Trajko Boškoski

Trajko Boškoski
Трајко Бошкоски
Born	12 July 1918 Golem Radobil, Bulgarian occupation zone of Serbia
Died	4 January 1942 (1942-01-05) (aged 23) Slivnik, Veles, Bulgarian occupation zone of Yugoslavia

Trajko Boškoski (Macedonian: Трајко Бошкоски; 1918–1942), known by the nickname Tarcan, was a Yugoslav communist and partisan fighter.^[1] He was among the earliest leaders of the anti-fascist resistance in Yugoslav Macedonia during World War II and held various positions within the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and the partisan resistance movement.

Trajko Boškoski was born on 12 June 1918 in the village of Golem Radobil near Prilep, then part of the Kingdom of Bulgaria (modern-day North Macedonia).^[2] Orphaned at a young age, he was adopted by the Boškoski family from Prilep. He completed his first year of gymnasium in Prilep, after which he began working as a carpenter in 1932.^[3]

In 1935, Boškoski joined the League of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia and became active in the workers' cultural association Abrašević, where he led the recitation section.^[4] On 1 May 1936, he raised a red flag on Markovi Kuli in honor of International Workers' Day.^[5] In the summer of 1937, he moved to Belgrade, where he became involved in the workers' movement and joined the Communist Party of Yugoslavia on 26 November 1938.^[6] He returned to Prilep in 1940 and became the SKOJ secretary of the local KPJ committee.^[7] During the Ilinden demonstrations in August 1940, Boškoski delivered speeches in Skopje, Prilep, and Ohrid. He was arrested and later sentenced to six months in prison, which he served until spring 1941.^[8]

Following the Axis invasion and occupation of Yugoslav Macedonia in April 1941, Boškoski emerged as a key leader in the early resistance.^[9] On 12 September 1941, Boškoski and six other communists formed the first partisan detachment in the Selečka Mountain area and he was appointed as a political commissar of this unit.^[10] Shortly afterward, he became commissar of the First Prilep Partisan Detachment "Goce Delčev".^[11] On 8 October 1941, Boškoski fought his way out of an encircled house in Prilep, killing a Bulgarian policeman in the process.^[12] He was one of the organizers of the attack on the police station in Prilep on 11 October 1941,^[13] considered the beginning of the Macedonian uprising by the Macedonian historiography^[14][15] Later, he was sent to work in Skopje and the Tetovo–Debar region to help establish and organise new partisan detachments. In December 1941, he became a member and instructor of the KPJ Provincial Committee for Macedonia. Throughout his resistance activities, Boškoski was sentenced to death five times by Bulgarian military courts in absentia.^[16]

In late December 1942, Boškoski was gravely wounded during a Bulgarian military operation. He was taken to a hut near the village of Slivnik, close to Veles. On 6 January 1943, the hut was surrounded by Bulgarian forces. After resisting until he ran out of ammunition, Boškoski took his own life with his last bullet to avoid capture.^[17] He died at the age of 24, and is remembered as a martyr of the National Liberation Struggle.^[18]