Temporary exhibition

UNITE, UNITE POOR PEASANTS: PERSECUTION OF FARMERS IN SLOVENIA 1945 – 1955
8th December 2009 to June 2010 

The project Unite, unite poor peasants: persecution of farmers in Slovenia 1945–1955 is the initial museological presentation of an incredibly vast, unresearched and unknown thematic field.

Farmers were the social group that suffered the worst in the War, civil war and class struggle.

Even during the Second World War itself, the Slovenian countryside suffered heavy population and property losses.

After the Second World War, thousands of men and boys were killed in areas where the farmers joined the anti-communist resistance, countless properties were confiscated and the relatives of the murdered were discriminated against, exploited and oppressed for many years.

The revolutionary program of changes in property relations afflicted agriculture with the agrarian reforms and land maximums. Farmers were further robbed through obligatory purchases, taxes, unfavorable price policies…

The worst offensive against farmers took time during collectivization after 1949 and lasted until the mid 50’s with ideological pressure, violence and Stalinist show trials.

The farmers most often also felt the consequences of the war against religion and church and the countryside was affected by aggressive de-agrarization.

Farmers’ resistance took many forms, from avoiding paying taxes to organized resistance of illegal groups between 1945 and 1949.

The project presents the structure of government that attacked the farmers and its class war strategies.

The fates and responses of the farmers are presented through selected stories and testimonies of families, for example Brodar, Pučnik, Malovrh, Mehle, Kovačič, Offner … 

Text by: Jože Dežman

................................................................................................

Contact

Jože Dežman

e. jdezman@muzej-nz.si

t.  01 300 96 10

The exhibition was prepared by:

Project head and exhibition script: Jože Dežman

Historical frame and quotation selection: Mateja Čoh

Family stories: Jože Dežman, Marta Keršič, Monika Kokalj Kočevar, Mojca Ramšak, Irena Uršič

Head of video recording and script: Monika Kokalj Kočevar

Recordings and montage: Jože Jagrič

Design: Mojca Turk Avsec

Lightning: Marjan Viskovič

Layout head: Aleš Žgajnar