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2. Either an individual historian, when creating his or her writing, compares his or her results
with results obtained by others, accepts them, objects to them or ignores them. It is estimated
that is mostly the latter; meaning that the Slovene method of quoting and considering the
results is very selective and based on personal sympathies, antipathies and ideological
determination. When my colleague Nećak and I were writing the book on World War I
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I
read or at least examined several hundreds of books and can easily use this recent example to
let you know who is liked and who is not liked in Slovene historiography. I shall list only one
example in relation to Janko Pleterski
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- i.e., in some authors you cannot possibly find it,
even though they wrote fundamental and today still unsurpassed works. In such examples the
»comparison« usually changes in some kind of silent adoption of the thesis (if the writer
agrees with it), »hides« in the writer's text or is interpreted as a generally accepted historical
aspect. In the event that it fails to fit into the writer's context then we simply adopt the
historical survey of the non-quoted author and add a different conclusion.
3. Comparativity with a retroactive effect. This comparativity has several dimensions.
Comparativity with research in time when a certain historical project is still underway, and
that when the process is already concluded. Example: Assessments relating to Austria-
Hungary or Yugoslavia are different in historiography and otherwise during the period of both
countries than later, when they both collapsed. In this case no comparativity in conclusions is
possible because it relates to two different observer's positions. However, the comparativity of
individual developments in a positivist sense is possible and necessary. There are also other
examples, where previous results of historiography are simply rejected as surviving in whole
either from ideological or other reasons, even though they can be completely relevant and also
unsurpassed in a certain segment.
The other kind of comparativity – which would preferably be referred to as historical amnesia
- can be found in historians who are more subjected to politics. A lot of these can also be
found in the current situation, for example, when we observe a diametrically opposed
assessment by the same people from the ones they had written twenty years ago or less, even
though there were no new significant historical documents or cognitions in between.
However, what had changed was the regime. This kind of comparativity can be very
unpleasant since it demonstrates an individual writer's incredibility. It is usually justified with
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Dušan Nećak, Božo Repe: Prelom. Svet in Slovenci v prvi svetovni vojni, Sofija, Ljubljana 2003.
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Academician Dr. Janko Pleterski, year 1923, one of the leading Slovene historians, the main topics of
research are the national question, minorities (especially in Austria), border question, international relationships
in Yugoslavia, questions relating to collaboration, the cultural struggle of Slovenes, mutual conflict of Slovenes
during World War II, revolutions.
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the need for a general and continuous revision, which is supposed to be a component part of
the historian's work in accordance with the known thesis that every single generation rewrites
history. In principle, this is true and nobody objects to that. Only some authors carry out the
revision several times in their life but more in accordance with the aspects of the currently
governing coalition than with the new historical results.
4. Comparativity of different (usually national) historiographies. The final objective here is a
political one, although within the scientific discourse. So: two different national
historiographies differently assess a certain historical problem - in most cases their relations
(either on the basis of different documents or on the basis of the same resources, which are
differently interpreted). Listed below are a few examples with different results: a consensus
on a joint text was achieved in the first case of Slovene-Italian commission.
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This one is
very compromised in many places on behalf of the common goal and basically conceals
differences using general formulations. In the case of the Slovene-Austrian commission the
work has so far been concluded only by the Slovene part and no real comparison and
confrontation with differences has occurred so far.
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If the Austrian part is issued one day
then we will be able to continue comparing the same (similar) aspects and differences on this
basis. Similarly, we could estimate the Macedonian-Slovene journal, which was initiated and
had no political background.
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Here, we each demonstrated our own view of Yugoslavia,
only with a partial confrontation of different views in discussions (for example, the question
of financing the undeveloped regions of the former country, to state only one aspect),
however, not in the published contributions. We are still waiting for the result from the
Slovene-Croatian commission.
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The final goal – as interpreted by politicians and some
colleagues from the commission – should be that during history there were no greater
conflicts and problems present between the Slovene and Croatian people, with smaller
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The Italian- Slovene historical and cultural commission addressed the Slovene-Italian relationships between
the years 1880 and 1956. The commission worked for seven years, since 1993 and until 2000 and then issued a
joint report in the Italian, Slovene and English language (Slovensko-italijanski odnosi/rapporti Italo-Sloveni
[Slovene-Italian relations] 1880-1956, Koper (Capodistria), 2000). The Italian government has never officially
confirmed that report.
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The Austrian-Slovene commission operated from 2001 until 2003. No joint text nor any deeper reconciliation
of content was agreed on. The Slovene side published its texts in the Slovene and German language in 2004,
while the Austrian side failed to do so until now (see Historiat komisije in slovenski prispevki [History of the
Commission and Slovene Contributions] in the book Slovensko-avstrijski odnosi v 20. stoletju. Slowenisch-
österreichische bezieungen im 20. Jahrhundert, Ljubljana 2004).
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In Makedonci v Jugoslaviji. Ljubljana: Filozofska fakulteta, Oddelek za zgodovino; Skopje: Institut za
nacionalna istorija, 1999.
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The Slovene-Croatian commission was established in June 2005, based on agreements made between the
Prime Ministers of both countries. The commission was to examine the relationships between Slovenia and
Croatia since the middle of the 19th century until the attainment of independence in 1991. Each side prepared a
report before 2007, which should have been published together; however, so far this has not happened.
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