Moša Pijade, was a Serbian and Yugoslav painter, journalist, Communist Party politician, World War II participant, and a close collaborator of Josip Broz Tito. He was the full member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. During the Interwar period in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Pijade was an accomplished painter, but spent almost 15 years in prison because of his communist activity. He took active role in the People's Liberation War and was one of main leaders of the Partisans. After the WWII and creation of socialist Yugoslavia, he became a prominent politician and was the President of the Federal Parliament from 1954 until his death.

The League of Communists of Yugoslavia, known until 1952 as the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, was the founding and ruling party of SFR Yugoslavia. It was formed in 1919 as the main communist opposition party in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and after its initial successes in the elections, it was proscribed by the royal government and was at times harshly and violently suppressed. It remained an illegal underground group until World War II when, after the invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941, the military arm of the party, the Yugoslav Partisans, became embroiled in a bloody civil war and defeated the Axis powers and their local auxiliaries. After the liberation from foreign occupation in 1945, the party consolidated its power and established a one-party state, which existed in that form of government until 1990, a year prior to the start of the Yugoslav Wars and breakup of Yugoslavia.