You're reading: Ex-Yugoslav dissident Mihajlo Mihajlov dies at 76

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — A prominent former Yugoslav dissident Mihajlo Mihajlov who was jailed during communism for his articles and essays before he emigrated to the West, has died. He was 76.

Mihajlov died Sunday at his home in Belgrade, Serbia’s state TV said. The cause of death was not made public.

Mihajlov left the former Yugoslavia at 1978, after spending a total of seven years in prison for work published in the West critical of the Yugoslav government.

Mihajlov acquired U.S. citizenship in 1985 and taught Russian literature at Yale, Ohio State University and the University of Virginia, as well as in Scotland and in West Germany.

Mihajlov returned to Serbia in 2001, after the fall of communism and after Yugoslavia broke up in a series of ethnic conflicts.