Yugoslav communist politician and military leader
Ivan Ribar
(23 April 1916 ? 27 November 1943), known as
Ivo Lola
or
Ivo Lolo
, was a
Yugoslav
communist
politician and military leader of
Croatian
descent.
[1]
In the 1930s, he became one of the closest associates of
Josip Broz Tito
, leader of the
Yugoslav Communist Party
.
[1]
In 1936, Ribar became secretary of the Central Committee of
SKOJ
(Young Communist League of Yugoslavia).
[1]
During
World War II in Yugoslavia
, Ribar was among the main leaders of the
Yugoslav Partisans
and was a member of the
Partisan Supreme Headquarters
. During the war, he founded and ran several leftist youth magazines.
[1]
In 1942, Ribar was among the founders of the
Unified League of Anti-Fascist Youth of Yugoslavia
(USAOJ).
[1]
He was killed by a German bomb in 1943 near
Glamo?
while boarding an airplane for
Cairo
, where he was to become the first representative of Communist Yugoslavia to the
Middle East Command
.
[2]
In 1944, Ribar was awarded the title of
People's Hero of Yugoslavia
. Lola was the older of two sons of
Ivan Ribar
, the first
President of Yugoslavia
. His brother was another People's Hero,
Jurica Ribar
.
[3]
Life
[
edit
]
Josip Broz Tito inspects 1st Proletarian Brigade. Next to him are:
Ivan Ribar
,
Ko?a Popovi?
,
Filip Kljaji?
, Ivo Lola Ribar,
Danilo Leki?
and
Mijalko Todorovi?
.
Ribar was born in
Zagreb
and lived most of his life in
Belgrade
, where he graduated from the
University of Belgrade
's
Law School
. During his studies he joined the
Communist Party of Yugoslavia
and since 1936 led the
Young Communist League of Yugoslavia
(SKOJ). During his studies, he often traveled around Europe, visiting communist conferences and informal gatherings in
Brussels
(1935),
Geneva
(1936) and
Paris
(1937).
In 1940, the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
authorities incarcerated him in the
Biha?
Prison for being a member of the Communist Party. When the
Second World War in Yugoslavia
started, he was a member of the Central Committee of the Party and soon joined the Supreme Command of the
Partisans
, where he worked with
Josip Broz Tito
and
Edvard Kardelj
on the resistance plans.
In October 1943, Lola Ribar was named the chief of the first Partisan military mission to the
Middle East Command
. However, just before embarking on an airplane trip in a captured German plane to
Cairo
, he died in the German bombing of the
Glamo?
airfield in south-western
Bosnia
. Two members of the
British Military Mission to Yugoslavia
,
William Deakin
and
Fitzroy Maclean
, wrote about the circumstances of the death of Ribar and two British officers from an attack by a small German aircraft,
[4]
and Maclean said that he was an outstanding younger leader who "seemed destined to play a great part in building the new Yugoslavia".
[5]
Family
[
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]
Ribar's father,
Ivan Ribar
, held important offices in both the pre-war
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
and the post-war
Federative People's Republic of Yugoslavia
. The rest of his family was also involved in Communist resistance movement. His younger brother
Jurica
died in around the same time in October 1943 near
Kola?in
. His mother Tonica was killed in the Syrmian village of
Kupinovo
in July 1944. Additionally, his fiance,
Sloboda Trajkovi?
, was also in the revolutionary movement. She was imprisoned and
gassed to death
in
Banjica concentration camp
together with all of her family, after refusing to write a letter that would get him to give up his location when his letter to her got intercepted.
[6]
Legacy
[
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]
Bust of Ribar at his grave-site,
Tomb of People's Heroes, Belgrade
After the death, Ribar was at first secretly buried in the village of
Gornji Ribnik
near
Klju?
on 30 November 1943. His body was exhumed in 1948 and reburied at the
Tomb of People's Heroes
at the
Belgrade Fortress
.
[6]
He was posthumously proclaimed a
People's Hero of Yugoslavia
on 18 November 1944.
[1]
Ivo Lola Ribar became an iconic figure in post-World War II
Communist Yugoslavia
.
[7]
Many streets, schools and factories were named after him.
[8]
Croatian producer of medical supplies and sanitary products from
Karlovac
is named after him. A brand of scooters was named after him. The
Ivo Lola Ribar Institute
in
Belgrade
is named after him. A street in the west of
Zagreb
used to be named after him until 1991. when it was renamed the
Baron Filipovi?
drive. Several streets in Croatian cities such as
Rijeka
,
Valpovo
,
Novi Banovci
and since 2009
Zagreb
are named after him.
Rock band
Korni Grupa
released a single "Ivo Lola" in 1973 which tells a story about the last letter Lola Ribar sent to his fiance Sloboda Trajkovi?.
[7]
A Gymnasium in
Pristina
after
World War Two
was named after him, now known as
Sami Frasheri High School
.
[9]
Notes
[
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]
References
[
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]
External links
[
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]