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4: CASE STUDY 1: THE ITALIAN/SLOVENIAN BORDER<br />

The border also became a place to advertise ideological messages. As a<br />

symbol of socialism a red star depicting the hammer and sickle was placed on<br />

top of Nova Gorica railway station facing Gorizia soon after World War II.<br />

The hammer and sickle was subsequently removed as Yugoslavia turned away<br />

from the Soviet bloc but the red star remained until the late 1980s. When<br />

Yugoslavia’s socialist government was no longer in control the red star went<br />

through another transformation. During the Christmas of 1991 the star was<br />

painted in gold to represent the Star of David, and complemented with a<br />

comet by its side. As Christmas was discouraged by the communist<br />

government this became a way for people to disassociate themselves with<br />

communism and to reclaim Christmas. The star has again been painted red<br />

and is now located in the Nova Gorica border museum having found new life<br />

as a showpiece of the communist era (Inga Brezigar, 2008, pers. comm. 2 nd<br />

September) (Figure 48).<br />

Figure 48: Picture of red star<br />

formerly placed on top of Nova<br />

Gorica railway station, now<br />

located in the railway museum.<br />

Photo: Anna McWilliams 2008.<br />

When I first looked at Google Earth of the area around Nova Gorica I came<br />

across an intriguing feature on top of Mount Sabotino/Sabotin, directly<br />

inside Slovenian territory. It looked like writing and I thought I could make<br />

out the word Tito although it was not very clear. I found this very curious<br />

and on my first visit to the area I was given the following explanation.<br />

During the socialist period an area on the top of Mount Sabotino/Sabotin<br />

was cleared of vegetation and large white stones were used to spell out the<br />

words ‘Naš Tito’, Our Tito. This was positioned to be seen far into Italian<br />

territory as well as in Yugoslavia. Later Italy projected a large Italian flag on<br />

the mountain, inside their territory but where it could be seen also in<br />

Yugoslavia. After the independence of Slovenia a further battle has been<br />

fought within Slovenian territory where supporters of the old regime have<br />

on several occasions reconstructed the words Naš Tito. At one point some-<br />

105

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