Miroslav Krleža was a communist who had been kicked out of the Communist Party. He was a friend of Tito who had not fought as a Partizan during World War II. He signed the Declaration on the Name and Status of the Croatian Literary Language, but in the 1930s convinced many southern slavic youth of the need for a united Yugoslav homeland.
Perhaps more than anything else, Miroslav Krleža was a contrarian, whose contribution to the literature of Yugoslavia has never been equaled.