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| Bled, Slovenia |
This recent event of comparing Slovenia with North Korea by a person that actually lives in Slovenia, made me restless. I couldn't sleep last night either so I went and read more of our recent history and how it actually came about, that a certain group of people feels so much repression and resentment in our space. Slovenes have been living in the current space for more than a 1000 years. We had our own country for a bit less than 200 years and then we were always part of some other bigger unit. We kept our language, protestants helped a lot with printing bible in domestic language, and in 1848 Slovenes required more rights and more independence from Austro-Hungarians. They were not happy with the conditions so in 1918 they joined a Kingdom of Serbs, Croatians and Slovenes. The kingdom had a parliament made of members of different political parties. The Nazis invaded in 1941. And Italians and Hungarians and even our cousins Croatians. King flew to London and led his army from London. There were more defense groups formed. Some had a vision to cooperate with Nazis and negotiate more independence from them, some decided to fight for total freedom. Partisans we one of those ''total freedom''groups. They were made of different clubs and organisations. One of the groups was a communist party which in 1937 had only 250 members. They started with their guerrilla fight activities against Germans and Italians. Germans had a rule for every killed German soldier, 10 Slovenes were shot dead. They also deported lots of Slovenes to concentration camps and they had a plan to actually denationalize our space (move Slovenes out of Slovenia, move Germans and others to our territory, so Slovenes would eventually forget we were Slovenes). Now if you were Slovene you either were waiting at home when is your time to be shot or sent to a concentration camp or you joined or helped one of the fighters groups. Which one? Probably the one that most of your family and friends supported. Sometimes I imagine even family members had divided opinions which side to take. The one that cooperates with Nazis and sees less damage to the nation will be made this way, or the ones that wanted total freedom? Or the kings army?
Partisans during the course of the war became the strongest fighting force against Nazis and Fascist. They got recognized by allies from the west (UK, US) and east (Soviet Union). Slovene force that was for cooperation with Nazis fought and was killing partisans. One of the reasons was also because communist party became the strongest politically among partisans and said that after the war the government will be formed by members of its party.
End of the war. All invaders are going home. Germans, Italians and also allies go home. Yugoslavia and Slovenia are free from invaders. But there is a strong danger of civil war. How can you live next to your neighbor that fought against you and killed your brothers, friends? What would stop the force that was for cooperation with Nazis to not step together and try to get in power, overtake government etc.? It is 1945. You fought on the side of partisans. Meaning you slept in the woods, were frozen, hungry, frightened... What do you do? You make sure any danger to your peace and freedom is removed. I get violent when I am tired and my next door neighbor has his TV loud on. Horrible things continued to happen and more people had been killed and imprisoned. When having a strong judgement about this in today's times of safety, warm shelter and food on the table please make yourself go back in time. I don't think any of us who did not experience the horror of the war can imagine how that effects you.
Lots of people were killed after the war to make sure peace stays in the country. 1948 Yugoslavia decided to break up with communism and develop its own economic system. There was a danger Soviet Union will attack us. Again anyone suspicious to be a Soviet spy got imprisoned or killed. Till early 90s most leadership positions in the country politically and economically were made of people that either were or supported partisans or were people that returned from concentration camps. Yes, till early 70s anyone that had stronger opinions and represented a danger was warned, and imprisoned or killed. But in the 70s, these are the times when my parents got active, and if you wanted to be active in the community you had to join communist party, there was space to have different opinions, space to say no to something you disagreed with. And you did not go straight to prison for that. Until 90s when Slovenia became independent and we got a system with more political parties.
Do we have to be resentful to all that was happening from 1941 - 1990s? We do exist as a nation because of partisans that were politically overtaken by communism. We might have the same destiny as Slovenes that lived in Trieste (today Italy) if we waited for US, UK, NZ and other allies to save us. I am personally proud of every single Slovene that stood up and said enough of this 1000 years of tyranny of the Germanic and Italian nations. It is my personal opinion not every Slovene carries. You might have a different opinion. But this is all now history.
Contemporary Slovenia is learning to integrate economic system of the West. Some people adjusted well, some are struggling. Young population knows they don't have much choice. They have to be entrepreneurial and find their way or sit at home all depressed as there are not many jobs out there. It's not easy. But I much rather have this than going back to 1941.
With love and peace
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