Serving the nation

This year is marked by the celebration of the 30^th anniversary of the independency of Slovenia and the departure of the last soldier of the Yugoslav People’s Army from our region.

For this purpose, the Museum of Recent History Celje will host a temporary exhibition with the significant title SERVING THE NATION Memories of Slovenian soldiers of the Yugoslav People’s Army.

For a long time, military service on a personal level was considered an initiation into the world of adulthood, and at the same time a male individual was only considered a full member of the state with a completed obligation to the state. This obligatory “service to the nation,” as was the slogan of military service in Yugoslavia, was perceived differently by its soldiers, from necessary evil to the honourable duty, which fills you with pride. Regardless of that, military service in the Yugoslav People’s Army significantly marked the lives of many Slovenes, not only boys who went to serve, but also their closest ones, especially girls and women.

Many individual stories of Slovenian recruits in the YPA merge into our collective and historical memory, which, 30 years after the creation of the independent state, the war of independence and the departure of the last YPA soldier from Slovenia, should be preserved through exhibitions as prepared in the museum.

An e-catalog with collected stories of Slovenian recruits was published and is available in our museum shop.

At the same time, the museum is also hosting a visiting exhibition of the Military Museum of the Slovenian Army entitled The Slovenian Army in the Service of the Homeland.

You can visit both exhibitions until the end of October 2021.