Mihajlo Apostolski

Mihajlo Apostolski

Mihajlo Apostolski
Native name Михајло Апостолски
Born November 8, 1906
Štip, Kosovo Vilayet, Ottoman Empire (present-day Republic of Macedonia)
Died

August 7, 1987 (aged 80)
Dojran, Yugoslavia (now Republic of Macedonia)

Nationality Macedonian[1]
Alma mater Military Academy in Belgrade, Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Occupation colonel general, politician, historian
Known for

Commander of the Headquarters of the People's Liberation Army and Partisan detachments in Macedonia during World War II.[1]

Title Dr., PhD.
Term President of the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts (1976-1983)
Predecessor Blaže Koneski (1967-1975)
Successor

Jordan Pop Jordanov (1984-1991)

Political party
 Communist Party of Yugoslavia (since April 1942)
Spouse(s) Cveta Apostolska

Mihajlo Apostolski (Macedonian: Михаjло Апостолски) born Mihail Mitev Apostolov[2] (Bulgarian: Михаил Митев Апостолов),[3] (November 8, 1906 Štip, Kosovo Vilayet, Ottoman Empire (present-day Republic of Macedonia) - August 7, 1987 Dojran, SFR Yugoslavia (now Republic of Macedonia)) was a Yugoslav general, military theoretician, politician, historian, Commander of the Headquarters of the People's Liberation Army and Partisan detachments in Macedonia.[1][4]

Biography

He attended primary and secondary school in Štip (now Republic of Macedonia). In 1927 graduated from the Military Academy in Belgrade, Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In 1933 he graduated from the High Military Academy, and in 1938 graduated Commanding Academy (Serbocroatian: Генералштабна академија).

During the invasion of Yugoslavia by Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Romania, in April 1941, as a commander of the alpine units, he ordered demolition of bridges in order to slow the progress of the German troops.[5]

After the capitulation of Yugoslavia he was captured by the Italian army and was taken to the camp Vestone. Shortly after, his father, a Bulgarian army veteran, made a request to the Bulgarian Minister of War and it was granted soon after. Apostolski, as well as 12,000 other Macedonian POWs, were released with Bulgarian intervention by the German, Italian and Hungarian authorities.[6][7][8][9] After his liberation from the prison, Apostolski was offered a captain's rank as a Bulgarian officer, but he considered this unsatisfactory.[10] Thus, in September Apostolski entered the Macedonian National Liberation Army and became a partisan leader in the National Liberation War of Macedonia. In May 1943 he was appointed Major General. During the Second Session of AVNOJ he was appointed to the Presidency of AVNOJ.[1] In addition to the Macedonian brigades operating under his command, in February 1944, he commanded the brigades from Kosovo and Southern Serbia.[1] He became a member of the Initiative Board for organization of ASNOM. He participated in the First Session of the ASNOM and was elected to its Presidency.[1] He successfully fought against the forces of Bulgaria (which, even today, considers itself as the force that liberated Macedonia, while in the Republic of Macedonia it is considered as an occupying force),[11] as well as against Italian fascist and German nazi forces throughout World War II.

After World War II

After the Second World War Apostolski became one of the military leaders of new SFRY.

After the end of his active military service he began intensively to deal with history of the Macedonian nation. From 1965 to 1970 was head of the Institute of National History in Skopje.

He was actively involved in formation of the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, of which he was member since its creation. He was president of Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts for the period 1976-1983.[1]

He was also member of:

Legacy

In 1995 the Military Academy in Republic of Macedonia was named "General Mihajlo Apostolski".

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Blaze Risteski (editor), Macedonian Encyclopedia (vol. I), MANU, 2009, Skopje.
  2. ↑ ...He was born in Ottoman Empire in Bulgarian Exarhists family as Mihail Mitev Apostolov...: The Liberation struggles after the First World War, 1919-1944, Dobrin Michev, Macedonian Scientific Institute, Historical Institute (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences), 2003, ISBN 9548187612, p. 430.
  3. ↑ Bulgarian Archives State Agency, Personalities; № 8: Mihail Mitev Apostolov.
  4. ↑ Narodni heroji Jugoslavije, Mladost, Beograd 1975.
  5. ↑ Kiro Gligorov, Macedonia is Everything we Have, Izdavacki centar TRI, 2001, Skopje Macedonian: Киро Глигоров, Македонија е сè што имаме, Издавачки центар ТРИ, 2001, Скопје
  6. ↑ Letter No.11660 From the Ministry of Ware to the Bulgarian Central Campaign Committee of Macedonia Sofia, May 28, 1941 CSA, fund 396, list 1, file 37, page 4. Original, typed.
  7. ↑ Resolution from General Mitev was: Rome, to be set free, signed on 02.07.1941. CMA, f. 20, op. IV, a.e. 25.
  8. ↑ Dimitre Minchev (Military Publishing House, Sofia, 2002) Bulgarian Camagne Committees in Macedonia - 1941, Shtip, July 23, 1941, Document № 41.
  9. ↑ Bulgarian Central Military Archives (CMA), fund 20, list 4, file 25.
  10. ↑ Contested Ethnic Identity: The Case of Macedonian Immigrants in Toronto, 1900-1996, Chris Kostov, Peter Lang, 2010, ISBN 3-0343-0196-0, p. 13.
  11. ↑ Rastislav Terziovski, Mihajlo Apostolski. Views on the Yugoslav-Bulgarian relations in the Second World War "Nasa Kniga", Skopje, 1982nd

External links