Koča Popović, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Koča Popović

Serbian and Yugoslavian soldier and politician

Date of Birth: 14-Mar-1908

Place of Birth: Belgrade, Belgrade District

Date of Death: 20-Oct-1992

Profession: writer, poet, politician, political commissar, soldier

Zodiac Sign: Pisces

Konstantin "Koca" Popovic (Serbian Cyrillic: ?????????? ???? ???????; 14 March 1908 – 20 October 1992) was a Yugoslav politician and communist volunteer in the Spanish Civil War, 1937–1939 and Divisional Commander of the First Proletarian Division of the Yugoslav Partisans.
He is on occasion referred to as "the man who saved the Yugoslav Partisans", because it was he who anticipated the weakest point in the Axis lines on the Zelengora–Kalinovik axis, and devised the plan for breaking through it during the Battle of Sutjeska, thus saving Tito, his headquarters and the rest of the resistance movement.
After the war, he served as the Chiefs of the General Staff of the Yugoslav People's Army, before moving to the position of Foreign Minister and spent the final years of his political career as the Vice President of Yugoslavia.
Despite being a member of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, he was a supporter of free market reforms and was also a member of a group of Serbian liberals, a prominent political movement in the 1970s, which also included Marko Nikezic and Latinka Perovic.
He retired in 1972, amidst pressure against his group of liberals.
He spent the rest of his life in Dubrovnik and was very outspoken against the Yugoslav Wars and the regimes of Franjo Tudman and Slobodan Miloševic.
Popovic was also among the founders of FK Partizan Belgrade, the football section of the Yugoslav Sports Association Partizan.
He died in 1992 at the age 84.