STA, 22 August 2019 - Slovenia will join the observance of European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Totalitarian Regimes with several events on Thursday with President Borut Pahor honouring victims in Lendava in the north-east.

The European Parliament designated 23 August as a day to remember victims of totalitarian regimes ten years ago to coincide with the date of the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in 1939.

The non-aggression pact between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany contained a protocol dividing Romania, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland into designated German and Soviet spheres of influence.

The remembrance day has been officially observed in Slovenia since 2012, in accordance with the decision by the then centre-right government, although it has caused some friction along the ideological divide.

The ZZB World War II Veterans' Association complained that equating all totalitarian regimes amounted to historical revisionism with the goal of concealing collaboration with Nazism and Fascism.

PRS je na predvečer evropskega dneva spomina na žrtve vseh totalitarnih in avtoritarnih režimov položil venec k spomeniku žrtvam druge svetovne vojne in žrtvam rasnega, nacionalnega in ideološkega nasilja v času po drugi svetovni vojni v Lendavi in njeni okolici. pic.twitter.com/PglSBgkhrx

— Borut Pahor (@BorutPahor) August 22, 2019

Meanwhile, the Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) has been unsuccessful in its attempts to have the National Assembly adopt the European Parliament's 2009 resolution on European conscience and totalitarianism.

Data on the number of victims of Fascism, Nazism and Communism in Slovenia vary. The latest from the Slovenian history portal Sistory put the number of victims of war and post-war atrocities between April 1941 and January 1946 at 99,865.

The victims will be remembered with several events on the eve of the pan-European day, including with a commemoration in Lendava which will be joined by President Borut Pahor.

Pahor will lay a wreath at a memorial to victims of WWII and victims of post-war racial, nationalist and ideological fanaticism in Lendava and its surroundings.

To Boris Hajdinjak, the head of the Centre of Jewish Cultural Heritage Synagogue Maribor, Pahor will present a charter of his honorary sponsorship over the Stolpersteine project in Slovenia.

Learn more about the Stolpersteine project in Slovenia here

Concrete cubes with brass plates bearing the names of Holocaust victims will be placed in front of the houses of their former Jewish owners in Lendava on 17 September.

In a global project initiated by German artist Gunter Demnig in 1992, these "stumbling blocks" had already been installed in Maribor in 2012 and in Ljubljana last year.

Also today, mass for the victims will be celebrated at Ljubljana's cathedral by Auxiliary Bishop Franc Šuštar, followed by an event addressed by Andreja Valič Zver, the head of the Study Centre for National Reconciliation.

Before the mass flowers will be laid at a memorial plaque in front of the US Embassy in Ljubljana and the monument commemorating victims of all wars in Congress Square.

On Sunday, the anti-Communist association New Slovenian Testament is holding a commemoration and mass in Rovte near Logatec in memory of the victims of post-war reprisals by Communists.

STA, 13 August 2019 - Budimir Vuković, one of the thousands of citizens of the former Yugoslavia who were deleted from Slovenia's registry of permanent residents in 1992 (the Erased, Izbrisani), has been granted a temporary residence permit at last, regaining his driving licence as well as a right to work, the newspaper Dnevnik reports.

Vuković has been living in Slovenia since 1978. Being left without permanent residency status following the country's independence, and without citizenship or any documents, he has been unable to leave the country, while living here unlawfully since the erasure.

"Considering that I've been living in Slovenia for 41 years, I'd expect they'd recognise me permanent residence status. But I understand that bureaucracy operates step by step," said Vuković, who used to work as a technician at the Krško Nuclear Power Plant.

He is now earning his living selling Kralj Ulice, the newspaper sold by the homeless people. "I'll be selling the paper until I've found another job," says Vuković, who spends his free time as an author.

Being given back his driving licence, he made his first legal trip abroad on Sunday, driving to Austria for a coffee.

"I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now. I'm well on course to have my status fully resolved," Vuković commented on the ruling giving him temporary status for the paper on Monday.

