Fjodor Jevdokimovic Mahin
Born in 1882 in Nikolaevsk, Siberia. He graduated from the general staff academy in Petrograd in 1913. In the beginning of the First World War, he was Colonel on the Romanian front, and with the remnants of the First Serbian Volunteer Division, in September 1918, he participated in the breakthrough of the Thessaloniki front, for which he was awarded with the Order of the White Eagle of the 3 degree. He spent some time in Paris and Prague, and he returned to Belgrade in 1923. he founded a big library of Russian books, which contributed to the democratic upbringing, not only of the children of Russian emigrants, but also Yugoslav youth and citizens. He created the magazine ‘Russian Archive’; he was co-author of several magazines and author of several books. As a prominent writer, he became a member of Yugoslavia PEN Club. He became a member of illegal Yugoslav Communist Party in 1939.
He participated in the Second World War as a fighter who, simultaneously, wrote in partisan newsletters, and for the radio-station ‘Free Yugoslavia’. He continued with this after the end of the war in ‘Borba’, as a military reporter. He participated in battles for the freedom of Belgrade, and he was in the first Yugoslav delegation that visited Russia, in February 1944. He was the first chief of the Historical Section of the Yugoslav Army General Staff.