League of Communists of Slovenia
Encyclopedia
The League of Communists of Slovenia (ZKS) was the Slovenia
n branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia
, the sole legal party of Yugoslavia
from 1945 to 1989. It was established in April 1937 as the Communist Party of Slovenia, as the first autonomous sub-national branch of the Yugoslav Communist Party.
Its initial autonomy was further amplified with the Yugoslav constitution of 1974
, which devolved greater power to the various republic level branches.
In 1989 Slovenia passed amendments to its constitution that asserted its sovereignty over the federation and its right to secede. These amendments were bitterly opposed by the leadership of Serbia
under Slobodan Milošević
. On January 23, 1990, the Slovene delegation, headed by Milan Kučan
, left the Party Congress
of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, leading to the collapse of the all-Yugoslav party.
Shortly thereafter, the League of Communists of Slovenia changed its name to the Party of Democratic Reform
(Stranka demokratične prenove - SDP), and negotiated with the Democratic Opposition of Slovenia
the establishment of a multi-party system. In April 1990, the reformed Communists lost the elections to the DEMOS coalition. In 1992, they ceased to be the largest left wing party and entered a period of radical transformation, which gained momentum with the election of Borut Pahor
as the party chairman. Their legal successor, the Social Democrats (SD) are currently the largest party of the ruling left wing coalition in Slovenia.
Other influential leaders
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
n branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia
League of Communists of Yugoslavia
League of Communists of Yugoslavia , before 1952 the Communist Party of Yugoslavia League of Communists of Yugoslavia (Serbo-Croatian: Savez komunista Jugoslavije/Савез комуниста Југославије, Slovene: Zveza komunistov Jugoslavije, Macedonian: Сојуз на комунистите на Југославија, Sojuz na...
, the sole legal party of Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
from 1945 to 1989. It was established in April 1937 as the Communist Party of Slovenia, as the first autonomous sub-national branch of the Yugoslav Communist Party.
Its initial autonomy was further amplified with the Yugoslav constitution of 1974
Constitution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Constitution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the supreme law of S.F.R. Yugoslavia and its predecessor, the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia .-Federal constitutions:...
, which devolved greater power to the various republic level branches.
In 1989 Slovenia passed amendments to its constitution that asserted its sovereignty over the federation and its right to secede. These amendments were bitterly opposed by the leadership of Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
under Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000...
. On January 23, 1990, the Slovene delegation, headed by Milan Kučan
Milan Kucan
Milan Kučan is a Slovenian politician and statesman. He was the first President of Slovenia.-Early life and political beginnings:...
, left the Party Congress
Party Congress
A party congress is a general conference of a political party. The congress is attended by delegates who represent the party membership. In most parties the party congress is the highest decision making body of the organisation and elects the party's leadership bodies such as the National Executive...
of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, leading to the collapse of the all-Yugoslav party.
Shortly thereafter, the League of Communists of Slovenia changed its name to the Party of Democratic Reform
Social Democrats (Slovenia)
The Social Democrats is a centre-left political party in Slovenia, currently led by Borut Pahor. From 1993 until 2005, the party was known as the United List of Social Democrats .-Origins:...
(Stranka demokratične prenove - SDP), and negotiated with the Democratic Opposition of Slovenia
Democratic Opposition of Slovenia
Democratic Opposition of Slovenia, also known as the DEMOS coalition was a coalition of democratic political parties, created by an agreement between the Slovenian Democratic Union, the Social Democrat Alliance of Slovenia, the Slovene Christian Democrats, the Farmers' Alliance and the Greens of...
the establishment of a multi-party system. In April 1990, the reformed Communists lost the elections to the DEMOS coalition. In 1992, they ceased to be the largest left wing party and entered a period of radical transformation, which gained momentum with the election of Borut Pahor
Borut Pahor
Borut Pahor is a Slovenian politician who has been Prime Minister of Slovenia since 2008. A longtime president of the Social Democrats party, Pahor served several terms as a member of the National Assembly and was its chairman from 2000 to 2004. In 2004, Pahor was elected as member of the European...
as the party chairman. Their legal successor, the Social Democrats (SD) are currently the largest party of the ruling left wing coalition in Slovenia.
Leaders
Secretaries of the Central Committee of the League of Communists- Franc Leskošek (1943 - 1946) (b.1897 - d.1983)
- Edvard KardeljEdvard KardeljEdvard Kardelj also known under the pseudonyms Sperans and Krištof was a Yugoslav communist political leader, economist, partisan, publicist, and full member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts...
(1946 - 1948) (b.1910 - d.1979) - Miha Marinko (1948 - 1966) (b.1900 - d.1983)
- Albert Jakopic (1966 - 1968) (b.1914 - d.1996)
- Franc Popit (March 1969 - April 1982) (b.1921)
- Andrej Marinc (April 1982 - May 1986) (b.1930)
- Milan KučanMilan KucanMilan Kučan is a Slovenian politician and statesman. He was the first President of Slovenia.-Early life and political beginnings:...
