Zorko Jelinčič (5 March 1900 - 13 July 1965) 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 national activist and cultural worker.

Life and work

He was born into a teacher's family in Log pod Mangartom,

. He attended and finished primary school in his hometown, despite the fact that his father was transferred to other places on business. He graduated in 1918 from the

Idrija Idrija (, in older sources ''Zgornja Idrija''; , ) is a town in western Slovenia. It is the seat of the Municipality of Idrija. Located in the traditional region of the Slovene Littoral and in the Gorizia Statistical Region, it is notable for it ...

high school. He then enrolled at the Faculty of Filosophy in

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

. In the school year 1923/1924, he and his friend Klement Jug transferred to the

University of Padua The University of Padua (, UNIPD) is an Italian public research university in Padua, Italy. It was founded in 1222 by a group of students and teachers from the University of Bologna, who previously settled in Vicenza; thus, it is the second-oldest ...

, but Jelinčič did not finish his studies. In 1924 he joined the Association of Educational Societies in Gorica and soon became its secretary. At the same time he became the secretary of the student society Adrija in Gorica, which was founded on August 9, 1902, as an academic holiday society. As the secretary of the Association of Educational Societies, he traveled extensively in the Goriška region and organized liberal cultural clubs. He was among the founders and leaders of the illegal revolutionary organization

TIGR TIGR (an acronym of the place-names ''Trieste, Trst'', ''Istria, Istra'', ''Gorizia, Gorica'', and ''Rijeka, Reka''), fully the Revolutionary Organization of the Julian March T.I.G.R. (), was a Militant (word), militant Anti-fascism, anti-fascis ...

. In 1929 he married Fanica Obida. The following year he was arrested when the illegal organization TIGR - Trst, Istra, Gorica, Rijeka was uncovered by

fascist Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural soci ...

authorities; In 1931, he was as the top defendant among 30 accused, sentenced to 20 years in prison by a special court in Rome, the continuation of the 1st

trial in

Trieste Trieste ( , ; ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital and largest city of the Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as of the Province of Trieste, ...

. He was released after 9 years. After coming home, his wife died in the birth of his second daughter. Shortly after the outbreak of World War II, he was confined to the province of Isernio until the capitulation of Italy. After the dissolution of Italy in the autumn of 1943 he joined the partisans; there he was a member of the Provincial National Liberation Committee for

Slovenian Littoral The Slovene Littoral, or simply Littoral (, ; ; ), is one of the traditional regions of Slovenia. The littoral in its name – for a coastal-adjacent area – recalls the former Austrian Littoral (''Avstrijsko Primorje''), the Habsburg poss ...

. After the liberation, he settled in Trieste, where he worked mainly in the cultural section of the Provincial National Liberation Committee and later in the Educational Association. In 1948 he married for the second time Danica Žun. From 1958 on he worked in Institute for Ethnic Issues in Ljubljana and was one of the initiators for the creation of an ethnographic map of the Trieste territory based on original, ancient fallow names.''Enciklopedija Slovenije''. Mladinska knjiga, Ljubljana 1987-2002 He has been involved in journalism since 1924, publishing articles in various newspapers. He commemorative book on Klement Jug, he wrote two treatises: ''Dr. Klement Jug (1898-1924)'' and ''Jug and mountains''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jelinčič, Zorko 1900 births 1965 deaths Slovenian anti-fascists