Raika Bakovic ( Serbohor. Rajka Baković / Raјka Bakovi ; September 23, 1920 , Oruro , Bolivia - December 29, 1941 , Zagreb , Independent State of Croatia ) - student, participant in the People's Liberation War of Yugoslavia. People's hero of Yugoslavia (posthumous).
| Raika Bakovich | ||
|---|---|---|
| serbohorv. Rajka Baković / Raјka Bakoviћ | ||
 Busts of sisters Bakovich: Zdenki and Raiki | ||
| Date of Birth | September 23, 1920 | |
| Place of Birth | Oruro , Bolivia | |
| Date of death | December 29, 1941 (21 years old) | |
| Place of death | Zagreb , Independent State of Croatia | |
| Affiliation |  Yugoslavia | |
| Type of army | guerrilla troops | |
| Years of service | 1941-1943 | |
| Battles / wars | The people's liberation struggle of Yugoslavia | |
| Awards and prizes |
| |
Biography
Born September 23, 1920 in the Bolivian city of Oruro, in the family of Frané Barkovic. She studied at the Zagreb gymnasium, joined a youth organization of revolutionary students. In 1938 she joined the Union of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia. After graduating from school, she entered the University of Zagreb at the Faculty of Philosophy, where she conducted student events.
Actively participated in the parliamentary elections in 1939 with the support of the older sister Zdenka, brothers Jerko and Mladen, as well as her mother. Helped the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, as well as student and women's communist organizations. Thanks to her activities, she became famous throughout Zagreb, and her house became the venue for numerous seminars and conventions of party members. Funding was provided by the tobacco factory, in which brother Raiki Yerko, a member of the Union of Communists of Yugoslavia, worked.
Raika was one of the best students in Zagreb, but her activities were monitored by the police. After the protests on March 27, 1941, she was expelled from the university, and she left for Brac , where she nevertheless got in touch with the Communist Party. In the spring of 1941 she returned to Zagreb, where she officially joined the party with her sister Zdenka.
Despite the invasion of German troops and the occupation of Yugoslavia, the party’s activities did not stop there. In Raiki’s house, there was a secret warehouse of party material and banned literature, which also kept copy machines, address books, and other equipment for distributing campaign materials. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of Croatia was hiding in the building of the tobacco factory. Raika carried a courier service, sending materials to Belgrade, and participated in the actions of youth groups (including the arson of the stadium in Zagreb).
On the night of December 20, 1941 , policemen broke into the Bakovichi’s apartment, who searched and arrested Zdenka, Raiku and Mladen. The sisters were tortured all night, and the next day the police tried to test them, where the party district committee in Zagreb was located. However, the sisters refused to speak, and an independent search of the tobacco factory led to nothing. Raika managed to hand over a letter to the party members, in which she wrote “Terribly torture us, I can’t take it anymore” ( Serb .
On December 24, 1941, Raiku was sent to a hospital on Vinogradskaya Street. In the morning, Zdenka found out about the disappearance of her sister and, in desperation, threw herself from the 4th floor of the prison on Zvonimirova Street, having crashed to death. December 29, 1941 died and Raika. Posthumously she was awarded the title of People's Hero of Yugoslavia (decree of Josip Broz Tito of July 24, 1953 ).
Literature
- Folk Heroes of Ugoslavia . Mladost, Belgrade, 1975.