Depending on the specific print edition or scanned PDF (often from Praeger or Harcourt, Brace), page 86 typically lands in the heart of Djilas’s core thesis, titled The New Class. While pagination varies, the essence of page 86 is unmistakable. Here, Djilas moves away from historical analysis to deliver his verdict:
“The new class... obtains its power, privileges, ideology, and its psychology from the monopoly of the administration of public property.”
This is the engine of his argument. Unlike Marx, who predicted a revolt of the proletariat against capitalist owners, Djilas observed that after the revolution, the party bureaucracy becomes the new owning class. They do not own the factories legally, but they control them administratively.
On page 86, Djilas often contrasts the "political" versus "economic" nature of this class. He argues that the new class’s power is total because it controls both the state apparatus and the ideological narrative. The page typically concludes with a bleak prediction: “The new class is not a temporary phenomenon... It is the inevitable result of a system where one party monopolizes power.”
To understand page 86, one must understand the man who wrote it. Milovan Djilas was no Western propagandist. He was a Montenegrin communist who, during World War II, was one of Tito’s closest comrades. He served as Vice President of Yugoslavia and President of the Federal Assembly. For a time, he was seen as Tito’s heir. milovan djilas nova klasa pdf 86
However, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 shattered Djilas’s remaining illusions about Soviet-style socialism. He argued that the system had not liberated the working class but had enslaved it under a political bureaucracy. For this, Tito threw him in prison. Djilas wrote The New Class while incarcerated, smuggling the manuscript out to the West. Its publication made him a Nobel Prize nominee and a pariah in the Eastern Bloc.
Around mid‑book Đilas typically argues that when political authority becomes the principal source of wealth and status, the officials who hold that authority act to perpetuate their position—creating hereditary-like privileges and insulating themselves from accountability. He outlines how administrative control over distribution and appointments replaces market ownership as the basis of class power.
The inclusion of "PDF 86" in the search string indicates a desire for precision. Many readers seek out the 1960s Harcourt, Brace & World editions or the later 1983 Harvest/HBJ paperback. Page 86 in these editions typically falls within the book’s core argument—specifically in the chapter titled "The Conflict of Interest" or the early summation of "The New Class."
On page 86 (depending on the edition), Djilas is likely laying out the mechanism by which revolutionary asceticism turns into bureaucratic privilege. He argues that the Communist party, having seized power, does not wither away but instead grows into a parasitic entity. While the exact line varies, this page almost always contains the thesis that the new class does not own the means of production legally, but controls them politically—making ownership secondary to management. Depending on the specific print edition or scanned
Đilas argued that while the communist revolution ostensibly aimed to create a classless society, it inadvertently gave rise to a new ruling class. This "New Class" was not defined by ownership of capital, as the bourgeoisie was, but by its collective control of the means of production and its monopoly on political power.
This class consisted of the party bureaucracy, officials, and administrators. Đilas famously wrote that this class used the state's property as its own, enjoying privileges and material benefits that were inaccessible to the working class they claimed to represent.
Based on standard editions, Djilas argues the following points that resonate on or around this page:
If you are searching for "Milovan Djilas Nova Klasa PDF 86" , here are the most common digital sources: “The new class
A note on translations: The original Serbo-Croatian Nova Klasa has a slightly different cadence than the English translation. When looking for page 86, ensure you know which edition the PDF is scanning. The popular "Harvest Book" edition (HB 266) has 214 pages; page 86 is exactly one-third of the way in—the heart of the argument.
While pagination varies slightly between publishers (Praeger, Harcourt Brace, and later reprints), the canonical 1957 edition (Harcourt, Brace & World) uses page 86 as the dramatic climax of the book’s first major thesis. On this page, Djilas delivers his most quoted, most devastating lines regarding the nature of communist ownership.
Typically, page 86 contains the following passage (paraphrased from standard English translations):
"The ownership of the New Class is a collective ownership. It is not ownership in the legal sense, but rather a form of usufruct—the right to use, control, and distribute national wealth. The party is the owner, and the members of the party are, in theory, only its executors. In practice, however, the highest echelon of the party enjoys the benefits of ownership without the burden of legal title. They determine national income, allocate resources, and grant themselves pensions, villas, and privileges. Thus, they are a class in the Marxist sense: a group of people who stand in a specific relation to the means of production—in this case, political control."
Furthermore, critical footnote 86 (often confused with page 86) in some editions references Djilas’ chilling comparison of the Communist Party to a "privileged corps" that operates "extra-legally," drawing from his own experience in the Yugoslav Politburo.
Why is Page 86 famous? Because on this page, Djilas bridges theory and autobiography. He stops quoting Marx and Lenin and starts describing the lunch table of the Yugoslav elite. He admits that he was a member of this New Class. The confession is what makes the page so powerful.