Petar Zdravkovski
Petar Zdravkovski was a Yugoslav educator, statesman and diplomat.
Biography
Petar Zdravkovski, also known as Penko, was born on November 4, 1912, in Prilep, Ottoman Empire. He graduated from the Teachers College in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, where he became involved in the students' and workers' Socialist movement. After graduation he worked as a teacher in the villages of Grnčarevo and Podmočani near Resen.He joined the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and after the occupation of then Vardar Banovina he took part in the preparations for the armed resistance in Prilep. He was jailed and after a long interrogation he was interned in Bulgaria. In the spring of 1943 he returned to Vardar Macedonia, and in the autumn of the same year he joined the armed partisan forces in Debarca.
After the Second World War he was appointed to various political functions: teacher at the Party High School in Skopje, Chief of the Press Department of the Government of the People's Republic of Macedonia ; head of Radio Skopje ; Secretary General of the PRM Government, member of the Executive Council of PRM; Minister of the Council of Education ; Minister of the Council for Science; member of the Parliament of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia Central Committee. As Minister of Education, he was President of the Council of the Ss. [Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje|University in Skopje].
Diplomatic career
He was fluent in French and had a working knowledge of English, Russian and Turkish. He started his diplomatic career as a minister plenipotentiary to the Yugoslav diplomatic mission in Helsinki, Finland. He was appointed chief of staff of the Department for Foreign Affairs in Belgrade and consul general of Yugoslavia to Marseille, France. In 1965 he was appointed ambassador of Yugoslavia to Beirut, Lebanon, where after a short illness he died in 1967.He was buried with high state honors in the Alley for Distinguished Citizens in the Butel Cemetery in Skopje.
Decorations
He was awarded many national and international decorations:| Award | Year |
| Commemorative Medal of the Partisans of 1941 | 26 October 1946 |
| Yugoslav Fraternity and Unity Medal | 1 June 1947 |
| Yugoslav Medal of Merit | 1 June 1947 |
| Yugoslav Medal for Courage | 14 April 1950 |
| Grand Cross of the Order of the Lion of Finland | 12 December 1952 |
| Yugoslav Order of the Republic | 27 November 1961 |
| Officer of France's Legion of Honour | 7 May 1956 |
| Lebanese National Order of the Cedar | 11 October 1967 |
In the Butel municipality in Skopje an elementary school bears his name.
A street in the city of Prilep bears the name Penko Zdravkovski.