Once left an orphan, after the war, when Vardar Macedonia was ceded to Serbia again, he was taken by his maternal aunts in Bitola.

There he was raised up to school age and later was transferred to a state orphanage in the city, where completed his primary education.

[6] As Nazi forces entered Belgrade in April 1941, Bulgaria, a German ally, took control of a part of Vardar Macedonia, with the western towns of Tetovo, Gostivar and Debar going to Italian zone in Albania.

On the ground, he began to pursue Shatorov's sympathisers and organised several small armed detachments against the Bulgarian authorities and their local adherents.

[10] Later, after an intercession of the Defense Minister to the tsar, his death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, and Koliševski was sent to a prison in Pleven, Bulgaria.

[11] However, after the fall of communism, when these documents became widely known, Koliševski denied making any appeals for clemency or admission of guilt personally.

[12] He claimed that his plea for mercy was written by his lawyer,[13] but in relation to the death sentence of the then Bulgarian military courts, existed only the opportunity to submit personally signed "appeal for clemency".

[14] According to the Yugoslav politician Antun Kolendić, Koliševski vainly denied these facts, while he became familiar with these documents in 1946.

[19] Kolisevski strongly supported the promotion of a distinct ethnic Macedonian identity and language in SR Macedonia.

Kolishevski, however, started a policy of fully implementing the pro-Yugoslav line and took harsh measures against the opposition.

On 19 December 1953, Koliševski retired as the Prime Minister of PR Macedonia and assumed the office of President of the People's Assembly.

On New Year's Day in 1980, Tito fell ill, leaving Koliševski in the role of acting leader in his absence.

After the breakup of Yugoslavia, Koliševski lived in Skopje, the capital of the newly-proclaimed Republic of Macedonia, and opposed the anti-Serbian and pro-Bulgarian policy of the ruling right-wing party, VMRO-DPMNE, in the late 1990s.