Duška Knežević-Hočevar ZRC-SAZU, Ljubljana Introduction the Mid-19Th Century Historical Debates on the Political Inception O

VANISHING NATION:DISCUSSING NATION’S REPRODUCTION IN POST-SOCIALIST SLOVENIA Duška Knežević-Hočevar ZRC-SAZU, Ljubljana

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Introduction discussions on nationalism as a political philosophy and it referred to a people with The mid-19th century historical debates on the shared linguistic, cultural, historical political inception of the Slovenian nation experience, material conditions, and descent; featured numerical “smallness”1 as the most organic ties to peoples’ territory and indicative characteristic of the Slovenian environment were considered peoples’ natural population. Despite many other attributes, rights to such places (Kreager 1997: 155). mostly described as “favorable” – e.g. cultural The imperative that such “natural wholes” had and religious homogeneity, language to be “home-produced” (Kreager 1997: 156) uniformity – the early builders of the national and re-produced is also characteristic for post- discourse understood this smallness as a socialist rhetoric on production and renewal “serious political disadvantage” (cf. Cvirn of “biological Slovenians.” Moreover, the 1995: 73; Domej 1995: 87, 92). This assertion ideological notions of the “ancient past of the was further implicated in many historical Slovenian nation” have corroborated those attempts to reinforce the Slovenian statehood, interpretations on declining fertility in be it in the framework of politically Slovenia that had adopted the central differently conceptualised Yugoslav states2 or assumption of the classical theory of finally in the 1990s, in the period of demographic transition.3 The theory was establishing an independent Slovenian state. firmly grounded in the notion that each and In this article I argue that the public every country successfully moves from a pre- interpretations of fertility behavior in the industrial to a post-industrial state of period of consolidating the Slovenian demographic equilibrium, i.e. from the state independent state uncritically espoused a 19th of the population’s high fertility and high century concept of national population. The mortality to a state of the decline of the classic concept was used mostly in population growth. Evolutionary-designed demographic theory was also convenient for

1 According to Public Censuses of the 1931 and the 2002, the numbers of declared Slovenians are 3 Szreter (1993: 661) asserts that demographic 1,397,650, and 1,948,250 respectively. transition in its classic theoretisation was a general 2 In chronological order, the Yugoslav states were: theory, stipulating that a strong population growth the State of Slovenians, Croats and Serbs, initially occurred in the period of industrialisation established in October 1918; the Kingdom of because fertility remained uncontrolled and at a Serbs, Croats and Slovenians, constituted a month high rate, while mortality declined due to later; the Kingdom of Yugoslavia from 1929; the improved food supplies and living standards. The Democratic Federative Yugoslavia from 1945; the latter were seen as the consequence of Federative Republic of Yugoslavia from 1946, and improvements in agriculture, transport, in 1963 established the Socialist Federative manufacturing, and progress of the medical Republic of Yugoslavia. sciences. commentators on the “transitional orientation” The size of the national population has been of the new Slovenian state from the “primitive an unavoidable topic in most “domestic” Balkans” to the “civilised Europe”. studies on Slovenian population and related themes ever since. The numerical smallness of The “smallness” of the nation’s body the Slovenian nation was not only a A clearly conveyed idea of Slovenian statistically verified fact in Austrian censuses; statehood, authored by a handful of Slovenian furthermore, many Slovenian scholars have intellectuals in 1848, considered of prime focused on discovering the reasons for such importance the project of constructing the an alarming national situation, or have even Slovenians as a “historical nation.” According tried to invent measures for its improvement. to historian Cvirn (1995: 73), after 1848, According to the archaeologist Niederle, the German political writings had successfully main reasons for such a seemingly precarious launched the argument that the Slovenians national situation were on the one hand, the represented only a minute particle of Slovenian emigration abroad, and on the other humanity which was doomed to extinction – hand, the errors of statistical data collected in i.e. to submergence in the sea of German-ness the Empire. Small numbers notwithstanding, - precisely because of its smallness, cultural Slovenians should not fear radical decline if backwardness, and notably because they only know how to strengthen the national Slovenians were obstructing Germans in their consciousness in people, and improve their spatial expansion towards the Adriatic sea. civilisation within their political territory – the The all-European “national revival” activated Carniola (cf. Niederle 1911: 117-118). not only Slovenian intellectuals in their efforts Similarly, the argument of one of his to bring into force the idea of Slovenia as a contemporaries, Mačkovšek, was that the political entity of the hitherto dispersed Slovenian lowest population