Moša Pijade

Moša Pijade (, alternate English transliteration Moshe Piade; (According to most sources, Pijada was born on 4 January 1890 (Gregorian calendar).) Pijade himself wrote that his 14th birthday was on 22 December 1903. Pijade was born in Belgrade, Kingdom of Serbia, on 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.

After returning to Belgrade in 1910, 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. 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.

Ban of the CPY 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. He also translated The Communist Manifesto, The Poverty of Philosophy, and the introduction to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. 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. During this period, many "enemies of the people" were killed by the Partisans. 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.

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.

Later career 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. 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.

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. Pijade stayed with his wife at the residence of Yugoslav ambassador Aleš Bebler. In the afternoon, Pijade and his wife took a walk at the Parc Monceau. During the walk, he felt ill, so they returned to the residence. There, he tried to relax, but his condition worsened, so a doctor was called, but he could not help. Pijade died at 6:15 PM. The cause of death was reported as coronary thrombosis.

His body was transferred to Belgrade on 16 March and lay in state in the House of the Federal Assembly. On March 18, he was buried at the Tomb of People's Heroes inside the Belgrade Fortress. According to the official count, the state funeral was attended by 300,000 people. Tito, Lidija Šentjurc (vice-president of the Federal People's Assembly), Miloš Minić and Siniša Stanković gave eulogies. Following Pijade's death, Federal Executive Council declared five days of national mourning (March 15–19). , eight of those schools are still named "Moša Pijade". There are around 40 streets in Serbia named after Pijade as of 2024. One street in Maribor is named "Moše Pijade".

Moša Pijade monument is located in front of the Politika a.d. building in downtown Belgrade. It was unveiled in 1969 and declared a cultural monument in 1987. A monument in Zagreb, authored by Antun Augustinčić, was unveiled in 1961, placed near an adult education college at the time named after Pijade, but the institution was since renamed and the monument moved in 1993 from that location in Trnje to an unrelated location in Maksimir, near the nursing home named after Lavoslav Schwarz. Another Moša Pijade monument is located in front of the AVNOJ Museum in Jajce. There is also a bust of Moša Pijade in Podgorica. The monument dedicated to Pijade in Sisak was removed after the breakup of Yugoslavia.

Pijade has been commemorated on Yugoslavian postage stamps twice. First, in 1968, as part of the "People's heroes" issue, and then in 1982 on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of the Foča regulations.

Awards

Egypt:

Ethiopia:

Greece:

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