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Slovenians/Slovenes
Jurij Vega, Ivana Kobilca, Jože Plečnik, Ivan Cankar
This image is a candidate for speedy deletion. It will be deleted after seven days from the date of nomination.
Total population
2.2 million (est.)
Regions with significant populations
Slovenia:    1,631,363 (2002) [1]  United States:    176,691 (2000) [2]  Italy:    83,000-100,000 (est.)[1] [3]  Argentina:    30,000 (est.)[1] [4]  Canada:    29,000 [5]  Austria:    24,855 [6] The template is . Please use instead. This usage is deprecated. Please replace it with {{tdeprecated|Slovenians|Country}}. '''The template is deprecated. Please use instead. :    21,759 (2003) [7]  Australia:    16,085 (2006) [8]  Croatia:    13,173 (2001) [9]  Serbia:    5,104 (2002) [10]  France:    4,000 (est.)[1]  Sweden:    4,000 (est.)[1]  Hungary:    3,180 [11]  Uruguay:    2,000-3,000 (est.)[1]    2,100 (1991)  Switzerland:    1,601 [12]  Brazil:    1,500 (est.)[1]  Belgium:    1,500 (est.)[1]  Netherlands:    1,000-2,000 (est.) [13]  Venezuela:    1,000 (est.)[1]  Spain:    758 (2007) [14]  Montenegro:    415 (2003)  Republic of Macedonia:    403 (1994)[1]  Chile:    200 (est.)[1]  Ireland:    135 (2006)[3]  South Africa:    100 (est.)[1]
Languages
Slovenian
Religions
Predominantly Roman Catholic
Related ethnic groups
other Slavic peoples, especially South Slavs

Slovenians or Slovenes (Slovenian Slovenci, dual Slovenca, singular Slovenec, feminine Slovenke, dual Slovenki, singular Slovenka) are a South Slavic people primarily associated with Slovenia and the Slovenian language.

Most Slovenians today live within the borders of the independent Slovenia (1,631,363). There are autochthonous Slovenian minorities in northeastern parts of Italy (estimated at 83,000 - 100,000), southern Austria (18,000), Croatia (13,200) and Hungary (3,180). The Slovenians are recognised as national minorities in all four countries with which Slovenia shares a land border (Austria, Hungary, Croatia and Italy).

In the Slovenian national census of 2002, 1,631,363 people ethnically declared themselves as Slovenians ([15]), while 1,723,434 people claimed Slovenian as their mother tongue ([16]).

The total number of Slovenians in Austria is 24,855, of whom 17,953 are representatives of the Slovenian national minority, while 6,902 are foreign nationals ([17]).

Early Alpine Slavs

In 6th century, Slavic peoples settled the region between the Alps and the Adriatic Sea in two consecutive migration waves: the first wave took place around 550 and came from the Moravian lands, while the second wave, coming from the southeast, took place after the retreat of Langobards to Italy in 568.

From 623 to 658, Slavic peoples between the upper Elbe River and the Karavanke mountain range were united under the leadership of King Samo (Kralj Samo) in the what was to become known as Samo's Tribal Union. The tribal union collapsed after Samo's death, but a smaller Slavic tribal principality Karantania (Slovenian: Karantanija) remained, with its center in the present-day region of Carinthia.

Alpine Slavs during the Frankish Empire

Due to pressing danger of Avar tribes from the east, Karantanians accepted union with Bavarians in 745 and later recognized Frankish rule and accepted Christianity in the 8th century. The last Slavic state formation in the region, the principality of Prince Kocelj, lost its independence in 874. Slovenian ethnic territory subsequently shrank due to pressing of Germans from the west and the arrival of Hungarians in the Pannonian plain, and stabilized in the present form in the 15th century.

The earliest documents written in a Slovenian dialect are the Freising manuscripts (Brižinski spomeniki, Freisinger Denkmäler), dated between 972 and 1022, found in 1803 in Freising, Germany. The first book printed in Slovenian is Cattechismus and Abecedarium, written by the Protestant reformer Primož Trubar in 1550 and printed in Tübingen, Germany. Jurij Dalmatin translated the Bible into Slovenian in 1584. In the second half of the 16th century Slovenian became known to other European languages with the multilingual dictionary, compiled by Hieronymus Megisar.

Slovenians between the 18th century and the Second World War

Slovenian lands were part of the Illyrian provinces, the Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary (in Cisleithania).

