Moša Pijade

He took active role in the People's Liberation War and was one of main political leaders of the Partisans. After the WWII and creation of socialist Yugoslavia, he became a prominent politician and was the president of the Federal Parliament from 1954 until his death.

Pijade was born in Belgrade, Kingdom of Serbia, on 3 January 1890 [O.S. 22 December 1889] into a family of Sephardic Jewish origin. His father Samuilo Pijade was a rich merchant. In 1905, Pijade started studying painting at the State School of Arts and Crafts in Belgrade, under the tutorship of painter Rista Vukanović. Soon, he left the school and moved to a private painting school run by Paško Vučetić. He helped Vučetić with the decoration of the walls of the National Bank of Serbia building. After that, he briefly returned to the School of Arts and Crafts, studying under Marko Murat. In 1906, Pijade moved to Munich, Germany to study painting. Soon after, his father went bankrupt, so Pijade could not afford to continue studies. He then moved to Paris, France in 1909 where he spent a year, and then moved to Brittany where he painted landscapes. After returning to Belgrade in 1910, Pijade also became a journalist and political caricaturist. In 1913, he moved to Ohrid in then-southern Serbia, where he worked as an art teacher, but also taught French and German. When the World War I broke out in 1914, he volunteered to serve in the Serbian Army, but was refused. Next year, he moved back to Belgrade where he worked for the Pravda newspaper until the Austro-Hungarian occupation of Serbia in September 1915. During the occupation, Pijade worked as a waiter in Ćuprija and then as an advertising professional in Valjevo. He also painted several paintings in this period. In 1919, in Belgrade, he established daily newspaper Slobodna reč ("Free word"). In 1920, he started to collaborate with the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (CPY) newspaper Radničke novine ("Workers' news"). The same year, he became the member of the CPY. At the elections for the city assembly of Belgrade held on 22 August 1920, Pijade was elected member of the assembly as a candidate of CPY. CPY won majority of seats and was expected to elect communist mayor (Filip Filipović) and municipal council, yet the government prevented them from taking their seats under the false pretext that they did not take the oath properly. In 1922, Pijade was delegate at the second conference of the Balkan Communist Federation in Sofia, Bulgaria.

In 1921, he became a member of the party's executive committee, after the previous committee was arrested due to a ban on communist activity. Soon, the CPY was banned altogether and went underground. In this period, he re-established Slobodna reč, now as a weekly. In 1923, in a bid to legalize their work, the communists established a cover party named Independent Workers' Party of Yugoslavia (IWPY), where Pijade became active. He was the editor of that party's newspaper Radnik ("The Worker"), and after Radnik was banned, he edited Okovani radnik ("Chained worker"). The IWPY won no seats at the 1923 and 1925 parliamentary elections. Eventually, the IWPY was banned, too. During the internal struggle between the "rightist" and "leftist" factions inside the CPY during the 1920s, Pijade opposed the rightists, who led the party at that time. He fervently argued for Leninism and Bolshevism. After the ban of the IWPY, the CPY tasked Pijade with establishing a secret communist print shop in Belgrade. The print shop secretly published communist leaflets and a magazine called Komunist. In February 1925, the print shop was discovered by the police and Pijade was sentenced to 12 years in prison due to "anti-state activity" (Initially to 20 years, but reduced after an appeal). In 1934, while in prison, he was sentenced to two additional years because of communist activity in the prison. While in the Lepoglava Prison, Pijade met Josip Broz Tito, who was serving a five-year sentence. They remained close friends and associates until his death. Pijade served out his full sentence and was released in April 1939. While in the Sremska Mitrovica Prison, Pijade translated Das Kapital by Karl Marx into Serbo-Croatian (under the pseudonym Porobić). He also translated The Communist Manifesto, The Poverty of Philosophy, and the introduction to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. While he was imprisoned, some of Pijade's earlier paintings became part of collection of the Prince Paul Museum in Belgrade. In 1926, Pijade was allowed to paint in the Sremska Mitrovica prison, but only for few months. In this period, he painted a self-portrait, several portraits of fellow prisoners (including Rodoljub Čolaković) and still lives. After four years without painting, Pijade was again allowed to paint in 1930 in the Lepoglava prison. There, he painted two portraits of Tito and several landscapes. After that, he did not paint until 1936, when he was again allowed to paint for a short time in the Sremska Mitrovica prison. After returning home in 1939, Pijade immediately continued his communist activities, so he was arrested again in January 1940 and taken to the Bileća prison. He was released in April 1940, only to be arrested again in February 1941. He was released on 4 April 1941, two days before the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia. After being released from prison in 1939, Pijade met and then married Lepa Nešić, a widow and member of the CPY. At the 5th National Conference of the CPY in October 1940, Pijade was elected member of the Central Committee. During the nine months on freedom (April 1939 - January 1940), Pijade painted a lot. In the Bileća prison, he was allowed to paint a little, but after being released in April 1940, he continued painting and few of his paintings were even exhibited in the Cvijeta Zuzorić Art Pavilion in Belgrade.