increase among Slovenian speaking population in the the Austrian Slavs was due to their Alpine Empire’s historical lands, but it also country, poor economy, emigration, and substantiated the creation of a new orientation territorial losses. He argued for a just national in Slovenian historiography – the construction struggle for the return of the lost millennial of national history (Kos 1985: 11). In their Slovenian settlement lands (Mačkovšek; in: enthusiasm for bringing to light everything of Niederle 1911: 246, 250). the greatest significance for the Slovenian These first “Slovenian” interpretations of the national past, the heralds of Slovenian official statistics on the national populations longevity even developed a specific type of within the Empire were accompanied by scholar – the patriotic historiographer who appeals for eliminating such a threatening should not be preoccupied only with the decrease of the Slovenian population, national history, but also had to study the propagated by medical doctors and language, folk ways, and customs of the eugenicists in the 1920s and 1930s. According people, and who had to be a poet and a to these scholars, the numerical smallness of national agitator at the same time (Kos 1985: the Slovenian nation was not its only 11). Davorin Trstenjak was the first who disadvantage; they considered that the quality explicitly mentioned the numerical smallness of the “national organism” and the “national of the Slovenian nation: health” also needed to be brought under The Slovenian nation is meagre in scrutiny. Of particular concern was the number. Hundreds of years of alleged basic biological characteristic of a inconvenience heavily disturbed it. All nation – its persistent “rebirth and disasters notwithstanding, in the face replacement” (Zalokar 1918: 6). The statistics of other bigger nations having on fertility, mortality, and migration were vanished from the world scene, it still consulted and analysed with regard to various remains safe and sound.” (Trstenjak environments and areas settled by Slovenians. 1863: 234; author’s translation) The one single purpose of these efforts was to diagnose and improve the circumstances for and somewhat automatically applied the the sake of a better “quality of national theory on “domestic ground.” posterity” (Zalokar 1918: 7). Many questions National press on Slovenian fertility pertaining to “reproduction” turned out to be worthy of study in the “nation’s perspective,” The assumption that the public discussion on provided that they helped change the status of Slovenian statehood of the 1990s adopted the Slovenian people into a sovereign nation. anachronistic notion of the national population not merely as a historical and Scholars in different scientific disciplines cultural phenomenon but as a “natural” fact have systematically tracked the demographic was tested by reviewing and analysing press- movements in Slovenia since the end of clippings from the Journalist documentation World War I. The first basic study on the Delo, the most extensive journalist archive in historical development of the Slovenian Slovenia. I analysed 177 articles (the folder population since the 18th century was Natality) published between 1970 and 2000. I published in 1936. In his effort to determine first sought to find discernible time patterns in and evaluate the proper number of Slovenians the press interpretations on fertility in in their scattered historical lands of settlement Slovenia, and consequently identify the across different periods, Fran Zwitter assumed constructed image of the national population. that the development of the population should The hypothesis was that following the always be studied as “an integral part of a declaration of independence in 1991, the holistic historical development” (Zwitter Slovenian popular press paid more attention 1936: 88). His appeal was of singular to the fertility issue then before, and that this importance also in the context of the ensuing issue was represented in a specific way. The studies conducted during the period of decrease in the fertility coefficient was no Socialist Yugoslavia (e.g. Šifrer 1963; longer interpreted as a statistical fact Vogelnik 1965), which uniformly interpreted confirming the notorious assumption of the the trend of fertility decline among Slovenians theory of demographic transition, according to in accordance with the paradigm of which low fertility values of a given modernization, and the theory of demographic population are typical for the “developed transition. Fertility decline was taken to be a European populations.” Quite on the contrary, typical characteristic of the “developed”, i.e. the slow population growth in Slovenia was “western” countries, and thus a positive sign conveyed alongside the concern for the of an ongoing “progress” of human “biological threat to Slovenians”. civilization. Yet the commentators of the population movement did not question the linear and evolutionary conceptualised theory The reviewed articles show the following of demographic transition; they uncritically picture: Figure 1: The percentages of articles on fertility in Slovenia by the years and decades

