Dobrica Ćosić (, ; 29 December 1921 – 18 May 2014) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician, writer, and political theorist. Ćosić was twice awarded the prestigious NIN award for literature and Medal of Pushkin for his writing. His books have been translated into 30 languages. He was the first President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia with his tenure lasting from 1992 to 1994. Admirers sometimes refer to him as the Father of the Nation due to his influence on modern Serbian politics and the national revival movement in the late 1980s while his opponents use that term in an ironic manner. Early life and career Ćosić was born as Dobrosav Ćosić on 29 December 1921 in the Serbian village of Velika Drenova near Trstenik to parents father Žika and mother Milka (d. 15 October 1984). Some sources have incorrectly stated his date of birth as 4 January 1922. Before the Second World War he was able to attend vocational agriculture school in Valjevo. He joined the communist youth organization in Negotin in 1939. When the Second World War reached Yugoslavia in 1941, he joined the communist Partisans. After the liberation of Belgrade in October 1944, he remained active in communist leadership positions, including work in the Serbian republican Agitation and Propaganda commission and then as a people's representative from his home region. In the early 1950s, he visited the Goli otok political prison, where the Yugoslav authorities imprisoned political opponents of the Communist Party. Ćosić maintained that he did so in order to better understand the Communist system. Ćosić wrote his first novel Daleko je sunce (The Sun is Far Away) in 1951. The novel was a success and made him popular, launching him into a literary career where he could express his revolutionary ideals. By that time, he had quit working professionally for the Communist Party. In 1956 he found himself in Budapest during the Hungarian revolt. He arrived there for the meeting of the editors of literary magazines in socialist countries on the day when the revolution started and remained there until October 31 when he was transported back to Belgrade on a plane that brought in Yugoslav Red Cross help. It remains unclear whether this was purely a coincidence or he was sent there as a Yugoslav secret agent. Nevertheless, he even held political speeches in favor of a revolution in Budapest and upon his