Tomashevich, Stana

She was born on April 28, 1921 in Bar ( Montenegro ) in the family of an officer (since 1929 the family lived in Kosovo ). She studied at a school in Kosovsk-Mitrovica , Cetinj and Sarajevo . Since August 1940, she worked as a teacher in a village near the town of Plevlya ^[1] .

After the occupation of Yugoslavia, together with her brother Dushan (later killed by the Chetniks ), in July 1941 she joined the ranks of the People's Liberation Army and took an active part in the anti-fascist partisan movement . Member of the Communist Party since July 1941.

At first she fought in the partisan battalion "Jovan Tomashevich", then in the 4th proletarian Montenegrin shock brigade . She became one of the first female military political commissars . She served as a member of the Bureau of the CPY Committee of Cetinje , member of the District Committee of the CPY of the Bay of Kotor , a member of the political department of the partisan brigade, secretary of the Communist Youth Committee of Montenegro and a member of the Montenegrin Bureau of the Communist Party.

During the war she was twice wounded, rose to the rank of colonel. Her battalion played an important role in protecting the Bosnian city of Drvar in May 1944, when German forces tried to seize partisan leadership led by Josip Broz Tito during a special operation ^[2] .

She was a delegate to the Anti-Fascist Civic Liberation of Yugoslavia in November 1942, opened the 2nd Congress of the Joint Union of Anti-Fascist Youth of Yugoslavia in 1944 in Drvar , the center of the liberated territory of the country. After meeting there with Randolph Churchill , son of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and a series of photographs taken by British military photographer John Talbot, quickly became one of the symbols of Yugoslav guerrilla antifascism. Her photographs appeared in the world, in particular, in the Soviet press. The photograph with her image was on a leaflet urging the youth of Europe to follow the example of the youth of Yugoslavia, which was scattered over the occupied territories by allied aviation. This image also inspired the Norwegian artist Arne Taraldsen to make a propaganda anti-fascist leaflet for the Norwegian resistance movement .

The end of the war met in Belgrade. During treatment, she experienced a serious complication after a blood transfusion, which caused a serious illness that later caused liver cancer. After recovery, she was a member of the bureau of the Central Committee of the League of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia, and then of the National Youth of Yugoslavia.

In 1954 she graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Belgrade .

From 1949 to 1958 she was the head of the education sector in the agitation and propaganda department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, and from 1958 to 1963, Assistant Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine for Labor and Labor Relations, Mom Markovich .

In 1963, she switched to diplomatic work, becoming the first female ambassador in the history of Yugoslavia. In 1963-1967 she was ambassador to Norway and Iceland (concurrently).

In 1967, she was elected a deputy of the Federal Assembly and was chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the People’s Council (one of the chambers) of the Union Assembly . In 1973, she became one of the main figures in the campaign to nominate Josip Broz Tito for the Nobel Peace Prize ^[3] .

From 1974 to 1978 she was ambassador to Denmark . After returning to Yugoslavia, she became president of the Union Council of the Federal Assembly of the SFRY (1979-1982). She was elected a member of the Central Committee of the Security Council of Montenegro, and was also the chairman of the Commission for the Preservation of Revolutionary Traditions of the Federal Council of the Socialist Union of the Working People of Yugoslavia .

She was married to the Norwegian director E. Arnesen (met him when he was ambassador to Norway), who died in 1969 .

She died of cancer in the summer of 1983 and was buried in the Alley of Heroes of the New Cemetery in Belgrade .

She was awarded orders and medals of Yugoslavia, Norway, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. One of the streets in Podgorica is named after her.

• Bursach, Maria - a nurse, the first woman - People's hero of Yugoslavia.
• Kozarchanka

• The heroines of Yugoslavia. The Spectar, Zagreb, 1980.
• Stana Tomašević Arnesen - prva žena komesar i prva ambasadorka u Crnoj Gori (Serbian)
• Stana Tomašević, Heroina NOB-a: Ẑivotna prića prve ẑene koja je postala ambasador SFRJ (1963) (Serbian)
• Znate li ko je bila Stana Tomašević? (Serb.)