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TOBACCO WORKERS IN LJUBLJANA (1912–1962): SOME GENDER-
SENSITIVE INSIGHTS INTO SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION
Urška STRLE
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts, Aškerčeva 2, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
e-mail: strleu@ff.uni-lj.si
ABSTRACT
The article addresses the social aspects of tobacco history, the empirical basis of 
which are mainly serial sources but also other fragmental remains of the archival fund of 
the Tobacco Factory Ljubljana. The scope of the article will cover the final years of the 
Habsburg Empire, the period of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (from 1929 
on known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia), and the initial years of Tito’s Yugoslavia, with 
ruptures inflicted by the two world wars. Such a temporal framework was chosen deliber-
ately to detect continuities and discontinuities of social transformations throughout vari-
ous political regimes, in particular how they affected the sphere of labor in the tobacco 
industry. Due to manageable numbers of workers stretching from about 500 to 2500 over 
the observed period and among which women always dominated, the sources used also 
allow for a thorough analysis of gender aspects in the intersectional perspective.
Keywords: tobacco workers, socio-political transitions, gender, labor relations, social history
LAVORATORI DEL TABACCO A LUBIANA (1912–1962): ALCUNE OSSERVAZIONI 
RIGUARDANTI IL GENERE E LA TRASFORMAZIONE SOCIALE
SINTESI 
L’articolo si concentra sugli aspetti sociali della storia del tabacco e sull’analisi delle 
fonti seriali in particolare sulla documentazione conservata nel fondo archivistico della 
fabbrica di tabacco di Lubiana. Cronologicamente l’articolo prende in considerazione gli 
ultimi anni dell’Impero asburgico, il periodo del Regno dei Serbi, Croati e Sloveni (dal 
1929 conosciuto come il Regno di Jugoslavia), oltre ai primi anni della Jugoslavia di Tito, 
con le due interruzioni durante le due guerre mondiali. L’ambito temporale è stato scelto 
deliberatamente per poter rilevare le continuità e le discontinuità delle trasformazioni 
sociali durante i vari regimi politici e soprattutto per capire come avevano influenzato la 
sfera del lavoro nell’industria del tabacco. L’entità dei lavoratori, che nei periodi trattati 
oscillava tra 500 e 2500 persone, era in gran parte composta da donne. Le fonti usate ci 
consentono di studiare gli aspetti legati al genere in una prospettiva intersezionale.
Parole chiave: lavoratori del tabacco, transizioni socio-politiche, genere, rapporti 
di lavoro, storia sociale
Received: 2021-06-28                           DOI 10.19233/AH.2021.38
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INTRODUCTION1
The Tobacco Ljubljana Factory had a long tradition of making diverse tobacco prod-
ucts, stretching from 1871 until 2004. Its production, management, marketing as well as 
the composition of the work force changed quite extensively throughout the years of the 
factory’s existence. These sectors were affected by technological developments and other 
panoptic phenomena, such as both world wars, the break-up of Yugoslavia and global 
economic curves, and also by profound socio-political changes following each war. Al-
though the factory was in operation for 133 years, this article deals only with a sequence 
of 50 years in this dynamic period. It covers the final years of the Habsburg Empire, the 
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia from 
1929 onward), and the initial years of Tito’s Yugoslavia, with ruptures inflicted by the 
two world wars. Within the chosen period, an abysmal economic crisis also occurred in 
the 1930s, which severely affected the factory’s operational abilities. Such a temporal 
framework was chosen deliberately to detect continuities and discontinuities of the social 
processes following the crisis, in particular how it affected the sphere of labor in the 
tobacco industry. This ever-changing nature of labor relations, which allows for intrigu-
ing observations, should not be considered an unusual perspective, but a key research 
paradigm.
Why is a factory of tobacco products, which from the very start employed pre-
dominantly women from economically underprivileged town in the first half of the 20th 
century, significant at all? Where does its historical explanatory value lie? What can 
it tell us about the past? Although the current scholarly trend leans towards writing a 
comprehensive global history of labor, notable historians such as Jan Lucassen, Marcel 
van der Linden, and Andreas Eckert express awareness of a myriad of regional variations 
of world economic developments, of which particularly underrepresented areas should 
be brought into focus and contextualized globally (Lucassen, 2006; Linden, 2003; 2008; 
Linden & Himmelstoss, 2010; Eckert, 2016). Jan Lucassen in particular stresses that 
classical scheme, based primarily on theoretical knowledge, in many aspects contradict 
complicated historical facts. Lucassen therefore calls for a more empirical and compara-
tive approach (Lucassen, 2013, 28).
Many global socio-economic phenomena affected work processes and labor relations 
in Ljubljana’s tobacco factory. Because it – like the tobacco industry in general – has been 
recognized as an important provider of high excise tax throughout its history, it can also 
serve as an observatory to follow changing social trends induced directly by the state. 
