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Old border, a new rule

Prekmurje, with the support of the Prekmurje Company, which was established in January 1945, was liberated on April 4, 1945, by the Soviet and Bulgarian soldiers of the Red Army. A couple of days later, a delegation of the Slovene National Liberation Committee arrived, establishing the administrative and political power. In April, the delegates visited the Slovenes of Porabje, and in May, they helped establish Novi čas, the first daily newspaper on the Slovenian territory. At the Paris Peace Conference, the Yugoslav delegation called for an adjustment of the border with Hungary, and annexation of Porabje; unsuccessfully. In Prekmurje, political rallies, cultural events, work and charity campaigns, and blood donations for Red Army soldiers took place in the first months after the liberation. Yugoslav-Hungarian relations faded after the 1948 Cominform dispute. Numerous Hungarian »Cominform provocateurs« agitated against Tito's Yugoslavia in the border town of Hodoš. The Cominform dispute exacerbated the already poor economic conditions in predominantly rural Prekmurje. The submission of agricultural surpluses was compulsory. Participation in agricultural cooperatives was mandatory. Porabje and Prekmurje were separated by the Iron Curtain, while numerous people from Porabje were deported to wastelands of inner Hungary. All road connections with Hungary were closed down, forming a 15 kilometers wide border corridor between Yugoslavia and Austria. People could only stay in the area with a proper ID card. Legal proceedings were launched against people for suspected espionage and human trafficking. The situation calmed down in a decade of postwar reconstruction and accelerated industrialization. In 1956, the suppression of the Hungarian Uprising triggered a wave of refugees flooding to Prekmurje. Subsequently, the border became »softer« with small-scale traffic. The free movement of people and goods, however, was only possible after both countries joined the European Union and the Schengen Area.

News of the visit of the Slovene National Liberation Committee delegation to Porabje on April 16, 1945. Novi čas, April 17, 1945.
News of the visit of the Slovene National Liberation Committee delegation to Porabje on April 16, 1945. Novi čas, April 17, 1945.


The ceremonial unveiling of the victory monument in Murska Sobota on August 12, 1945, which is the only one dedicated to a Russian soldier on Slovenian soil. Designed by the Red Army officer Yuri Aronchik, the bronze statue of the Partisan and the Red Army soldier was made by brothers Zdenko and Boris Kalin. PMMS.
The ceremonial unveiling of the victory monument in Murska Sobota on August 12, 1945, which is the only one dedicated to a Russian soldier on Slovenian soil. Designed by the Red Army officer Yuri Aronchik, the bronze statue of the Partisan and the Red Army soldier was made by brothers Zdenko and Boris Kalin. PMMS.


»Our children's world was moving from here to the creek /.../. On that road that led to the border, our space unfolded, until a guarded border closed it after the war when we were already in school. They put up wire, a wire fence. These were two kinds of barbed wire maybe two meters high, or even more. Now and then, there was a guard tower. It seemed strange to us, of course, because both that road and socializing with children from Őriszentpéter on the other side of the border were hindered. I especially found it strange because I used to drive to those villages with my grandfather in his cart. Suddenly, that was a different world, split in half, never to be united again.« The first president of independent Slovenia, Milan Kučan, on how he experienced the re-establishment of the border with Hungary during the Cominform era when he was still a child. Prosenjakovci, January 25, 2020. Author: Božidar Flajšman.
»Our children's world was moving from here to the creek /.../. On that road that led to the border, our space unfolded, until a guarded border closed it after the war when we were already in school. They put up wire, a wire fence. These were two kinds of barbed wire maybe two meters high, or even more. Now and then, there was a guard tower. It seemed strange to us, of course, because both that road and socializing with children from Őriszentpéter on the other side of the border were hindered. I especially found it strange because I used to drive to those villages with my grandfather in his cart. Suddenly, that was a different world, split in half, never to be united again.« The first president of independent Slovenia, Milan Kučan, on how he experienced the re-establishment of the border with Hungary during the Cominform era when he was still a child. Prosenjakovci, January 25, 2020. Author: Božidar Flajšman.


Cover of the first issue of the Novi čas newspaper (March 15, 1945). It was edited by partisan and writer Ferdo Godina.
Cover of the first issue of the Novi čas newspaper (March 15, 1945). It was edited by partisan and writer Ferdo Godina.