Jože Pučnik on a Path to Becoming a Dissident
Jože Pučnik on a Path to Becoming a Dissident

Summary/Abstract: The case of settling scores with Revija 57 at the end of 50’s is one of the most infamous disputes of the Communist government in Slovenia with a younger generation of intellectuals who had shaped their worldview after WWII. Jože Pučnik stood out among its contributors, who attracted attention with the sharpness of mind. The criticism of the regime was during his study reflected in Pučnik’s articles in the Revija 57 magazine. In the most controversial article Pučnik analysed the discrepancies between the ideas of the ruling elite and reality, and between the mentality and the work of the Communists two decades earlier, when they were still operating illegally, and after the war, when they consolidated their official power. At the end of 1958 and in early 1959, the Revija 57 magazine was repeatedly targeted by the leading politicians and became the subject of numerous sessions held by high-level authorities. The politicians reiterated that the magazine were a group of young intellectuals, who formed an illegal hostile organization, spread anti-state propaganda and djilasism, called on workers to go on strikes etc. The encounters and intimidations finally escalated in a trial held on 30 March 1959, in which Jože Pučnik was sentenced to nine years of severe imprisonment.

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