Žikica Jovanović Španac

Živorad "Žikica" Jovanović, nicknamed Španac was a Yugoslav partisan, Spanish-trained commando and republican volunteer in the Spanish Civil War and is credited for initiating the anti-fascist struggle in Yugoslavia during World War II. He was a skilled guerrilla fighter and organizer of guerrilla units in Serbia, largely tied to his intense Spanish Civil War activities. He enjoyed enormous prestige in Yugoslav communist ranks, and in 1941 he even disobeyed direct orders of Josip Broz Tito to leave from Serbia to Bosnia with his units.²