Milosevic by Adam LeBor Read Free Book Online Page A

path to career success for Milosevic and his fellow students. The party issued instructions which were to be followed, not questioned. When economic reforms were introduced during the 1960s, party activists explained them to their fellow members. Loyalty to the decisions of the party leader, and patience, were the most useful assets for a young apparatchik. The rewards could be considerable: a new flat, a good job running a hospital or a factory, even an ambassadorship abroad for those who followed the party line. This was all very cosy, but many of the early 1960s generation, often better educated and more sophisticated than their partisan elders, planned to jump the queue.
    Slobodan’s brother Borislav provided an easy entrée to the university’spolitical elite. One of Borislav’s best friends was Dusan Mitevic, then the president of the students’ union. ‘Slobodan always looked a bit nerdy, with his plummy face. He wore a white and shiny nylon shirt, the kind you can wash, and leave overnight, and a tie. He was always with Mira. I think that Mira was a kind of wall between him and other people. He never really had friends.’ Borislav, in contrast, was hugely popular. He had grown into a tall and handsome young man, with dark hair and Slavic good looks. With his guitar and repertoire of songs, he was a must at every party. Borislav – Bora – had always been the one tipped for success, while Slobodan, most people assumed, would become a successful mid–level official.
    Apart from Mira, perhaps the only true friend Slobodan Milosevic ever had was his fellow law student Ivan Stambolic. Stambolic was five years older, but like Milosevic he was from a provincial background and bright. Stambolic had worked in a factory in the southern city of Cacak and had come late to higher education. Unlike Milosevic he was not afraid of physical work. Although he was intelligent, Stambolic had studied at a technical school, rather than the usual secondary school. He was insecure about the gaps in his education and was not confident about his handwriting. While Milosevic wanted top marks in every subject, Stambolic was happy just to pass. Their personalities were quite different: Milosevic was somewhat distant, and always seemed to be calculating how best to exploit events for himself. Stambolic was much more popular, a warm and genuine person with a wide circle of friends. Yet somehow the two students struck up an alliance among the sometimes snobbish circles of Belgrade’s political elite.
    There was more. Stambolic’s uncle Petar, a former President of Serbia, was, like Moma Markovic, one of the most powerful men in the country. Both men had perfect credentials as wartime Communist leaders. Milosevic well understood the value of these names.
    In spring 1961, Milosevic took his first step up the ladder of party power that would, thirty years later, bring him to the very summit of Yugoslav politics. One day one of Milosevic’s fellow law students, Nebojsa Popov, was walking through Tasmajden Park, just behind Belgrade Law School, with a colleague when he bumped into his friend Ivan Stambolic. During the 1990s Popov became a leading figure in the opposition, and a respected academic. But in the 1960s he was a young idealist who like many of his generation believed that Titoist Communism was humanity’sgreat hope. Popov recalled: ‘I had just been elected secretary of the Communist Party at the law faculty. I need someone to be my right hand, my organisational secretary as it was called. I was walking with Ivan and he told me that Slobodan would be the ideal candidate. Without knowing him, I accepted, because I had complete trust in Ivan.’ Milosevic was soon offered the post. He accepted ‘with delight’, said Popov. 6
    Popov and Milosevic soon divided up the work. The relationship between the two men was broadly like that of a regional company president and his chief