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"I am a communist, f*ck King Peter and that snotty [Crown Prince] Alexander": Food Supply and Political Legitimacy of the New Yugoslav State

The new states created in the fall of 1918—after the Habsburg Empire had fallen apart—presented themselves as something new and better. Not only were they supposed to embody the "national yearnings" of the formerly "oppressed nations" in the Habsburg Empire, but they were also supposed to be more democratic, the administration would work better, the economy would flourish, and the harvests would be abundant. In short, they were supposed to be a decisive break with the imperial past.

But the new nation-states often failed to deliver on these lofty promises, and their legitimacy began to erode rather quickly. In this context, the inability to quickly improve the food supply played an important role. In the Slovene part of Yugoslavia, the inadequate supply of basic foodstuffs, rationing, and rising prices exacerbated an already volatile situation, as sections of the population began to grumble, protest, and yearn for the Habsburgs looking over their northern and western borders. Police and court records, district captain's reports, and various other sources indicate that the mood of the population quickly turned sour after the proclamation of independence, and that the legitimacy of the new state was often questioned.

This event is co-organised by the SSEES Study of Central Europe Seminar series, and the Centre for Slovene as a Second and Foreign Language at the University of Ljubljana.

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