Rodoljub Čolaković

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Rodoljub Čolaković (1900 - 1983) was a Serbian and Yugoslav politician.

A native of Bijeljina, Rodoljub Čolaković joined Socialist Party of Bosnia-Herzegovina in March 1919 as a student. Later he joined Crvena pravda, left-wing terrorist organisation in assassination of Yugoslav interior minister Milorad Drašković. For his role in those events Čolaković received 12 years in prison. During serving of the sentence he made friends with many notable Yugoslav Communists, including Moše Pijade with whom he translated Das Kapital and other classic texts of Marxism to Serbo-Croatian.

After release, Rodoljub Čolaković emigrated to Soviet Union and later took part in Spanish Civil War on Republican side.

This experience served him well because in 1941 he was one of the organisers of popular uprising following Axis invasion of Yugoslavia. He was, among other things, political commissar of Partisan detachments in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

In 1943 he was founder and first editor of Oslobođenje newspaper.

After the war he was prime minister of Bosnia-Herzegovina and served in many important government and Party positions.

He described his war activities in five volume 1955 book Zapisi iz oslobodilačkog rata (Recordings of People's Liberation War).

He received title of People's Hero of Yugoslavia.