Sergej Kraigher

Kraigher was born in Postojna, Austria-Hungary, modern-day Slovenia.^[2] His uncle, Jurij Kraigher was a prominent American civil and war pilot. His other uncle, Alojz Kraigher, was a prominent writer and left-wing activist, while his cousin Boris also became an influential communist politician in post-war Yugoslavia.

Kraigher rose through the ranks of the Communist Party of Slovenia in the 1940s,^[3] and fought with the partisan resistance during World War II. After the war he served as governor of the National Bank of Yugoslavia between 1951 and 1953, and then as director of the Federal Institute for Economic Planning and Secretary of State for Foreign Trade.^[4] Kraigher became chairman of the People's Assembly of Slovenia in 1967 and held that position until 1974, after which he served as President of the Presidency of Slovenia until 1979. Following the death of Edvard Kardelj, Kraigher became the Slovenian member of the collective Presidency of Yugoslavia and served as its 3rd President from 1981 to 1982, after the death of Josip Broz Tito.

He is also known for being the chairman of the Kraigher Commission, which was set up by the Yugoslav government to advise and give proposals in solving the Yugoslav economic crisis which started to develop in the early to mid-1980s.^[5] The commission report was the basis of a reform package that was to be implemented by the Milka Planinc cabinet, but never materialized.

Kraigher died in Ljubljana, Slovenia on 17 January 2001, at the age of 86.

National honours

• Order of People's Liberation (28 November 1953)^[6]
• Order of the Hero of Socialist Labour (14 March 1974)^[7]

Foreign honours

• Grand Cross of the Order of the Sun of Peru (12 November 1980)^[8]