Kiro Gligorov

Kiro Gligorov (, ; 3 May 1917 – 1 January 2012) was a Macedonian politician who served as the first President of the Republic of Macedonia (now North Macedonia) from 1991 to 1999. He was born and raised in Štip, where he was also educated. He continued his education in Skopje and Belgrade, where he graduated in law. After World War II, he served in various important positions in Yugoslavia. Gligorov later played a pivotal role in Macedonia's peaceful secession from Yugoslavia and its international recognition. In 1995, he survived an assassination attempt, which has remained unresolved. For his role in its independence and political development, he has been regarded as the father of the Macedonian state. Early life Kiro Gligorov was born in Štip on 3 May 1917, then in the Bulgarian occupation zone of Serbia during World War I, where he received his initial education. Gligorov completed his secondary education in Skopje and later graduated from the University of Belgrade's Law School. Before World War II, he participated in the Macedonian communist student movement. When he was twenty, he was arrested by the Royal Yugoslav authorities for his political opposition to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, but was released afterwards. After the defeat of Yugoslavia in 1941, he returned to Skopje (then annexed by Bulgaria), where Gligorov worked as a lawyer until 1943. In 1942, Gligorov was arrested by the Bulgarian police on the accusation that he was a pro-Serbian communist. He was released on the orders of Skopje Mayor Spiro Kitinchev, who guaranteed that he was a trustworthy Bulgarian. During World War II in Yugoslav Macedonia, he joined the partisans and participated in the resistance. Afterwards he became a member of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (LCY), Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ) and Antifascist Assembly of the National Liberation of Macedonia (ASNOM). In ASNOM, he served as a secretary of the Initiative committee for its organisation and a finance commissioner in its Presidium. Along with some other communist activists, he saw the solution of the Macedonian Question through a "federation of the Balkan peoples". On 2 August 1944, he took part in the first session of ASNOM as a delegate. Politics After World War II, he moved to Belgrade.