Hej Slovani, Sokol and national emancipation

di Tomaz Pavlin
in Memoria e Ricerca n.s. 27 (2008), p. 31

Sokol as a modern, national, mass, gymnastic or physical educational and slavic organisation dated in the second half of 19th and first half of 20th century. First Sokol society was organised by Czhecs in Prague in february 1862. Paralelly run initiative among Slovenes in Ljubljana, where was similar socitey organised in october 1863, autonomously of Czhecs. In the paper we follow the organisation and Sokol’s interlacing in the slovene national struggle for emancipation in the Habsburg Empire. After the I WW Sokol organisations of South Slavs joint together in the Jugoslav Sokol and the strugle for emancipation was substituted with suport and patriotism for jugoslav state and jugoslav national idea. Sokol’s tension was to become leading national and physical educationer and it was suported by King and liberal politic bloc. In the political tension in 30th years Sokol followed its national and slavic orientation despite of changes in inner and foreign policy in Kingdom of Yugoslavia.