Danes jaz, jutri ti. Tretja knjiga

Valentin Tratnik, or Rajko Hribar (1929–2014) – as he refers to himself in his memoirs – was, like many people of his generation, a rather unfortunate yet consistently energetic and active figure. Both readers and critics held the first two volumes of his memoirs, Danes jaz, jutri ti ('Today Me, Tomorrow You'), in high regard; these were published in large print runs in 1980 and 1987 by Založba Borec of Ljubljana. Compared with other accounts in the style of »do you still remember, comrades?«, or, to put it more aptly for our author, »is this what we fought for!?«, it was, in fact, realistic, tangible, critical, exhaustive and uncompromising – both towards himself and towards his comrades-in-arms, and later his colleagues, as well as the immediate socio-political and everyday living environment. He remains so in this, his final book.

In his third book, Tratnik encounters poorly educated individuals in high-ranking positions; he meets people who were fascists during Mussolini’s time, who were either in hiding or deserters during the Second World War, and who then happily joined the Communist Party. A passionate contributor to various publications across the socialist republic, his critical stance caused him considerable trouble, to the extent that he and his family were even driven out of the Tolmin area and, despite his conscientious service at Elektro Tolmin, he was forced to retrain as an innkeeper. However, his troubles with the local powers did not end there, and Tratnik eventually took early retirement on grounds of ill health. Yet even his children found no peace...