______There is every indication that the nation’s in the negative sense, stressing the reproduction is the privileged topic of the shortcomings of such progress as the self- consolidation of the independent Slovenian centered and negative ideology of state. Nearly two third (66.6%) out of the consumerism. Typical observations were: total analysed material belongs to the 1990s Regarding low infant mortality we in comparison with the 1980s (22.5%) and are among the most developed the 1970s (6.4%). Yet, the characteristic countries in Europe. (Delo, 24 May interpretations of the fertility issue per single 1969)4 decade show the following observations. We have sufficient evidence to be The 1970s: declining births - a syndrome satisfied that with the cultural and of “progress” economic level attained we created The most salient characteristic for the in people a higher responsibility for reporting on fertility in the 1970s is the children: as it is in the countries of apparent small number (one per year) of similar growth, parents decide to articles compared with the subsequent have one child only once they secure periods. All articles focus on the decreasing good living conditions. (Delo, 24 fertility in Slovenia and the reasons for it are December 1972) explained in two significant ways: as a proof The “economic and cultural progress” also that the level of cultural and economic represented the main frame of interpretation development that has been attained (i.e. of the fertility situation in Slovenia within responsible parenthood, legal abortion, the Yugoslav federation. It was pointed out increased number of employed women, etc.) in the Socialist Republic of Slovenia is similar to that in the “developed Europe;” or 4 All quotations are the author's translation. time and again that the fertility decline in the immigrate than emigrate” (ITD, 15 January most developed federal republic in 1974). Yugoslavia leads to a smaller proportion of A similar reflection can be extracted from its inhabitants in the total population of the proposed action programs for the Yugoslavia. In this regard the typical improvement of fertility in Slovenia that comparison among the Yugoslav republics were reported on at that time; the proposed usually took the following turn: programs for the most part remained The truth is that people from poorer restricted to calls for separate and single regions have more children than measures. Most frequent among them were those with higher incomes… In appeals for improving women’s Slovenia only 15.8 infants are born reproductive health care in general, and for per 1,000 inhabitants, a reason for providing more suitable living conditions for concern particularly because we are young families, in particular; yet a holistic a small nation… Regarding births, population policy was not clearly elaborated Kosovo takes the first place in (Komunist, 24 November 1972; ITD, 15 Yugoslavia; here, the growth of January 1974; Delo, 7 June 1977). population is the most noticeable: 25 The 1980s: “We are a mere million” infants per 1,000 inhabitants!” (Tedenska tribuna, 21 February Significant for this period is the 1973) transposition of issues: more attention was given to “catastrophic” consequences of the In the 1970s, the fear of the imminent fertility decline in Slovenia and strong disappearance of Slovenians was only appeals were voiced for urgent, holistic sporadically mentioned. More frequent and population measures. The reported reasons characteristic were references to surveys, or for fertility decline were assumed widely to research reports produced by individual known and taken for granted as such. Those experts (half of all the articles). In their that pointed out the historical achievements reporting, the journalists usually emphasized of economic growth in most European those research results that showed optimistic societies were repeatedly mentioned. projections: the Slovenians with their low Fertility decline in Slovenia was mostly fertility statistics follow the economic trends interpreted as an inevitable consequence of of the “developed world” (Delo, 27 October the gradual restriction of planned births and 1973); Slovenians are not endangered was still consistently explained in two because the gross reproductive coefficient contexts, the Yugoslav and the European. still remains 1.1, which implies that the “biological reproduction” is more than However, in comparison with the previous secured especially when compared to decade when the “side effects” of belonging Vojvodina or Croatia with coefficient value to the “developed world” were particularly below 1 (Delo, 27 October 1973). exposed, a series of new alleged reasons for fertility decline were invented including Although some demographers stressed that inappropriate attitude towards life (the non- Slovenia had become an immigrant country ethical right to abortion); labor immigrants for the first time in its history and that labor from the other Republics of Socialist immigrants from other republics might Yugoslavia in the 1970s; and last but not contribute to the Slovenian national body least, the absence of a holistic population (Tedenska tribuna, 21 February 1973), rare policy. These putative reasons were were those who addressed the portrayed as the main culprits of an “composition” of the population: “Every imminent national catastrophe and often fourth employed person in Slovenia is not of exposed in headlines: “Slovenians are Slovenian nationality; for the first time in aging” (Večer, 14 July 1984); “Simple the history of Slovenia, more people reproduction is endangered” (Teleks, 10 January 1985), “We are a mere million” Some justified this thesis