Private Peasants and Socialist Authorities: Successful Grassroots Initiative in Slovenia in the 1960s

Abstract

This article presents the successful grassroots initiative of Slovenian peasants in Juršinci in socialist Slovenia in the 1960s and sheds light on the broader economic and political background. In Slovenia in the 1960s, the rise of a younger, more liberal faction within the Communist Party led to political and economic liberalization. The agricultural cooperatives, which were supposed to attract private peasants to voluntarily collaborate in the social sector by providing services such as mechanization, seed supply, chemical agents, and expertise, failed in this respect and increasingly alienated the peasants. This led to a decline in peasant membership in the cooperatives. Under these circumstances, peasants began to organize themselves, form their own communities, and make their demands to the authorities, which the liberal government finally met in the early 1970s.