Milica Kacin Wohinz (née Brezigar, 12 October 1930 – 29 December 2021) 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 ...

best known for her seminal study on the history of the forceful Italianization of the

Slovene minority in Italy (1920–1947) The Slovene minority in Italy (1920–1947) was the indigenous Slovene population—approximately 327,000 out of a total population of 1.3Lipušček, U. (2012) ''Sacro egoismo: Slovenci v krempljih tajnega londonskega pakta 1915'', Cankarjeva zalo ...

that took place between 1918 and 1943.Commandment of marxist historiography, but what is this anyway?
MMC

RTV Slovenija Radiotelevizija Slovenija ( en, Radio-Television of Slovenia) – usually abbreviated to RTV Slovenija (or simply RTV within Slovenia) – is Slovenia's national public broadcasting organization. Based in Ljubljana, it has regional broadcastin ...

, 7 February 2010, accessed 28 January 2013, archived by

WebCite WebCite was an on-demand archive site, designed to digitally preserve scientific and educationally important material on the web by taking snapshots of Internet contents as they existed at the time when a blogger or a scholar cited or quoted ...

a
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Life

Wohinz was born in the

Slovene Littoral The Slovene Littoral ( sl, Primorska, ; it, Litorale; german: Küstenland) is one of the five traditional regions of Slovenia. Its name recalls the former Austrian Littoral (''Avstrijsko Primorje''), the Habsburg possessions on the upper Adria ...

, which was annexed by the

Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy ( it, Regno d'Italia) was a state that existed from 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinia was proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed King of Italy, until 1946, when civil discontent led to ...

after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. At the age of twelve, she was expelled from school by the Italian Fascist regime as punishment for her father's resistance to Italianization. During World War II, she joined the

Liberation Front of the Slovenian People The Liberation Front of the Slovene Nation ( sl, Osvobodilna fronta slovenskega naroda), or simply Liberation Front (''Osvobodilna fronta'', OF), originally called the Anti-Imperialist Front (''Protiimperialistična fronta'', PIF), was a Slovene ...

, helping

Slovene partisans The Slovene Partisans, formally the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Slovenia, (NOV in POS) were part of Europe's most effective anti-Nazi resistance movement Jeffreys-Jones, R. (2013): ''In Spies We Trust: The Story of Western ...

. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and the annexation of the

Slovenian Littoral The Slovene Littoral ( sl, Primorska, ; it, Litorale; german: Küstenland) is one of the five traditional regions of Slovenia. Its name recalls the former Austrian Littoral (''Avstrijsko Primorje''), the Habsburg possessions on the upper Ad ...

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

in 1947, she attended the Slovene-language high schools in

Postojna Postojna (; german: Adelsberg, it, Postumia) is a town in the traditional region of Inner Carniola, from Trieste, in southwestern Slovenia. It is the seat of the Municipality of Postojna.

and

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 ...

. In 1952, she enrolled at the

University of Ljubljana The University of Ljubljana ( sl, Univerza v Ljubljani, , la, Universitas Labacensis), often referred to as UL, is the oldest and largest university in Slovenia. It has approximately 39,000 enrolled students. History Beginnings Although certain ...

, where she studied history. She obtained her PhD in 1970 under the supervision of Vasilij Melik. From 1959 onward, she worked at the Institute of Contemporary History in Ljubljana. Between 1979 and 1983, she was head of the institute. ;Marxist pressures against her work Because her research topic was the history of an ethnic minority and not the history of the working class, her work was subjected to Marxist criticisms by Dušan Kermavner during Slovenia's socialist period.

Work

Her works on Slovene and Croat anti-Fascist resistance against Italianization are considered pioneering. She was one of the first historians to engage in thorough research of the militant anti-Fascist organization

TIGR TIGR, an abbreviation for ''Trst'', ''Istra'', ''Gorica'', and ''Reka'', full name Revolutionary Organization of the Julian March T.I.G.R. ( sl, Revolucionarna organizacija Julijske krajine T.I.G.R.), was a militant anti-fascist and insurgent or ...

. She was member of the joint Slovenian–Italian Cultural-Historical Commission, established by the governments of the

Republic of 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, and ...

and

Republic of Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

to jointly publish the account of the historical relationship between the two peoples from 1880 to 1954 based on historiographic examination of sources.Report
by the Slovenian–Italian Cultural-Historical Commission

Selected publications

;In Slovene * 1974 ''Slovenci v zamejstvu: pregled zgodovine 1918–1945'' (Slovenes beyond the Borders: A Historical Overview), co-authored with Tone Ferenc. Ljubljana: Državna založba Slovenije. * 1977 ''Narodnoobrambno gibanje primorskih Slovencev, 1921–1928'' (The Ethnic Identity Movement of the Slovenes in the Littoral Region between 1921 and 1928). Koper: Lipa. * 1990 ''Prvi antifašizem v Evropi. Primorska 1925–1935'' (The First Anti-Fascism in Europe. The Slovenian Littoral between 1925 and 1935). Koper: Lipa. * 2000 ''Zgodovina Slovencev v Italiji 1866–2000'' (The History of Slovenes in Italy 1866–2000). Ljubljana: Nova revija. * 2008 ''Primorski upor fašizmu: 1920–1941'' (The Slovene Resistance against Fascism, 1920–1941), co-authored with

Marta Verginella Marta Verginella (born 20 June 1960) is a Slovenian historian from the Slovene minority in Italy in Trieste, notable as one of the most prominent contemporary Slovene historians. Together with Alenka Puhar, she is considered a pioneer in the h ...

. Ljubljana:

Slovenska matica The Slovene Society ( sl, Slovenska matica,The name Matica can be literally translated into English as the "Queen Bee," which is a metaphor meaning "the parent body of the Slovenes." also ) is the second-oldest publishing house in Slovenia, found ...

. ;In Italian * 1998 ''Storia degli sloveni in Italia: 1866–1998'' (History of the Slovenes in Italy, 1866–1998), co-authored with

Jože Pirjevec Jože Pirjevec (born 1 June 1940), registered at birth Giuseppe Pierazzi because of the Italianization#Istria, Julian March and Dalmatia, Italianization policy under the Fascist regime, is a Slovenes, Slovene–Italy, Italian historian and a promi ...

. Venice: Marsilio. * 2004 ''Vivere al confine: sloveni e italiani negli anni 1918–1941'' (Living on the Border: Slovenes and Italians between the Years 1918 and 1941). Gorizia: Goriška Mohorjeva družba.

References

External links

Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kacin Wohinz, Milica 1930 births 2021 deaths 20th-century Slovenian historians University of Ljubljana alumni People from Cerkno Women historians 21st-century Slovenian historians