Many Slovenians emigrated to the United States at the turn of the 20th century, mostly due to economic reasons. Those that settled in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania came to be called Windish. The largest group of Slovenians eventually ended up settling in Cleveland, Ohio and the surrounding area. The second largest group settled in Chicago principally on the Lower West Side, Chicago. Freethinkers were centered around 18th and Racine Ave. in Chicago where they founded the Slovene National Benefit Society, other Slovenian immigrants went to southwestern Pennsylvania, southeastern Ohio and the state of West Virginia to work in the coal mines and lumber industry. Some Slovenians also went to the Pittsburgh or Youngstown, Ohio areas to work in the steel mills.

Following the 1st World War (1914-1918), they joined other South Slavs in the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, followed by Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and finally Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In the new system of banovinas (since 1929), Slovenians formed a majority in the Drava Banovina.

In 1920 people in the bilingual regions of Carinthia decided in a referendum that most of Carinthia should remian in Austria. Between the two world wars the westernmost areas inhabited by Slovenians were occupied by Italy.

Slovenian volunteers also participated in the Spanish Civil War, and the Second Italo-Abyssinian War.

Slovenians during and after World War II

Yugoslavia was invaded by Axis Powers on April 6, 1941 after a coup d'état in the Yugoslav government ended Yugoslavia's participation in the Tripartite Pact and enraged Adolf Hitler. Territory in Yugoslavia was quickly divided between German, Italian, and Hungarian control, and the Nazis soon annexed Lower Styria (Untersteiermark) to the "Greater Reich". About 46,000 Slovenians in the Rann (Brežice) Triangle region were forcibly deported to eastern Germany for potential Germanization or forced labor beginning in November 1941.

The deported Slovenians were taken to several camps in Saxony, where they were forced to work on German farms or in factories run by German industries from 1941-1945. The forced labourers were not always kept in formal concentration camps, but often just vacant buildings where they slept until the next day's labour took them outside these quarters. Toward the close of the war, these camps were liberated by American and Soviet Army troops, and later repatriated refugees returned to Yugoslavia to find their homes in shambles.

In 1945, Yugoslavia liberated itself and shortly thereafter became a nominally federal Communist state. Slovenia joined the federation as a socialist republic; its own Communist Party having been formed in 1937.

Most of Carinthia remained part of Austria and around 42,000 Slovenians ([18]) in the Austrian state of Carinthia were recognized as a minority and have enjoyed special rights following the Austrian State Treaty (Staatsvertrag) of 1955. The Slovenians in the Austrian state of Styria (4,250 [19]) are not recognized as a minority and do not enjoy special rights, although the State Treaty of July 27, 1955 states otherwise.

Many of the rights required by the 1955 State Treaty are still to be fully implemented. There is also an undercurrent of thinking amongst parts of the population that the Slovenian involvement in the partisan war against the Nazi occupation force was a bad thing, and indeed "Tito partisan" is a not an infrequent insult hurled against members of the minority. Many Carinthians are (quite irrationally) afraid of Slovenian territorial claims, pointing to the fact that Yugoslav troops entered the state after each of the two World Wars. The current governor, Jörg Haider, regularly plays the Slovenian card when his popularity starts to dwindle, and indeed relies on the strong anti-Slovenian attitudes in many parts of the province for his power base. Another interesting phenomenon is for some German speakers to refuse to accept the minority as Slovenians at all, referring to them as Windische, an ethnicity distinct from Slovenians (a claim which linguists reject on the basis that the dialects spoken are by all standards a variant of the Slovenian language).

Yugoslavia acquired some territory from Italy after WWII but some 100,000 Slovenians remained behind the Italian border, notably around Trieste and Gorizia.

In 1991, Slovenia became an independent nation state after a brief ten day war.

See also

• Karantanians
• Carinthian Slovenes
• Hungarian Slovenes
• Venetian Slovenia
• List of Slovenians
• Slavic peoples
• History of Slovenia
• Timeline of Slovenian history
• History of Yugoslavia
• Demographics of Slovenia
• Demographics of Austria
• Demographics of Italy
• Demographics of Croatia
• Demographics of Hungary

References

External links

History

• Brestanica Museum of Political Prisoners, Internees and Deportees
• National Museum of Contemporary History - Brestanica
• Gottschee History, Culture, and Archives
• Association of Victims of the Occupying Powers 1941-45 (in Slovenian)
• Slovenian Law on Reparation of Injustices
• Map - Slovenians in the 9th and 20th century

The origin of Slovenians

• History of Slovenians
• Slovenians in the USA
• Slovenians between 1918 and 1941
• Slovenians living abroad