Strašo Pindžur


Strahil Pindzhurov, better known by his partisan name Strašo Pindžur was a Macedonian partisan, active during World War II in Yugoslav Macedonia, who was later proclaimed a national hero of Communist Yugoslavia.

Biography

Pindžurov was born in the town of Strumica, then part of Bulgaria. His father Dimitar was an IMRO activist and Bulgarian teacher there. His godfather became Hristo Chernopeev, a friend of his father. Both were killed as servicemen of the Bulgarian Army during the First World War. After the war, Strumica was ceded to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Pindžur's mother re-married and Strašo moved back to his fater's native village of Vatasa, where he was raised by his grandmother. As a war orphan later, he was a state pupil in Kragujevac, where in secondary school he came in contact with the Yugoslav communist movement.
Strašo Pindžur studied at the University of Belgrade's Law School, and was a secretary of the illegal student association "Vardar". He was a close collaborator, and a friend of the Yugoslav communist Ivo Lola Ribar and participated in a number of demonstrations of the party. He tried to be a volunteer in the Spanish civil war, but did not succeed. Because of his revolutionary activism Pindžurov was arrested by the Yugoslav authorities. After the annexation of Vardar Macedonia by Bulgaria during the Second world war, he clashed with the pro-Bulgarian secretary of the Regional Committee of Communists in Macedonia — Metodi Shatorov Sharlo. With the help of the Comintern the Macedonian Communists were re-attached to the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. As a CPY-loyalist he was appointed as member of the new Regional Committee and a member of the Main headquarters of the partisan detachments in December 1942. However the same month he fell into the hands of the Bulgarian police. During the interrogation, Strašo Pindžur kept silent. He died of torture in a prison in Skopje on January 4, 1943.