Mihajlo Mihajlov ( sr-Cyrl, Михајло Михајлов, ; 26 September 1934 – 7 March 2010) was a Serbian author, academic and

publicist A publicist is a person whose job is to generate and manage publicity for a company, a brand, or public figure – especially a celebrity – or for a work such as a book, film, or album. Publicists are public relations specialists who ...

. Mihajlov became one of the most prominent

dissident A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established political or religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and in the political sense since the 20th ...

s in

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

and

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whic ...

after his arrest, trial and conviction in 1965. He spent a total of seven years in prison and was the only Yugoslav dissident whose passport was revoked.

Biography

Mihajlov was born in Pančevo on 29 September 1934, into a

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

family. His father was seventeen and his mother seven when they came to the

Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes Kingdom commonly refers to: * A monarchy ruled by a king or queen * Kingdom (biology), a category in biological taxonomy Kingdom may also refer to: Arts and media Television * ''Kingdom'' (British TV series), a 2007 British television drama s ...

in 1921 as part of the

White émigré White Russian émigrés were Russians who emigrated from the territory of the former Russian Empire in the wake of the Russian Revolution (1917) and Russian Civil War (1917–1923), and who were in opposition to the revolutionary Bolshevik commun ...

s led by

Pyotr Wrangel Baron Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel (russian: Пётр Никола́евич барон Вра́нгель, translit=Pëtr Nikoláevič Vrángel', p=ˈvranɡʲɪlʲ, german: Freiherr Peter Nikolaus von Wrangel; April 25, 1928), also known by his ni ...

. His mother tongue was

and he and his sisters learned Serbian practically at school. He graduated from the Sarajevo Gymnasium and graduated from the

University of Zagreb The University of Zagreb ( hr, Sveučilište u Zagrebu, ; la, Universitas Studiorum Zagrabiensis) is the largest Croatian university and the oldest continuously operating university in the area covering Central Europe south of Vienna and all of ...

(

Zadar Zadar ( , ; historically known as Zara (from Venetian and Italian: ); see also other names), is the oldest continuously inhabited Croatian city. It is situated on the Adriatic Sea, at the northwestern part of Ravni Kotari region. Zadar ser ...

campus) at the Department of Comparative Literature in 1959. After completing his postgraduate studies in 1961, he served in the army for a year until 1962 in

Trebinje Trebinje ( sr-Cyrl, Требиње, ) is a city and municipality located in the Republika Srpska entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the southernmost city in Bosnia and Herzegovina and is situated on the banks of Trebišnjica river in the r ...

. During his time as a lecturer on Russian literature at the University of Zagreb in Zadar, Mihajlov visited the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

in April 1965, on a professor exchange program and published an essay describing his trip called ''Leto moskovsko'' (Summer of Moscow) in the Belgrade magazine ''Delo''. For this, he was dismissed from the university. A few days later, after Josip Broz Tito had publicly accused him of Đilasism, the Yugoslav Government arrested Mihajlov on charges of "slandering a friendly state" and violating the press law by sending the manuscript of his banned article to an Italian publisher for which he was sentenced to nine months in prison. He appealed, and a higher court substituted a suspended sentence of five months. After that, he started publishing texts in foreign press, for which he was arrested on 8 August 1966 and subsequently sentenced to three and a half years in prison. He was released in 1970, but was arrested again on 7 October 1974 and convicted for writing articles for

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

and

The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...

and was imprisoned until 1977. He emigrated to the United States in 1978, where, among other things, he worked as a lecturer and where he acquired citizenship in 1985. From 1985 to 1994, he collaborated with

Radio Free Europe Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a United States government funded organization that broadcasts and reports news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Caucasus, and the Middle East where it says tha ...

. He was on the Editorial Board of '' Kontinent'', an émigré dissident

journal A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to: *Bullet journal, a method of personal organization *Diary, a record of what happened over the course of a day or other period *Daybook, also known as a general journal, a ...

which focused on the politics of the Soviet Union and its satellites founded in 1974 by writer Vladimir Maximov. He was also on the original Advisory Board of the non-profit educational organization Center for the Survival of Western Democracies, founded by author Lev Navrozov in 1979. He returned to Belgrade in 2001 where he lived until his death on 7 March 2010. He was interred on 13 March 2010 in the

Alley of Distinguished Citizens The New Cemetery ( sr, Ново гробље, ''Novo groblje'') is a cemetery complex in Belgrade, Serbia, with a distinct history. It is located in Ruzveltova street in Zvezdara municipality. The cemetery was built in 1886 as the third Christia ...

in the

Belgrade New Cemetery The New Cemetery ( sr, Ново гробље, ''Novo groblje'') is a cemetery complex in Belgrade, Serbia, with a distinct history. It is located in Ruzveltova street in Zvezdara municipality. The cemetery was built in 1886 as the third Christia ...

References

External links

Inventory of the Mihajlo Mihajlov papers
at

Hoover Institution The Hoover Institution (officially The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace; abbreviated as Hoover) is an American public policy think tank and research institution that promotes personal and economic liberty, free enterprise, an ...

The Trial of Mihajlo Mihajlov
by Melanie Anderson {{DEFAULTSORT:Mihajlov, Mihajlo 1934 births 2010 deaths Writers from Pančevo 20th-century male writers 20th-century Serbian people European democratic socialists Serbian political philosophers Serbian prisoners and detainees Serbian male writers Serbian male essayists Serbian people of Russian descent Prisoners and detainees of Yugoslavia University of Zagreb alumni Yugoslav dissidents Yugoslav people of Russian descent Yugoslav prisoners and detainees Yugoslav writers Burials at Belgrade New Cemetery