Year: 2022
Type: article
Abstract: A New State in Europe?Throughout Habsburg and Yugoslav times Slovenian politicians and political theorists were cautious about identifying the concept of the nation with that of the state.Within both the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and its Communist successor formation there was always the risk that the non-Slovenian parent state might squeeze its minority Slovenian nationality out of existence, if only in the course of nurturing a unitary Yugoslav identity.Due to international realities and the small size of the population, the very thought of a Slovenian nation state was felt to be unrealistic.A variety of events, dates, suppositions, and claims vie for pride of place in bringing about the formation of a Slovenian government and establishment of the Slovenian state.New, albeit short-lived Slovenian and Yugoslav authorities emerged simultaneously with the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.A Ljubljana-based National Council (Narodni svet) was established in August 1918, while an entity with the same name, but in Croatian (Narodno vijeće or National Council), was formed in Zagreb on 6 October.The two national councils assumed power over the territory then referred to as the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs on 27 and 29 October, respectively.On 29 October, on Congress Square in the center of Ljubljana, Ivan Hribar, the city's later mayor, standing in for the absent Anton Korošec, "proclaimed Slovenia's secession from Austria-Hungary and its merger with our fellow Slavs, the Serbs and Croats," as Hribar later noted in his memoirs. 2 On 21 October, the leadership of the Zagreb-based Council, which Korošec also led, "at the recommendation of the National Council in Ljubljana" named the government for Slovenia, which was led by Josip Pogačnik.That first government and state lasted exactly one month, until the unification of Yugoslavia on 1 December 1918. 1 This overview was originally commissioned by the Slovene Book Agency for inclusion in a much larger anthology of expert introductions to a wide range of facets of Slovenian culture that the Agency is planning to publish in separate English and German editions for the 2023 Frankfurt Book Fair, at which Slovenia will be the Guest of Honor.Slovene Studies extends our sincere thanks both to the Book Agency and to Dr. Rupel for their kind permission to publish the English translation of the article here.For more information about Slovenia as the featured publishing industry
Source: Slovene Studies Journal
Author: Dimitrij Rupel
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7125605482
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