He was granted temporary residence status by the Administrative Court based on the European Convention of Human Rights and judgements issued by the European Court of Human Rights.

These require countries to tackle the status of people residing in them for a long time regardless of whether they their status had been legalised from the start.

Matevž Krivic, a former constitutional judge who has been acting as counsel for Vuković and other erased, says that this is far from being the only such case.

Gani Redžić, who has been living in Maribor for 52 years, has been granted temporary residence permit only recently based on an appeal to the Constitutional Court.

However, unlike in Vuković's case, the Maribor administrative unit "forgot" to restore Redžić's right to social benefits, the newspaper Dnevnik reports.

STA, 13 July 2019 - The Slovenian minority in Italy marked on Saturday the 99th anniversary of the torching of the Narodni Dom (National Home) in Trieste, which had been considered a powerful symbolic gesture that dealt a severe blow to the community at the time of Fascism.

While the anniversary of the event is commemorated each year, this was the first time the main minority organisations, which often split along ideological lines, are organising it together.

Lending additional weight to the event, Slovenian President Borut Pahor, known for his efforts to bridge historical divides between Slovenia and Italy, delivered a speech.

Pahor expressed the wish that he would be joined by Italian President Sergio Mattarella at the centenary commemoration next year, highlighting the need for dialogue in particular in testing times.

"It is important we communicate contrasting positions tolerantly," Pahor said, noting that this was an opportunity to "strengthen the essence of the European idea," according to his office.

Addresses were also delivered by the heads of the minority organisations, Ksenija Dobrila of the Slovenian Cultural and Economic Union (SKGZ) and Walter Bandelj of the Council of Slovenian Organisations (SSO), as well as Trieste Mayor Roberto Dipiazza and Riccardo Riccardi, vice-president of the province Friuli-Venezia Giulia, and the historian Raoul Pupo.

Predsednik Pahor se je danes udeležil slovesnosti ob 99. letnici požiga Narodnega doma v Trstu, ki sta jo letos prvikrat skupaj pripravili obe krovni organizaciji Slovencev v Italiji, Slovenska kulturno-gospodarska zveza in Svet slovenskih organizacij. https://t.co/0u4NXCpxPb pic.twitter.com/yIeGg93Jxy

— Borut Pahor (@BorutPahor) July 13, 2019

The president of the province, Massimiliano Fedriga, did not attend due to prior engagements but met Pahor prior to the event for talks that Pahor described as "productive". After the event, he held talks with the minority representatives.

Narodni Dom, designed by the famed architect Maks Fabiani and built in 1901-1904, used to be the minority's intellectual and cultural centre in Trieste and the home of numerous minority organisations as well as a theatre, bank, cafe and hotel.

As a symbol of Slovenia's presence in the once multicultural city, it was torched by the Fascists in 1920 and burnt to the ground.

The building was restored in 1988-1990 and now hosts a college, a department of the University of Trieste and a Slovenian information centre.

The minority has long been making efforts to get the building back and Pahor urged all stakeholders to do "everything they can to return life to the Narodni Dom".

STA, 24 June 2019 - Its own state, especially for a nation as small as Slovenia's, is an asset in its own right, President Borut Pahor said as he addressed the national ceremony in Ljubljana's Congress Square on Monday, the eve of Statehood Day, which marks the day in 1991 when parliament passed the needed documents to declare independence.

"The establishment of an independent state 28 years ago is the most glorious milestone of our national history", and it "makes us an equal part of the global architecture", said Pahor.

He recalled the May Declaration, a document read in Congress Square 30 years ago in which writers and other groups called for democracy, a sovereign Slovenia and its integration with Europe.

"I don't think there is a national political manifesto more clear, more inspiring, more visionary and more brief than this one," he stressed.

Taking a look ahead, Pahor said parents and grandparents had the responsibility to enable their children a decent future to the best of their abilities.

This means "creating a tolerant society in which everyone can express themselves freely while also respecting the dignity and freedom of the other".

It also means "creating a society which is economically and socially strong and well integrated, but also competitive and solidarity-based enough so that it can create a lot and excellently, and distributes fairly what it has created".

