page_title: Marija Bursać
section_title: Legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Marija Bursać / Legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: Marija Bursać Српски / srpski: Марија Бурсаћ
context_page_description: Marija Bursać was a member of the Yugoslav Partisans during World War II in Yugoslavia and the first woman proclaimed a People's Hero of Yugoslavia. Bursać was born to a Bosnian Serb farming family in the village of Kamenica, near Drvar. After the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers and their creation of the Independent State of Croatia in April 1941, Bursać supported the Partisan resistance movement led by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. Like other women in her village, she collected food, clothing, and other supplies for the Partisan war effort. Bursać became a member of the League of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia in September 1941. The following August she was appointed political commissar of a company of the 1st Krajina Agricultural Shock Brigade, which harvested crops in the Sanica River valley, and was admitted to the KPJ at the end of that summer.
  Bursać became a Partisan in February 1943, joining the newly formed 10th Krajina Brigade. With the brigade, she fought in the Bosansko Grahovo, Knin, Vrlika and Livno areas and served as a nurse.
context_section_description: Bursać became a People's Hero of Yugoslavia on 15 October 1943, the first woman to receive the honour. Her proclamation was published in the October 1943 issue of the Bulletin of the Supreme Headquarters of the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia:
  По одлуци Врховног штаба Народноослободилачке војске и партизанских одреда Југославије, a на предлог V корпуса Народноослободилачке војске Југославије, додељује се назив народног хероја другарици Марији Бурсаћ, борцу-бомбашу III батаљона X крајишке бригаде. Другарица Марија била је примјер јунаштва у свим борбама и на крају дала свој живот за слободу свога народа јуришајући на ровове непријатеља код с. Пркоса.
  "By decision of the Supreme Headquarters of the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia, and at the proposal of the 5th Corps of the National Liberation Army of Yugoslavia, the Order of the People's Hero has been conferred on comrade Marija Bursać, a hand-grenade thrower of the 3rd Battalion of the 10th Krajina Brigade. Comrade Marija was an example of heroism in all fights and ultimately gave her life for the freedom of her people charging enemy trenches at the village of Prkosi."
  Yugoslav writer Branko Ćopić wrote a poem, Marija na Prkosima ("Marija at Prkosi"), about Bursać. Its title, which may also be interpreted as "Marija defiant", is a play on words. Bursać "entered the triptych of history, legend, and poetry in the Yugoslav lands", according to author Jelena Batinić. After the war, schools, streets, and organisations in Yugoslavia were named after her; a Belgrade neighborhood bears her name. A 2013 comic strip, Marija na Prkosima, was published in the Serbian daily newspaper Danas as part of its Odbrana utopije ("Defense of Utopia") comic-strip project. Graphic artist Lazar Bodroža's strip combines events from Bursać's life with verses of Ćopić's poem and left-wing visual symbolism.
caption: Bursać was commemorated on a 1984 Yugoslav postage stamp.
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