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ago they had democratically enthroned their Carantanian princes at Gosposvetsko polje«,
and Clinton with a slightly ironic response that the friendship between Slovenia and the USA
goes back to a time before the creation of the USA, when Thomas Jefferson, the creator of the
Declaration of Independence, sought examples of democracy in the world, that is, of an
environment where the people rule, and that he (Jefferson) liked the fact that the Carinthian
dukes were slapped, which is said to have symbolized the right of the nation to overthrow its
rulers, and that would supposedly (in Clinton's opinion) be liked by all the future generations
of Americans as well.
Around the framework of a lost Slovene statehood, the suffering and a farmhand character, a
number of other mythical topics were weaved, some also as a sort of compensation for the
poor historical position of the Slovenes. In connection with the Turkish raids, when the
Slovenes were said to have (successfully) defended the foreign lords and Christianity from the
Turks and Islam, and, of course, the »national« territory as well, a special place is taken up by
the battle of Sisak in 1593. In it, a prominent (even leadership) role was given to Adam
Ravbar, a Carniolan captain of the provincial cavalry, who, according to legend, was also the
most responsible for the victory. The anniversary of the battles had always been festively
celebrated; during World War II the Slovene Home Guard identified with the Christian side,
and the partisans were given the role of the Turks. However, even in independent Slovenia
upon its 400th anniversary (in 1993) the battle was celebrated as »one of the victories leading
to an independent Slovene state.« (Simoniti: 1993). Also connected with the Turkish raids
(according to the same author) is the creation of Slovene mythical characters, such as Kralj
Matjaž, Peter Klepec and Martin Krpan. The medieval peasant uprisings were regarded by
some writers (including historians) as early forms of the class struggle and an attempt of
national emancipation, before caring for the social and national issue was taken over by the
working class with its »avant-garde«, that is, the Communist Party. A special myth is
connected with the strongest feudal family, the Counts of Celje (the three stars from their
coat-of-arms are included in the coat-of-arms of the Republic of Slovenia, and were already
used in the »combined« coat-of-arms of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia). The Counts of Celje are
said to have been of Slovene descent, the Principality of Celje a Slovene medieval state, while
Herman Celjski, by reigning over Bosnia and Slavonia (according to Janez Trdina), is said to
have »founded the mighty Yugoslav state.« If they had not been ruined, only Yugoslavs would
be living in the south of their property under their leadership (according to Karl Verstovšek);
Vlado Habjan saw in their extinction the loss of a social integrator and a possible realizer of a
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(Slovene) state that no one in that time, and for a long time after that, could replace. (Habjan:
1998).
The myth of a continuous national ascent is derived from a belief that the Slovenes had
always wanted a state of their own, which they had supposedly first written in the United
Slovenia program in 1848, and then tried to realize in various historical situations, which they
finally succeeded to do in 1991. In reality very few intellectuals supported this program,
which had not demanded an independent state but a unification of all Slovenes in a self-
governing unit with its own parliament. Likewise, the trialistic program from the turn of the
century had not demanded an independent Slovene state (as was, for instance, demanded by
the Czechs), but the division of the monarchy into three parts, with a southern Slavic part in
addition to the Hungarian and Austrian one. An expression of Slovene statehood (even with
elements of international recognition) is thought to be the transitional one-month State of
Slovenes, Croats and Serbs of 1918 with a seat in Zagreb, in which the Slovenes had their
own government but had not managed to establish a parliament. The State of SCS only began
to be mentioned as an expression of Slovene statehood in the 1970s, and it reached a peak
after the attaining of independence with a thesis on »Slovene attaining of independence in
1918« (Perovšek). Between the wars the political programs had not gone beyond demands of
autonomy, and during World War II United Slovenia (in the federal Yugoslavia) became a
programmatic guidance for both the partisan as well as the anti-partisan side, while only
effectively fought for by the partisan side (which achieved a change of the western border),
however, it is true that diplomatic attempts for its realization are also recorded in the case of
emigrant politicians. The question of how far the borders of United Slovenia should reach
remained open; it depended on several factors, mostly international ones (important was, for
instance, the decision of the Allies to renew Austria with the borders preceding the Anschluss
and the inclination towards Italy, and in the opinion of certain historians also the communist
tendency of the National Liberation Movement). Despite this, idealized programs were
formed in war conditions as well, which drew the borders of the United Slovenia at Visoke
Ture and Tilment and demanded that the demarcation takes into account the national
condition at the turn of the 20th century, namely, before the assimilation of Slovenes in
Austria and Italy. The National Liberation Movement also desires to change the nation of
farmhands (this image had been created through literary works of all the important writers
from Prešeren to Cankar) into a nation of heroes and transform the national character, which
was also an item in the program of the Liberation Front. The programs in socialist Yugoslavia
until the second half of the eighties also had not reached past a federal or confederal status,
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