Kovacs, Stefan (People's Hero of Yugoslavia)

He was born on August 28, 1910 in Nedelitsa in the family of the miller Franz Kovacs and Veronika Kovacs, nee Czech. The mother died shortly after the birth of her son, and her namesake Veronica Duh became his adoptive mother. Stefan studied at the gymnasium in Mursk-Sobot, graduating in 1930. In 1934 he graduated from the University of Ljubljana , Faculty of Law. At university, he was a member of the Triglav academic circle, after graduation he worked in the law office of Alexander Valya.

In Mursk-Sobot, Stefan was a member of the Society of Peasant Boys and Girls. From 1935 to 1936 he served in the Royal Army, rising to the rank of junior lieutenant. In the summer of 1936 he began campaigning for opposition parties, and after one of the campaigns in Veshchitsa at a competition of young peasants he was fined. In September 1937, Kovacs moved to Maribor to Vekoslav Kukovats, where he began to work in his law office. In the Workers 'and Peasants' Union, Kovacs was one of the co-authors of the newspaper Neodvisnost ( Slovenian. Neodvisnost - Independence ), soon becoming its chief editor. On October 11, 1937, he published an article in a newspaper calling for unification against fascism. In 1938, the journal Obzorja ( Slovenian Obzorja - Horizon ) published the results of a study of economic and social living conditions in Prekmurje, based on the works of Kovacs.

In the same year, Stefan was elected chairman of the Commonwealth of Independent Theaters and was admitted to the Communist Party . In 1939 he was appointed secretary of the Communist Party of Prekmurje. In the same year he married Mime Zhupanchich, a teacher from Radmozhantsev. From February to June 1940, along with other pre-Kurm activists, he was interned in Bileche. After the April war and the Hungarian occupation, Kovacs went into the partisan underground: the party leadership of Prekmurje, distributing leaflets, purchasing weapons, building shelters, actually appointed Kovacs as the leader of the movement. In June-July 1941, he began to participate in operations: dressing as a peasant, Stefan with a supply of grenades went on a trip around Prekmurje, involving more people in the Resistance movement.

On July 6, 1941, the Hungarians began a raid on members of the Communist Party of Slovenia. On August 30, 1941, Kovacs convened a meeting of workers and activists in Kamenshchits (near Trnya), in which about 30 people participated. The first People’s Liberation Committee (the communist government) was formed there, in which the rights and obligations of the committee members were clearly formulated. Thanks to this, the partisan struggle in Prekmurje was facilitated.

On September 27, 1941, the Hungarians arrested 60 people who sympathized with the partisans, but the committee leadership managed to break out of the hands of the Hungarians. On October 18, Evgen Kardosh, a member of a partisan organization , was arrested: during a search, the Hungarians found sheets with lists of committee members and sympathizers, and the date of October 18 was circled in Kardosh’s calendar. Under torture, he was forced to admit that the partisans had scheduled a meeting near Ganchan near Krizhanchevoy oak, and to prove that there was no ambush.

Kardosh became the bait of the Hungarian police for the partisans: on October 18, 1941 at the appointed time, he led Stefan Kovacs and Vinko Meglu to the oak and gave a signal to the police. Kovacs was shot dead on the spot, and Megla was wounded, but escaped. All the other party members who realized that there was an ambush were also able to escape. Evgen Kardosh and Stefan Tsvetko as a sign of “gratitude” were hanged by Hungarians on Murska-Sobota Square on October 31 .

On December 20, 1951, Stefan Kovac was posthumously awarded the title of People's Hero of Yugoslavia. In his honor, a monument was erected in the community of Murska Sobota in Turnisce. In honor of Kovacs, Prekmurje received the names of a choir, a car factory, a sports society and a musical collective. In Mursk-Sobot , one of the main city streets was named after him. For some time he was named after the school in Beltintsy, and his house in Nedelitsa is now an ethnographic museum.

• Kardosh, Ali
• Shumenyak, Dane
• Kramar, Jozhe
• Well, Philip
• Kuhar, Stefan
• Prekmur guerrilla company

• Enciklopedija Slovenije; knjiga 5, Mladinska knjiga, Ljubljana, 1991

• O heroju (Slovenian.)
• Štefan Kovač-Marko (Slovenian)
• Borba proti okupatorju in osvoboditev (Slovenian)
• Official site of the house-museum (Slovensk.)