This stamp does not show Millenia’s grandmother. Rather it shows a 19th century style allegory of freedom. For a brief period after World War I, the peoples of Austria-Hungary had a choice, or so it seemed. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
The end of a long devastating war can bring hope. Especially with the knowledge that the Hapsburg dynasty is over and with it any allegiance to Vienna. So we have a stamp long on hope and promise. Also though the seeds of a harsher reality. The area breaking away was a amalgamation of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs. One of the stamps of this issue featured elderly Serbian King Peter I, who had avoided the disasters of WWI with a self imposed exile in the spas of Corfu. Were the Slovenes trading one aloof foreign King for another?
Todays stamp is issue A3, a 50 Filler issued by Slovenia in 1919. If was part of a 15 stamp issue in various denominations. The stamp issues remained regional for the first few issues of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. It was a time of lots of stamp variations with some of this issue printed in Vienna and others in Ljubljana. According to the Scott catalog, this stamp is worth $1.10.
Slovenia had long been part of the Hapsburg Empire both in it’s Holy Roman and it’s Austria-Hungary periods. During this period it was known as the Duchy of Carniola. The people were about 95 percent Slovenes and 5 percent German, mostly nobles and professionals. Slovenes are Slavic. It was the most economically advanced part of what became Yugoslavia. The native peoples were not completely without a voice in Austria-Hungary as they sent representatives to the Reichsrat, the Parliament. To maximize their voting block, the representatives of Yugoslav areas voted together. This voting bloc stayed together long enough to break away as one from the now former empire.
The original idea was that the various peoples would have a fair amount of autonomy with Serbian King Peter a ceremonial head of state. Peter was quite old and not likely to interfere. Slovene political leader and Catholic Priest Anton Korosec, a former Reichsrat deputy could see the mistake early on. When Peter’s son Alexander succeeded him in 1921, he determined to give himself and his fellow Serbs more power at the expense of areas like Slovenia. Korosec lobbied for more power for Slovenes and for a short while was sent into exile. King Alexander himself was assassinated by a Bulgarian working for also feeling dominated Montenegrins. See this stamp about that, https://the-philatelist.com/2018/02/08/it-is-dangerous-to-rule-the-kingdom-of-serbs-croats-and-slovenes/
Upon Korosec’s return, he sought closer ties with Germany for Slovenia as a hedge against the Serbs. He died in 1940 before the German invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941. After the war, many Slovene politicians went into exile as Tito’s Yugoslavia banned other parties, either regional or non communist.
Well my drink is empty and I am left wondering what would have happened in the area if the Reichsrat deputies had not made a decision amongst themselves to act as a block. Would Yugoslavia not have happened and the Serb King stayed in Serbia. Then German friendly Slovenia and Croatia would not have been invaded in 1941 and the Serbs kept their King and avoided invasion and Tito. A lot of ifs there, but it may be an excuse to have another round while we contemplate. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.