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that time we would have obtained Trieste as well and the entire Venetian Slovenia (which
Austria, as we know, 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 Austrian politics – were also inclined towards an annexation to Italy).
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In
connection with this a predicament is also arising regarding the contribution of the National
Liberation Movement to Slovene statehood (the status of the republic in post-war Yugoslavia;
the right to self-determination, including the right to secession, written down in all the post-
war Yugoslav constitutions; the parliament, the government, from the seventies onwards also
the presidency; the borders which Slovenia had attained within socialist Yugoslavia and that
were internationally confirmed). Both in a local as well as an international context this
predicament was all the more obvious when it came to assuming an attitude towards AVNOJ
and its resolutions, which had been caused after the attaining of independence by demands
from Austria that Slovenia give up the AVNOJ resolutions and return the nationalized
property.
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Local criticism of the work of historians and politicians is directed towards the
»revolutionary character« of AVNOJ (despite international recognition), while, e.g., the
confirmation of the decisions regarding the annexation of Primorska, at least silently,
naturally comes in handy.
Communism in the Eyes of the Slovenes
65
»With September 15 we also remember the partial international correction of the injustice that had been
brought on us in 1915 by the Treaty of London. If the then communist leadership of post-war Yugoslavia had
not gone over to the totalitarian side of the Iron Curtain, we could have also counted on Trieste, Gorizia and the
Veneto« (from a speech by Janez Janša, quoted after: Primorska si zasluži poseben dan, Dnevnik, 17.09.2005).
On the second anniversary the same speaker mentioned only Gorizia, and left out Venetian Slovenia: »The time
after World War II additionally aggravated the dying of Trieste, and we, Slovenes, greatly owing to the Belgrade
authorities, lost Gorizia as well (
www.gov.si
– the speech by the Prime Minister Janez Janša at the national
celebration upon the holiday of the return of Primorska to its motherland, Cerje na Krasu 15.9.2006). In addition,
see the commentary by Dr. Jože Pirjevec (Primorski dnevnik, September 21, 2006): »Whoever knows at least a
little of the course of the diplomatic bargaining set by the foreign ministers of the four greats in May and June of
1946 in Paris, knows that this claim is trumped up. The mentioned »comrades« in reality fought for Gorizia like
lions. If it is anyone's fault that we had not obtained it, it is the fault of our current allies within the NATO, the
Americans, the British and the French, but mostly the Soviets, whose Foreign Minister Molotov basically let us
down.« (Followed by a quote from Kardelj's Spomini [Memories] on his sharp talk with Molotov regarding
Gorizia).
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It concerns two decrees by the AVNOJ Presidency on November 21, 1944 on the deprivation of the civil rights
of Yugoslav Germans and on the transition of enemy possessions into national property. For more on the topic
see »Nemci« na Slovenskem 1941- 1955, ZIF, Ljubljana 2002 and Slovensko-avstrijski odnosi v 20. stoletju,
Historia 8, FF, oddelek za zgodovino, Ljubljana 2004.
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In Slovenia communism (socialism)
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has, during all of its existence, received both euphoric
praise and euphoric criticism. It is probably questionable or at least exaggerated to speak of a
creation of myths or anti-myths in all of the examples, but we can definitely speak of a
syndrome, which, with a positive or negative sign, had strongly impressed itself on the
consciousness of the generations from the end of World War I to the 1990s. If – with a certain
reservation – the terms myth and anti-myth (in reality they are closer to historical constructs)
are still used, the attitude of the Slovenes towards socialism can be divided into a few
categories or time frames.
The original myth is derived from the belief that the social system, as created with the
October Revolution, is the most democratic and just system in the world, therefore a social
regime of the future, inclined particularly towards the lower classes and especially towards
the working class. This thesis began to be spread in the time between the two wars, and for a
short time after World War I; under the influence of revolutionary agitation, the belief was
also common that communism will spread and prevail in Europe and later in the world. As an
anti-myth to this thesis lay the conviction that the communist system is criminal, atheist, and
the worst adversary to the Slovenes and Catholicism, which is why it must be prevented by all
means necessary from becoming influential or even prevailing in Slovenia, and in this context
also to prevent the CP from becoming a recognized party within parliamentarism.
Both the myth and anti-myth existed also during World War II, only strengthened. On the
revolutionary side strengthened by the belief that only the SU is capable of withstanding Nazi
Germany and is consequently the strongest ally to the Slovenes, and on the
counterrevolutionary side by the view that the CP (LF) is using the war and the National
Liberation Struggle to achieve revolutionary goals, thus making the collaboration and the armed
co-operation with the occupiers against the resistance movement justified and legitimate, or a
smaller evil than communism.
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Terminologically more correct is the use of the term communism as an idea for the period before 1945, and
afterwards the term socialism, since the system (and from 1963 onwards the state as well) named itself such
(before that time it was a system of people's democracy and a people's republic). The communist social regime is
said to have been only the end goal of socialism. After the introduction of a multi-party system, for the period
between 1945 and 1990 the term communism became increasingly used, instead of the term socialism (which is
otherwise the practice of many writers also outside of Slovenia, while in Slovenia this also implies the thesis that
there were no fundamental differences between self-governing socialism and real socialism, that consequently
totalitarianism lasted until 1990. In their meaning both notions in this essay overlap for the sake of
simplification.
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