Slovenes and the Contradictions of the Southern Slavic Integration Ideologies before 1914

Project Code: Z6-0712

SICRIS

The contents of the project are divided in to three sections according to the issues at hand. 1. The incompatibility of the various concepts of the Yugoslav idea. The Yugoslav idea never existed as a relatively unified integration ideology. The key to its understanding lies in the period prior to 1914. Each elite of the individual nations had a different concept than the others of what was Yugoslav. All of them aspired primarily to their own national emancipation. It is therefore better to speak of various Southern Slavic integration ideologies The ideological foundations, forming the basis for the Southern Slavic nationalisms (historical law, language and religion), have to be analysed. It is essential to examine the “inconsistencies” of national ideologies, which invoke entirely mutually contradictory arguments. The source of these ideologies must be sought prior to the formation of modern nationalisms. Due to the complexity of the problem, the researcher will only analyse the basic contradictions of the various Southern Slavic integration ideologies and present them from the protonational phase in the 16th and 17th Centuries up until the end of the dual monarchy. The purpose of this is to afford an easier placement of Slovenia’s role. 2. The role of Slovenians in the genesis of the Southern Slavic integration ideologies. The researcher is going to highlight when and how the Slovenians were important for the Croats and Serbs, and verify the hypothesis that the Serbs and Croats understood the Yugoslav concept merely as a solution between Croats and Serbs. Croatian politics recognised the Slovenians as a separate ethnic group, although it remains to be seen whether Croatian political leaders regarded Slovenians as their equals. 3. The issue of abandoning the sense of belonging to the Slovenian nation in favour of belonging to Yugoslavia. The researcher will verify the hypothesis that the avoidance of setting the borders with the Croats and Serbs and the willingness to accept their language in the 19th and in the beginning of the 20th century signified, in the ideological sense, the Slovenian indulgence, or a desire to “expand”. Due to the German and Italian pressure, the Slovenian elite would have isolated itself had it set a solid ideological boundary with the Croats and the Serbs. The researcher will also verify the assertion that the Slovenians regarded themselves as an important element of the Yugoslav identity as the northern defender against the Germans and Italians and as the Slavic conduit of Western culture into the Balkans. The aim of the project is to shed light on the genesis of the Southern Slavic integration ideologies, and to define Slovenia’s role in this. Familiarity with history will also have a practical value for the economic, cultural and security cooperation with South-East Europe.