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not in conflict with its direct interests), gives the impression that the integralistic myth of the
Slovene/Catholic is being renewed. In opposition to this are the processes of modernization
that had happened in the meantime, and the constitutional separation of Church and State,
which is mainly interpreted according to the balance of political power, and in the past few
years that has been quite favorable for the Church.
Of the current myths (historical constructs) most are related to the issue of World War II and
socialism (communism) and have a strong topical political note. The fundamental observation
here is that in Slovenia a revision of history has occurred (which is, in fact, in many ways a
result of new research and objective scientific discoveries, but that is not the object of this
discussion). This revision quite often leads to mythicizing; the historians that contradict this
with scientific arguments are being labeled as »anational«, unpatriotic, etc., they are often
subjected to harsh political disqualifications. This is mostly a result of the changed ideological
and political image of Slovenia after the last elections (2004). While the mostly liberal
governments from the time of Slovenia's attaining of independence onwards had dealt with
history only marginally and left it to the discipline itself, the current right-wing coalition has
placed the attitude towards the past as one of its priorities, both in controlling science and in
school programs, as well as at celebrations and public manifestations. This new, supposedly
patriotic image of history is largely founded on the myths I have discussed and which are to
become an integral part of the historical consciousness of Slovenes. Explicitly assaulted here
is World War II and socialism (communism) with a selective time treatment (neglecting the
ideological conflicts before the war and the chronologically provable events: occupation -
collaboration - resistance - revolution), by reducing the historical treatment merely to the
issue of the revolution and by emphasizing that the Slovene rift and the civil war had begun
due to communist acts during the war. This is joined by a thesis that the Kingdom of
Yugoslavia was a democratic, parliamentary state; that the representatives of civic parties
were legally elected (and legitimate) representatives of the Slovene nation also during the
war, despite at least publicly renouncing their old country (it is well-known that politicians –
e.g. the Ban of the Drava Banovina – who had not long ago pledged their allegiance to the
Yugoslav Regent after the occupation – were in the mildest, unaltered version - »informed« of
the inclusion of a part of Slovene territory and paid tribute to Mussolini in Rome, while
mayors pledged their allegiance to the Italian king, etc.). The communist revolution during the
war and after it is said to have annihilated the economic standard and democracy that had
been achieved before the war, and to have led Slovenes in every way to the sidelines of
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development. Scientific historiography – despite acknowledging the merits that the Kingdom
of Yugoslavia had especially for Slovene culture and economy – does not support this claim
and sees in its social and international conflicts the reasons for events during World War II as
well. According to these theses, the communists, a small conspiratorial group, have a merely
revolutionary character and not a nationally liberational one. By denying the right to
resistance to the civic side (forgetting that the exclusion was mutual) it had thus prevented
(rendered impossible) its revolt, although it is well-known that there were numerous kinds of
active armed resistance in many countries (Poland, France, Italy, Greece) and that the
conditions for such were also present in Slovenia, and that had there been an active resistance
the situation of the civic camp would have been significantly altered also in the eyes of the
western allies. A »pure« national liberation, without a revolution (and consequently without a
civil war) would supposedly have been meaningless to the Communist Party, and patriotism
merely a means to achieve the class goal. This is, among other things, being proved with
adapted viewpoints that »the communists will march into an armed resistance against the
occupier only if they have a chance for a revolution«, or (in another version) that they will
enter an anti-Fascist battle in the event that it would benefit the Soviet Union. The
communists no doubt saw the war as an opportunity to carry out a revolution and in individual
periods (especially before the attack of Germany on the Soviet Union) placed it in the
foreground, however, regardless of the parallel revolutionary goals, this was above all a
resistance act. This evaluation is supplemented by the thesis that the communist nature of the
resistance movement and then of the post-war regime prevented the realization of the idea of a
United Slovenia, and that it had especially influenced the loss of Trieste. There have already
been a few historical discussions and polemics on this matter. To sum up the historical
discussion, this somehow extends to the possibility of obtaining Gorizia, is critical to
individual domestic and foreign political moves of the post-war authorities, which had
undoubtedly influenced the tensing of the situation with the western countries, and in the
event that there had not been a partisan resistance, hypothetically (the so-called »if history«),
allows for a partial correction of the borders by the so-called Wilson line from before World
War I (which still would not provide Slovenes an outlet to the sea). The political
interpretation (also in a speech by Prime Minister Janez Janša) upon the anniversary of the
accession of Primorska was that had there not been a communist regime ruling in Slovenia at
that time we would have also obtained Trieste and the entire Venetian Slovenia (which
Austria had lost back in 1866, and with Italy even carrying out an investigative plebiscite in
the controversial territory which showed that Slovenes – surely due to previous unfriendly
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