Stages of the Revolution during the Pluralist Period in the National Liberation Front

Abstract

On the basis of the documents published in the Documents of the People's Revolution in Slovenia series (Dokumenti ljudske revolucije v Sloveniji) the author presents various stages of the revolution which took place during the national liberation war against occupiers in Slovenia and Yugoslavia. He concludes that, during the war, the most obvious manifestations of the revolution were the Communist seizure of political power and the changes in the property ownership. According to him, the first revolutionary stage began with the self-proclamation of the Supreme Plenary of the Liberation Front (LF) as the governing national body. The revolution - which developed in two stages: that of national liberation and that of social class - most clearly manifested its social class aspects in the Spring and Summer of 1942, on the liberated territory in the Ljubljana Province. There, the introduction of political and economic changes under the conditions of the liberation war was often marked by revolutionary terrorism. From Autumn 1942 to Spring 1943, the LF leadership endeavoured to find political means which would transcend the immediate outward appearance of the revolution as that of struggle between social classes. This led to the so-called Dolomiti Declaration (Dolomitska izjava) which gave the Communist Party of Slovenia primacy within the National Liberation Movement and in the execution of its programme of social liberation.