Reconciliation: The Institutionalization of Memory in Post-Yugoslav Slovenia

Abstract

For Slovenian society the turning point in 1989 meant many things: the making of a new state, a transition to a new political and economic system, but also a new dimension of remembrance. The democratization process that started in the late 1980s and continued in the 1990s was deeply interwoven with the reconfiguration of public remembrance and the legitimation of the nascent Slovenian state. This resulted in a long and still ongoing project of reconciliation (sprava), a process of surpassing the divisions in society caused by the injustices and crimes committed by the Communist leadership in the previous decades. Its goal seems simple: to reach a point where history will no longer be a source of division in politics and where a relative unity could be established within the society. As it moves away from the discussion of the disputed past itself, this article focuses on the history of the concept of reconciliation and the state's subsequent memorial policy of the last three decades. The development of the concept entails changes in the understanding of the past after two major political shifts: after 1990, when Slovenia became an independent state; and again after 2004, when it joined the European Union (EU). The identification of these shifts is based on the changes in the content of political and public debates. I propose that the Slovenian reconciliation between 1990 and 2004 be regarded as a specific element of the period from the end of communism until the Slovenian accession to the EU (transition), during which the political system changed.