Milka Bajić-Poderegin

Milka Bajić Poderegin (August 28, 1904 – March 8, 1971) was the first female novelist from Montenegro. Her novel The Dawning was published posthumously in 1987.

Milka Bajić was born on August 28, 1904 in Pljevlja into a wealthy merchant family. She was educated at the Pljevlja Gymnasium and graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade in 1928.

She worked as a teacher of literature in Pljevlja, where she met her husband, a fellow teacher and Russian immigrant, Ignatij Poderegin. The Podergrins had two children, Jelena and Nadežda. Nadežda became a film actress under the name Nadja Regin. The Poderegin worked as teachers in Prokuplje and Kraljevo. Ignatij Poderegin and his students were among the thousands killed by the German army in the Kraljevo massacre of October 1941. Milka Bajić Poderegin moved to Požarevac and worked with the Yugoslav Partisans. Following World War II, Poderegin taught literature in Belgrade until her 1955 retirement, then she moved to London. Svitanje was the first in a planned trilogy that would take events in the story up to World War II.