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December 2018
A Proposal to Confer Decoration on Dr. Vojeslav Mole
In December 1973, the extraordinary life of Dr. Vojeslav Mole, prominent Slovenian art historian, classical archaeologist, poet, writer and translator, came to an end. This month’s archivalia – a proposal for conferring the Order of Merits for the People (1st rank) to Vojeslav Mole – presents his curriculum vitae up to 1962. Drawn up by the Council on Culture and Education of the People’s Republic of Slovenia on June 19, 1962, the proposal was submitted to the Decoration Awarding Commission of the Executive Council of the People’s Republic of Slovenia. Judging from the data available, the proposal was never confirmed by the commission.
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November 2018
General Rudolf Maister and the Missed Opportunities for Slovenians after the Great War
This month’s archivalia takes us back to a dramatic revolutionary time a century ago. Presented here is a contract, signed on November 27, 1918 in Maribor by Rudolf Maister, commander of the Styrian Border Command of the SHS, and Colonel Rudolf Passy, the representative of the German-Austrian Committee for Public Welfare and the colonel of the Graz Military Command. The contract was to be a starting-point for determining a demarcation line between the two conflicting sides in Styria and Carinthia and was to ensure a much needed peace. However, official political spheres of the opposing states did not approve of the actions of their military commanders.
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October 2018
Support Offered to Members of the Franciscan Order in Defence of Catholicism
For the most part of the second half of the 16th century, Ljubljana was witnessing strong friction between Catholics and Lutherans. Prominent roles on the Catholic side were played out by the territorial prince, the Ljubljana bishop and members of Cathedral Chapter as well as by the members of the (catholic) religious orders, especially Franciscans. Since the conditions in the Ljubljana Franciscan house were apparently serious (it only had two friars), territorial prince, his officials in Carniola and the Ljubljana Bishop Konrad Glušič became concerned. The archive of Vicedomfor Carniola includes several documents that bear witness to their concern.
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September 2018
The Patent Issued by the Austrian Emperor Franz I on the Restoration of the Constitution of the Carniolan Provincial Estates
After the departure of the French, who included Carniola in their Illyrian Provinces and dissolved the Carniolan provincial estates, a careful restoration of the Austrian authority ensued. In August 1818, the "estates' constitution" was restored as well by means of an imperial patent. The patent as a print in German is kept in our collection of deeds, but more common was the bilingual, German-Slovene version of the text. The patent was a legal act with no real substance. Carniolan estates had basically no real power of decision-making, they were mere shadows of their former self, a “living corpse” as referred to by Sergij Vilfan.
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Avgust 2018
Communique of the National Council's Founding Session
In mid-August 1918, the National Council in Ljubljana was founded as the highest ranking Slovenian political organization, which included all Slovenian political parties for a common goal to make the necessary preparations for the joining of Slovenes with Croats and Serbs in a new, independednt state. The official press release of the National Council's founding session provides information on the course of the founding session, and on the National Council's tasks and organizational structure (its 8 sections).
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July 2018
Money – Evidence Among Archival Records
Archival documents of the administrative department of the Dravska Banovina also include classification scheme fascicle 13-20, where among the records of financial and criminal police on lesser offences against excise and duties, records on persecution of suspicious persons, records on supervision of cheats and forgers, and among other denunciations and security reports, one can also find several records on the forgery of money. Nestled among these documents there is even a fake 2 dinar coin of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes bearing the year 1925.
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June 2018
Cominform Conflict – When White Suddenly Becomes Black
Presented here as this month's archivalia are two letters written in 1948 by Milena Mohorič to the Primer Minister of the People's Republic of Slovenia Miha Marinko and to the 2nd Congress of the Communist Party of Slovenia. The story of a Germanist, a female poet and writer Milena Mohorič, married name Premru (1905-1972), is used to demonstrate just how quickly a revolution can turn into a monster that eats its children and how profoundly political systems can affect a life of an individual.
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May 2018
»The Pope Loves You All!«
The visit of Pope John Paul II. in May 1996, is was one of the most resounding state visits since independence for the young Slovenian state. The organization of the visit was demanding and involved the participation of both state and church institutions. The Archivalia of May shows he program of the Pope's visit with a detailed description of the protocol. The words "Pope loves you!", which he uttered at a meeting with young people in Postojna, were a spontaneous response of enthusiasm that bypasses every protocol.
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April 2018
Our Land is in the Heart of Europe
This year marks the 70th anniversary of the premiere of the first Slovenian feature film titled On Our Land, an achievement that was a sign of maturity of Slovenian film-makers. The film was very successful, but its success covered up a number of problems that occurred during its shooting. Detailed and at times tragicomic reports from the shooting of the film that was initially to be titled In the Heart of Europe talk about the crew's problems with the weather, actors, electricity, pyrotechnics, vehicles, and about technical complications in general.
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March 2018
Instruction for Work in the Kindergartens of the St. Cyril and Methodius Society
The national defence and educational organization of St. Cyril and Methodius Society opened its first kindergartens in the late 19th century. Pre-school education was carried out by kindergarten vrtnariceas the kindergarten teachers were referred to at that time. Like today, they were the ones who played the most important role in pre-school educational programme, which is why the Society issued special work instructions for them. One of such instructions from the start of the 20th century seems to have preserved its educational and methodological value until today.
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February 2018
Incidents Occurring When Collecting Signatures in Support of the May Declaration
The May Declaration that called for the unification of Austro-Hungarian Slovenians, Croats and Serbs into an independent state body under Habsburg rule launched a massive declaration movement with the collection of signatures in support of the declaration. Most of the signatures were collected between December 1917 and March 1918. There were, however, some incidents, whose traces can still be found among the records of the Imperial-Royal Ministry of the Interior.
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January 2018
Why Was Rašica on Fire in 1941?
In September 1941, the village of Rašica was set on fire as retribution for the partisan attack in which six passengers had been killed in a black Horch with car registration number IA-24080. The Archives of the Republic of Slovenia keeps the original report about the incident written by the German criminal police in Bled on September 22, 1941. Enclosed to the report are sketches of the scene of the crime where the attack took place and eight rather self-explanatory photos.
