The online column Archivalia of the Month has been published since January 2011. Its purpose is to promote the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia and its archival holdings. Presented in the column are archival documents that are interesting visually and content-wise, as well as newly acquired documents or the ones that have so far been overlooked. Also published are documents relating to various anniversaries, current events and many more.

Below you will find the Archivalias of the Month of 2022.

Inventories and rent-rolls of parishes and other ecclesiastical benefices under the patronage of a territorial prince constitute a special type of early modern archival records. Characteristically, they have a specific, more or less uniform structure, the reason for their creation – looking at it from a broader perspective – being to a large extent the determination of (Inner)Austrian territorial princes to hold control over the church property. This month's archivalia – Inventory and Rent-Roll of the Territorial Princely Parish of Moravče – takes us back to a time 260 years ago.

Document on WWI military cemeteries, gravesites and graves, created in May 1974, was commissioned by the Republic Secretariat for Urban Planning and compiled based on the reports sent in by municipal assemblies. It was an attempt to apply provisions of the Geneva conventions in regard to military cemeteries, gravesites and graves, whose locations were known, but were abandoned and unkept, while locations of WWII gravesites were at that time still not precisely determined. The data gathered refers to all WWI military cemeteries, gravesites and graves in Slovenia recorded at that time.

This month’s archivalia is a transcript of the letter written by lawyer Lojze Ude (1896-1982) to his lawyer colleague Albin Šmajd (1904-1946), a prominent member of the Slovenian People’s Party. This letter of April 21, 1943 is not the only letter that Ude wrote to try and reconcile the two Slovenian opposing sides, but it is a very informative one and has great symbolical significance. The letter, which at the time when it was written met with no success, managed to be preserved in two copies (transcripts) among the records of the "archives of the former Yugoslav Secret Police".

420 years ago, on October 19, 1601, Georg Paradeiser and some of his accomplices were executed in Vienna. This nobleman from a prominent Carinthian family was found guilty of treason for his surrender of the strategically important border fortress of Kanizsa, which he was commander of, after the fortress had been besieged by the Turks for a longer period of time. Considerably less known than Paradeiser's fatal two-year affair of Kanizsa, is his work in the seaside town of Senj. While working as the Captain of Senj, Paradeiser sent to Carniola two interesting alerts against the oncoming Turks in January 1596. The so-called Turkish alerts are presented here as this month's archivalia.

Long war and bad harvest lead to shortage of food, high prices, requisitions, food coupons etc. In such state of general shortage, the Imperial and Royal Office for Public Nutrition in Vienna turned its attention to fruit as well. In May 1917, it issued a regulation on fruit trade, allowing the trade to be conducted only by those who obtained special permission. In mid-June, the office sent letters to all major agricultural corporations in the monarchy and enclosed a set of instructions on how to can fruit without any sugar. The recipients of the letter were urged to pay special attention to the issue in question, since sugar was an increasingly rare commodity in any household. One copy of the letter was also received by the Agricultural Society for Carniola and we have chosen it for this month’s archivalia.

The Olympic Games, which were recently held in Tokyo, once again confirmed that Slovenia is one of the world's sporting superpowers, as our Olympians won 5 medals. Slovenia, which participated for the first time as an independent state in the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, now boasts 8 gold medals from 8 Summer Olympic Games, 9 silver medals and 11 bronze medals.
This time, the Olympic gold medals were won by climber Janja Garnbret, canoeist Benjamin Savšek and cyclist Primož Roglič, the silver medal was won by judoka Tina Trstenjak, and the bronze medal by cyclist Tadej Pogačar.

David Sipoš is known to the Slovenian public as a film-maker and director of documentary feature films. He is a recipient of several national and international film festival awards.

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee has inscribed the selected works of architect Jože Plečnik in Ljubljana on the UNESCO List of World Natural and Cultural Heritage. Slovenia submitted the nomination proposal for Plečnik's selected works in January last year. By being inscribed on the list, the selected works of Jože Plečnik in Ljubljana have been recognised as having outstanding universal value. Monuments and sites of significance for all humankind now include the works that constitute a monument site that was created in the short period between the two world wars as a result of the architect's interventions in the urban fabric of Ljubljana.

The Library of the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia is a special library operating in the field of archival science. Although its primary mission is to meet the needs of those employed at the Archives, its books and newspapers can also be viewed by external users. The beginnings of the library go back to 1953, when the then State Archives of the People’s Republic of Slovenia moved out of the National Museum of Slovenia.While searching among the shelves of the library, one can often come across a publication, which can be seen as a “hybrid” between library and archival material. One such publication is a 32 double pages long booklet titled Traffic and Police Regulation for the Provincial Capital of Ljubljana.

