Peace: Establishment of the National Government of Slovenia in Ajdovščina

Peace

Establishment of the National Government of Slovenia in Ajdovščina

The Slovene resistance movement consistently sought to transform itself into a state organisation that would govern Slovenia within a federally structured Yugoslavia on the basis of national self-determination. The final act of this process, which began with the second session of the Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia on November 1943 and the first session of the Slovene National Liberation Committee (SNOS) in February 1944, was the establishment of the government of Democratic Federal Yugoslavia in March 1945. The following month, in April, the federal units of Yugoslavia appointed their own governments. The last federal unit to appoint a government was Slovenia, since at that time its territory was still in the throes of the final battles for liberation. On 5 May 1945, with the authorisation of the SNOS, the Presidency of the SNOS appointed the National Government of Slovenia at a session held in liberated Ajdovščina. Its first prime minister was Boris Kidrič. The establishment of the government in a territory that still belonged to Italy under international law was a clear demonstration of the demand for the Primorska region to be incorporated into federal Slovenia. Following the session in Ajdovščina, the government was presented to the public and immediately commenced work. The transfer of the government to the capital followed the liberation of Ljubljana.

Damijan Guštin

Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Contemporary History (retired)

Stamp design: Session of the first Slovenian government in Ajdovščina, 5 May 1945

Source of photograph on stamp: Čoro Škodlar, National Museum of Contemporary History

Source of photograph in margin: Edi Šelhaus, National Museum of Contemporary History