Petar Gračanin

Petar Gračanin
Born	22 June 1923 Jagodina, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
Died	Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro
Allegiance	Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Service/branch	Yugoslav People's Army Ground Forces Yugoslav Army Yugoslav Ground Forces (1999)
Years of service	1941–1985 1999
Rank	Colonel General, JNA General of the Army, JA
Battles/wars	World War II
Awards	Order of National Hero of Yugoslavia
Other work	President of the Presidency of Serbia

Petar Gračanin (Serbian Cyrillic: Петар Грачанин; 22 June 1923 in Jagodina, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes – 27 June 2004 in Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro) - Serbian military commander.

In July 1941 he joined the Yugoslav Partisans. After the formation of the 2nd Proletarian Brigade, in March 1942, at first he was a member and later the commander of a battalion. He was promoted to his first military rank in 1943. In April 1944 he was wounded and transferred to Italy. In 1945, he became Chief of Staff in OZNA for Morava administrative center. A year later in 1946 he became commander of a tank brigade, Chief of Staff, deputy commander of an armored division and Chief of Staff of School center armored-mechanic units.

He graduated at the military аcademy.

As Federal Secretary of the People's Defense, he was chief of the section, and chief of staff of the section for personal authority. In the 7th Army he was chief of staff and deputy commander. He was also chief of staff of the Command-headquarters academy (1974–1978), and later he was assigned as commander of the 1st Army. He was chosen as a member of the CP SKJ in 1978 and 1982. He was promoted to the rank of Major General in 1970, Lieutenant General in 1974, and Colonel General in 1978.

He was chief of the General Staff of Yugoslav People's Army from 5 May 1982 to 1 September 1985.

His active military service ended on 31 December 1985. After that he was in high state positions such as:

President of Presidency of SR Serbia (1987–1989)
Federal Secretary of the Interior (1989–1991)

During the Ten-Day War Gračanin was situated in a JNA air base near Ljubljana. After the JNA forces were ordrered by the Generalstaff to withdraw from Slovenia, Gračanin flew back to Belgrade. Slobodan Milosević promoted him to the rank of reserve General of the Army of the FRY in 1999.

References

Military offices
Preceded by Branko Mamula	Chief of the General Staff of Yugoslav People's Army 5 May 1982 – 1 September 1985	Succeeded by Zorko Čanadi
Political offices
Preceded by Ivan Stambolić	President of the Presidency of the Socialist Republic of Serbia 14 December 1987 – 20 March 1989	Succeeded by Slobodan Milošević as President of Serbia post transformed