Domoljubje v Sloveniji med svetovnima vojnama

Abstract

PATRIOTISM IN SLOVENIA IN THE INTERWAR PERIOD (1918–1941)

In the introduction the article discusses the concept of patriotism and its importance for the formation of the national identity. This is followed by the outline of the definition of nation through the process of statehood, which Slovenians had undertaken immediately after the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy – in the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. During its formation Slovenians had strong patriotic feelings, and at the same time they felt profound disappointment and dissatisfaction with the once dominant German government structures. The formation of the State of SHS was exceedingly solemn, which the article tries to depict by describing the festivities at the moment when the state was established, when Slovenians, proud of their nation, language and culture, looked into the future with great expectations, imagining an idealised unification with the Serbian brothers in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians. Gradually the time for sobriety arrived, indicating that Slovenians would once again have to fight for their own identity and the related cultural and linguistic characteristics and particularities. This struggle was made harder by the mutual opposition between the political parties. In order to provide a more vivid presentation of the Slovenian patriotic feelings at the time, the article quotes excerpts from the memoirs of cer- tain intellectuals at the time – astute observers of the contemporaneous social developments, which allowed them to overcome the spatially and temporally limited understanding of the future of the Slovenian political elites of that period. One of these intellectuals was Angela Vode.