The Slovenian people have a close connection to sports. The extraordinary success of Slovenian sport in the past 30 years has helped promote our country internationally and put it on the world map. Our athletes have made their dreams come true at world and European championships, in the Champions League, at the Olympic Games, at various top-level competitions around the globe… and at the same time we also have some of the biggest stars in the world. Who doesn't know Tina Maze, Jan Oblak, Anže Kopitar, Luka Dončič, Primož Roglič or Tadej Pogačar?

Developing and raising awareness of the core values and the most important events of contemporary Slovenian history is especially important in times of crisis. We must not forget that bold decisions, such as the adoption of the independence act in 1991 on the basis of the plebiscite of 1990, the formation of our own army, the declaration of independence on 25 June 1991, the victory in the war for Slovenia and the withdrawal of the Yugoslav national army on 25 October 1991, have preserved the existence of the Slovenian state. Such achievements cannot be taken for granted.

Eighty years ago, more precisely on July 22, 1941, a few minutes before 8 am, a single shot was fired on the Tacen-Šmartno road. The shot, whose echo continued to be heard even a decade later, when it became to be regarded by the Slovenian people as the shot that started its armed uprising. The Archives of the Republic of Slovenia keeps the criminal charge issued by the Commander of the Security Police and Security Service in the Occupied Territory of Carinthia and Upper Carniola against two suspects, two young men, who were believed to have fired the shot from a bush and wound a bike-riding Franc Žnidaršič, an interpreter at the German gendarmerie station.

Based on a complaint received from a "concerned" citizen, who expressed his concern about the increased corruption risk in public administration because of the employment of a married couple by the same organizational unit, and based on a general need to legally regulate such issues, in June 1963 the Office for Applications and Complaints at the Executive Board of the Assembly of the SRS ordered the Republic Secretariat for Budget and General Administration of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia to verify the truth of the statement and pass their judgement on the matter in question. Bureaucracy wheels whirled into motion and came to - bureaucratic conclusions.

In accordance with the obligations arising from the plebiscite act, the Slovenian government sent to the assembly a package of proposed independence bills, with which Slovenia wanted to assume more powers of the federation and solidify the main areas of its statehood.

On April 28, 1875, newspaper Slovenski narod published a notice titled »Murder«, which cautioned people against seeking overnight accommodation at homes of »compassionate people« by reporting about the murder of a peddler, who travelled through Carinthia, selling »goods with blade«. The initial suspect pub owner Primož Mešnak felt deeply wronged by the accusations and addressed a lawsuit against the editor of the newspaper Slovenski narod Josip Jurčič. The court acquitted Juričič and referred the plaintiff to a civil lawsuit in regard to his claim for damages. Presented here as this month's archivalia are some of the more interesting documents from the court file.

The territory of present-day Slovenia has been inhabited since prehistoric times. One of the most important finds, dating back to the Old Stone Age, is what is probably the oldest musical instrument in the world – a whistle from the Divje babe Cave near Cerkno. Experts estimate that the whistle is about 55,000 years old.

The national flag became established as a symbol of Slovenian identity back in the 19th century. The Slovenians determined the colours (white, blue and red) based on those featured in the coat of arms of the province of Carniola, and submitted them for the approval of the then ruling Austrian administration in Vienna, where the colours were accepted. The first national flag was hung by Slovenian students in Vienna in March 1848 during a period of revolutionary tumult.

In 2019, Photo, Cinema and Video Club Mavrica in Radomlje celebrated its 50th anniversary. Members of the film section Mavrica captured on film numerous events that took place mostly in and around Domžale, Kamnik, Mengeš, Moravče and Lukovica, as well as in Ljubljana. In addition to films documenting various events, they also made feature and even experimental films. In 2016, 2018 and 2019, the club transferred to the Slovenian Film Archives 161 films, and excerpts from six of the transferred films are presented here as this month's archivalia.

The last days of March 2021 mark the 31th anniversary since the then Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia adopted the National Anthem Act. The seventh stanza of Zdravljica (A Toast), by France Prešeren, set to a piece of music of the same name composed by Stanko Premrl, became the Slovenian national anthem. The journey to the final decision was long. According to historian Božo Repe, Zdravljica is one of the few non-militant anthems.