Kiro Gligorov

Kiro Gligorov (Киро Глигоров, ; 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 positions in Yugoslavia.

Gligorov later played a pivotal role in Macedonia's peaceful secession from Yugoslavia and its international recognition.

Kiro Gligorov was born in Štip on 3 May 1917, in the Bulgarian occupation zone of Serbia (now North Macedonia) during World War I, where he received his initial education.

According to the news source Novinite, his father was a craftsman, and his mother was a housewife.

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 by Axis forces in 1941, Gligorov returned to Skopje (then annexed by Bulgaria), where he worked as a lawyer until 1943.

In 1942, Gligorov was arrested by 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 citizen, of ethnic Bulgarian origin.

During World War II in Yugoslav Macedonia, he joined the partisans and participated in the resistance.

In 1943, he became a member of the (ANOK), a group of the Communist Party of Macedonia which advocated for an United Macedonia.

Along with other communist activists and activists of the group, he saw the Macedonian Question as a pan-Balkan issue and its solution in the creation of a Balkan Federation.

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.

On 2 August 1944, he took part in the first session of ASNOM as a delegate.

After World War II, he moved to Belgrade.

Between 1945 and 1947, he held the office of Assistant Secretary General of the Presidency of the Government of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia.

He then served as Assistant Minister of Finance from 1947 to 1952.

After this year, he held several positions: Assistant Chairman of the Economic Council of the Government of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia from 1952 to 1953, Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Economic Planning from 1953 to 1955, and Secretary of Economy - Coordinator in the Federal Government in 1956.

As a finance minister, he advanced early Yugoslav economic reform.

Gligorov attempted to bring the consumption of wage goods back into line, devalued the Yugoslav dinar in order to stimulate export production, while simultaneously cutting public expenditures and loosening state control over financial accountability in order to release available resources for manufacturers.

The consequence of this policy was the rise in corrupt misuse of such loosened financial accountability and the abuse of funds by firms as newly available working capital was released to various industries.

He and fellow Yugoslav politician Boris Kidrič established Ekonomska politika (Economic policy) in 1952, a Belgrade weekly newspaper, with the aim of promoting socialist market economy as an alternative to Soviet-style centrally planned economy.

The newspaper became very influential, particularly among large Yugoslav firms, who were among its subscribers and supporters.

In the 1960s, he had the reputation of being a liberal economist and politician who wanted to implement market-oriented reforms.

Along with another Macedonian politician Krste Crvenkovski, he spoke out in favour of decentralisation.

He thought that republican control over federal policy making was necessary.

Gligorov was the Finance Minister of Yugoslavia from 1962 to 1967.

In 1965, he was the co-creator of a marketisation program which was never implemented.

In this period, he was a close collaborator of Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito.

He and his son Vladimir Gligorov in the 1970s published articles in the newspaper Ekonomska politika along with other reform-oriented economists, journalists, managers, and politicians such as Dragiša Bošković,, Ante Marković, Jože Mencinger, Stjepan Mesić, Milutin Mitrović, Marko Nikezić, Latinka Perović, Žarko Puhovski, Dragan Veselinov, and Veselin Vukotić, most of whom influenced Yugoslav economic and political thinking.

Gligorov held various other high-ranking positions in the political establishment of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, including as a member of both the Yugoslav state presidency and the party presidency (for the 9th and 10th electoral terms), as well as President of the Assembly of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 15 May 1974 to 15 May 1978.

In the 1980s, Gligorov was a critic of the subjective causes of the Yugoslav economic difficulties.

He opined that the difficulties stemmed from "suppressing market laws and operating in a subjectivist way in which social and economic goals and plans were formulated not on the basis of our realistic possibilities, but rather on what our Socialist society would like to achieve."

In 1995, he survived an assassination attempt, of which the perpetrators have not been found.

For his role in its independence and political development, he has been regarded as the father of the Macedonian state.