Naturally, archival material mirrors trends on a macro level, influenced in its nuance 
also by its own local and historical specifics. Despite their richness, historical sources 
of the Tobacco Factory Ljubljana remain inadequately analyzed and have failed to be 
compared to tobacco manufacturing elsewhere. The current state of research is still far 
1 This article was first elaborated upon within the EIRENE project (full title: Post-war transitions in gendered 
perspective: the case of the North-Eastern Adriatic Region), founded by the European Research Council 
under Horizon 2020 financed Advanced Grant funding scheme [ERC Grant Agreement n. 742683].
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from finalized. Its findings are based on intense empirical analysis while its comparative 
prospect is still rather weak.
The points of departure for the research are made difficult by the poor bibliography 
and relatively recent research engagement regarding the tobacco factory history in the 
region. Austrian State Monopoly, the long-term manager of Tobacco Factory Ljubljana, 
administrated 29 other tobacco factories in the Austrian part of the Habsburg monarchy 
and was established in order to increase the belated industrialization in the state and to 
collect a significant amount of taxes. Other nearby tobacco factories active throughout 
the twentieth century – with the exception of two relatively short-lived ones, the one in 
Trieste that operated between 1957 and 1999 (Cenzon, 2012) and the other in Pula/Pola, 
established in 1920 to alleviate the WWI crisis and shut down in 1947 once Pula belonged 
to Yugoslavia (Marsetič, 2016) – were initially part of the same monopoly: 
• Tobacco factory Rovinj, the factory with the longest tradition of tobacco produc-
tion in the northeastern Adriatic region, established in 1872, and aside from a 
war-induced break between 1915–1919, still in operation (Marizza, 1997; Nikolić 
Đerić, 2015);
• Tobacco factory Klagenfurt, established in 1864, was transformed into a factory 
of aircraft parts manufacturing in 1941 and was razed in a bomb raid in 1945 
(Kreuzer, 2009); 
• Tobacco factory Rijeka/Fiume, established in 1851, closed down in 1941 with 
the dawn of WWII and finally terminated production in 1947 (Claessens & Duin, 
2004).
As is evident from the operating periods alone, the existence of tobacco factories in 
the region was transient, despite growing demands for tobacco products. By bringing 
forth an outline of the factories’ existence, I argue that this vulnerability was related 
also to the sweeping socio-political changes that affected the observed border region. 
Publications addressing the factory and listed in the bibliography address the workforce 
and labor relations in the factory only to a lesser degree. Thus, this article will address 
findings in regard to the Tobacco Factory Ljubljana alone. The intention is to thoroughly 
analyze labor relations within the factory, thereby constructing a solid basis for future 
comparative examinations.
The article highlights some considerations emerging from the not yet completed 
examination of available archival files of the Tobacco Factory Ljubljana, kept in the 
Historical Archive of Ljubljana. Its empirical basis is drawn mainly from serial historical 
sources such as worker’s booklets and worker’s registers, containing personal data and 
work-related information. Various administrative entries were observed also to elucidate 
upon aspects of changing social processes such as workers’ physical and social mobility, 
job fluctuation, trends of employability, and workers’ organizations and interpersonal 
relations, thus adding to numbers and facts a multi-faceted historical matter. I also tend 
to understand these trends in a gendered perspective, which is well perceptible in the 
observed sources.
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Apart from these two kinds of sources, there is a vast layer of other documents, 
addressing the history of labor in the Tobacco factory Ljubljana. They refer to reports, 
minutes, public speeches, attempts to write a chronology of the factory, occasional ego-
documents and are part of newer documentation relevant to socialist Yugoslavia. The 
more we approach the modern day, the more the nature of sources changes, becomes 
less strictly numerical and becomes more human. Last but not least, younger periods 
also shed light onto the phenomenon of interpersonal relationships, proving impactful 
on the formation of values, knowledge and social activities. All these sources, despite 
their valuable subjective insights, arose in accord with censorship and party control that 
affected their accuracy and reliability to a certain degree.
Observation of qualitative aspects of these kinds of sources confirms the notion that 
nothing had ever been achieved on a permanent basis and that there is no simple linear 
development in the sense of a monochromatic progressive trend, but a changeable and 
barely predictable developing line, conditioned by a complex set of socio-economic fac-
tors. Such a remark is not valid only by observing the period as a whole, as evolutionary 
variability is evident also within a certain political regime.
K. K. TABAKHAUPTFABRIK LAIBACH (UNTIL 1918)
Some of the most thorough historical changes in relation to factory workers (including 
tobacco workers) were already achieved in the Austrian monarchy (Kresal, 1997, 65–68). 
