In the new Yugoslav state of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, the so-called oblasts (administrative regions), which were to operate as the largest administrative and self-governing units in their respective territories, were established with the Vidovdan Constitution of June 1921. The constitution also stipulated the elections for the assemblies of each oblast, which were to act as the highest bodies of (territorial) self-government. Based on the decree of April 26, 1922 on the division of the Kingdom of SHS into oblasts (Official Gazette of the Regional Administration for Slovenia, no. 49/22) and the decision of the Council of Ministers of December 3, 1923, the Regional Administration for Slovenia was abolished and its powers were transferred to the newly established Offices of the Great Mayors (veliki županstvi) in Ljubljana and Maribor, which commenced regular operations on January 1, 1924. Despite the fact that these newly established authorities only had limited powers, centralist political parties still hindered their elections and operations up to 1927.

Assemblies of the Maribor and Ljubljana Oblasts had 107 representatives elected from 30 Slovenian districts and towns: 53 members were elected in the Oblast of Ljubljana and 54 members in that of Maribor. Depending on the number of the inhabitants, individual districts in the Ljubljana Oblast received the following number of mandates: seven for Ljubljana and its surrounding areas, Kranj, Krško and Novo mesto had five each, Kočevje and Litija had four each, Brežice, Kamnik, Laško, Logatec and Radovljica had three each, Črnomelj had two, Kastav, which today is located in Croatia, had one, and the city of Ljubljana had five. In the Oblast of Maribor assembly, the districts had the following number of representatives: Ptuj had seven, surroundings of Celje had six, Maribor (left bank), Maribor (right bank), Murska Sobota and Šmarje pri Jelšah each had five, Donja Lendava had four, Slovenj Gradec, Dravograd and Ljutomer each had three, Gornji Grad and Konjice each had two, the city of Maribor elected three representatives, and the city of Celje one. Medžimurje was also represented in the assembly of the Maribor Oblast, and the administrative court in Zagreb assigned five mandates each for the districts of Čakovec and Prelog. The assemblies of the Oblasts of Ljubljana and that of Maribor thus had a total of 117 members.

Presented here as this month’s archivalia is a photograph that has been preserved among the items in our general photographic collection. It features the members of the assembly of the Ljubljana Oblast and was taken after the assembly’s first session on February 23, 1927. The photograph, which was most likely taken in the hall of the Ljubljana City Municipality, where the first session of the assembly was held, or perhaps in the courtyard of the seat of the Oblast of Ljubljana committee in the building of the Slovenian Agricultural Society (which today is occupied by the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts), is a group photo of 51 session attending representatives. Two of the representatives are missing, even though the minutes of the founding session states that all elected representatives were present at the session. Dr. Joža Basaj was indeed absent from the session, but he sent his deputy to attend it. Also in attendance was Dr. Rudolf Andrejka as the representative of the Great Mayor of the Ljubljana Oblast. Dr. Marko Natlačen was elected the president of the Ljubljana Oblast committee, which served as the executive body of the assembly. The Slovenian People’s Party was the undisputed winner of the election, securing almost three quarters of all representatives.

The establishment of the oblasts’ assemblies received a lot of attention from the Slovenian political press as well. The photo that we are presenting here as this month’s archivalia was published also in the daily newspaper Slovenec, more specifically in its supplement called Ilustrirani Slovenec of April 24, 1927.

Added to the photo is a list of all the elected representatives to the assembly. This list is also a record on those representatives, who ordered and paid for the photos. As we can see, the ordering of the photos did not generate much interest.

Also interesting are the preserved rules of procedure of the assembly. Article one in the  chapter on the opening and constitution of the assembly stipulates that “all representatives must meet at the seat of the oblast in the hall designated for the purpose of holding assembly sessions at ten in the morning and must conduct their assembly work until the assembly is concluded”. Despite the rules setting the hour for the start of the assembly for ten in the morning, the session actually began at eight in the morning.

The rules furthermore determine the procedure for conducting the first session. As was customary, the oldest representative was to act as the temporary president of the assembly, while two younger representatives were to take up the posts of temporary secretaries. The process of constituting and conducting of the assembly is then explained. During that first session, the oblast committee was also elected to act as the executive body of the assembly. Among a number of other restrictions and prohibitions, it is worth noting that carrying weapons into the assembly hall was prohibited.

The general photographic collection of the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia includes photos of various origin. Unfortunately, it is not possible to determine how the here presented photo positive ended up at the archives and was included in the photographic collection (in total there are 15 large copies of the photo preserved and one in the size of a postcard). It is possible that the photos were part of a small collection owned by the newspaper Slovenec.

Branko Radulovič