Ljubo Čupić

Čedomir "Ljubo" Čupić (1913–1942) was a Yugoslav law student, political commissioner of Communist resistance movement in Nikšić, Montenegro and a decorated war hero of SFR Yugoslavia. He became famous for the photo of his taken moments before he was shot by Chetnik collaborators who captured him, showing him with shackles on his hands and smiling. He is a recipient of the Order of the People's Hero, a Yugoslav gallantry medal. He is commonly referred to by media as "Montenegrin Che Guevara".

Biography

He was born in 1913 in the United States, being one of the ten children in an immigrant Montenegrin working-class family of father Sava and mother Stana (née Burić), from the village of Zagreda.

During the 1930s, he moved to Nikšić, where he finished high school. He studied law at the University of Belgrade, and was a member of a progressive student movement, and joined the League of Communists of Yugoslavia in 1940.

After the invasion of Yugoslavia he returned to Nikšić and participated in the preparation of the uprising. In July 1941, he fled from the Nazi-occupied city, and joined the partisan division "Đuro Đaković", formed by communists and SKOJ members who also escaped from Nikšić.

As a commissioner of the Partisan movement in Nikšić, he was captured by Chetniks in April 1942, after a battle on Kablena Glavica near Nikšić. He was tortured in prison and was subject to a public trial by the ad hoc court composed by the Chetniks. He was sentenced to death and executed by shooting squad following the illegal and biased trial. Before the public execution, he cheered his friends and the people who were forced to witness the event. Among his last word was the parole "Long live the glorious Communist Party."

Legacy

He was posthumously declared a people's hero by the decree of the Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito on 10 July 1953.

In memory of Ljubo Čupić, a street in Zagorič, a neighbourhood of Podgorica, has been named after him.