It moreover implies acting to tackle climate change, and always address even the most complex of problems in a peaceful manner, according to Pahor.

Although we don't know what the future holds for us, we do know that in case of new watershed moments we will be able to take action more effectively because we are sovereign and have our own state, stressed Pahor.

The national ceremony is being attended by a number of politicians and other high-profile guests, including Prime Minister Marjan Šarec and Speaker Dejan Židan.

Prior to the ceremony, the National Assembly met for a ceremonial session it holds before major national holidays, and Pahor hosted a reception for the relatives of military, police and civilian victims of the independence war, which broke out when the Yugoslav People's Army attacked the newly-declared state.

"We must never forget that Slovenia was attacked after it declared independence, but successfully countered the attack in a war," Pahor said at the reception at the Presidential Palace, which was also attended by Šarec as well as the defence and interior ministers.

War veterans used the occasion to urge the government to regulate the status of disabled war veterans who have not yet had their status recognised.

Rudolf Lah from the Association of Disabled War Veterans and Families of the Fallen in the 1991 War urged the government "to recognise our sacrifices and tackle the problems which we have been pointing to at all annual receptions".

Drago Koprčina, who heads the association, told the STA the Marjan Šarec government had appointed a task force to address the open issues.

Official statistics show that the ten-day independence war claimed the lives of 19 Slovenian soldiers and police officers, with another 182 Slovenians wounded.

Google Earth Engine is a site that lets you explore how places have changed since 1984 via the magic of satellite images, one for each year and for any place on Earth.

It’s a fun tool, although, as these examples of Ljubljana, Maribor, and Bled show, the physical infrastructure of some of Slovenia’s more famous places hasn’t changed as dramatically as you might expect (press the play symbol to start the animation).

Below: Ljubljana

Below: Maribor

Below: Bled

In contrast, looking at Novo Mesto the change from backwater to industrial powerhouse over the last three decades is quite evident from the air.

Below: Novo mesto

And the same can be seen, on a smaller scale, in the town of Logatec, with much of the change driven by two industrial parks.

Below: Logatec

And if you want to see how fast things have been going in other parts of the world, then check out Shanghai, Dubai, and Las Vegas

Below: Shanghai

Below: Dubai

Below: Las Vegas

You can play around with Google Earth Engine here

STA, 7 May 2019 - President Borut Pahor highlighted the "unforgettable symbolic and actual role" the May Declaration played for Slovenia's independence, as he hosted a reception to mark 30 years since the document calling for the country's sovereignty was read out at a mass rally in Ljubljana's Congress Square.

Since the declaration paved the way to Slovenia's independence, it deserves to have a permanent place in our collective memory, he said at the Presidential Palace on Tuesday.

"Its greatest value is linking democracy, sovereignty and Slovenia's place in an overhauled Europe, which also makes it important for the future."

Admitting that Slovenia would need to keep working on the three goals, he said "all three elements need our encouragement, criticism and debates, but also due cooperation and consensus".

V Predsedniški palači prva državna obeležitev 30. obletnice Majniške deklaracije 1989 za suvereno državo slovenskega naroda https://t.co/RJcLamqTsA pic.twitter.com/21KwDhqU6S

— Borut Pahor (@BorutPahor) May 7, 2019

"We decide on our own state and its democracy on our own, and on European future together with other nations," he said at the first-ever state-level event marking an anniversary of the reading of the 1989 declaration.

"Also today, 30 years on, it is clear that the sovereign Slovenian state, democratic and integrated into Europe, is the basic tool of our existence and development."

He recalled that the public legitimation of the idea about the sovereignty of the Slovenian nation had only been possible during the political spring in the late 1980s. "Before that, it was considered illegitimate."

Just like Dimitrij Rupel, a co-author of the declaration, Pahor stressed the 1989 events had led to the first democratic elections, a referendum on independence, decisions on Slovenia's independence and to the country's international recognition.

