Benyamin Beno Ruso - Koki was born on 20 January 1920 in Bitola, as the second of the three children of Isak Ruso and Vida Levy. He finished primary school in Tabane neighborhood in Bitola and then enrolled in the Bitola gymnasium. During this period, Beno started working in the gun-mechanical workshop of Marko Lasic in Bitola. He progressed from apprentice to advanced staff. In parallel, during this period he began to be actively involved in the "Hashomer Hacair" organization – an avant-garde, left-wing Zionist organization that acted for educational, cultural and sports development of the Jewish youth in Bitola. Most of these activities took place at the youth home of this organization, located in the Jewish Quarter in the city. As Beno Ruso will later points out, the stay in this youth home was his additional education.

Following in the footsteps of his older brother Dario, who enrolled at the Novi Sad Aviation School for Non-commissioned Officers in 1933, Beno Ruso had two unsuccessful attempts to enroll in a military school, first at the Hydro-Aviation School for Non-Commissioned Officers in Split and later in the Sailor-Mechanical School for Non-Commissioned Officers in Shibenik. During the period when his father died in 1937, Beno's determination to leave Bitola increased and he went to live with his cousin Mois Levy in Zagreb. There he established contacts with the headquarters of the “Hashomer Hacair” organization, from where he was sent to the Hakhshari camp (pioneer camp) in Novi Sad, a place where various occupations and trades were perfected. He remained in the campus until 1939, after which he left for military service in Novi Sad. The capitulation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia found him in Sarajevo, after which he returned to his native Bitola. Deprived of the monthly allowance sent to them by their older brother Dario, whose whereabouts were unknown, the family lived on a minimum income earned by their mother as a seamstress.

After the occupation of Macedonia in April 1941, Beno Ruso, like many other young Jews, became a member of the Union of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia (SKOJ) and in August of the same year a member of KPJ, and received the conspiratorial name Koki. He was part of an illegal cell of seven members - craftsmen, and at the same time continued to work in the gun-mechanical workshop. As member of KPJ he was activate in storing and collection weapons, cash and agitation among youth and workers. In May and June 1942, Beno was arrested twice by the Bulgarian police in Bitola but was released after several weeks in prison for insufficient evidence. During this time, Beno was secretary of the City Committee headed by Stiv Naumov.

In September 1942, Beno Ruso and his comrades Nissim Alba and Aaron Aroesti headed to the village of Lavci, where they later joined the partisan detachment "Jane Sandanski" on 18 September of that year. Beno was appointed deputy political commissar. After several successful and unsuccessful actions, the detachment was tasked with heading towards Kajmakchalan where it was to be connected with the Prilep partisan detachments. In March 1943, the partisan detachments "Jane Sandanski", which was a Bitola detachment, and "Dame Gruev", which was a Bitola-Prespa detachment, were united. Albert Ruso, Solomon and Sami Sadikario and Albert Kasorla also joined the newly formed detachment that included about 40 fighters. The newly formed detachment headed towards the Vich Mountain in the Aegean part of Macedonia where they met with other detachments and prepared a plan for further action. In July 1943, Beno stayed in the free territory of Debarca and on 18 August on Slavej Planina mountain he participated in the formation of the battalion "Mirche Acev" as a political commissar of the first company.

At the end of 1943, the brigades moved to the area around Fushtani Meglensko, in the Aegean part of Macedonia, where on 20 December of the same year the Second Macedonian People's Liberation Brigade was formed, in which Beno was appointed head of the Prilep partisan detachment. They remained in Fushtani until February 1944, when they started the so-called February campaign. On 12 June 1944, in one of the actions near the village of Strmashevo, in an armed clash with the Bulgarian special police unit, Beno was slightly wounded in the right leg. From September to November 1944, he took part in the final operations for liberation of Prilep and the Prilep region, and later in Kichevo, Gostivar and Tetovo. By order of the General Staff, Beno was appointed political commissar of the Fifteenth Corps, which took part in the final operations for liberation of Yugoslavia. In early January 1945, the Fifteenth Corps, which included Beno, marched on the Srem Front.

After the war, Beno Ruso first completed his gymnasium education, and in 1946 he married Rosa Kamhi, with whom he had three children. At the end of the 1940s, he graduated from the High School of Political and Economics, and in the period 1951-1952, he also graduated from the Higher Military Academy. In 1960, he was promoted to major general in the Yugoslav People's Army, and then to lieutenant general, where he remained active until 1970, after which he was chief of the territorial defense. After his retirement, he was active in the Union of Reserve Veterans of Macedonia and the Union of World War II Veterans of Macedonia. Beno Ruso passed away in 2006 in Skopje.

For his participation in the actions against the occupying forces, Beno Ruso was awarded with:

 Commemorative Medal of the Partisans from 1941  Order of Military Flag 1954 (I by relevance)  Order of Military Merits (I order )  Order of a Yugoslav Flag with a Ribbon 1980 (II by relevance)  Order of Brotherhood and Unity, I order, obtained in 1946 (III by relevance)  Order of the People’s Army, II order, obtained in 1956 (VI by relevance)  Order of Military Merits with Big Star  Order of Partisan Star with a Silver Wreath, established in 1943  Order for Courage, established in 1943  Order of Merit for the People with a Gold/ Silver Star 1945  Jubilee order from the USSR on the occasion of "50 years of the victory in the Great Patriotic War 1945" (I by relevance)  Czechoslovakian medal on the occasion of 40 years from the liberation by the Red Army (III by relevance)