Vasilij Melik was a Slovenia

Slovenia

Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...

n historian

Historian

A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

, who mostly worked on political history

Political history

Political history is the narrative and analysis of political events, ideas, movements, and leaders. It is distinct from, but related to, other fields of history such as Diplomatic history, social history, economic history, and military history, as well as constitutional history and public...

 of the Slovene Lands

Slovene Lands

Slovene Lands or Slovenian Lands is the historical denomination for the whole of the Slovene-inhabited territories in Central Europe. It more or less corresponds to modern Slovenia and the adjacent territories in Italy, Austria and Hungary in which autochthonous Slovene minorities live.-...

 in the 19th century.

He was born in Ljubljana

Ljubljana

Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...

 as the only son of the renowned geographer Anton Melik

Anton Melik

Anton Melik was a Slovene geographer.- Biography :Melik was born in the village of Črna Vas, now part of Ljubljana, Slovenia, at that time part of Austria-Hungary. Before and during World War I, he studied at the University of Vienna, graduating in 1916 in history and geography. Later he was...

. After finishing the Ljubljana Classical Lyceum, he enrolled at the University of Ljubljana

University of Ljubljana

The University of Ljubljana is the oldest and largest university in Slovenia. With 64,000 enrolled graduate and postgraduate students, it is among the largest universities in Europe.-Beginnings:...

, where he studied under the supervision of the historian Fran Zwitter

Fran Zwitter

Fran Zwitter was a Slovenian historian. He is considered, together with Milko Kos, Bogo Grafenauer and Vasilij Melik, the co-founder of the so-called Ljubljana school of historiography.- Life and work :...

. During World War Two, he was sent to the Gonars concentration camp

Gonars concentration camp

On February 23, 1942 the Italian fascist regime established a concentration camp in Gonars, a town with approx. 4,600 inhabitants near Palmanova in the Province of Udine in northeastern Italy.Most of the prisoners were from present day Slovenia and Croatia...

 by the Fascist Italian

Italian Fascism

Italian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...

 occupation authorities, and then to a labour camp near Postojna

Postojna

Postojna is a town and a municipality in the traditional region of Inner Carniola, from Trieste, in southwestern Slovenia. Population 14,581 .-History:...

. After the Italian armistice in September 1943, he was released and returned to Ljubljana, where he graduated from history in 1944. In 1945, he worked shortly as a correspondent for the Yugoslav press agency Tanjug

Tanjug

Tanjug was founded on November 5, 1943. It is now a Serbian news agency based in Belgrade....

, and then continued the academic career.

Melik's research was focused on the Slovene history

History of Slovenia

The history of Slovenia chronicles the period of the Slovene territory from the 5th Century BC to the present times. In the Early Bronze Age, Proto-Illyrian tribes settled an area stretching from present-day Albania to the city of Trieste. The Holy Roman Empire controlled the land for nearly 1,000...

 of the 19th century. He first dedicated to the economic history, but then shifted to political history, especially history of legal and political institutions. Particularly important is his study on the elections in the Slovene Lands between 1861 and 1918. He also researched history of everyday life, especially of the period of modernization and industrialization of the Slovene countryside in Carniola

Carniola

Carniola was a historical region that comprised parts of what is now Slovenia. As part of Austria-Hungary, the region was a crown land officially known as the Duchy of Carniola until 1918. In 1849, the region was subdivided into Upper Carniola, Lower Carniola, and Inner Carniola...

 and Lower Styria

Lower Styria

Lower Styria or Slovenian Styria is a traditional region in northeastern Slovenia, comprising the southern third of the former Duchy of Styria. The population of Lower Styria in its historical boundaries amounts to around 705,000 inhabitants, or 34.5% of the population of Slovenia...

.

In the 1980s, he collaborated with the prestigious publishing house Slovenska matica

Slovenska matica

Slovenska matica , also known as Matica slovenska, is the second-oldest publishing house in Slovenia, founded in the 19th century as an institution for the scholarly and cultural progress of Slovenes...

in the critical editions of memoirs by prominent Slovene politicians of the 19th century, including Ivan Hribar

Ivan Hribar

Ivan Hribar was a Slovene and Yugoslav banker, politician, diplomat and journalist. At the turn of the century, he was one of the leaders of the National Progressive Party, and one of the most important figures of Slovene liberal nationalism...

 and Josip Vošnjak

Josip Vošnjak

Josip Vošnjak was a Slovene politician and author, leader of the Slovene National Movement in the Duchy of Styria, and one of the most prominent representatives of the Young Slovene movement....

.

He died in Ljubljana.

Controversy

Melik was frequently accused, especially after the democratisation of Slovenia in 1990, of having been too cooperative with the Communist regime. One of the main accusations against Melik was that he was involved in the removal of the Catholic conservative literary historian Anton Slodnjak from the University of Ljubljana because of his alternative interpretations of the history of Slovenian literature

Slovenian literature

Slovene literature, meaning the literature in the Slovene language, starts with Freising manuscripts around 1000. From first printed Slovene religious books in 1550 it is followed by these literary periods and notable authors:-Middle Ages:-Folk poetry:...

. In March 1959, in fact, in midst of an instigated massive denigration campaign against the distinguished scholar, Melik published a long negative critique of Slodnjak's historical interpretations, accusing him of non-scientific and metaphysical

Metaphysics

Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...

 approach to literary history. Many, including Melik's colleague historian Bogo Grafenauer

Bogo Grafenauer

Bogo Grafenauer was a Slovenian historian, who mostly wrote about medieval history in the Slovene Lands. Together with Milko Kos, Fran Zwitter, and Vasilij Melik, he was one of the founders of the so-called Ljubljana school of historiography.- Early life :He was born in Ljubljana in a well...

, interpreted this gesture as a service to the repressive cultural policies of the Titoist regime.