Outlining the conditions under which it was written, Rupel said the declaration came into being in his office at the Faculty of Sociology, Political Sciences and Journalism in April 1989.

Writer Tone Pavček was asked to read it "because the Slovenian Writers' Association was the first organisation signed under the declaration and because we did not want it to be interpreted as a manifesto belonging to any of the four [political] parties," said Rupel.

The declaration was also signed by the Slovenian Democratic Union (SDZ), the Slovenian Farmer's Union (SKZ), the Slovenian Christian and Social Movement (SKSG), the Socialdemocratic Union (SDZS), the university conference of the Socialist Youth League of Slovenia (ZSMS) and the Slovenian Composers' Association.

Its name was taken from the 1917 declaration in which Slovenian, Croatian and Serbian deputies demanded living in an autonomous unit within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The document was read in the Vienna parliament on 30 May 1917 by Slovenian deputy Anton Korošec.

The declaration reading led to independence, but the document would have been overlooked had it not become part of the Committee for the Protection of Human Rights' campaign for the release of all four dissidents from the JBTZ military trial, said Jožef Školč, the then president of the ZSMS.

Since neither the committee nor the ZSMS had a permit for the rally, the declaration was read at what was formally termed an open session of the ZSMS in Congress Square, Školč, who hosted an event on the occasion at the Museum of Contemporary History, told the STA.

"We simply took the risk of holding a session of the sociopolitical organisation and waited if anyone would dare ban it," said Školč, noting they had tried to express their frustration at the second arrest of Janez Janša, now the leader of the opposition Democrats (SDS).

Igor Bavčar, who led the committee, said, as he addressed the event at the museum, the events from 30 years ago were a reminder of what could be achieved with perseverance.

"That was a time full of emotions and unpredictability, of some realistic but often also imaginary dangers and disinformation.

"It became clear what we had avoided only after certain documents were discovered later on," he said, adding a new wave of arrests had been planned but had probably not taken place because of their activity.

Bavčar said the late 1980s and early 1990s had been a time of incredible enthusiasm which brought together people of different ideologies, which he sees as a special value.

Bavčar, who soon became interior minister and later led the Istrabenz conglomerate, is happy with the legacy of the May Declaration.

He is however less happy "with everything that has befallen me, and I'm still fighting against it," he said in reference to his serving a prison sentence for money laundering.

STA 26 April 2019 - On the eve of Resistance Day (27 April), a ceremony will be held in Kranj on Friday to remember the Liberation Front (Osvobodilna fronta - OF), an undercover organisation which spearheaded resistance against Nazi and Fascist occupation in World War II.

 Addressing the national ceremony, parliamentary Speaker Dejan Židan said resistance should nowadays be perceived as the ability to survive, as self-confidence and responsibility. He also urged for the past not to divide us but to unite us for the future.

We seem to quarrel even more about the developments in WWII than those who fought during the war, he said, expressing disappointment at attempts to revise history. He also regretted that the unity of Slovenians from 28 years ago when Slovenia became independent had gradually faded away.

Židan sees independence, "which was achieved with a collective decision of the Slovenian nation for independence, with Territorial Defence's military courage, the determination of the police force, diplomatic achievements and the boldness of the media, as the latest historical test of Slovenian resistance".

For Slovenians, World War II started on 6 April 1941, when Germany attacked Yugoslavia; just three days later, Yugoslav soldiers, who put on only weak resistance, left Slovenia or were captured.

The territory of present-day Slovenia was divided between Germany, Italy and Hungary, with a small portion of land near Brežice in the east coming under the Independent State of Croatia, a Nazi puppet state.

With the exception of members of the German-speaking and Hungarian minorities, the majority of the Slovenian population could not reconcile themselves to the occupation.

As historians Zdenko Čepič and Damijan Guštin put it in their book Images of Lives of Slovenians in WWII, it was only a matter of time when and how they would resist.

The Anti-Imperialist Front, as it was initially known, was formed in Ljubljana on 26 April 1941, the day when Hitler visited Maribor, or two weeks after occupation and ten days after the Yugoslav authorities in Belgrade surrendered.