(May 1986 - May 1990) (b.1941)
Other influential leaders
- Boris KidričBoris KidricBoris Kidrič was a leading Slovenian Communist who was, jointly with Edvard Kardelj, one of the chief organizers of the Partisan struggle in Slovenia from 1941 to 1945....
- Stane DolancStane DolancStane Dolanc was a Yugoslav and Slovenian communist politician, one of Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito's closest collaborators and one of the most influential people in Yugoslav federal politics in the 1970s and 1980s...
- Sergej KraigherSergej KraigherSergej Kraigher was a Yugoslav Communist politician from Slovenia who served as the President of the Presidency of Yugoslavia from 1981 to 1982.Kraigher was born in Postojna, Austria-Hungary...
- Boris Kraigher
- Miha Marinko
- Mitja RibičičMitja RibičičMitja Ribičič is a former Slovenian Communist official and Yugoslav politician. He was the only Slovenian prime minister of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia...
- Ivan Maček
- Prežihov VorancPrežihov VorancPrežihov Voranc was the pen name of Lovro Kuhar, a Slovene writer and Communist political activist. Voranc's literary reputation was established during the 1930s with a series of Slovene novels and short stories in the social realist style, notable for their depictions of poverty in rural and...
- Dragotin Gustinčič
- Stane Kavčič
- Lidija Šentjurc
- Joža Vilfan
- Mirko Košir
- Angela VodeAngela VodeAngela Vode was a Slovenian pedagogue, feminist author and human rights activist. An early member of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, she was expelled from the Party in 1939 because of criticism against the Hitler-Stalin Pact...
- Dušan Kermavner
- France KlopčičFrance KlopčičFrance Klopčič was a Slovenian historian, author, translator and Communist political activist.He was born in the town of L'Hôpital , France, then part of the German province of Alsace-Lorraine, where his father worked as industrial workers. At the outbreak of World War One, the family moved to the...
- Dušan PirjevecDušan PirjevecDušan Pirjevec, known by his battle name Ahac , was a Slovenian resistance fighter, literary historian and philosopher...
See also
- History of SloveniaHistory of SloveniaThe history of Slovenia chronicles the period of the Slovene territory from the 5th Century BC to the present times. In the Early Bronze Age, Proto-Illyrian tribes settled an area stretching from present-day Albania to the city of Trieste. The Holy Roman Empire controlled the land for nearly 1,000...
- Timeline of Slovene historyTimeline of Slovene historyThis is a timeline of key events in the history of Slovenia, both of the Slovenes and the other ethnicities who once lived or do live on Slovene ethnic territory or in the geographical vicinity of Slovenia.- Prehistory :...
- League of Communists of YugoslaviaLeague of Communists of YugoslaviaLeague of Communists of Yugoslavia , before 1952 the Communist Party of Yugoslavia League of Communists of Yugoslavia (Serbo-Croatian: Savez komunista Jugoslavije/Савез комуниста Југославије, Slovene: Zveza komunistov Jugoslavije, Macedonian: Сојуз на комунистите на Југославија, Sojuz na...
- League of Communists of Bosnia and HerzegovinaLeague of Communists of Bosnia and HerzegovinaThe League of Communists of Bosnia and Herzegovina was the Bosnian branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia.- Leaders :*Secretaries of the Central Committee of the League of Communists...
- League of Communists of CroatiaLeague of Communists of CroatiaLeague of Communists of Croatia was the Croatian branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia . Until 1952, it was known as Communist Party of Croatia .- History :...
- League of Communists of MacedoniaLeague of Communists of MacedoniaLeague of Communists of Macedonia was the Macedonian branch of the ruling League of Communists of Yugoslavia during the period 1943 – 1990. It was formed under the name Communist Party of Macedonia during the antifascist National Liberation War of Macedonia in the Second World War...
- League of Communists of MontenegroLeague of Communists of MontenegroThe League of Communists of Montenegro was the Montenegrin branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, the sole legal party of Yugoslavia from 1945 to 1990...
- League of Communists of SerbiaLeague of Communists of SerbiaThe League of Communists of Serbia was the Serbian branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, the sole legal party of Yugoslavia from 1945 to 1990. Under a new constitution ratified in 1974, greater power was devolved to the various republic level branches. In the late 1980s, the party was...
- League of Communists of VojvodinaLeague of Communists of VojvodinaThe League of Communists of Vojvodina was the Vojvodina branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia.- Leaders :*Secretaries of the Central Committee of the League of Communists...
- League of Communists of KosovoLeague of Communists of KosovoThe League of Communists of Kosovo was the Kosovo branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, the sole legal party of Yugoslavia from 1945 to 1990.-History and background:...
- League of Communists of Vojvodina
- League of Communists of Bosnia and Herzegovina
- List of leaders of communist Yugoslavia
- Socialist Federal Republic of YugoslaviaSocialist Federal Republic of YugoslaviaThe Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...