By: Dr Jože Dežman
In 2007, at the Museum of Recent History of Slovenia, on the occasion of the seventieth anniversary of the meeting of some Stalinist people in Čebin, I prepared a lecture From Čebin to shards. This year’s evening torchlight procession with a gathering on the occasion of the 86th-anniversary falls within the framework of lying what Čebin is supposed to be.
In 1977, in relation to the Čebin cult, special reference was made to the introductory part of Resolution VII. Congress of the Union of Communists of Slovenia: “Building socialism is a class struggle. It can only be led by an organised working class that unites all progressive social forces in this struggle. In this struggle, the Union of Communists asserts itself and confirms itself as the leading ideological and political force of the working class, which gives meaning to its activity, organises it and directs it towards the historical goals of the proletarian revolution.”
In this resolution, “Čebin-Kardelj” or Lingua Imperii Titi, i.e., the new language of Titoism is already well developed. Ten years later, in 1987, this linguistic monster was developed to perfection by Milan Kučan.
In the collection of essays entitled “Izročilo Čebin”, Kučan skilfully added a Rococo-style neologism: “Revolutionary is only a movement that grows out of the daily interests and actions of the working class, all working people and the progressive forces of the nation, while maintaining a clear view of the long-term goals of the revolution and socialism, but at the same time it is able to understand its tasks in the fight for these goals as dictated by objective social conditions and the real balance of power of social forces, rather than by a static doctrinal matrix.”
In addition to his loyalty to the revolution, Kučan reiterated his loyalty to Yugoslavia.
According to him, only national traitors think about a democratic and free Slovenia: “For Slovenes, the idea of a united and free Slovenia – with the exception of some isolated programmes within national traitor groups during the Second World War – always appears within the framework of Yugoslavia.”
And he firmly said: “A federal state built on these principles is also our Slovenian state. We do not have another, and we do not want to have one, because we do not need one.”
“Izročilo Čebin” is therefore proletarian revolution, class struggle and Yugoslavia. These are the pieces of Čebin that Asta Vrečko and her utopians are also trying to glue together.
But in the manifesto of the Stalinist Čebin or manifesto of the founding congress of the Communist Party of Slovenia from 1937, there is no mention of revolution, class struggle, or Stalinist and self-governing Yugoslavia.
The Čebin manifesto demands freedom of association and assembly, freedom of the press and speech, free, general, direct, equal, and secret suffrage, a democratically elected Slovenian parliament. In a particularly humorous way, they wrote that “Every fighter for the freedom of the Slovenian nation, but first and foremost every communist, respects the religious beliefs of his fellow soldier.”
In short, the Čebin manifesto is a trap on which gullible people were caught. The hidden purpose, however, is a Stalinist revolution.
In fact, until their defeat in 1990, the communists did everything to prevent these contents of the Čebin manifesto from being realised – to preserve the one-party dictatorship, the unity of power, lawlessness, the police state, they systematically and permanently violated fundamental human rights… Not to talk about the consequences of permanent class wars, fighting against religion and the church, etc.
That is why the Museum of Slovenian Independence is a mortal threat to all these Čebin deceptions and all these lies.
How is Asta Vrečko to understand that homosexuals, feminists, peacekeepers, ecologists, and the like, who are flourishing in the Republic of Slovenia today as civil society, non-governmental organisations, were controlled and harassed under Milan Kučan as the party boss. Many of them could also be imprisoned, tried, and some would end up in a mental health institution.
If the demand for a democratic, independent Slovenia was “national treason” for the Union of Communists, the demands for Slovenia’s return to the circle of Western democracies were also “national treason”. Kučan and his colleagues also considered the 57th issue of Nova revija to be a “national treason”.
That is why Titoism, including with Milan Kučan, persecuted everyone who defended freedom, human rights, demanded democracy, the rule of law, market economy…
They pursued and persecuted Edvard Kocbek, Borut Pahor, Franc Jeza, Drago Jančar, France Bučar, Jože Pučnik, Dimitrij Rupel, Janez Janša, Lojze Peterle, Spomenka Hribar, and a multitude of those who are responsible for Slovenian democratisation and independence.
They won the independent Republic of Slovenia, which replaced the Čebin shards.
And all of them deserve the Museum of Slovenian Independence.
That is why Čebin people destroyed the Museum of Slovenian Independence with such a will.
Insults are constantly repeated that the MSO is a propaganda construct of Janšism. For example, according to Janez Markeš, with the abolition of the MSO, “the policy of so-called spring parties would lose control over the historical interpretation of Slovenian independence”.
This lie belongs to the propaganda fictions of anti-Janšism.
However, since it is repeated, it is more than necessary that we arrive at what is supposed to be in the MSO in such a way that it would mean “control over the historical interpretation of Slovenian independence”. The fact is that the very destruction of the Museum of Slovenian Independence means control over the denial and rejection of Slovenian independence.
On the other hand, Minister Vrečko repeats and repeats that in the new MuZXXI, fantastic conditions for work and professional development should be guaranteed for the period of democratisation, independence, and development of the Republic of Slovenia.
If that were the case, why can Minister Vrečko and acting director Nataša Robežnik not answer simple questions. That acting director is given an interview at Delo, where, with directed questions, they allow her not to answer most of my questions at all.
Let me repeat the questions:
- Will MuZXXI get the founding property of the Museum of Slovenian Independence (MSO)?
- If MuzXXI does not get the founding property of MSO, what will it get instead (finances, office, exhibition, depot premises)?
- When will the new systematisation of jobs in MuZXXI be adopted and publicly announced, and where will the offices of MSO employees be located in Cekin Mansion?
- When will the MuZXXI programme for 2023 be adopted?
- Will the exhibition about the discovery of the 3,450 murdered in the abyss below Macesnova gorica be censored or will it remain in the MuZXXI programme for 2023?
- What will be the new name of MuZXXI, given that a vote on it has already taken place in MuZXXI.
- Why did you hire me in MuZXXI, at the same time they cut me off from all house notifications, why did they not invite me to meetings, why did they take away my right to vote?
In MuZXXI, they established an interesting model of democratic censorship: if everyone (that is, especially the acting director) disagrees with something, then they censor it in the Čebin style. That they will not deal with politics anymore…
That is why I am once again calling on the Slovenian Museum Association, the Association of Museums of Slovenia, ICOM – the International Museum Council of Slovenia, to conduct a professional discussion on both the abolition of the Museum of Slovenian Independence and the Museum of Recent History of Slovenia, as well as the new MuZXXI, which was promised a long time ago.
How long will we have to wait for substantive answers and dialogue?
