Surrealist poet turned Partisan commander, Yugoslav chief of staff and foreign minister after the Tito–Stalin split
Born to a wealthy Belgrade family, he studied law and philosophy in Paris and was a poet who signed the Serbian Surrealist manifesto of 1930. He joined the illegal Communist Party of Yugoslavia in 1933 and fought as an artillery officer in the Spanish Republican army in 1937–1939. In the Second World War he commanded the First Proletarian Brigade and Division and devised the breakout at the Sutjeska. After the Cominform resolution of 1948 he became Chief of the General Staff, negotiating army modernisation with the West during the conflict with the Soviet Union, and as foreign minister in 1953–1965 he led Yugoslavia's non-aligned diplomacy. Vice-President in 1966–1967, he withdrew in 1972 amid the purge of the Serbian "liberals".
Also known as: Konstantin Popović
Activities and affiliations
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1930–1932
Literature and arts
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1933–1972
Communist Party / League of Communists of Yugoslavia (KPJ/SKJ)
Political and party leadership -
1937–1939
Spanish Republic state institutions
Military command -
1941–1945
Military command
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1948–1953
Yugoslavia state institutionsChief of the General Staff of the Yugoslav People's Army
Military command -
1953–1965
Yugoslavia state institutionsMinister of Foreign Affairs
Diplomacy and international organization -
1966–1967
Yugoslavia state institutionsVice President
Government and administration
Career Timeline
- 1908.03.14Born to a prosperous Belgrade family.
- 1929Went to Paris to study law and philosophy; joined the Surrealists.
- 1930Signed the Serbian Surrealist manifesto.
- 1933Joined the illegal Communist Party of Yugoslavia.
- 1937.07–1939.02Artillery officer in the Spanish Republican army.
- 1941Organised the Kosmaj detachment; commander of the First Proletarian Brigade.
- 1943Devised the breakout through the weakest point of the Axis lines at the Sutjeska.
- 1945.01Commander of the Second Army.
- 1948–1953.01.27Chief of the General Staff of the Yugoslav People's Army.
- 1953–1965Minister of Foreign Affairs.
- 1966–1967Vice President of Yugoslavia.
- 1972Retired amid the purge of the Serbian liberals.
- 1992.10.20Died in Belgrade.
The Soviet military advisers in 1948 and the chief of staff after the split
The letter of the Soviet Central Committee of 27 March 1948, signed by Stalin and Molotov, blamed Yugoslavia for the withdrawal of Soviet military experts. According to the letter the Soviet government had never meant to impose its advisers, yet Yugoslav military leaders, Popović among them, had then said that the number of Soviet military advisers should be cut by 60 per cent. The letter spelled his name "Koče Popović"; the editor's note calls this a slip in the original, gives the correct "Koča Popović" and describes him as chief of the Yugoslav General Staff at the time. Serbo-Croatian biographical records, however, date his appointment as chief of staff to 1948, after the Cominform resolution of June and the death of his predecessor Arso Jovanović.
After the split he remained chief of staff until January 1953, negotiating the modernisation of the Yugoslav People's Army with the Western powers amid the conflict with the Soviet Union. He went to Washington and the Pentagon and played an important part in obtaining American arms, and through the Balkan Pact with Greece and Turkey tied Yugoslavia indirectly to NATO as insurance against Soviet intervention. As foreign minister from 1953 to 1965 he led the Yugoslav delegation to the UN General Assembly, the years in which Yugoslavia built its policy of active peaceful coexistence and non-alignment.
A party member who nonetheless supported market reforms, he became Vice-President in 1966 after Ranković's fall at the Brioni plenum and came to symbolise the general liberalisation of public life. Seeing that the post was a formality, he stepped down the next year, and in 1972 he left politics amid the purge of the Serbian "liberals".