Slovenia Times

International Business Partners
Yury Praslov, Slovene-Russian Business Club in Moscow
Slovenia and Russia
celebrate their
independence in June.
Both Slovenia and Russia are young democracies
and yet, I believe, there is a great difference
in them. According to a poll released last year
before the Russian 25 year jubilee, only 39% of
people actually knew it was the Day of Russia.
There’s a feeling, especially among elderly Russians,
that independence from the USSR led
the way to the breakdown of a great country.
This is not the same as for Slovenes who have,
in fact, gained independence for the first time
since Carantanian times.
To a Russian layman, Slovenia looks like a
friendly Alpine country and still, sometimes,
associated with Yugoslavia…It has no real implications
since there is a growing nostalgia for
the Soviet times, even among some younger
Russians.
But what really differentiates us from Slovenes
is that we like to think big. Independence
for Russians touches the sacred memory of its
heroic past where we played a pivotal role in
World War II. Victory Day on 9 May is, by far, a
true national independence day with big festiv-
Slovene - Russian
Business Club
ities however, regretfully, a quiet approach to
this day in Europe...if not reconciling with Nazi
veterans in some European countries. There is
zero tolerance to this in Russia which lost 27
million people in the war and may indeed be a
dividing gap between Russia and Europe.
Slovenia, in contrast to others, is not ruining
monuments of the past. It has always held
sacred the memory of foreign soldiers that
found peace in Slovenia. It is not a coincidence,
therefore, that the 100 year jubilee of the Ruska
Kapelica, in late July, must play a key role
in bridging Russia and Europe in these current
controversial times.
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Summer Edition 2016 | The Slovenian Times
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