France Klopčič (25 October 1903 - 25 April 1984) was a

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

, writer,

translator Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...

and

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

political activist. He was born in the town of L'Hôpital (german: Spittel),

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, then part of the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

province of Alsace-Lorraine, where his father worked as an industrial worker. In 1909, the family moved to the industrial town of

Zagorje ob Savi Zagorje ob Savi (; german: Sagor,''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 96. ''Seger an der Sau'') is a town in the Central Sava Valley in ce ...

. He attended high school in

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the ar ...

. Already as a teenager, he became a member of the

Communist Party of Yugoslavia The League of Communists of Yugoslavia, mk, Сојуз на комунистите на Југославија, Sojuz na komunistite na Jugoslavija known until 1952 as the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, sl, Komunistična partija Jugoslavije mk ...

, and became one of the leaders of the Communist Youth in

. During the 1920s, he worked as a journalist for

left wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

newspapers. He strongly opposed Yugoslav centralism, and advocated the establishment of a socialist and federal Yugoslavia. In 1924, he took part in the armed clash between the Communist-organized workers' units and members of the Yugoslav nationalist militiamen of the

ORJUNA The Organization of Yugoslav Nationalists (''Organizacija Jugoslavenskih Nacionalista'', ''ORJUNA''; ''Организација Југославенских Националиста'', ''ОРЈУНА''), was a political organization in Yugoslavia ...

organization that took place in the industrial town of

Trbovlje Trbovlje (; german: Trifail''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 4: ''Štajersko''. 1904. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 58.) is Slovenia's tenth-largest town, and the seat of the Municipality o ...

. Between 1926 and 1929, he was in the leadership of the Slovenian section of the Yugoslav Communist Party. During this period, he was arrested and imprisoned by the Yugoslav authorities on two occasions. In 1930, he emigrated to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. In the mid-1930s, he was accused of counter-revolutionary activity, and imprisoned. He was released in 1945, but had to remain in the Soviet Union because of his disapproval of the

Informbiro The Informbiro period was an era of Yugoslavia's history following the Tito–Stalin split in mid-1948 that lasted until the country's partial rapprochement with the Soviet Union in 1955 with the signing of the Belgrade declaration. After Wor ...

declaration. In 1956, he was released at the request of the Yugoslav authorities. After his return to Yugoslavia, he settled in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and became a professional historian, focusing on the history of the worker movement in Slovenia, and on the history of the Communist Party. Together with Dušan Kermavner, he was one of the foremost Communist historians of the Socialist movement in Slovenia. He was also vocal in the defence of the federalist system in Yugoslavia and of the autonomy of the single Yugoslav republics against centralist pressures. He was also a prolific translator from

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

into Slovene. Among other, he translated several works of

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...

and

Mayakovsky Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (, ; rus, Влади́мир Влади́мирович Маяко́вский, , vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvʲɪtɕ məjɪˈkofskʲɪj, Ru-Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky.ogg, links=y; – 14 Apr ...

. In 1964, he translated

Solzhenitsyn Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn. (11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008) was a Russian novelist. One of the most famous Soviet dissidents, Solzhenitsyn was an outspoken critic of communism and helped to raise global awareness of political repress ...

's novel ''

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich ''One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich'' (russian: links=no, italics=yes, Один день Ивана Денисовича, Odin den' Ivana Denisovicha, ) is a short novel by the Russian writer and Nobel laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, first p ...

''. He died in Ljubljana. He was the brother of the

social realist Social realism is the term used for work produced by painters, printmakers, photographers, writers and filmmakers that aims to draw attention to the real socio-political conditions of the working class as a means to critique the power structure ...

poet

Mile Klopčič Mile Klopčič (16 November 1905 - 19 March 1984) was a Slovenian poet and translator. Together with Tone Seliškar, he is considered as the foremost representative of Slovenian literature, Slovene social realist poetry of the 1930s and 1940s. He ...

, and the uncle of the film director

Matjaž Klopčič Matjaž Klopčič (4 December 1934 – 15 December 2007) was a Slovenian film director and screenwriter. He directed 28 films between 1959 and 2005. His film ''Heritage'' ( sl, Dediščina) was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at ...

References

Short Biography at the website of the Slovenian State Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Klopcic, Mile 1903 births 1984 deaths People from Moselle (department) 20th-century Slovenian historians Slovenian translators Russian–Slovene translators Slovenian Marxists Yugoslav communists Slovenian atheists Yugoslav journalists 20th-century translators 20th-century journalists