On the threshold of a great discovery – Vse generalove skrivnosti (All the General’s Secrets) – on Ivan Sivec’s book
On the eve of the Slovenian cultural holiday, on Wednesday 7 February, the Pod lipo Adergas Cultural and Arts Society, in cooperation with the Municipality of Cerklje na Gorenjskem and the Cerklje Tourism Board, held a celebration in a packed hall at the Adergas Cultural Centre and presented the writer Ivan Sivec’s new, 183rd book, Vse generalove skrivnosti (All the General’s Secrets). In this fascinating book, Ivan Sivec reveals that, with the identification of Slovenian generals, the history of generals is being rewritten, and he said: “We are on the threshold of a great discovery.”
Jernej Basaj was the first Slovenian general, born in 1719 in Vopovlje. The presentation of the new book Vse generalove skrivnosti was hosted by Angelca Maček, and the cultural programme was enlivened with music and recitations by members of the local Pod lipo Adergas Cultural and Arts Society.
At the start of the ceremony, members of the Pod Lipo Adergas Cultural and Arts Society recited several of Prešeren’s poems and sang Zdravljica (A Toast), Vesna Sirc played a medley of Slovenian folk songs on the zither, and Petra Maček sang the song Kaj ti je deklica.
The ceremony was attended by many guests, among them the Mayor of the Municipality of Cerklje, Franc Čebulj; Deputy Mayor Miha Zevnik; the director of the Cerklje Tourism Board, Polona Šafner; the general’s relatives Iztok and Blaž Basaj from Suha pri Predosljah, who also drew up the family tree and are related to him going back eight generations; the parish priest of Velesovo, Slavko Kalan; and the renowned beekeeper Tone Koželj from Šmarje Sap. As Koželj explained, the chapel of Peter Pavel Glavar at Lanšprež is a unique monument to Slovenian beekeeping, commemorating this famous and distinguished figure. In the chapel, in front of the main altar, lies the tomb of Peter Pavel Glavar. It was here that he truly flourished with his bees, and in 1871 he founded the first school of beekeeping and gardening in Slovenia here. The two men died 14 days apart, in January 240 years ago.
Ivan Sivec is Slovenia’s most prolific writer
Ivan Sivec is the most prolific Slovenian writer, poet and ethnologist. He has written more works of fiction than anyone else and has also created more than three thousand lyrics for Slovenian folk-pop (narodno-zabavna), popular and choral music. As a Master of Ethnological Sciences, he was the first in Europe to give a scholarly definition of domestic popular music.
More than 370,000 copies of Sivec’s books have already been printed. Fifteen books have been reprinted, several works have been dramatised, more than a hundred books have been published in electronic form, a good fifty as audiobooks and a few in Braille. Every year, readers in Slovenian public libraries borrow around 40,000 of Sivec’s books. Several of his books have been translated into German, English and Italian.
In 2019 he received a high state decoration from the President of the Republic of Slovenia, Borut Pahor: the Order of Merit for the Slovenian Nation, for “an exceptionally extensive, diverse and resonant body of work that nurtures national consciousness.”
The book Vse generalove skrivnosti
In the book, Ivan Sivec describes the turbulent life and harrowing death of the first Slovenian general, Jernej Basaj, born in 1719 in Vopovlje, in the Municipality of Cerklje na Gorenjskem.
Sivec has also written a book about Peter Pavel Glavar, who was closely connected with Basaj throughout his life. After a little girl died in the Basaj household in Vopovlje, Peter Pavel Glavar was placed in foster care there, and he immediately became deeply attached to the family’s son; the two remained friends for the rest of their lives. Jernej Basaj decided to become a soldier and eventually rose to the rank of general, which at the time was a source of great Slovenian pride. Until now we have always spoken of the Slovenian general Rudolf Maister, who lived more than 150 years after Basaj, who was born in 1719 in Vopovlje. This year marks 240 years since his death. Basaj was one of those who served mainly in the Military Frontier, where most of the soldiers were Slovenes, Croats and Hungarians. On the eastern fronts and in the Venetian lands he fought in eleven battles and was always victorious.
With the help of two eminent Slovenian historians, Assoc. Prof. Dr Miha Štimec and Dr Rajmund Lampreht, the writer Ivan Sivec, in the form of a biographical novel, reveals in detail the hitherto unknown yet exceptionally important Slovenian hero Jernej Basaj, the first Slovenian general. Until this novel was published, only a few lines had ever been written about him. With the help of these scholars and his own research into the past, Sivec lays out before us Basaj’s thorny path from a peasant boy to his rise to the rank of general in the Military Frontier.
The novel is set against the exceptionally lively military backdrop of the eighteenth century. It is also interwoven with Basaj’s personal story, which spans from his first reckless love and his carefree bachelor days, and from novice soldier to marriage and his death in the arms of his blood brother Peter Pavel Glavar.
Text: Janez Kuhar, Cerklje, 8 February 2024
Photo: Janez Ribnikar
