SURVEILLANCE BY THE STATE SECURITY SERVICE OF THE MAGAZINE ZALIV

The purpose of this article is to shed light on the literary magazine Zaliv ("The Gulf") and its editor-in-chief Boris Pahor. It is based on the analysis of reports of the State Security Service, the secret Yugoslav political police which from its inception had supervised the literary magazine and its editors as well as the authors of the published articles. The editors and journalists who advocated political pluralism and criticized the socio-political system in Yugoslavia found themselves in the repressive clutches of the secret Yugoslav political police. They fell victim to scrutiny, harassment and prosecution. Their artistic and essayistic articles and interviews aimed at establishing a unified Slovenian cultural space and improving relations between the autochthonous Slovenian national minorities and the Socialist Republic of Slovenia were carefully reviewed, analyzed and the results presented to the highest Slovenian political level. Boris Pahor, the driving force behind the literary magazine, was considered dangerous from the beginning, and his contributions were deemed hostile and directed against the establishment. Through political persecution, abolition of border crossings and confiscation of a great many issues of the magazine, the State Security Service made clear violations of freedom of thought and speech. However, at the Zaliv headquarters, they did not remain silent. From the founding of the literary magazine in the turbulent 1960s until the democratization of Slovenia in 1990, they never ceased to expand their mission.