“Not Serbs, not Slovenes, not Catholics or Orthodox, not even Italian and our Citizens”: How the Slovenian Newspapers Reported on the Slovenian Colony in Bistrenica (Macedonia) 1930–1940

Abstract

In the paper, the author addresses how Slovenian newspapers reported on the Slovenian colony in Bistrenica (Macedonia) in the period from 1930–1940. In this period, the national question stood at the center of Slovenian politics and culture. This question is also visible in the concurrent ideologically-torn newspapers that reported about the colony. The liberal press, steadfast in their support of centralism and Yugoslavdom, mostly wrote positively about the colony. Conversely, the press on the side of the Catholic camp, writing in favor of the autonomic stance and speaking out against Yugoslavdom in this cultural war, remained lukewarm or even unsupportive of the colony. In the 1930s, several other newspapers began to appear, becoming the center of political and ideological movements and offering different writing on the colony.