The article discusses the operation of the women’s correctional facility in Ig in the first ten years of its existence, the living conditions, different forms of re-education work for the convicts ...and the economic units in which the convicts worked. Female convicts came to Ig in July 1956, specifically to the castle building that had previously housed male convicts. Though the building was partly renovated upon the women’s arrival, it was soon apparent that it could not provide optimal conditions for the accommodation of convicts and re-education work. The view on convicts’ re-education and of the importance of manual labour in re-education started to gradually change in the 1960s. For selected convicts, a less restrictive regime of serving sentences had been introduced as early as the late 1950s.
The article provides an outline of the development of the internal relations and divisions in the Slovenian progressive (liberal) camp in the years just before the Second World War and upon its ...start. After falling from power in 1935, the progressive camp was weak and internally fragmented. At the same time, the range of groups and ideological orientations found under the “progressive” umbrella was extremely wide as it extended far to the left and right sides of the political spectrum. The youth, in particular, were distinctly ideologically differentiated and radicalised. Some of them were highly susceptible to radical political approaches and moved towards fascism and communism. Especially when viewing the wider ideological camp, it is thus partly justified to posit a process of disintegration. At the same time, at least the core part maintained a consciousness of belonging to a common political camp, which was reflected by renewed connections between parties and groups on the eve of the war.
The article provides an overview of the activities of the Serbian Volunteer Corps (SDK), which arrived at the Operational Zone of the Adriatic Littoral, specifically at what is now the Primorska ...region of Slovenia, in November 1944. The Corps reported to the Serbian Government and was used by the German military authorities to combat the resistance movements in occupied Serbia in 1941–1944. After the Soviet Army entered Yugoslavia and Serbia in the autumn of 1944, the Corps was transferred to the Operational Zone of the Adriatic Littoral. The article provides details on the SDK status, its size and role in this area and finally on its tragic fate, when most of its personnel that managed to withdraw to Austria were handed over to the Yugoslav Partisan forces, which executed them in remote areas of Slovenia. The article is based on the author’s archival research and on Serbian and Slovenian emigrant literature.
The article discusses the history of the educational system in the Slovene Littoral (Primorska) in the interwar period, focusing on the northern part of the region. It highlights assimilation ...pressures that started with the Italian occupation at the end of the First World War and intensified with the rise of fascism. In detail, it presents the impact of the school reform of 1923, which was named after the education minister of the time, Giovanni Gentile; in the next twenty years, this reform enabled a systematic denationalisation of Slovenians in Italy and opened the field of education to fascist ideology. Activities in defence of the nation, which relied foremost on patriotic families and Slovenian priests, largely negated this denationalisation.
The article discusses Borut Pahor’s political career from his first steps when entering the Communist Party to the moment he prematurely ended his mandate as the prime minister of the Republic of ...Slovenia. By studying a wide range of media reporting, from online articles and interviews to appearances in entertainment shows, the author discerns certain constants in Pahor’s political engagements that put him, as an individual, in a unique as well as outstanding position in the otherwise rather polarised Slovenian political landscape. Due to his proverbial differentness or exactly because of it, his efforts to bring together both opposing political camps, as noted by the author, have been fairly unsuccessful but still appealing to the majority of the public, as demonstrated by numerous public opinion polls in the last two decades as well as the fact that he is the most “trophy-winning” politician in the history of the Republic of Slovenia.
In line with the provisions of the peace treaty with Italy, a large part of the Archdiocese of Gorizia became part of Yugoslavia on 15 September 1947; the same applies to the Diocese of Rijeka and ...part of the Diocese of Trieste-Koper. Franc Močnik became the apostolic administrator for the Yugoslav part of the dioceses of Gorizia and Trieste-Koper. Even before the annexation, activities of the Church in Zone B under Yugoslav administration had been under close surveillance; violence against priests had started and was further exacerbated after the annexation. Udba, the secret political police, launched an active “differentiation” of the clergy right after the annexation. It collected materials against undesirable priests, starting arrests and trials. Franc Močnik was driven out of the country twice by an incited mob; in 1948, he was succeeded by Mihael Toroš, who first held a different view of the authorities, collaborating with them and being a member of the Cyril-Methodius Society (CMD) at first. After four years, he changed his opinion radically, becoming a harsh critic.
At the end of the Second World War and in its immediate aftermath, Joseph V. Stalin discussed the issue of Slovenian intellectuals with Edvard Kardelj (1944) and Boris Kidrič (1946); he saw them as a ...homogeneous social group as the intelligentsia in Russia had been before the formation of the Soviet regime and believed them to be problematic as well as useful to communists, particularly while fighting for patriotic aims. It seems that he detected this as a problem mostly due to the situation in Italy, with which Yugoslavia was in dispute over a border issue. In spite of criticising J. V. Stalin, Kardelj later thought that the problem highlighted by the Soviet leader indeed existed.
In April 1941, Italian forces occupied the Lož Valley (Loška dolina); their violent authority continued until the Italian capitulation in September 1943. Considering wartime and post-war fatalities ...in the area in question, the Italian invaders caused the highest number of deaths, namely forty percent of all fatalities, most of them civilian. The most extreme violence took place during the Italian offensive in July and August 1942, when there were mass shootings, the population was exiled to internment, and property was burned and looted.
In Yugoslavia, the 1980s were a period of economic and political crisis, but also a time of a gradual liberalisation of the society and the start of its movement towards a multiparty system and ...breakup. By easing impediments of censorship in culture, which was the domain of the ruling communist party, the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (ZKJ), a space opened up for artists to raise some traumatic and problematic topics from the Yugoslav past, such as Goli Otok and the clash with the Cominform. The manner in which these topics were addressed in 1980s Yugoslav films suggests that the influence of ZKJ over cultural and social life was waning, but also that the Party still tried to promote its version of the past with propaganda films such as Visoki napon (High Voltage). Accordingly, this article represents a contribution to studying and understanding the social and political situation in the final decade of socialist Yugoslavia, as viewed through the lens of cultural history.