with allegedly (Teleks, 10 January 1985); “We are a “western reasoning:” greying society” (Delo, 26 February 1987); Considering previous experiences “Is the nation passing away?” (Nedeljski and reactions of western European dnevnik, 19 April 1987); “The roots of the authorities on immigration from the nation are seriously sapped” (Nedeljski “South”, this solution is not popular dnevnik, 7 May 1989); “Euthanasia is at all. A majority of European unnecessary among Slovenians” (Delo, 12 countries tackle the low fertility December 1989). Moreover, they were problem with a calculated population corroborated by the statistical evidence and policy. (Teleks, 10 January 1985) population projections showing the declining number of births. It was reported time and again that for maintaining the natural regeneration of the The most salient newly identified reason for Slovenian population, every woman should the low fertility in Slovenia in the 1980s was give birth to 2.2 children. In this respect the the labor immigration from the Yugoslav majority of criticism and comments Republics. The birth rates among the pertained to the living conditions in immigrants allegedly led the experts into Slovenia, ranging from the poor conditions underestimating the seriousness of the threat for employment of young people, lack of of the “vanishing of Slovenians.” While at suitable housing, day nurseries and first the population experts cautiously kindergartens, to the calls for a prolonged pointed to the fact that the higher population maternity leave (one year), and financial growth in Slovenia in the last two decades rewards for families with more than two compared to the average growth in children. However, the reporting on both, Yugoslavia was attributable to the influx of the holistic population policies and the immigrants (Delo, 12 June 1982; Večer, 14 single measures for improvement of the July 1984), later on, at the end of the 1980s, living conditions for people in Slovenia, they more and more openly conveyed their increasingly, though implicitly, related to concern for the vanishing of “Slovenian ethnic Slovenians only. culture and identity” (Dnevnik, 19 November 1988). The 1990s: against the “reproductive laziness” of Slovenians, and for the A similar logic was incorporated into the “efficient surveillance over migration” very reasoning on the need for a population policy. The experts’ calls for a holistic Nearly seventy percent of press material population policy were not primarily accumulated was produced during the third founded on the paranoid notion of the decade under consideration, the period of “extinction of Slovenians” but were rather in consolidating the sovereign Slovenian line with the social consequences of low nation-state. Of special interest is the year fertility in Slovenia. However, it seems that 1990 when the so-called professional bases they could not completely avoid the slippery for population policy were created and ground of defining the criteria for reported on. The measures addressed membership in the national population “autochthonous” Slovenians, people born in despite their appeals for urgent population Slovenia, and immigrants who had worked measures, mostly as part and parcel of an in Slovenia for at least five years and had entire socio-economic growth of the nation- obtained permanent residence permits state (Nedeljski dnevnik, 19 April 1987). (Teleks, 1 February 1990). However, it was Some journalists took nearly for granted the stressed that the policy was not intended to assumption that immigrants were not a attract non-Slovenians to come to Slovenia solution because they would allegedly make nor to encourage so-called nationally mixed the Slovenian identity gradually disappear. marriages (Teleks, 1 February 1990). The policy proponents suggested that the expert reports that served as a basis for immigrant Last but not least, surfaced the comments policy should also be articulated. As the pointing to the anti-pluralist orientation of President of the committee of experts the proposed population measures: working on the Slovenian population policy This project is clearly directed in 1990, put it: “We anticipate measures that against the plurality of the society, will not attract a major influx to Slovenia against the different life-styles of but will stimulate increased reproduction of communities, and therefore against the Slovenian population” (Teleks, 1 the autonomy of women… The February 1990). It was also reported that big Slovenian development will families should become a norm again, obviously rest on a kind of specific therefore some authors of the expert man-enterprising and woman- documents proposed a special tax for non- housekeeping” (Večer, 24 February parenthood, a measure allegedly well known 1990). abroad (Jana, 14 February 1990). The 1990s were characterized by These propositions were met with discussions on foreigners, which were substantial disapproval, particularly from the represented in three significant ways:. public. Almost fifty percent of total press firstly, as the likely candidates for filling in clippings in 1990 conveyed critical views. the imminently emptied-out Slovenian Most critics openly pointed to the non- territory; secondly, as the “old,” former scientific, demagogic character of the Yugoslav immigrants who came to Slovenia proposed assumptions. The dilemma – why, before its independence and who were for whom, and in