Concerned about their jobs in the Rabelj lead and zinc mine, the miners of Log pod Mangartom
wrote to the Government of the People’s Republic of Slovenia in February 1947 urging it to intercede
on their behalf with the (Italian) administration of the mine to secure their employment.
The author examines the miners’ letter to the Government of the People’s Republic of Slovenia
through the prism of a community and its members living in a border area (amidst specific social
and historical moments and their short-term intersection), by taking into account events of
long duration that are manifested in the collective (social) memory of the inhabitants of Log pod
Mangartom. Individuals and the community to which they belonged are not perceived as passive
observers of the «great» history. Rather, the author’s main intention is to demonstrate how
individuals (and the community) used their life strategies, ways of life and traditions to oppose,
change, adapt and subject themselves to each political change, and particularly to the new political
and economic conditions established after the dissolution of the Allied Military Government
and the annexation of the former Zone A (in the upper Posočje area) to Yugoslavia.
