Ivan Štrafela Don, politična in življenjska usoda informbirojevca

Abstract

At the end of May 1950, the Gornja Radgona department of the State Security Administration (UDV Gornja Radgona) arrested Ivan Štrafela Don, and the Party’s district committee questioned him and accused him of overt action against the state as a Cominform member. He admitted almost all of the actions he was being accused of and was willing to present them before the workers and the members of the Party as well. At the end of October 1950, after being expelled from the Party, the District Court in Maribor sentenced him to eight years of imprisonment with forced labour and five years of loss of civil and political rights. The attempts of the convict’s wife to achieve a lower punishment were unsuccessful; however, Štrafela was nonetheless pardoned in 1955, and he returned home. He did less demanding and responsible work in the industry and local politics, but he remained under surveillance and was preventively detained during Tito’s visit in the Pomurje region (in 1966 and 1969). His wife’s attempts to achieve a revision of the procedure after his death (1986) were unsuccessful between 1999 and 2001.

Keywords

• cominform
• goli otok
• state security administration (udba)
• communist party
• yugoslavia
• gornja radgona