Between ideology and pragmatism: polemic on the civil rights of Christians in the socialist Slovenia of the 1970s

Abstract

In this article I discuss the controversy concerning the rights of believers which developed among younger theologians, some laymen and some representatives of the faithful on the one hand, and communist politicians and Marxist theorists on the other, in Slovenia in the 1970s. In comparison with other socialist countries, the level of religious freedoms in multireligious Yugoslavia was relatively high; the same can be said about the country’s relations with the Holy See, with which diplomatic relations at the highest level were restored in 1970. The controversy opened key questions about the relationship between Marxism and atheism under Yugoslav self-management socialism and touched some of the basic ideological postulates on which the League of Communists (LC) built its social engagement. Demands for greater equality for believers were rejected as unfounded in the vast majority of cases and did not trigger a change in the established understanding of religion by the ruling communist party. However, the awareness of everyday discrimination against believers in their public life spread amongst the younger generation of more liberal-oriented communist leaders. At a time when the Yugoslav party was preparing for the difficult period following the imminent death of President Tito and in this period was counting on the loyalty of believers, communist leaders were willing to condemn the most outstanding examples of ‘sectarianism’, of which there was no scarcity in the ranks of the LC, while at the same time a change in programming principles in regard to religion remained out of the question. The prevailing conviction remained that religion would die out of its own accord, but that in the meantime it was necessary to ensure full equality for nonbelievers and believers alike.

Keywords:

• Marxism
• Yugoslavia
• League of Communists of Yugoslavia
• self-management socialism
• religious discrimination
• rights of believers
• law on religion

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Jure Ramšak

Jure Ramšak is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Primorska, Koper, Slovenia. The scope of his research is the history of postwar Yugoslavia, especially the political and cultural history of late socialism. His research interests include intellectual history and relationships between the socialist state and civil society in Slovenia as well as the urban history of totalitarian regimes in the border area between Italy and Slovenia.