Pijade was of Sephardic Jewish parentage. In his youth, Pijade was a painter, art critic and publicist. He was also known for translating Das Kapital by Karl Marx into Serbo-Croatian. He is thought to have had a major influence on Marxist ideology as exposed during the old regime in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In 1925, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison because of his 'revolutionary activities' after World War I. He was discharged after 14 years in 1939 and imprisoned again in 1941 in the camp Bileća.
Pijade was one of the leaders of the Uprising in Montenegro. His ruthless cruelty toward the people who refused to join his units was noted. He was subsequently recalled to the communist headquarters because of the issues connected to the uprising. Under the influence of Pijade and Milovan Đilas an extreme prosecution of "leftist errors" was pursued by the Partisans in Montenegro. In March 1942, Pijade met British envoy in occupied Yugoslavia Terence Atherton and took him on a tour of inspection of the organization of the communist forces in Žabljak. Pijade was known as the creator of the so-called 'Foča regulations', which prescribed the foundation and activity of people's liberation committees in the liberated territories during the war against the Nazis. In November 1943, before the second AVNOJ meeting in Jajce, he initiated the foundation of Tanjug, which later became the state news agency of SFR Yugoslavia, nowadays of Serbia. Pijade held high political posts during and after World War II and was a member of the Central Committee and the Politburo of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. He was one of the leaders of Tito's partisans and was subsequently proclaimed People's Hero of Yugoslavia. He was one of six Vice Presidents of the Presidium of the Yugoslavian Parliament 1945–53. In 1948 Pijade convinced Tito to allow those Jews who remained in Yugoslavia to emigrate to Israel. Tito agreed on a one-time exception basis. As a result, 3,000 Jews emigrated from Yugoslavia to Israel on the SS Kefalos in December 1948. Among those was Tommy Lapid, who became Deputy Prime Minister of Israel and was the father ofYair Lapid. After having led the law commission of the Parliament, Pijade was Vice-President and President of the Yugoslavian Parliament or Skupština. In 1957, he died in Paris during the return from a visit to London, where he had talks as leader of a Yugoslav parliamentary delegation. Streets in many cities of the former Yugoslav countries were once named after him.
