Vladimir Ćopić
In April 1909, Ćopić organized his class to attend a memorial service at the Church of St Francis to Croatian nobles Zrinski and Frankopan, executed by the Habsburgs in 1671 in the Magnate conspiracy.
During his studies, Ćopić was still politically active as a Starčević supporter, and was friends and roommates with future high-ranking Ustaše member Mile Budak.
In November 1910, soon after arriving in Zagreb, Ćopić attended the general assembly of the Starčevićist Academic Youth where he was made deputy councilor while Budak became the first secretary.
On 8 June 1912, former law student Luka Jukić attempted to assassinate Cuvaj in front of an inn where Ćopić was sitting with Budak and Ante Pavelić.
In November 1915, the Serbian Royal Military Mission in Russia requested that the Russian government allow the formation of a volunteer detachment from captured Yugoslav fighters.
Ćopić arrived in Odesa on 13 March 1916 to join the Serbian volunteer detachment, but was returned to captivity for refusing to swear an oath to King Peter because of his Yugoslavist and revolutionary beliefs.
[10] At the behest of the Yugoslav Communist Group, the People's Commissariat for Nationalities led by Joseph Stalin opened a department for South Slavs in late June 1918.
[11] In early September, Ćopić was dispatched as part of a commission tasked with investigating anti-Bolshevik agitators in battalions staffed by Serbo-Croatian speakers.
[13] After returning to Zagreb in December 1918 with fellow Bolshevik Nikola Kovačević, Vladimir resided with his brother Milan Ćopić, a sergeant at the time, in the Daughters of Charity hospital.
During this time, Ćopić collaborated with left-wing artists August Cesarec and Miroslav Krleža, as well as later leading party members Simo Miljuš and Đuro Cvijić.
During the month of January, Interior Minister Svetozar Pribićević wrote to the local police in Croatia on two occasions to arrest Ćopić at the border, unaware that he was already in the country.
He was soon released, only to be arrested again on 10 February, but not before establishing contact with Filip Filipović, who had also recently returned to the country with the same goal of forming a communist party.
They had continued the activities of the Yugoslav group in Russia, but were misinformed about Ćopić and Kovačević's agitation in Yugoslavia, being led to believe that they had united with the local social democrats.
The group adopted the platform that they would refuse to cooperate with the local social democrats until they agreed on the necessity of establishing a dictatorship of the proletariat.
They operated mainly in Vojvodina, where they spread literature and pamphlets, especially the Budapest-based Crvena Zastava (English: Red Banner) which they imported from the recently formed Hungarian Soviet Republic starting in early April.
Ćopić participated in the congress, having recently been released from prison due to Cvijić's connection to police commissioner Srđan Budisavljević.
The entire plan was orchestrated by Ćopić who communicated through coded messages which he passed to his brother Milan and several other party members through his cell window.
Ćopić pleaded not guilty and continued to defend his support for the Hungarian Soviet Republic which he claimed was carried out solely through legal means.
[19] The trial was postponed for several months to further public outcry, after which Ćopić and Miljuš initiated a six-day hunger strike requesting to either appear in court or for their charges summarily dropped.
After a nine-day trial, Ćopić, as well as virtually all other party members, was acquitted due to the prosecution basing their charges largely on Diamantstein's testimony and lacking more concrete evidence.
Starting in April, polemics were held through the party newspaper Radničke novine (Workers' Journal) between the centrist Marxists led by Živko Topalović and the revolutionary faction.
Ćopić delivered his first speech in front of the assembly on 12 May 1921 at the 28th regular session where he criticized the former Serbian envoy to the Russian Empire, Miroslav Spalajković.
[22] On 30 June, shortly after the assassination attempt on Regent Alexander by former Pelagićevci member Spasoje Stejić, the Communist Party's seats in parliament were revoked.
This led to the indictment of Ćopić, Stejić, Nikola Kovačević, Filip Filipović, and 11 other party members, many of whom were Russian Civil War veterans and former Pelagićevci.
Upon their release on 3 September 1923, the trio of Ćopić, Kovačević, and Filipović was welcomed by a crowd of supporters organized by Moša Pijade, Rajko Jovanović, and Bora Prodanović.
Faced with a ban on leaving the country, they crossed the border on foot from the town of Maribor to Austria, while writer Miroslav Krleža transported their luggage to Vienna by train.
Throughout the congress, occurring from 17 June to 8 July, Ćopić actively engaged, operating for the first time under the pseudonym "Senjko", a homage to his hometown of Senj.
[28] On the Battle of Jarama, the official report by Ćopić of fighting on 12 February, barely mentioned the appalling level of casualties under his command, but focused on the 'staunch heroism' of his troops repelling 'violent fascist attacks causing heavy losses on the enemy'.
Daly was taken away for aid while Paddy O'Daire took charge refusing the orders of his superior, Ćopić, to continue the suicidal attack, keeping his men dug in on the exposed hillside until nightfall and safe withdrawal.
On the 26 August O'Daire, this time supported by the XV International Brigade's anti-tank battery, succeeded in breaking the enemy lines,[32] leading to the capture of 300 troops.
