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Slovenian Hopes and Plans in the Last Days of the Habsburg Monarchy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2024

Igor Ivašković*
Affiliation:
University of Ljubljana School of Economics and Business, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Abstract

The article analyzes Slovenian perspectives on the possible formations of a state of South Slavs from the final stages of World War I until when the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenians (SCS) was established in 1918. In this period, the most influential Slovenian People's Party (SLS) gradually abandoned the concept of the May Declaration and accepted the idea of unification with Serbia. Despite Slovenian parties seeming to be in harmony on this issue, significant ideological differences separated them, as reflected in the geopolitical parameters of imagined Yugoslav state ideas they envisioned. Further, dissidents from the main parties also developed alternative visions of their own. This article looks at a few of the most prominent alternatives, while determining what distinguishes them from the requirements of the May Declaration, and examines the crucial factors in Slovenians’ decision to join the state of South Slavs with Serbia and to be outside the Habsburg monarchy.

Type
Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Regents of the University of Minnesota

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References

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102 “Serbs will know how to organize a common state not only for themselves, but also for the Croats and Slovenians, without imposing Serbism on us. . . . Do you think that a proud, free Serb, who suffered more for freedom than anyone else, will allow those whom it itself saved and created an irreversible opportunity to create a strong and free nation to create ridiculous difficulties for him at the end of the day? . . . Believe me, Serbia doesn't need us, we need Serbia!” See “Biti ali ne biti!,” Slovenski narod, 25 November 1918.

103 Ibid.

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