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Šest desetletij Kronike
V	letu 2012 praznuje Kronika okrogli jubilej -60-letnico izhajanja. Prva številka je izšla davnega leta 1953, njena vzornica pa je bila Kronika slovenskih^ mest, ki je izhajala pred drugo svetovno vojno. Sest desetletij je v človeškem življenju relativno dolga doba in enako velja tudi za časopise. V tem času je v Kroniki izšlo več kot 3000 prispevkov, od znanstvenih in strokovnih člankov do poročil o novih knjigah in razstavah ter jubilejev ali nekro-logov slovenskim zgodovinarjem. Brez dvoma lahko rečemo, da je Kronika pomembno sooblikovala slovensko zgodovinopisje po drugi svetovni vojni in ga pomembno sooblikuje še danes. Zato smo se ob njenem jubileju odločili, da na naslovnici upodobimo prav tisto prvo naslovnico, s katero se je Kronika prvič predstavila javnosti.
V	programski zasnovi Kronike, zapisani v prvi številki, sta podani dve njeni temeljni nalogi: »... pospešuje naj predvsem zanimanje za zgodovino posameznih večjih ali manjših krajevnih območij slovenskega narodnostnega ozemlja, obenem pa naj izsledke slovenske zgodovine posreduje bralcu na čim laže razumljiv način.« Tema dvema ciljema je Kronika ves čas zvesto sledila in tudi zato je znala ohraniti svoje mesto in svojo identiteto med številnimi drugimi slovenskimi časopisi, ki pokrivajo področje zgodovinopisja. Izpostaviti pa je treba še eno njeno značilnost - Kronika namreč veliko pozornosti posveča slikovnemu gradivu: fotografijam, starim dokumentom, zemljevidom itd. To naredi
revijo dosti bolj pestro in privlačno za bralca, hkrati pa je slikovno gradivo pogosto samo po sebi vir, ki ima včasih še večjo izpovedno moč kot golo besedilo.
Kot zelo posrečena se je izkazala odločitev, da vsako leto izdamo tematsko številko, ki je posvečena neki zaokroženi regiji ali mestu. Tako so se v zadnjih letih zvrstile litijska, belokranjska, koroška in goriška številka, še pred tem pa npr. ljubljanska, mariborska, kočevska, novomeška, tolminska in druge. Zlasti so bile odmevne tiste tematske številke, ki so bile posvečene gradovom, in sicer Snežniku, Brdu in Strmolu na Gorenjskem ter leta 2009 gradu Tuštanj pri Moravčah. Običajno so tematske številke deležne večje pozornosti javnosti kot »navadne« številke, saj se dotaknejo večjega kroga ljudi, ne le tistih, ki se profesionalno ali ljubiteljsko ukvarjajo z zgodovino. Veliko ljudi se zanima za preteklost kraja, v katerem živijo, ali pa kraja, v katerem so bili rojeni in jih nanj vežejo lepi spomini. Krajevna zgodovina je tako tisto prvo srečanje posameznika s preteklostjo in tudi pomembno prispeva k njegovi identiteti. Lahko rečemo celo, da je krajevna zgodovina temelj, na katerem raste globalna zgodovina. Zato je pomembno, da z nalogami, ki si jih je zadala Kronika pred šestimi desetletji, nadaljujemo tudi v prihodnje.
Miha Preinfalk odgovorni urednik Kronike
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Six decades of Kronika
Kronika is celebrating an important jubilee in 2012 - the sixtieth anniversary of its circulation. The first issue appeared in the ancient 1953, following the model of Kronika slovenskih mest [Chronicle of Slovenian Towns], which circulated before World War II. Six decades is a relatively long time with respect to human life, and the same is true of newspapers. During the said period Kronika published more than three thousand contributions, scientific and professional articles, reports on new books and exhibitions, and jubilees or obituaries of Slovenian historians. We can say without a doubt that Kronika significantly contributed to the development of Slovenian historiography after World War II and still continues to do so today. Therefore, its jubilee provided us with a perfect opportunity to release this issue with the same cover that was used when Kronika made its first appearance.
The programming concept of Kronika written in the very first issue defines two of the review's fundamental tasks, namely to: »[...] promote, first and foremost, the interest in the history of individual major or minor localities in the Slovenian ethnic territory, while presenting the findings of Slovenian history to the reader in the most understandable manner.« Kronika has throughout consistently pursued the aforementioned objectives, for which reason it has also been able to retain its place and identity among numerous other Slovenian newspapers in the field of historiography. Another crucial characteristic of Kronika is that it pays careful attention to graphic material: photographs,
old documents, maps, etc. Not only does this make the review much more variegated and attractive to the reader, the graphic material may often constitute a source in its own right, with an even greater power of expression as the text itself.
Particularly felicitous was the decision to devote a thematic issue each year to a region or a town as a whole. Over the past years, Kronika has published thematic issues on Litija, White Carniola, Carin-thia and Gorizia, and before that the Ljubljana, Maribor, Kočevje, Novo mesto, Tolmin issue, and so forth. Issues that attracted the most interest were devoted to castles, i.e. the Snežnik Castle, the Brdo Castle and the Strmol Castle in the Gorenjska province, and the Tuštanj Castle near Moravče in 2009. Thematic issues usually receive more public attention than »regular« issues, as they address a larger circle of readers than merely professional or amateur historians. A great many people are eager to learn about the past of the place in which they live or a place in which they were born and cherish the memory of it. Local history provides them with the first link to their past and in this way importantly contributes to their sense of identity. We may even argue that local history is the foundation upon which global history is built. For this reason we find it vital that the tasks set forth by Kronika six decades ago will continue to be carried out in the future.
Miha Preinfalk Managing Editor of Kronika