Abstract

Mihajlo Mihajlov's Open Letter to Josip Broz Tito of 15 July 1966 is a remarkable document. Apart from Milovan Djilas, only Mihajlov dared to address Tito in this manner. Yet Mihajlov's Open Letter voiced a hope which would reverberate in his country and throughout the communist world: the abolition of one-party communist rule in favor of a multi-party system guaranteeing basic human rights and freedoms, pluralism, tolerance, and an open society. In fact, Mihajlov's Open Letter spelled out the basic parameters of an open society as well as the limits of liberalization in Titoist Yugoslavia, The regime's response was swift and clear: Mihajlov's arrest on 8 August 1966, and subsequent imprisonment for a crime of thought.