Mladina
Mladina is a Slovenian weekly political and current affairs magazine. Since the 1920s, when it was first published, it has become a voice of protest against those in power. Today, Mladina
Mladina has served as a hub for investigative journalism in Slovenia since the 1980s, when its pioneering "muckraking" reporting and critical sociopolitical coverage helped spark the dissolution of Yugoslavia.
Mladina is also digitally published online, and its website maintains an expansive article archive.
History and profile
Mladina has cycled through many iterations through its history spanning nearly a century, at times alternately operating under party or state control, or functioning as an independent-minded watchdog publication.1920–1945: Origins
Mladina was first founded in 1920 as the official herald of the Youth Section of the Yugoslav Communist Party in Slovenia. Thus, it was started as a youth magazine. After the prohibition of the Communist Party in 1921, the journal kept circulating in a semi-illegal manner. During this period, it was the herald not only of Communists, but of the radical leftist and anti-capitalist youth in general. Famous figures such as poet Srečko Kosovel, writer Ludvik Mrzel, and historian France Klopčič published in the magazine. In the 1930s, during the dictatorship of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia, Mladina ceased to exist due to government repression. It was re-established in January 1943 - during World War II - as the gazette of the underground anti-fascist resistance movement. After 1945, it was again transformed into the official herald of the Youth Section of the Communist Party of Slovenia.1945–1991: During communist Yugoslavia
In 1982, the Congress of the Alliance of Socialist Youth of Slovenia decided to transform Mladina by increasing its editorial autonomy, making it the voice of the growing internal opposition of the young Communists against the mainstream of the Slovenian branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia. By 1984, Mladina was in crisis. A new generation of editors then took charge and transformed the tired party journal into a teen fanzine, of which the sales at first rose to a modest 7,000 copies. However, the magazine's new direction encompassed not only pop event coverage; the newfound freedom was seized upon by Slovene intellectuals to turn the magazine into a political opposition outlet and the magazine soon became a popular opposition voice, immediately rising in popularity. Revelations of Slovenian corruption scandals increased its circulation to 30,000.Thus, the magazine evolved into an "avant-garde, oppositional weekly", and by the late 1980s Mladina's main focus was promoting democratic transformation through its unrestrained political criticism. It pursued a change in focus from youth culture to exploring taboo political conflicts within Yugoslav society, including addressing human rights violations, freedom of speech and the press, economic issues and worker self-management, privileges of the Yugoslav political elite, repression of youth culture, ecology, and political repression, examined painful historical topics, and critiqued Josip Broz Tito's legacy, the Federal Government, the Communist Party and, especially, the Army. Mladina played an essential role in the development of a Slovenian civil society. "We tested the limits and tried to push everything further and further" said Franci Zavrl, the magazine's then editor, in a 1995 interview.
Mladina
In 1987, the poster design contest for the annual Relay of Youth, a customary Yugoslav youth relay race intended to celebrate the birthday of Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito, was won by an entry by Neue Slowenische Kunst, a Slovenian avant-garde art collective. The design was later found to have been based on a Nazi propaganda art image by Nazi artist Richard Klein, restyled in the fashion of socialist realism which was traditionally favoured by the Yugoslavia state as a subtle protest of Tito's cult of personality. Mladina attempted to feature the image on its cover page, but the attempt was prohibited by censors; if Mladina indeed went through with the idea and went to print with the design on its cover, the magazine would have been outlawed. Instead, the editors decided to circumvent the ultimatum by publishing the image on the inner sleeve as a centrefold, printing a critical article discussing the affair under the title "In Place of a Cover" on the cover page instead.
Due to its influence and radical stances, Mladina was seen as an "enemy of the state" and was consequently monitored by the authorities because of its pacifist stance, manifested, among other things, in its firm opposition to Yugoslavia's arms sales to developing countries.
Late 1980s: Key role in the push for Slovenian independence
MladinaDuring late 1980s, Mladina contributor Janez Janša provided the magazine's editor Franci Zavrl with a transcript of a LCY party meeting. The transcript revealed the Yugoslav federal authorities were pressuring SR Slovenia president Milan Kučan to clamp down on the increasingly irreverent and adversarial Mladina, and accused the magazine of being backed by the CIA. Mladina decided to publish excerpts from the party meeting transcript, an act prohibited by Yugoslav law. Kučan eventually bowed to pressure, and the secret police arrested Janša and obtained a classified military document during a raid; the jurisdiction of the investigation was thus transferred to the federal military authorities, and the investigation eventually culminated in the Ljubljana trial. Due to the mass protests and opposition to the proceedings against Janša and Mladina journalists, Kučan refused to curtail media freedom in Slovenia despite mounting pressure from federal authorities and announced he would amend the Slovene constitution to gain greater autonomy from Belgrade, initiating Slovenia's drive toward independence. The subsequent attempts by SR Serbia president Slobodan Milošević and sections of the LCY to bring Slovenia back in line would eventually bring about the dissolution of Yugoslavia.
Ljubljana trial
Mladinas most tumultuous period was the spring of 1988; the magazine had a central role in the watershed Ljubljana trial, or the JBTZ Trial. Yugoslav authorities also demanded the magazine be shut down.In early 1988, four men were arrested and prosecuted for their handling of classified military documents found at Mladinas offices. The documents outlined Yugoslav People's Army's plans for imposing martial law in Slovenia in case of an emergency. One of the men arrested was freelance journalist and Mladina contributor/defense correspondent Janez Janša, at that time also a prominent member of the League of Socialist Youth of Slovenia. The others arrested were two editors of the magazine and an army sergeant. The arrest of two Mladina editors was strongly opposed by the public, and increased the magazine's circulation to 70,000. The magazine became increasingly popular across Yugoslavia despite language differences within the country. "We are the official press, they the alternative" proclaimed Mladina editors at a congress on alternative youth culture in Southern Europe in Bologna in December 1988.
The subsequent trial proceedings, held in Ljubljana, were conducted in Serbo-Croatian language rather than Slovene, causing fierce public discontent within SR Slovenia. The trial was a unifying time for Slovenes in the run-up to the country's separation from Yugoslavia and sparked mass protests in Ljubljana, including spontaneous daily demonstrations in front of the military court building where the trial was taking place. The Committee for the Protection of Human Rights was set up as result.
1991–present: Independent Slovenia
MladinaThe 2003 circulation of Mladina was 19,300 copies, making it the most read weekly in the country.
Mladina has accused the 2004-2008 Janša government of imposing an advertising embargo on Mladina and Dnevnik, two publications critical of the government, as part of Janša's efforts to control the media. Mladina reported that state-owned enterprises selectively and punitively ceased advertising in these publications, instead redirecting advert purchases to more friendly media. In response to the government attacks on its independence, Mladina found safe haven after being acquired by an Italian holding company established by Slovenian expatriate businessmen.
Mladina cartoonist, Tomaž Lavrič, won the 2017 Prešeren Award for his work. In April 2017, the Ljubljana Museum of Modern Art featured an exhibition of Mladina cover art and notable articles from the 1980s period.
In October 2017, a Mladina cover page illustration on the topic of the Catalan independence conflict was refashioned as a graffiti mural in the Catalan city of Olot.