how he transformed himself from ideologue into humanist

The development of my political thinking -- The Yugoslav revolution and the Soviet Union: Jajce 1943 ; I encounter the leader of the land of dreams -- First signs of falling out -- Differences with Moscow -- Confrontation with Moscow -- Criticism of the Soviet system ; Stalin goes in circles -- To have a personal opinion in the Communist Party is dangerous ; The closed circle of the privileged -- The new class: Prelude ; The new class -- Leaders: On leaders generally ; On Stalin: Stalin's personality. Stalin, Lenin's heir ; Stalin's shadow over his heirs ; Lenin, heir to the cult of Stalin ; postulates of Stalin ; Stalin's communism ; Mao : genius of guerrilla revolution ; Tito : the state as personal power -- Power and dissidents: Causes of dissent in the countries of Eastern Europe ; Creativity in dogma ; On the "New Left" ; Literature as never-ending punishment ; Prisons and the sea ; Bureaucratic nationalism ; Gorbachev's Leninist illusions ; The Kremlin's palace-party putsch -- The end in grief and shame: The fate of Marxism ; Communism and the working class ; The end in grief and shame