| Koča Popović | |
| Native Name: | Коча Поповић |
| Order: | 2nd |
| Office: | Vice President of Yugoslavia |
| Term Start: | 14 July 1966 |
| Term End: | 30 June 1967 |
| President: | Josip Broz Tito |
| Predecessor: | Aleksandar Ranković |
| Successor: | Office dissolved |
| Office1: | Minister of Foreign Affairs |
| Term Start1: | 15 January 1953 |
| Term End1: | 23 April 1965 |
| Primeminister1: | Josip Broz Tito Petar Stambolić |
| Predecessor1: | Edvard Kardelj |
| Successor1: | Marko Nikezić |
| Birth Name: | Konstantin Popović |
| Birth Date: | 14 March 1908 |
| Birth Place: | Belgrade, Kingdom of Serbia |
| Death Place: | Belgrade, Serbia, FR Yugoslavia |
| Party: | League of Communists of Yugoslavia |
| Partner: | Leposava Lepa Perović (1946–1992; his death) |
| Profession: | Writer Soldier |
| Alma Mater: | University of Paris |
| Allegiance: | |
| Branch: | Royal Yugoslav Army International Brigades Yugoslav Partisans Yugoslav People's Army Yugoslav Ground Forces |
| Serviceyears: | 1926–1927 1937–1939 1941–1953 |
| Rank: | Colonel General |
| Commands: | First Proletarian Brigade 1st Division 1st Corps 2nd Army Chief of the General Staff |
| Battles: | Spanish Civil War, World War II |
| Awards: | 31 international and 15 Yugoslav decorations, including Order of Freedom Legion of Honour Order of George I Order of Merit of Italy Order of St. Olav |
Konstantin "Koča" Popović (Serbian: Константин "Коча" Поповић; 14 March 1908 – 20 October 1992) was a Serbian and 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 Josip Broz Tito, his headquarters and the rest of the resistance movement. After the war, he served as the Chief of the General Staff of the Yugoslav People's Army, before moving to the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs and spent the final years of his political career as Vice President of Yugoslavia.
Despite being a member of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, Popović was a supporter of free-market reforms[1] and was also a member of a group of Serbian liberals, a prominent political movement in the 1970s, which also included Marko Nikezić and Latinka Perović. 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 Tuđman and Slobodan Milošević.
In his youth, Popović was one of the founding members of the Serbian Surrealist movement. He co-wrote a book with Marko Ristić. Also, Popović was among the founders of the Yugoslav Sports Association Partizan and FK Partizan, the football section of the Yugoslav Sports Association Partizan.
Popović came from a prosperous Belgrade family and spent the First World War in Switzerland.[2] [1] He was also one of the thirteen signatories of the Serbian Surrealist manifesto in 1930.
In 1929, Popović moved to Paris to study Law and Philosophy. Here he mixed with the Left Bank world of poets, writers, artists and intellectuals.[3] He became an active Surrealist, active in both the French and Serbian Surrealist groups.[2] In 1931 Nacrt za jednu fenomenologiju iracionalnog (Outline for a Phenomenology of the Irrational) was published which he had co-written with Marko Ristić.[2]
Popović then became involved with the then illegal Yugoslav Communist Party. In Paris there was a center run by Comintern and headed by Josip Broz Tito, which was used to feed volunteers from the Balkans to the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War. Popović was drafted through this center along with a select group of Party members. Popović fought with Spanish Republican forces and not the International Brigades, holding the rank of artillery captain. At the close of the Spanish Civil War Popović escaped through France and made his way back to Yugoslavia.[3]
In 1940, as a reserve officer in the Royal Yugoslav Army, Popović was mobilized and told by his Colonel to watch out for subversive activities within the regiment.
After the surrender of the Royal Yugoslav Army to the German Army in April 1941, Popović organized the Kosmaj detachment during the uprising in Serbia. On the formation of the First Proletarian Brigade, Popović became its commander, and subsequently commanded the First Proletarian Division.[3]
During his time leading the Partisans he encountered William Deakin, leader of the British military mission to Tito's headquarters, who wrote of Popović:
Alongside dozens of other WW2 and Spanish Civil War veterans, Popović was among the founding fathers of the Partizan Belgrade football club in October 1945.[4]
After the establishment of a communist regime in Yugoslavia in 1945, he served as the Chief of the Yugoslavian General Staff from 1945 until 1953. In this function he also conducted negotiations with the representatives of Western powers associated with the modernisation of the JNA during the conflict with the Soviet Union (i.e., Informbiro).
Consequently, Popović became the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Yugoslavia in 1953 and held this office until 1965. As Foreign Minister, he was the head of the Yugoslav delegation to the UN General Assembly sessions on several occasions.
From 1965 until 1972, Popović acted as a member of the Federal Executive Council and the Vice President of Yugoslavia from 1966 until 1967. In 1985, he and Peko Dapčević were considered for promotion in rank General of the Army, but they both rejected the proposition.
Popović died in Belgrade in 1992 at the age of 84.