The following August she was appointed political commissar of a company of the 1st Krajina Agricultural Shock Brigade, which harvested crops in the Sanica River valley, and was admitted to the KPJ at the end of that summer.

Bursać was born on 2 August 1920 in the village of Kamenica, near Drvar in the region of Bosanska Krajina,[1] the north-western sector of Bosnia and Herzegovina (then part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, renamed as Yugoslavia in 1929).

Stojnić, a member of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (Serbo-Croatian Latin: Komunistička partija Jugoslavije or KPJ, outlawed since 1921), organised a public library, reading and sports clubs and a cultural-artistic group.

The Royal Yugoslav Army (Serbo-Croatian Latin: Vojska Kraljevine Jugoslavije or VKJ) capitulated on 17 April, and the Germans, Italians and Hungarians dismembered the country.

Royalists and Serbian nationalists led by VKJ Colonel Draža Mihailović founded the Ravna Gora Movement, whose members were known as Chetniks.

[10] The KPJ, led by Josip Broz Tito, decided in Belgrade on 4 July to launch a nationwide armed uprising and the members of the KPJ-led forces became known as Partisans.

By the end of 1941, SKOJ's Kamenica branch had 23 members; the men served in Partisan units and the women, including Bursać, joined labour companies to support the war effort.

In July, Partisan units composed of fighters from Serbia and Montenegro came to Drvar, and Bursać helped carry their wounded to field hospitals in the mountains.

The Partisan command engaged young people from western Bosanska Krajina to harvest wheat and other crops from the valley, transporting them to storage facilities on Mount Grmeč.

[17] Bursać was admitted to the KPJ at the end of summer 1942; at the beginning of 1943, she was president of the village committee of the United Federation of Anti-Fascist Youth of Yugoslavia (Serbo-Croatian Latin: Ujedinjeni savez antifašističke omladine Jugoslavije, or USAOJ).

After consulting with Đuro Pucar, the head of the KPJ regional committee for Bosanska Krajina, Tito decided to form a Partisan brigade around a battalion of experienced fighters from Drvar.

Additional manpower would consist of recovered Partisans who had been wounded or ill, older men not previously in combat units and young male and female volunteers.

[21] Until September 1943, she fought the Ustaše, Germans, Italians, and anti-communist Chetniks around Grahovo, Knin, Vrlika, Livno and Mount Dinara, was commended for her courage and skill in combat, and served as a nurse.

In February and March 1943, during the Axis offensive, the brigade experienced constant enemy attacks, food shortages, cold, deep snow and outbreaks of typhus.

[23] The base, with about 500 members of the 373rd (Croatian) Infantry Division and an artillery battery, secured the roads from Bosanski Petrovac to Bihać and Kulen Vakuf.

[28] After the battle, Bursać and other heavily-wounded Partisans were carried on stretchers to the field hospital in the village of Vidovo Selo, about 40 kilometres (25 mi) away over rugged terrain.

[24][31] She died in Vidovo Selo on 23 September 1943, and was buried with military honours at Kamenica;[32] deputy commissar Veljko Ražnatović spoke on behalf of the 10th Krajina Brigade.

[1][24] Her proclamation was published in the October 1943 issue of the Bulletin of the Supreme Headquarters of the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia:[33] По одлуци Врховног штаба Народноослободилачке војске и партизанских одреда Југославије, a на предлог V корпуса Народноослободилачке војске Југославије, додељује се назив народног хероја другарици Марији Бурсаћ, борцу-бомбашу III батаљона X крајишке бригаде.

[36] A 2013 comic strip, Marija na Prkosima, was published in the Serbian daily newspaper Danas as part of its Odbrana utopije ("Defense of Utopia") comic-strip project.

[37] Graphic artist Lazar Bodroža's strip combines events from Bursać's life with verses of Ćopić's poem and left-wing visual symbolism.