2575 KB109 KB190420252024Hojnik, Janjaštevilka:2letnik:95 = n. v. 60str. 49-88ISSN:0590-5966DOI:10.62409/czn.273COBISSID_HOST:225205251URN:URN:NBN:SI:doc-B8D8L51CslZgodovinsko društvoČasopis za zgodovino in narodopisjebiografijebiographyCommunist Party at the UniversityHigher Law School in MariborhistorianintelektualecintellectuallawyerMladi PrekmurecpravnikPrekmurje deputyprekmurski poslanecprofesorprofessorŠiftar, VanekVišja pravna šolazgodovinarZveza komunistov na univerziVanek Šiftar, intelektualni steber Prekmurja 20. stoletja|Ivan Vanek Šiftar was one of the central social scientists and humanists of the second half of the 20th century in northeastern Slovenia. Already in his student days, he was intensively involved in discussions about the autonomy of Prekmurje and the status of Prekmurje dialect. With some experience in editing student publications in Ptuj, Vanek Šiftar took over the editorship of Mladi Prekmurec before the Second World War. After matriculation in Ptuj, Vanek Šiftar decided to study law at the Faculty of Law in Ljubljana, which was interrupted midway by the war, and he completed it as a student while working in 1953. Towards the end of the war, he transferred to the Red Army and after the war joined the Union communists, through which he wanted to contribute to the improvement of the standard of living and education of the people of Prekmurje. They elected him several times as a Republican and federal deputy. In parallel with his political activity, Šiftar had a legal career. Even before graduating from the Faculty of Law, he worked as a public prosecutor in various Slovenian districts, where he witnessed communist party interference in the work of the judiciary. After his first term as a federal deputy, he enrolled in doctoral studies at the Faculty of Law in Ljubljana, where he received his doctorate in 1965 on the topic of workers’ self-management. He later explained the latter as a project that was manipulated from the initially planned introduction of works councils, through which workers would participate in the management of companies “as good masters”, but not to provide employment to “the biggest slackers”. Due to his knowledge of labour issues, he was appointed chairman of the trade union commission in Maribor and from there in 1965, after his doctorate, he transferred to the Higher School of Law, which was then in its first years of operation. After the retirement of the first director of the school, Vanek Šiftar became the second director of the Law School with the vision of upgrading the school into a Faculty of Law, for which the Law School achieved the right to scientific activity and thus also the printing of legal books, which until then had been reserved for the Faculty of Law in Ljubljana. He worked in the university space at a time when communist party committees were operating at higher education institutions. Although Vanek Šiftar was a member of the communist party, he strove for the dominance of professionalism at the university, he looked for professional and not party staff and encouraged students to think independently. A special chapter in his life was in the second half of the 1970s, when, as a communist professor, he taught political organization courses at the Maribor department of the Faculty of Theology and hung out with the chaplains in the town’s taverns. In 1981, he became the first full-time law professor elected at the University of Maribor. Due to Šiftar’s Hungarian mobilization during WW2, the communist party committee almost prevented his appointment as an emeritus professor, and only the top faculty of the then-new University of Maribor managed to appoint Vanek Šiftar as the University of Maribor’s first emeritus professor in the field of law in 1983van Vanek Šiftar je bil eden osrednjih družboslovcev in humanistov druge polovice 20. stoletja v severovzhodni Sloveniji. Že v dijaških časih je bil intenzivno vpet v diskusije o avtonomiji Prekmurja in statusu prekmurščine. Z nekaj izkušenj z urednikovanjem dijaških objav na Ptuju je pred drugo svetovno vojno Vanek Šiftar prevzel urednikovanje Mladega Prekmurca. Po maturi na Ptuju se je Vanek Šiftar odločil za študij prava na Pravni fakulteti v Ljubljani, ki ga je na sredini prekinila vojna, in zaključil ga je kot študent ob delu leta 1953. Proti koncu vojne je prestopil v Rdečo armado in se po vojni vključil v Zvezo komunistov, preko katere je želel prispevati k izboljšanju življenjskega standarda in izobraženosti Prekmurcev. Ti so ga večkrat izvolili za republiškega in zveznega poslanca. Vzporedno s političnim delovanjem je imel Šiftar pravno kariero. Še pred diplomo na Pravni fakulteti je deloval kot javni tožilec v različnih slovenskih okrajih, kjer je bil priča partijskemu vmešavanju v delo pravosodja. Po prvem mandatu zveznega poslanca se je vpisal na doktorski študij na Pravni fakulteti v Ljubljani, kjer je leta 1965 doktoriral na temo samoupravljanja. Slednje je kasneje razložil kot projekt, ki je bil zmanipuliran iz na začetku predvidene uvedbe delavskih svetov, preko katerih bi delavci »kot dobri gospodarji« sodelovali pri upravljanju podjetij, ne pa da bi zagotavljali zaposlitev »največjim zabušantom«. Zaradi poznavanja delavske tematike je bil postavljen za predsednika sindikalne komisije v Mariboru in od tam je leta 1965 po doktoratu presedlal na Višjo pravno šolo, ki je bila tedaj v svojih prvih letih delovanja. Po upokojitvi prvega direktorja šole je Vanek Šiftar postal drugi direktor VPŠ z vizijo nadgradnje šole v Visoko pravno šolo ter v Pravno fakulteto, za kar je VPŠ izboril pravico do znanstvenega delovanja in s tem tudi tiskanja pravnih knjig, ki je bila dotlej pridržana Pravni fakulteti v Ljubljani. V univerzitetnem prostoru je deloval v času, ko so na visokošolskih ustanovah delovali partijski odbori. Ne glede na to, da je bil Vanek Šiftar član ZK, si je prizadeval za prevlado strokovnosti na univerzi; iskal je strokovne in ne partijskih kadrov ter študente spodbujal k samostojnemu mišljenju. Posebno poglavje njegovega življenja je bilo v drugi polovici 70. let prejšnjega stoletja, ko je kot komunistični profesor predaval politično ureditev na mariborskem oddelku Teološke fakultete in se s kaplani družil po mestnih gostilnah. Leta 1981 je postal prvi redni profesor prava, izvoljen na Univerzi v Mariboru. Zaradi Vanekove madžarske mobilizacije je partijski organ skoraj preprečil njegovo imenovanje za zaslužnega profesorja in le najvišji profesorski zbor takrat še nove Univerze v Mariboru je dosegel, da je bil Vanek Šiftar leta 1983 imenovan za prvega zaslužnega profesorja Univerze v Mariboru s področja pravaTEXTznanstveno časopisjejournalsSlovenian National E-content AggregatorNational and University Library of SloveniaZgodovinsko društvo v Mariboru