midnight
From those early days of his Party career , when his ambitions had sent him climbing , pushing , tripping up others , on his way to the top , he had expected it eventually . Oh , his had been a different approach , on the surface , an easygoing , laughing , gentler approach than one usually connected with members of the Secretariat of the Executive Committee of the Party , but it made very little difference in the very long view . When one fell from the heights , he fell just as hard , whether or not he was noted for his sympathetic easy humor . The fact was , Aleksander Kardelj was not asleep when the fist pounded at his door shortly after midnight . He had but recently turned off , with a shaking hand , the Telly-Phone , after a less than pleasant conversation with President of the United Balkan Soviet Republics , Zoran Jankez . For the past ten years , Kardelj had been able to placate Zoran Jankez , even though Number One be at the peak of one of his surly rages , rages which seemed to be coming with increasing frequency of late . As the socio-economic system of the People 's Democratic Dictatorship became increasingly complicated , as industrialization with its modern automation mushroomed in a geometric progression , the comparative simplicity of governing which applied in the past , was strictly of yesteryear .