Stane Dolanc

Stane Dolanc (November 16, 1925 – December 12, 1999) was a Yugoslav Communist politician and one of Tito's closest men. Dolanc was born to a worker family in the Slovenian town of Hrastnik, then part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. After finishing elementary school in his home town, he was sent to the prestigious Bežigrad High School in Ljubljana. In April 1941, northern Slovenia was occupied by Nazi Germany. Dolanc continued his sc... more

Stane Dolanc (November 16, 1925 – December 12, 1999) was a Yugoslav Communist politician and one of Tito's closest men. Dolanc was born to a worker family in the Slovenian town of Hrastnik, then part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. After finishing elementary school in his home town, he was sent to the prestigious Bežigrad High School in Ljubljana. In April 1941, northern Slovenia was occupied by Nazi Germany. Dolanc continued his schooling in Graz and was even drafted in the Hitlerjugend. In 1944, he joined the Yugoslav Partisans and started his military career. He became involved with politics relatively late, in 1969, when he was already forty-three year old. Nevertheless, his unexpectedly quickly rose to one of the most important members of the Communist Party of Slovenia. In 1969 he was appointed as a member of the Presidium of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, which he remained until 1982. In the early 1970s, he helped the Yugoslav president Tito to crush the... less