| The Partisan Printing Workshop Slovenija |
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The Partisan Printing Workshop Slovenija is ranked among the
best-preserved authenic historic monuments from the times of World War
II. It was the largest and tecnically best-equiped The Partisan
Printing Workshop Slovenija in the Primorska (Littoral) region. Following the shrewd advice of the lokal Peter Kogej from ogalce near Vojsko, a concealed spot beside the powarful spring called V Studencih was selected as the location for the Partisan Printing Workshop Slovenija. This secluded backwoods protected by the almost-inaccessible, steep formested slopes below Ogalce, and saituated under the edgee of the 1000-metre-high Vojskarska planota and above the deep vally of Kanomlja river, guaranteed its much-needed concealmont. In the summer of 1944, log cabins were constructed and assembled in the Gačnik. During the night, the enumerated beams and planks were transported by immense effort to the selected location. Thus were erected the engine room, kitchen, dining room, composing room, bindery and the electric power plant. The latter was needed to provide, by means of Partisan partners purchased a modern, electric, fast-printing machine for one million lira in distant Milan, and after countless dangers illegally transported in Gorica and then to Vojščica. Subsequent to this feat, the machine had to be disassembled, and part-by-part, with unspeakable endeavour, brought to the printing office's engine room. The partisans also managed to obtain a smaller printing machine, TIGL. The printing office, baptised »Slovenia«, was put in operation on 17 September 1944, and the very next morning the first 4000 issues of Partisan Daily were dispatched to the world via the courier relay station at Hum; the printing office above Trebuša had already published the first printed edition of the aforementioned newspaper in the same number on 5 September 1944. One should particularly emphasise that the famous Partisan Daily was the sole daily newspaper to be printed in all of occupied Europe by any resistance movement and was issued regularly until the end of the war in a daily circulation of 4000 to 7000 copies. The Partisan Printing Workshop Slovenija, which operated until 1 May 1945, employed from 40 to 50 people. In less than eight months 228 editions of ten different newspapers on 825 pages in total circulation of over a million copies were printed altogether. This number includes 188 regular and two special issues of Partisan Daily, totalling 874,000 copies. Also published were eight brochures in 30,000 copies, over 176,000 copies of various leaflets and posters, over 33,000 pieces of multi-coloured folders for various brochures, as well as 146,000 copies of other small printed items. In total, 313 different editions also created a substantial number of linocuts and engraved some 56 diverse seals in linoleum of lead – 450 items altogether. Despite numerous offensives in area of Vojsko and Kanomlja, the Germans never actually detected The Partisan Printing Workshop Slovenija. It remained intact even during the last enemy offensive in the spring of 1945, when fierce battles raged in the near vicinity, whereby solely at the above placed Vojščica, 305 Partisans fell under enemy fire. The Partisan Printing Workshop Slovenija preserved is in its entirety as a cultural and historic monument and has been open to visitors since 1947. In 1985, the document regulating its patronage was signed by the Newspaper and Graphic Conpany Delo from Ljubljana and the publishing arm of the Trieste Printing House, Primorski (Littoral) Daily from Trieste. Trieste's Littoral Daily was at its very start published as the successor to the former Partisan Daily More information on the website: www.muzej-idrija-cerkno.si |