what circumstances the denoted as the main culprits (together with fertility decline is a problem at all - was their descendants “in proliferation”) for the exposed for the first time (Delo, 5 April fact that the spreading “reproductive 1990). The majority of reviewers of the laziness” of the autochthonous population of expert platform characterized its content as Slovenia was obscured (Delo, 23 June predominately driven by the electoral 1993); and thirdly, as those belonging to the concerns. They insisted that the experts’ new wave of immigrants in 1993, mostly suggestions for the improvement of fertility war refugees from the former Yugoslav in Slovenia was a step back not only to some Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The oversimplified notions of socialist ideology latter provoked excessive fears, especially but also to premises clearly belonging to among the reading public. Some individuals naturalism and mercantilism, and therefore also voiced extremely alarmist tones: “toward the Middle Ages” (Mladina, 16 February 1990): The late Yugoslavia had the infamous role as an accelerator of Emphasizing the quantity of people this Southern-style ‘multiplication’ instead of their quality is typical for [the Kosovars], and it is justly the socialism, which is a society of first victim of the modern plague on goods exchange and therefore blind two feet. Slovenians have renounced for fetishism of goods and also their own descendants to leave their money as the specific good… Such territory to illiterate, uncultured, and population naturalism cannot grasp lazy thieves” (Delo, 2 July 1994). that over two hundred years, four hundred thousand Slovenians may Such individual letters to the editor were not be of more value than two or three met with the number of counter-views million on this day (Teleks, 15 comparable to 1990. Quite on the contrary, February 1990). the key dilemma of whether to include the foreigners in the debates on population policy or not occupied the population experts throughout the 1990s. In line with the commonsensical notion that the old conscious regulation of fertility trends in economic immigrants from the former Slovenia. The calculated statistical Yugoslavia enjoyed a wider range of rights indicators were to “lull” the experts in their than the Slovenians themselves, some estimation of a still non-alarmist fertility argued for an effective surveillance over situation in Slovenia. In this regard, the immigration waves and called attention to press pointed to the labor immigrants from the fact that foreigners cannot be expected to other republics of the former Yugoslavia, “take care of Slovenians” (Delo, 7 January the segment of population that compared to 1995). A minority insisted that immigration the romantic concept of nation was not is the solution for the fertility decline in “naturally tied” to the community in which Slovenia provided that the newcomers prove they either temporarily or permanently themselves able to integrate into the system. resided. Yet nearly all, on cue with the xenophobic In the 1990s, the press rhetoric increased the atmosphere in Slovenia, insisted on an menace of the numerical smallness of “easier” and “cheaper” solution: investing in Slovenians to the point that the “real “reliable natives” by means of stimulating national substance” was endangered. The their reproductive behavior. repeatedly reported disclaimers, like for Conclusion example: “I am not a nationalist, but I am concerned for my endangered nation” The promoters of the first Slovenian (Slovenske novice, 17. 2. 1993), seem to political entity, to paraphrase Šumi (2000: have boiled down the official Slovenian 121), had sought to arrange diachronic and ideology of trans-national European contextually diverse phenomena ex aequo to orientation to mere nationalistic values. construct the great mythic monads: Creating the positive self-presentation “Slovenian-ness,” “Slovenian,” and usually corresponded with a negative image “nation.” The creators of the new Slovenian ascribed to the others. Illustrative were the identity after 1991 adopted this romantic reports, which in the period of the concept of the Slovenian nation, and dissolution of socialist Yugoslavia ascribed automatically equated it with the concept of the low fertility in Slovenia to non- the “fully fledged” (Hroch 1996: 36) nation- Slovenians, notably to former Yugoslav state. The analysis of the media discourse on labor immigrants and refugees from Bosnia declining fertility in Slovenia in the last and Herzegovina. Irrespective of the three decades proves this observation. political orientation of the daily newspaper The review of the national press on fertility under review, the xenophobic attitudes issues in Slovenia in the 1970s showed that towards foreigners reached their peak with journalists discussed the fertility decline in the assertion that “foreigners cannot solve Slovenia within the framework of the theory the problem of the vanishing of Slovenian of modernization and demographic population,” the diagnosis which also failed transition. Interpreting the low fertility entirely to provoke any perceivable situation within the Yugoslav and the resistance in the public spheres. European contexts, the media produced a References cited: relatively autonomous image of the Slovenian community, either as the most Cvirn, Janez. 1995. 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