AN ARCHBISHOP FROM PERSIA GRANTED INDULGENCE IN CELJE TO PILGRIMS FROM ŠMARNA GORA
The document of Archbishop Johannes of Soldania, written in Celje in the year 1411
On 14 May 1411, in the first year of the pontificate of Pope John XXIII, the Dominican missionary and Persian Archbishop Johannes of Soldania drew up a deed in which he stated his desire that pilgrims would regularly visit the church of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Mt. Šmarna gora, for which he also granted them an indulgence. This document presents three interesting questions: why is the year 1411 the first year of the pontificate of John XXIII; why is the document written in Celje; and why is the indulgence granted by a Persian archbishop? This article attempts to answer these questions in a way that will place this document in its wider historical and geographical as well as political context.
“EVEN LESS DIFFICULT WORK, IF IT LASTS FOR 13 HOURS A DAY, IS TOO STRENUOUS FOR THE TENDER YEARS OF YOUTH AND KILLS THE SPIRIT”
On the history of child labour in the Gubernium of Ljubljana
The article presents the report addressed to the Gubernium of Ljubljana made out by the regional bureaus of Ljubljana, Postojna, Novo mesto and Villach, as well as the Ordinary’s Offices of the Ljubjana, Lavantine and Krško bishoprics and the directorate of the Association for the Support and Promotion of Industry and Craftsmanship in Inner Austria on the subject of child labour in factories. The survey was conducted in 1839/1840 throughout the empire. Its intent was to ascertain whether the existing regulations were being adhered to or whether it was necessary to adopt new, more precise legal measures regarding child labour. The result of the survey was the Decree passed by the Court Office in 1842 regulating the duration of the working shifts of children employed by factories. In parallel to this, the article also presents the legislation pertaining to the regulation of this problem in the Hapsburg monarchy from the first empirical decree passed in 1786, up until the Craftsmen’s Statute issued in 1859. In connection with this topic, the author also examines the workings of Sunday schools and revision classes, as well as the attempts to found factory schools.
It is evident from the report that child labour was employed on the territory of Slovenia in the cotton mills in Ajdovščina and Ljubljana, the sugar refinery in Ljubljana and in some of its affiliated factories in Carinthia. However, the practice was not so widespread due to the poor concentration of industrial plants in the land.
ONE COUNTRY, ONE CURRENCY?
A very brief, but for that all the more turbulent, history of the unified national currencies on the territory of Slovenia
The article covers the over two centuries long efforts to establish national currencies in the countries where Slovenes also lived (the Hapsburg monarchy, the Illyrian Provinces, the first and second Yugoslavia, the territory of Slovenia during the Italian, German and Hungarian occupation , and the Republic of Slovenia). In the 19th and 20th century the state authorities made concentrated efforts to unify the various forms of currency that were in circulation on their territories with the aim of strengthening the joint identity of their country’s inhabitants, achieving economic integration and conducting an independent macroeconomic and fiscal policy. All this time, however, the unity of state currencies was constantly threatened throughout the territories covered by various factors – both political (war, revolutions and changes in the state borders) as well as economic (the state’s lack of hard currencies, inflation).
SUCH AN INSUFFERABLE SIGHT, INDEED!
Obstruction in the Carniolan State Assembly in the beginning of the 20th century
The author describes examples of obstruction in the Carniolan State Assembly in the beginning of the 20th century when the assembly members obviously saw fit to copy the proceedings at the Viennese State Assembly. The article compares various forms of obstruction carried out first by the Clerical and then by the Liberal Party, many of which gave rise to various different comical situations.
THE BOMB IN THE MUNICH CARRIAGE
Ustash terrorism and its Slovenian victim
The most determined opposition to the dictatorship of King Alexander and his authoritarian regime was offered by two rather weak and in many ways marginal political groups – i.e. movements – from the two diametrically opposed poles of the Yugoslav political spectrum: the Internationalist communists from the far left wing and the Croatian nationalists from the far right wing of Croatian politics. While the communist “uprising” was thoroughly nipped in the bud, the Ustash movement with its terrorist actions proved to be far more dangerous, successful and ruthless. One of the most resounding – and most bloody – diversions carried out by the Ustash was an explosion on the Munich-Belgrade train on 2 August, 1931, which claimed the lives of three innocent victims. Amongst them was also Janko Lešničar, a prominent liberal politician, journalist and expert in the field of economics from Celje.
“I CALL A TOAST TO THE BROTHERHOOD AND UNITY OF OUR NATIONS”
After the end of the Second World War, the communist authorities in the new Yugoslavia maintained that they had resolved the national issue once and for all. Naturally, this was far from the truth, as old grudges and differences between cultures cannot be done away with simply by changing the political system and reorganising the state. The following article discusses the expressions of nationalist intolerance in the upper Gorenjska region, according to records preserved in the form of documents stored in the archival funds of the Judge for Minor Offences in Radovljica and the Regional Court of Radovljica. Due to its high concentration of industry, e.g. the Jesenice ironworks, the Gorenjska region was one of the main target areas of “migrant” workers from the southern republics of Yugoslavia, who brought with them their own culture and habits, which often led to conflict situations between these workers and the domestic inhabitants.