By: Dr Andreja Valič Zver
This column is more historically oriented. It is appropriate, and in general, it is useful that, amidst Slovenia’s increasing drift into an increasingly uncontrollable chaos, we look back and seek historical decisions that have led us to normality, Europeanism, and democracy. It is challenging to assert such a thing for current authorities, as the deteriorating state of politics and all other arenas every day convinces us otherwise. As you know, dear readers, Demokracija magazine is full of excellent analyses of the current sad state of the Slovenian state. Therefore, let the historian be allowed an excursion into those promising spring times that rightfully fill us with pride and nostalgia.
Perhaps some of you remembered that a few days ago – precisely on February 18th – 37 years passed since the release of the 57th issue of Nova revija, representing one of the most important milestones of the Slovenian political spring in the 1980s. It can be rightfully claimed that Nova revija was a significant non-party modernisation force that went beyond literary and artistic significance. It was a first-rate political magazine that mobilised, inspired, and shaped a new political culture and new political relations in Slovenia in the 1980s and 1990s.
Among the authors, Dr Jože Pučnik and Dr Ivo Urbančič stood out with their contributions. Let’s recall some of their ideas.
As is widely known, Pučnik returned to his homeland from Germany in the 1980s, where he had been expelled by the communist regime after several years in prison. In the 57th issue of Nova revija, Pučnik clearly stated in his article The Political System of Civil Society – an Explication of Basic Principles that Slovenia had a totalitarian political system. He emphasised the necessity of establishing independent political parties, which are the best and most effective technology, as well as the essential change of the constitutional and legal order.
Regarding the relationship with Yugoslavia, Pučnik believed that it is an inalienable right of every nation to be sovereign, to organise its own state, and to defend it against external interference. Pučnik essentially laid the foundation for the emerging political platform, which later developed into the May Declaration, advocating democracy and national sovereignty.
In the turbulent 1980s, Ivo Urbančič published a series of works on the Slovenian national question. In the 57th issue of Nova revija, he contributed an article titled Yugoslav “Nationalist Crisis” and Slovenes in the Perspective of the End of the Nation. He initially delves into theory, such as the relationships between ethnos, nation, and the concept of the nation. He then expounds on the potentials of the Slovenian nation and its culture. For Urbančič, the nation is a “power system” encompassing everything considered kin, functioning as an “absolute subject”, its own product, and a productive force simultaneously. According to him, there are times that are pivotal, epochal, changing the “essential order of the entire existing”. Urbančič advocated for the “genotypic” abolition of the existing regime. Despite considering nationalism, whether unitarist or separatist, as well as the nation, of epochal past significance, Urbančič, in the context of the Yugoslav nationalist crisis, sees himself as a nationalist.
THE ANTI-DEMOCRATIC REFLEX IS NOW SO STRONG THAT WE MUST DEFEND THE MESSAGES OF NOVA REVIJA AGAIN WITH ALL OUR MIGHT.
He observed that society is moving towards increasing differentiation, pluralisation, articulation, and autonomy, which is in direct contrast to the domination of a unitarist system. Therefore, for Urbančič, a unitary Yugoslavia has no future. According to him, it is not enough to have only modernisation and democratisation of social and political structures, nor just cultural autonomy, but a Slovenian state is necessary.
Most of the contributors to the famous 57th issue of Nova revija emphasised similar ideas and concepts, but they shaped them quite differently. Essentially, these messages were crucial in the process of modernising Slovenia in the second half of the 1980s: firstly, a new conceptualisation of the Slovenian national question, which had a significant impact on the formation of a strengthened national identity among Slovenes, and secondly, a new policy based on new assumptions: democracy, respect for human rights and freedoms, the rule of law, and the market. It seemed that the ideas of the 57th issue of Nova revija later became largely dominant. However, the anti-democratic reflex is now so strong that we must defend the messages of the Nova revija again with all our might.
