We received this information from the Slovenian Embassy in London:
You are kindly invited to a talk with historian Rok Stergar organized by UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES) :
Food Supply and Political Legitimacy of the New Yugoslav State
“I am a communist, f*ck King Peter and that snotty [Crown Prince] Alexander”
Tuesday 12 November 2024 at 6pm
Masaryk Room
UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies
16 Taviton Street, London WC1H 0BW
The new states created in the fall of 1918—after the Habsburg Empire had fallen apart—presented themselves as something new and better. Not only were they supposed to embody the “national yearnings” of the formerly “oppressed nations” in the Habsburg Empire, but they were also supposed to be more democratic, the administration would work better, the economy would flourish, and the harvests would be abundant. In short, they were supposed to be a decisive break with the imperial past.
But the new nation-states often failed to deliver on these lofty promises, and their legitimacy began to erode rather quickly. In this context, the inability to quickly improve the food supply played an important role. In the Slovene part of Yugoslavia, the inadequate supply of basic foodstuffs, rationing, and rising prices exacerbated an already volatile situation, as sections of the population began to grumble, protest, and yearn for the Habsburgs looking over their northern and western borders. Police and court records, district captain’s reports, and various other sources indicate that the mood of the population quickly turned sour after the proclamation of independence, and that the legitimacy of the new state was often questioned.
Rok Stergar is Associate Professor in Modern History at the University of Ljubljana, and a historian of the Habsburg Empire in the long nineteenth century, the First World War, and of nationalism. He is the author of two books and numerous articles on nationalisms in the Habsburg Empire, the First World War, and post-imperial transitions. His third book is under contract with the CEU Press.
He is the Director of “Slovene History” research program and is currently leading (with Václav Šmidrkal) a three-year research grant “Nourishing Victory: Food Supply and Post-Imperial Transition in the Czech Lands and Slovenia, 1918-1923.”
His most recent publication is the article (co-authored with Jan Bernot) “A Cacophony of Classifications: Education and Identification in a Prenational Empire,” Nationalities Papers (2024).