SLOVENIA. - It is the northernmost of the historical regions of the Yugoslav state, in which it occupies a place of its own, given the originality of its population, which traditions and language distinguish from the neighbouring South Slavs.
The territory consists, in its northern part, of a series of uplands (Karawanks, Kamnik Alps and Slovenske Gorice) that continue our Carnic Alps: the landscape is rugged and wooded in the higher zones, well cultivated and cheerful in the zones sloping down toward the valleys of the Sava and the Drava; and of a southern zone of a distinctly karstic type, in which barren plateaus alternate with wooded hills, with the valley floors of the major rivers and more or less extensive subsidence basins (Ljubljana). Slovenia is a country with a rather varied economy, owing to the variety of its resources. The forests (43% of the territorial surface) feed, among other things, more than one industry (cellulose, paper, chemical products); agriculture, besides cereals, the characteristic and widespread cultivation of plums; the meadows and pastures a rational rearing of livestock (cattle, with substantial production of dairy products); the mineral resources (lead, zinc, antimony and above all lignite) a complex of other industries, among which the metallurgical (lead and zinc foundries), the mechanical and the textile stand out. The hydroelectric resources (Drava and Sava) are also very notable.
Slovenia, which was one of the three units of which the Yugoslav state was composed at the time of its creation, is today one of the six federated Republics of the Yugoslav Federation (F.N.R.J.); its territory measures 20,445 sq km and has (1950) 1.5 million inhabitants (density 68 per sq km; in northern Slovenia it exceeds 100 per sq km in various areas). Slovenia is, of all the zones of Yugoslavia, the one closest, in appearance and custom, to Western Europe. The Slovenes, who once extended their offshoots into Hungary, into Venezia Giulia and into Friuli, suffered continuous territorial losses during the long German domination; in compensation they absorbed qualities and traits from it in their culture and customs. Despite the extensive industrial development of Slovenia, its urban centres are relatively few in number; after Ljubljana, the capital (121,000 inhabitants), mention must be made of Maribor (86,000 inhabitants) and Celje (22,000 inhabitants), notable for their industries.
Bibliography
Giuseppe Caraci
HISTORY
The Slovenes (Sclaueni, Stlauene in the ancient texts), as the westernmost fraction of those who were later called South Slavs, settled in small and fragmented groups, without state unity, toward the end of the 6th century in the Alpine territories of the valleys of the Sava and the upper Drava, with ethnic offshoots toward the Isonzo and the upper Timavo.
The fact of having settled in the Alpine territories, while the Avars dominated the plains, soon removed them from their servitude. Ruled from 623 to 638 by the Frankish chief Samo, around this period they began to embrace Christianity, while subsequently the dioceses of Salzburg, with Bishop Liufram (850), and of Aquileia were particularly active in leading the Slovenes to Christianity. From the political point of view, from this era until 1918 they always remained within the orbit of the Germanic feudal powers or, ultimately, within the sphere of the Habsburg Empire. This historical condition prevented the formation of a noble and feudal ruling class that was strictly Slovene, and the Slovenes entered the ranks of those whom F. Engels called "nations without history," inasmuch as they were inserted into the historical vicissitudes of larger political complexes.
Once Frankish rule entered into crisis, S. passed under that of the Bavarians (745-88), then again of the Franks (788-907), of the Magyars (907-55); until in the 11th-13th centuries small German feudal dynasties, or at any rate dynasties subject to the Empire, dominated the various parts of S.: the Babenbergs, the Andechs-Meran, the Spanheims, the counts of Cilli, the patriarchate of Aquileia, the counts of Gorizia, until with the accession of the Habsburgs to the imperial throne S. remained stably bound to Vienna (except for the Napoleonic interlude) until 1918.
An important moment in the process of the formation of a Slovene national consciousness is represented by the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation, since both contributed powerfully to the formation of a written Slovene language and, consequently, to a better definition of Slovene nationality. Primus Trubar, a Reformed Slovene, around 1551 printed in Tübingen a Catechism, an Abecedarium and in 1557 the entire New Testament in the Slovene language; in 1584 Georg Dalmatin translated the entire
Bible, while Adam Bohorič, a pupil of Melanchthon, with
his Arcticae horulae (1584) composed the first Slovene
grammar. On the other hand, exponents of the Counter-Reformation in S.
- from M. Kastelec to the Capuchin Father Hyppolitus, etc., throughout
the 18th century - responded to this Reformed literature
with grammars, homilies, sermons, translations of the
Bible (Japelj and Kumerdej, 1784-1802), etc. Slovene national
consciousness emerged strengthened by this and, later, in the political
sphere, the creation of the Illyrian Provinces by
Napoleon, with Ljubljana as capital (1809-13), would be
regarded as a new seal upon their national physiognomy,
even if the lack of a Slovene ruling class persisted as a
fundamentally negative element that would disappear only from the second half of the 19th century. At
this time, from 1848 onward, a certain national awakening is noted in S., limited to the literary field, while until
the end of the First World War Habsburg loyalty remained unchanged and found expression once more on 30 May 1917 through the words of Msgr. Korošec, leader
of the Slovene People's Party. In 1918 S. became part
of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (v.). During the Second
World War, following the Yugoslav collapse, northern S. was annexed to Germany, the southern part
with Ljubljana to Italy, in addition to small zones assigned to
Hungary (20 Apr. 1941). After the end of the war
S. returned to being part of Yugoslavia and gained
in extent with the territories of Venezia Giulia, detached
from Italy by virtue of the Peace Treaty of 10 Jan. 1947.
By the Constitution of 10 Jan. 1946, it is a federal Republic of the Yugoslav Federation.
