Črtomir Nagode (6 April 1903 – 27 August 1947) was a

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

n politician and geologist.

Biography

Nagode was born on 6 April 1903 in

Metlika Metlika (; ''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 10.) is a town in southeastern Slovenia. It is the seat of the Municipality of Metlika ...

, the son of Anton Nagode (1871–1942) and Silva Derč Nagode (1881–1947)."Sirc: Za Nagodetovo smrt je bil kriv vrh partije." ''STA'' (20 September 2007). He was a construction engineer and held a doctorate in geology and political science. In May 1941 he founded the Old Rights Party (). This brought together liberally oriented Slovenian intellectualsPlut-Pregelj, Leopoldina, & Carole Rogel. 2007. ''The A to Z of Slovenia.'' Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, p. 315.Kranjc, Gregor J. 2013. ''To Walk With the Devil: Slovene Collaboration and Axis Occupation, 1941–1945.'' Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 235. that united in armed resistance to the Nazi and Fascist occupation forces in Slovenia. Prominent members of the party included

Ljubo Sirc Ljubo Sirc CBE (19 April 1920 – 1 December 2016) was a British- Slovene economist and prominent dissident from Yugoslavia. Life and work Sirc was born in Kranj, then part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, in a wealthy and ren ...

and Leon Kavčnik. Nagode joined the Liberation Front and was part of its leadership structure. However, he opposed the subordination of the other political parties to the Communist Party of Slovenia and the liquidations of Slovenes carried out by the communist Security and Intelligence Service (). This led to conflict with

Boris Kidrič Boris Kidrič (10 April 1912 – 11 April 1953) was a Slovene and Yugoslav politician and revolutionary who was one of the chief organizers of the Slovene Partisans, the Slovene resistance against occupation by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy a ...

and other communists. Because of the disagreement, in February 1942 the communists expelled Nagode and his party from the Liberation Front. After the Second World War, Nagode sought to restore the liberal party and drew attention to violations of human rights in Slovenia. He was accused of treason and attempting to destroy the Yugoslav political system, and in the summer of 1947 he was arrested together with other leading members of the party. At the

show trial A show trial is a public trial in which the guilt (law), guilt or innocence of the defendant has already been determined. The purpose of holding a show trial is to present both accusation and verdict to the public, serving as an example and a d ...

known as the

Nagode Trial The Nagode Trial () was a political show trial in Slovenia, Yugoslavia in 1947.Vodušek Starič, Jerca. 1993. Nagodetov proces. ''Enciklopedija Slovenije'', vol. 7, p. 270. Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga. The trial was carried out by the Slovene aut ...

() he was charged with being a spy and an agent of imperial powers, and sentenced to death by firing squad on 12 August 1947. He was executed on 27 August 1947. His family's request to receive his body was denied, and his house in the Mirje neighborhood of

Ljubljana {{Infobox settlement , name = Ljubljana , official_name = , settlement_type = Capital city , image_skyline = {{multiple image , border = infobox , perrow = 1/2/2/1 , total_widt ...

was looted and seized by the state. His widowed mother, who had also been evicted from the house, committed suicide when she learned of her son's death. Permission to engrave Nagode's name on the family's tomb in Ljubljana's Žale Cemetery was denied until 1977.Nežmah, Bernard. 2004. "Izlet po mestu mrtvih." ''Mladina'' 47 (28 November).
In a 2000 letter to President

Milan Kučan Milan Kučan (; born 14 January 1941) is a Slovenian former politician who served as the first President of Slovenia from 1991 to 2002. Before being president of Slovenia, he was the 13th President of Slovenia#Socialist Republic of Slovenia, Pres ...

, Ljubo Sirc requested in vain that the Slovenian government reveal the location of Nagode's body. In 1991, the

Supreme Court of Slovenia The Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia (''Vrhovno sodišče Republike Slovenije'') is, according to Article 127 of the Constitution of Slovenia, Constitution, the highest court in Slovenia. Its seat is in Ljubljana. The court's current pres ...

overturned Nagode's conviction, as well as the convictions of his codefendants, on the grounds that it had been based on false accusations and a corrupt trial against imaginary Western spies. The seized house at Mirje no. 15 was returned to the family's heirs in 2003 and a plaque honoring Nagode was installed on the building. The plaque reads: "Dr. Črtomir Nagode, 1903–1947, lived in this house. He was shot in August 1947 as the victim of a staged political trial. Remembrance" (''V tej hiši je živel dr. ing. Črtomir Nagode, 1903–1947, streljen v avgustu 1947 kot žrtev montiranega političnega procesa. Reminiscentes'').

Notes and references

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nagode, Crtomir 1903 births 1947 deaths People from Metlika Ethnic Slovene people Yugoslav geologists Slovenian people of World War II Deaths by firearm in Slovenia Executed Slovenian people People executed by Yugoslavia by firing squad