Une joyeuse tristesse

A reader letter published in Demokracija argues that left-wing politicians misrepresent the definition of genocide while ignoring historical atrocities committed against the Slovenian nation. The author, Marjan Zolnir Sr. from Ljubljana, contends that current political leaders focus exclusively on violence in Gaza while overlooking mass killings and cultural suppression within Yugoslavia’s history. He cites personal accounts of massacres in Kozlarjeva Gosta during World War II, describing incidents where communist forces allegedly beat children, including infants, against trees. Zolnir identifies specific individuals, such as a man named Joze who boasted in July 1945 about killing children by slamming them into trunks. He asserts that these acts constitute genocide, yet he claims modern leftists fail to label them as such. The letter extends its critique to contemporary politics, accusing Prime Minister Robert Golob of threatening to liquidate opponents using stones and storms at a party rally. Zolnir compares this rhetoric to threats made by Marshal Tito in 1945 against those opposing socialism. He further implicates President Nataša Pirc Musar and former president Milan Kucan, alleging they support the destruction of the Slovenian identity through their political alliances. The author specifically mentions Iranian policies regarding women’s dress codes, claiming more than 500 women were killed for refusing to wear veils, and suggests that former minister Tanja Fajon endorsed such actions through diplomatic friendship agreements. In contrast, a separate piece in Dnevnik reviews a monograph by historian Dr. Dusan Pirjevc titled Edvard Kardelj. Published with a timestamp of October 26, 2026, the review describes the work not merely as a biography but as a documented narrative of Yugoslavia’s disintegration. It characterizes the Yugoslav state as having suffered a cerebral infarction upon the introduction of dictatorship in 1929. The text notes that the country effectively died twice: first in 1941 when the Nazi alliance euthanized it with the cooperation of its nations, and second in 1991 following the separation of Slovenia and Croatia. Pirjevc’s analysis highlights interethnic conflicts and fears among top officials that plagued the socialist federation from its inception until the civil war of the early 1990s. The Dnevnik review portrays Kardelj as a Slovenian nationalist who attempted to preserve the federation through legal and autonomist constitutional innovations. His goal was to protect the constituent nations from Greater Serbian unitarian ideology. The review states that Kardelj did not believe in Yugoslavia as an inter-national community. It adds that during his time, even stronger autonomists operated in Slovenia. These figures conceived the Slovenian partisan movement and national uprising against the aggressor. The red star served as the symbol of the partisan army, though not all resistance members were communists. Faithful citizens also wore the symbol on their Titovkas while defending their national rights under it. The two texts offer divergent perspectives on historical responsibility. The reader letter emphasizes physical and cultural genocide perpetrated by communist forces, citing the imposition of foreign history and language changes as tools of destruction. It names Edvard Kardelj as a major destroyer of Slovenia for gifting parts of the territory to neighbors. Conversely, the academic review frames Kardelj’s legacy around preserving federal structures against unitarian threats. While the letter accuses left-wing figures of silence regarding the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, which it says has lasted five years, the review focuses on the internal dynamics of the collapsing state. Both pieces address the complex relationship between national identity, political leadership, and historical memory in the region. The reader demands recognition of past crimes as genocide, whereas the historian documents the structural failures and ideological struggles that led to the state’s final dissolution.