Ciril Žebot, Odgovor Edvardu Kardelju

Title: Odgovor Edvardu Kardelju (Reply to Edvard Kardelj) (self-published, printed by the Hermagoras Society in Klagenfurt, 1969)
Author: Ciril Žebot (1914–1989)
Type: booklet
Genre: political discussion
Format: 13cm
Material: paper
Length: 22 pages
Publisher: self-published (Ciril Žebot)
Provenience: Catholic Institute, Studia Slovenica; evidence number: ASS 120 ŽEBOT CIRIL
Notes: Žebot’s reply to Edvard Kardelj (1910–1979) from 1969 relates to an important chapter in Slovenian 20th-century history: temporary visa-free travel to Yugoslavia for all foreign citizens during the International Tourist Year 1968, when Žebot, too, visited Slovenia, and the so-called road scandal (the construction of the first motorway sections in Slovenia), where the main protagonist was the president of the Slovenian republic government (executive council), Stane Kavčič (1919–1987). As a reputable American university professor of political economy, Ciril Žebot sought to secure loans from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development for investing in Slovenia’s infrastructure network and integrating it, economically, with Central Europe. In this context, Žebot’s reply refutes Kardelj’s accusations against him, which appeared in the Delo and Komunist newspapers and, inter alia, criticized Žebot’s interwar role and highlighted the harmfulness of political emigration. Žebot’s booklet is a representative document revealing the polemical relations between the Slovenian socialist authorities, particularly their central ideologist, and political emigrants with opposing views. Disseminating this publication was forbidden in the Socialist Republic of Slovenia at the time.

Copyright: orphan work

The complete document in digital form is available HERE.

A summary of the booklet (in Slovenian) is available HERE.

First page of the booklet “Reply to Edvard Kardelj”