Mihailo Apostolski


Mihajlo Apostolski was a Yugoslav general, military theoretician, politician and historian. He was commander of the Headquarters of the National Liberation Army and Partisan detachments of Macedonia, colonel general of the Yugoslav National Army, and was declared a People's Hero of Yugoslavia.

Biography

Early life

Apostolski was born on November 8, 1906 at Štip, Kosovo Vilayet, in the Ottoman Empire. He attended primary and secondary school in Štip. In 1927 graduated from the Military Academy in Belgrade, capital of Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In 1933 he graduated from the High Military Academy, and in 1938 graduated Commanding Academy as a major.

During World War II

During the invasion of Yugoslavia by Germany, Hungary, Italy and Romania, in April 1941, as a commander of the alpine units of the Royal Yugoslav Army, he ordered demolition of bridges in order to slow the progress of the German troops. After the capitulation of Yugoslavia, Bulgarian troops entered Vardar Banovina and seized most of it. Meanwhile Apostolski was captured by the Italian army and was taken to the camp Vestone. Shortly after, his father, a Bulgarian army veteran, made a request to the Bulgarian Minister of War, insisting on the Bulgarian roots of his family, and it was granted soon after. Apostolski, as well as 12,000 other Macedonian POWs, were released with Bulgarian intervention by the German, Italian and Hungarian authorities.
After his liberation from the prison, Apostolski filed an application for appointment in the Bulgarian army. Because of his past, him was offered a captain's rank as a Bulgarian officer in Labour battalion, but he considered this unsatisfactory. Meanwhile Apostolski entered the Sofia University, where he conducted underground work. In April 1942 he became a member of the CPY, and in June of the same year he was appointed commander of the Headquarters of the Yugoslav partisan units of Macedonia. In May 1943 he was appointed Major General. During the Second Session of AVNOJ he was appointed to the Presidency of AVNOJ. In addition to the Macedonian brigades operating under his command, in February 1944, he commanded the brigades from Kosovo and Southern Serbia. He became a member of the Initiative Board for organization of ASNOM. He participated in the First Session of the ASNOM and was elected to its Presidency.

After World War II

After the Second World War Apostolski became one of the military leaders of new SFRY. After the end of his active military service he began intensively to deal with history of the Macedonian nation. From 1965 to 1970 was head of the Institute of National History in Skopje. He was actively involved in formation of the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, of which he was member since its creation. He was president of Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts for the period 1976-1983.
He was also member of:
He died on August 7, 1987 in Dojran, SFR Yugoslavia.

Legacy

In 1995, the Military Academy in Republic of Macedonia was named "General Mihailo Apostolski".