Viktor Blažič (19 July 1928 – 25 June 2014) 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, and ...

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

essayist An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal an ...

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

and former

anti-Communist Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when the United States and th ...

dissident A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established political or religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and in the political sense since the 20th ...

. He was born in the village of

Smolenja Vas Smolenja Vas (; sl, Smolenja vas) is a village in the hills northeast of Novo Mesto in southeastern Slovenia. The area is part of the traditional region of Lower Carniola and is now included in the Southeast Slovenia Statistical Region. The lo ...

near

Novo Mesto Novo Mesto (; sl, Novo mesto; also known by other alternative names) is a city on a bend of the Krka River in the City Municipality of Novo Mesto in southeastern Slovenia, close to the border with Croatia. The town is traditionally considered ...

in south-eastern Slovenia, then part of the

Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes Kingdom commonly refers to: * A monarchy ruled by a king or queen * Kingdom (biology), a category in biological taxonomy Kingdom may also refer to: Arts and media Television * ''Kingdom'' (British TV series), a 2007 British television drama ...

. In 1944, he joined the partisan resistance. 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, he became a journalist. In the early 1960s, he was member of the editorial board of the alternative journal '' Perspektive''. In the early 1970s, he was one of the founders of the environmentalist movement in Slovenia.

Arrest

Due to his critical articles on behalf of the

Titoist Titoism is a political philosophy most closely associated with Josip Broz Tito during the Cold War. It is characterized by a broad Yugoslav identity, workers' self-management, a political separation from the Soviet Union, and leadership in the ...

regime, Blažič was arrested in May 1976 together with the judge

Franc Miklavčič The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' (Style of the French sovereign, King of the Franks) used on early France, ...

, and sentenced to three years in prison for "enemy propaganda". Later it was disclosed that Blažič's and Miklavčič's arrest was meant as a retaliation against the poet and thinker

Edvard Kocbek Edvard Kocbek () (27 September 1904 – 3 November 1981) was a Slovenian poet, writer, essayist, translator, member of Christian Socialists in the Liberation Front of the Slovene Nation and Slovene Partisans. He is considered one of the best auth ...

who was too famous abroad to be arrested by the regime. Instead two of his friends and collaborators were arrested in order to "bring Kocbek back to order", that is to intimidate him in order to ensure his conformity with the Communist regime. Blažič was released in 1978, and found a job in the

National and University Library of Slovenia The National and University Library ( sl, Narodna in univerzitetna knjižnica, ), established in 1774, is one of the most important national educational and cultural institutions of Slovenia. It is located in the centre of Ljubljana, between Aue ...

, where he befriended the intellectual and historian Lojze Ude. Since the 1980s, Blažič has published several essays dealing with the nature of the

Communist regime A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Com ...

s and of

totalitarian Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and regul ...

regimes in general. He has also worked as a translator, mainly from Russian.

Slovene Christian Social Movement

In 1989, Blažič was one of the co-founders of the Slovene Christian Social Movement (later renamed to Slovene Christian Democrats), but has not been involved in active politics. By the mid 1990s, he distanced himself from the Christian Democrats and assumed a position close to the Social Democratic Party of Slovenia (now

Slovenian Democratic Party The Slovenian Democratic Party ( sl, Slovenska demokratska stranka, SDS), formerly the Social Democratic Party of Slovenia ( sl, Socialdemokratska stranka Slovenije, SDSS), is a conservative political party in Slovenia. It has been described as ...

, not to be confused with the

Social Democrats Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote s ...

), although he never became a member of the party, nor publicly endorsed its candidates. In 2004, he was among the co-founders of the

liberal conservative Liberal conservatism is a political ideology combining conservative policies with liberal stances, especially on economic issues but also on social and ethical matters, representing a brand of political conservatism strongly influenced by lib ...

civic platform Rally for the Republic ( sl, Zbor za republiko). Most of his life, he lived 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 a ...

External links

Slovenian Spring: Viktor Blažič

References

Slovenian journalists Slovenian translators Russian–Slovene translators Slovenian essayists Yugoslav Partisans members Slovenian Roman Catholics People from the City Municipality of Novo Mesto 1928 births 2014 deaths Ethnic Slovene people 20th-century translators 20th-century essayists Child soldiers in World War II {{slovenia-writer-stub

Arrest

Slovene Christian Social Movement

See also

External links

References