Otokar Keršovani was a Croatia

Croatia

Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

n and Yugoslav

Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....

 journalist and left-wing politician.

He was born in Trieste

Trieste

Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...

, which was part of Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...

 at a time. The collapse of Habsburg Empire caught him in Istrian town of Pazin

Pazin

Pazin is the administrative seat of Istria County in Croatia. The town has a population of 4,986 , the total Pazin municipality population is 9,227...

, which was soon occupied by Italian forces and its Croatian school closed. Because of that Keršovani emigrated to Yugoslavia

Kingdom of Yugoslavia

The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a state stretching from the Western Balkans to Central Europe which existed during the often-tumultuous interwar era of 1918–1941...

 and began to study forest management of University of Zagreb

University of Zagreb

The University of Zagreb is the biggest Croatian university and the oldest continuously operating university in the area covering Central Europe south of Vienna and all of Southeastern Europe...

.

In 1924 he began full-time journalist, working for Zagreb Press Bureau and contributing to Belgrade daily Novosti. At the same time, he also began to associate himself with Communism and he formally became member of Communist Party of Yugoslavia. In 1928 he was arrested and spent a year in prison. Upon his release he went to Serbia where he tried to organise local branches of SKOJ

Skoj

Skoj is a cider-based soft drink, manufactured by the Swedish Skoj Beverage Group. Skoj is the Swedish word for fun.Skoj is 15 percent fruit juice sweetened with sugar...

. In 1930 he was arrested again and sentenced to ten years of prison, after admitting his Party membership to the court.

He served his sentence in Sremska Mitrovica

Sremska Mitrovica

Sremska Mitrovica is a city and municipality located in the Vojvodina province of Serbia, on the left bank of the Sava river. As of 2002 the town had a total population of 39,041, while Sremska Mitrovica municipality had a population of 85,605...

 prison, where he remained politically active. He served as Marxist ideology teacher for other incarcerated Communists. He also tutored other inmates in journalism and founded prison newspaper Udarnik. He was released in February 1940 and continued to work in various left-wing magazines.

In March 1941, at the very eve of Axis

Axis Powers

The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...

 invasion of Yugoslavia, he was arrested and put in Kerestinec

Kerestinec

Kerestinec is a settlement west of Zagreb, in the Sveta Nedelja, Zagreb County, infamous for events in Croatian history. It has 1,199 inhabitants living on an area of . The name of Kerestinec comes from Hungarian word kereszt which stands for "cross".According to historical sources, there was a...

 prison. The Ustasha regime had him shot together with Božidar Adžija

Božidar Adžija

Božidar Adžija was a Yugoslav left-wing politician and publicist.A native of Drniš, of Croat and Serbian descent, Adžija participated in World War I as a soldier in Austro-Hungarian Army....

 and Ognjen Prica

Ognjen Prica

Ognjen Prica was a Yugoslav left-wing politician.A native of Ilidža , Prica became interested in politics while studying mathematics and physics at University of Zagreb. In 1921 he became the member of Communist Party of Yugoslavia and one of the founders of SKOJ - Communist Youth League of...

 as retaliation for Partisan

Partisans (Yugoslavia)

The Yugoslav Partisans, or simply the Partisans were a Communist-led World War II anti-fascist resistance movement in Yugoslavia...

 activities.

After the war, a publishing company in Opatija

Opatija

Opatija is a town in western Croatia, just southwest of Rijeka on the Adriatic coast. , the town proper had a population of 7,850, with the municipality having a total 12,719 inhabitants.-Geography:...

,
as well as the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Croatian Journalist' Association, were named after him.