The movement was founded at the home of intellectual Josip Vidmar (1895-1992) by representatives of the Communist Party of Slovenia, the Sokoli gymnastic society, the Christian Socialists and a group of intellectuals.

It featured no political party from the pre-war period, but fractions of these parties from across the political spectrum as well as political dissidents, resulting in a mixture of worldviews.

Nevertheless, the leading role was all along played by Communists, even if there were only some 1,000 members. Having spent 20 years working undercover as an illegal organisation was what made them best suited to work in an occupied territory.

Yet there was infighting for Liberation Front leadership as early as 1942, including a clash between the Communists and Christian Socialists, which resulted in the Dolomite Declaration.

In the March 1943 declaration, the founding groups agreed to the domination of the Communist Party, a watershed moment which signalled the end of political pluralism.

The Liberation Front spread its network around the country regardless of the borders set up by the occupying forces. According to Čepič and Guštin, it was a kind of a state within the state, at least in Ljubljana in the first year.

To protect the Liberation Front and its leadership, the Security and Intelligence Service (VOS) was established upon the Communist Party's initiative.

Apart from VOS, the National Protection service was organised as a military organisation with small units operating around the country and at factories.

The Slovenian Communists were tasked to organise an armed resistance by the Yugoslav Communist Party's politburo and started organising it past the Liberation Front.

Thus, they set up military committees to lead the armed resistance on 1 June 1941 and the command of Slovenian partisan corps on the day of Germany's attack on the Soviet Union.

Čepič and Guštin say that left radicalism and sectarianism on the part of some Communists caused frictions within the Liberation Front, which its leadership and the Communist Party fought strongly against.

There were also problems in executing "the people's power" as individual partisan commanders terrorised the population, resorted to torture and even executions.

And even if the Communists had clearly stated their goal of pursuing political change after the war, people were willing to support the Front and cooperate with it.

Čepič and Guštin cite a statement by the leader of the Slovenian People's Party's illegal military organisation during WWII, Rudolf Smersu, who said "people simply flocked to them!"

This was despite warnings by Slovenian politicians that the Liberation Front was but an extension of the Communists.

And views on the Liberation Front and on Resistance Day, which used to be termed Liberation Front Day until renamed in the early 1990s, still differ.

But historians say that instead of engaging in basic studies there is too much focus on the role of the Liberation Front, which leads to rather general and biased views.

On Saturday, a series of local events will be organised around Slovenia, including memorial walks, and the Presidential Palace will open its door to visitors.

All our stories on World War 2 can be found here

December 20, 2018

In 1861 the painter Ivana Kobilica, one of the most famous Slovenian artists of all time, was born in Ljubljana.

Ivana Kobilica managed to achieve what her male colleagues only dreamt of: she had several exhibitions at the prestigious Paris Salon and became an associate member of the French National Association of Fine Arts. She lived and worked in many of the European capitals, including Vienna, Munich, Paris, Sarajevo, and Berlin, but returned to Ljubljana at the beginning of the WWI.

After the so-called Munich period during which brownish colours prevailed in her paintings, purple, blue and green took over during her Paris period, which were joined by white during her Berlin phase. Her opus is characterised by depictions of family members and children, portraits of bourgeoisie of Ljubljana and, above all, flowers.

Many of her most iconic paintings are part of the permanent exhibition of Slovenian National Gallery.

Ivana Kobilica was also the only woman depicted on a 5,000 Slovenian Tolar bill before Slovenia switched to the euro.

STA, 25 October 2018 - Slovenians will observe Sovereignty Day on Thursday, remembering 25 October in 1991, when the last Yugoslav People's Army soldiers left Slovenian territory four months after the end of the Independence War. 

STA, 14 September 2018 - Slovenians will celebrate Primorska Reunification Day on Saturday, marking 15 September 1947, when the region was reunited with Slovenia under the Paris Peace Treaty. The main ceremony will be held on Saturday in Komen, just a stone's throw from Italy.