Moša Pijade

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Pijade's bust

Moša Pijade (Serbian Cyrillic: Мoшa Пиjaдe) (born Belgrade, January 4, 1890, died Paris, March 15, 1957) was a prominent Yugoslavian/Serbian Communist of Jewish origin, and a close collaborator of Josip Broz Tito, former President of Yugoslavia.

Pijade held high political posts during and after World War II and was a member of the Central Committee and the Politburo of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. He was a member of the leadership of Tito's partisans and was subsequently proclaimed People's Hero of Yugoslavia. After having led the law commission of the Parliament, was in 1953-1954 Vice-President and in 1954-1955 President of the Yugoslavian Parliament (Skupština). In 1955 he suddenly left the political life and went to Paris where he died in 1957.

Tito and Pijade, World War II

In his youth Pijade was a painter, art critic and publicist. Also was known as translator of Das Kapital by Karl Marx into Serbo-Croatian. He is thought to have had a major influence on the Marxist ideology as exposed during the old regime in Yugoslavia. In 1925 was sentenced to 20 years in prison because of his 'revolutionary activities' after the World War I. He was discharged after 14 years in 1939 and imprisoned again in 1941 in the camp Bileć. He was known as the creator of so-called 'Foča regulations' (1942), which prescribed the foundation and activity of people's liberation committees in the liberated territories during the anti-nazi war. In November 1943, before the second AVNOJ meeting in Jajce, he initiated the foundation of Tanjug, which would later become the state news agency of SFR Yugoslavia, nowadays of Serbia. A street in Skopje is named after him.