Aleksandar Rankovi%C4%87

Aleksandar Rankovi was a Yugoslav communist of Serb origin, considered to be the third most powerful man in Yugoslavia after Josip Broz Tito and Edvard Kardelj. Rankovi was a proponent of a centralized Yugoslavia and opposed efforts that promoted decentralization that he deemed to be against the interests of Serb unity he ran Kosovo as a police state and made Serbs dominant in the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovos nomenklatura. Rankovi supported a hardline approach against Albanians in Kosovo who were commonly suspected of pursuing seditious activities.

Rankovi was born in the village of Draevac near Obrenovac in the Kingdom of Serbia. Born into a poor family, Rankovi lost his father at a young age. He attended high school in his hometown. He went to Belgrade to work and joined the workers movement. He was also influenced by his colleagues who, at the time when the Communist Party was banned, brought communist magazines and literature with them, which were read by Rankovi. At agehe joined the union. In 1927 he met his future wife Ana, and year later he joined the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. Soon he was named SecretaryGeneral of the League of Communists of Youth of Yugoslavia in Belgrade.

Source: Wikipedia