During the April War, Pijade relocated from Belgrade to Montenegro, where he was one of the leaders of the communist-led uprising against the Axis occupation (July 1941), which was part of the wider communist-led anti-Axis struggle. The uprising saw initial success, and most of the territory of Montenegro was temporarily liberated. Under the influence of Pijade and Milovan Đilas, Montenegrin Partisans pursued an extreme form of prosecution of perceived class enemies and those who were not willing to submit to the communist authorities. This policy was later condemned by the CPY and deemed "Leftist errors". During this period, many "enemies of the people" were killed by the Partisans. In late 1941, Pijade was transferred to the main Partisan headquarters. There, he was not in charge of military actions, but was organizing supplies and administration of the liberated territories. In the meantime, almost all his family perished in the Holocaust. His sisters Šelika and Micika and brothers Josif and David were all killed in the Sajmište concentration camp in Belgrade, while his brother Velizar was shot in Niš. Pijade's wife Lepa was with him and the Partisans during the whole war. Pijade was the main author of two documents that were adopted by the main headquarters in Foča on 3 February 1942. Those two documents, collectively known as the "Foča Regulations" defined the way in which Partisan-liberated territories were to be administrated by People's Liberation Councils, and the organization of those councils. Foča Regulations were later celebrated by the communists as the basis of the new post-war system of governance. Pijade was one of the main organizers of the First session of the Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ) in Bihać in November 1942. AVNOJ was the highest executive body of the communist-led People's Front. At the second session of AVNOJ in Jajce in November 1943, Pijade was elected its vice-president. Just before the Jajce session, Pijade initiated the foundation of Tanjug, Partisan news agency which, after the war, became the state news agency of Yugoslavia. Pijade said that one of the main tasks is to quickly inform the allied public about the AVNOJ session and its decisions, so to win their sympathy for Partisans' cause. Pijade held high political posts during World War II and was a member of the Central Committee and the Politburo of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, being one of leaders of Tito's partisans. His noms de guerre were Čiča Janko (Uncle Janko) and Šiki.

For his services during the war, Pijade was subsequently awarded the Order of the People's Hero of Yugoslavia, Order of People's Liberation, and the Commemorative Medal of the Partisans of 1941. He continued to maintain an important role in the government of the newly proclaimed Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. He was one of the Vice Presidents of the Temporary National Assembly (1945), vice president of the Presidium of the National Assembly (deputy head of state) between 1945 and 1953, vice-president of the Federal Executive Council (government) between 1953 and 1954, and then president of the Federal People's Assembly (1954–57). In August 1945, Pijade delivered a report at the 3rd (last) session of AVNOJ. At the session, AVNOJ was transformed into the Temporary National Assembly and Moše Pijade stayed its vice-president. He was the chair of the Legislative committee of the Assembly. In September, he was named the chair of the council that was tasked with implementing agrarian reform. At the 1945 parliamentary election, he was elected member of the Constituent Assembly as a representative of the City of Belgrade constituency. He was member of the committee that was tasked with the preparation of the text of the new constitution that was eventually ratified as the 1946 Constitution of Yugoslavia. After new constitution was adopted, the Constituent Assembly was transformed into the National Assembly and Pijade was elected vice-president of the Presidium of the National Assembly, a post he held until it was abolished in 1953. In January 1953, Pijade was elected vice-president of the Federal Executive Council. He stayed on that post until January 1954, when he was elected president of the Federal National Assembly. He stayed on that post until his death. At the 5th Congress of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (July 1948), Pijade was re-elected member of the Central Committee and then was elected member of the 5th Politburo. During the Tito–Stalin split (1948) and the subsequent Informbiro period, Pijade strongly supported Tito's line. At the 6th Congress (November 1952), he was again elected member of the Central Committee and member of the 6th Executive Committee (former Politburo). In 1950, Pijade was admitted full member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. In 1948 Pijade convinced Tito to allow those Jews who remained in Yugoslavia to emigrate to Israel. Tito agreed on a one-time exception basis. As a result, 3,000 Jews emigrated from Yugoslavia to Israel on the SS Kefalos in December 1948. Among those was Tommy Lapid, who became Deputy Prime Minister of Israel and was the father of Yair Lapid. During World War II, Pijade did not paint at all, only making a few drawings. But, after the war ended, he continued his artistic work. In the early 1950s, he acquired a painter's studio for the first time in his life. In 1952, he organized an exhibition of his works in his studio in Belgrade.