Igor Torkar was the pen name of Boris Fakin
(13 October 1913 – 1 January 2004), a
Slovenian
Slovene or Slovenian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Slovenia, a country in Central Europe
* Slovene language, a South Slavic language mainly spoken in Slovenia
* Slovenes
The Slovenes, also known as Slovenians ( sl, Sloven ...
writer, playwright, and poet best known for his literary descriptions of Communist repression in
Yugoslavia after
World War II.
Life
Torkar was born in a
Slovene family in the village of
Kostanjevica na Krasu
Kostanjevica na Krasu (; it, Castagnevizza) is one of the main settlements and the administrative centre of the Municipality of Miren-Kostanjevica in the Littoral region of Slovenia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Karst Plateau, not ...
, then part of the
Austro-Hungarian
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
County of
Gorizia and Gradisca, now in
Slovenia.
He attended the
Poljane Grammar School in
Ljubljana. His teachers included the literary historian
France Koblar
France Koblar (29 November 1889 – 11 January 1975) was a Slovene literary historian, editor and translator.
Koblar was born in Železniki in what was then Austria-Hungary and is now in Slovenia. He studied Slavic languages and Latin at Vienna. ...
, the writer
Juš Kozak, and the painter
Božidar Jakac
Božidar Jakac (July 16, 1899 – November 20, 1989) was a Slovene Expressionist, Realist and Symbolist painter, printmaker, art teacher, photographer and filmmaker. He produced one of the most extensive oeuvres of pastels and oil paintings ...
.
In 1932, he enrolled in the
University of Ljubljana, where he studied law for one year. Then he studied chemistry and graduated as chemistry engineer in 1942. He was a member of several
left-wing student groups that advocated the autonomy of Slovenia within the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and the
democratization
Democratization, or democratisation, is the transition to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction. It may be a hybrid regime in transition from an authoritarian regime to a ful ...
of the country. Among other things, he led a student association that successfully advocated the construction of a
new university library building in Ljubljana.
During this time, he published his first short stories and essays under the pseudonym Igor Torkar in the literary journal ''
Sodobnost''. He also wrote political satires in the satirical magazine ''Pavliha'', some of which were censored by the authorities of the
Drava Banovina
The Drava Banovina or Drava Banate ( Slovene and Serbo-Croatian: ''Dravska banovina''), was a province ( banovina) of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia between 1929 and 1941. This province consisted of most of present-day Slovenia and was named for the Dra ...
.
After the
Axis invasion of Yugoslavia
The invasion of Yugoslavia, also known as the April War or Operation 25, or ''Projekt 25'' was a German-led attack on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers which began on 6 April 1941 during World War II. The order for the invasion was p ...
in April 1941, he became an activist of the
Liberation Front of the Slovenian People. He never joined the
partisan resistance, but organized the collection of supplies for the fighting units of the Communist resistance. In 1942, he was arrested by the Italian occupation authorities, but was released after two months in prison. In 1943, he was arrested by the
Nazi German occupation forces and sent to
Dachau concentration camp
,
, commandant = List of commandants
, known for =
, location = Upper Bavaria, Southern Germany
, built by = Germany
, operated by = ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS)
, original use = Political prison
, construction ...
, where he remained until the end of
World War II.
After the war, Torkar returned to Yugoslavia, where he worked as a technical manager in a chemical industry complex in Slovenia. In April 1948, he was arrested by the Yugoslav Communist authorities on false charges of pro-Nazi activity during World War II. He was put on trial at the
Dachau trials together with another 33 survivors from Dachau and
Buchenwald concentration camps who were accused of collaboration with the German
Gestapo because, according to the prosecution, only collaboration could explain their survival.
[Plut-Pregelj, Leopoldina, Gregor Kranjc, Žarko Lazarević. 2018. ''Historical Dictionary of Slovenia''. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, p. 9.]
In 1949, he was sentenced to six years in prison, which was increased to 12 after the appeal. Torkar spent four years in prison, including two years in solitary confinement. He was released in 1952, and was prohibited from publishing for two more years.
After two years of unemployment, Torkar became a lecturer at the
Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana. In 1976, he rose to the position of professor of graphic technology.
In 1971, the High Court of the
Socialist Republic of Slovenia
The Socialist Republic of Slovenia ( sl, Socialistična republika Slovenija, sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Slovenija, Социјалистичка Република Словенија), commonly referred to as Sociali ...
nullified the sentence from 1949, and Torkar was acquitted of all charges.
From the 1990s onward, Torkar became a critical commentator and observer of the democratization of Slovenia, with regular columns in the newspapers ''
Delo'' and ''
Dnevnik Dnevnik means "The Daily" or "Daily News" in South Slavic languages. It can also be translated as "Diary".
Closely related Slavic variants of the word are Deník (Czech) Dziennik (Polish) and Дневник (Russian).
It may refer to:
;In broadc ...
''.
In October 2003, on the occasion of the author's 90th birthday,
Slovenian National Television broadcast a documentary with the title 'Dying in Installments,' dedicated to Torkar's life story. He died on January 1, 2004, in Ljubljana.
Work
Torkar's literary opus is framed by poetry. He published his first volume of poetry, The Crazy Chronos (Blazni Kronos) in 1940, with his last collection of poems, Songs of Solitude (Pesmi osekle samosti), written in the last years of his life and published in 2003. He has written over 10 collections of poetry, over 20 plays which were played on renewed theatre stages in Slovenia and also in former Yugoslavia, numerous TV and radio scenarios and novels. Between his most prominent works are also the poetry collection Sonnets from Jail (Jetniški soneti, 1974), stage plays Colorful ball (Pisana žoga, 1955) and Golden youth (Zlata mladina, 1970) and the novel Tenth brothers (Deseti bratje, 1979).
His best-known work, in which he publicly revealed the taboo theme of the Dachau trails under the communist regime in the former Yugoslavia, is the novel ''Dying in Installments'' (''Umiranje na obroke''), published in 1984. The work was recognized as very courageous political act and triggered an extraordinary public response and awareness of the communist repression. In a deeply moving novel we meet with memory material, documents and literary fiction. More than 30000 copies were published; the novel is translated into Serbo-Croatian (Umiranje na rate, published at Globus, Zagreb, 1984) and German (Sterben auf Raten, published at Drava, Klagenfurt, 1991).
In all his texts, Torkar expressed an outward
humanistic
Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.
The meaning of the term "humani ...
vision of the world. Together with his lifelong friend, the poet
Matej Bor, Torkar was the foremost representative of the neo-humanist trend in
Slovenian literature.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Torkar, Igor
Slovenian writers
Slovenian dramatists and playwrights
People from the Municipality of Miren-Kostanjevica
Dachau concentration camp survivors
University of Ljubljana alumni
University of Ljubljana faculty
1913 births
2004 deaths
20th-century dramatists and playwrights