Since the late 1860s, workers started to organize into syndicates, educational associations, 
and political organizations, thus becoming a recognized agent in relation to their employer 
and the state, respectively. In 1883, the post of labor inspectorate was introduced in Austria, 
presenting a feeble starting point for the gradual and long-lasting process of worker protection 
in terms of social security and hygiene conditions.2 Although the Austrian period is not crucial 
for this article, it has to be emphasized that in decades before the Great War, the workers’ 
movement accomplished a great deal. Legally – alas, not always validated in practice – this 
meant a fixed minimum salary, regulated working hours (11 per day) with a break, restriction 
of work for minors under 14 years of age, prohibition of employing women and minors in 
difficult, hazardous work places and overnight shifts. An employer had to ensure appropriate 
work place and housing if factory apartments had been offered to workers. The legislature 
defined relations between an employer and employee in terms of responsibilities and rights of 
both parties, by constituting the basics of a collective contract between worker and employer 
(Kresal, 1997, 65). There were still many things to be achieved, especially in the field of work 
insurance. Whereas for the case of accident at work and sickness Austria followed Germany 
and introduced general mandatory insurance already by 1888 (before Italy, England, France, 
Russia, Norway and Sweden), unqualified workers could not compensate their loss of payment 
in case of retirement, disability, unemployment, maternity, or death (Kresal, 1970, 216–217; 
Brussatti, 1965, 154–157). Also, the gender-based battle for equal payment for the same work 
and equivalent participation in decision-making still had a long way to go.
2 For an overview of Austrian legislature of social politics cf. Brussatti, 1965, 151–154; Brügel, 1919.
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In 1912, the Tobacco Factory Ljubljana had already passed four decades of con-
tinuous production of various tobacco goods. The Tobacco Factory Ljubljana was the 
second largest tobacco factory in the state, labeled as first class. By the end of the 
war, the factory was by far the greatest factory in the Carniolan capital which was 
home to a dispersed and small-range industrial and artisan production (Lazarevič, 
2001, 111). Establishment of the factory contributed to an evident shift in the town’s 
employment image taking into focus the aspect of gender. Studies have shown that 
not only Ljubljana but Carniola as a whole (and other Slovenian lands) demonstrated 
a rather high share of employed women from the turn of the 20th century on, affect-
ing women’s position economically and socially. The crucial reason for such a trend 
lies in the nature of industrial development in the region, exhibiting a considerable 
portion of textile, nutritional, and paper production, as well as other industrial sec-
tors labelled as labor-intensive industries (Lazarevič, 2015, 9–10). From the 1890s 
onward, women started to outnumber men among Ljubljana’s industrial workers, and 
more than half of them worked in the tobacco factory (Fischer, 1984, 26).
Once the Tobacco Factory Ljubljana was established, it attracted the female 
work force from other factories.3 Such a trend probably reflected the fact that the 
Austro-Hungarian tobacco factories in general were regarded as socially oriented 
(Augeneder, 1987, 181). At the turn of the century, the one in Ljubljana had a kitchen, 
dining room, decent toilets for men and women separately, medical spaces with a 
doctor, a library and kindergarten (Fischer, 1984, 16–17), outdoing working condi-
tions of other factories in the town and alleviating domestic duties of female workers 
considerably. These places could be regarded as progressive welfare aspects of fac-
tory labor, which were taken over and upgraded across many other industries in the 
post-WWII period.
Although the situation in the Tobacco Factory Ljubljana was far from optimal, it was 
much better than elsewhere. “Cigararice”, a colloquial term, literally meaning a female 
cigar-makers, were considered the most privileged factory workers in the country;4 the 
salary was rather high and they also had the possibility to retire on a pension. The tobacco 
factory attracted a lot of younger girls, at least about 40% from the countryside and from 
the field of domestic service.5 The growing aspirations of women to earn their own wage 
reflects not only a wish to be financially autonomous and socially more desired, but also 
shows the need for cash, indicating a growth in consumerism (Studen, 2016). A trend 
3 SI ZAL, LJU 134/3, t. e. 86, a. e. 1004, Chronicle of the Tobacco factory Ljubljana with commen-
taries, a collective assignment of the historical circle of the Marjan Novak Jovo Primary School, 
Ljubljana Vič, 1976.
4 Similarly, the article concerning »tabacheine« in Rovinj at the turn of the 20th century, claims that »the fac-
tory has always been perceived as a gift to the local community, especially women«, although it demystifies 
this statement (Nikolić Đerić, 2015, 173–188).
5 SI ZAL, LJU 134/3, t. e. 86, a. e. 1004. Moreover, ethnologist Slavko Kremenšek states that Ljubljana-born 
workers counted less than a third of all female workers. This share is based on a fairly narrower idea of 
what he considered as Ljubljana proper at the turn of the century (Kremenšek, 1976, 96). An interesting, 
yet quite cynical observation of “cigararice” as “venus ultraliberalis” was presented by Jakob Aleševec in 
his satirical account on inhabitants of Ljubljana (1876). 
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which at the turn of the century obviously involved not only urban parts of Ljubljana, but 
also increasingly the surrounding rural, agricultural areas as well.6
In pre-war years, Slovenian women from nearby locales prevailed among unqualified 
workers, males of Slovenian descent were largely qualified or semi-qualitied artisans, 
while administration was almost exclusively male and mostly German speaking. The 
first two female auxiliary white-collar workers were employed only in 1913.7 Besides 
occasional clashes which mirrored tensions based upon the ever more actual “national 
question” present among Slovenes and Germans, the factory workers were also divided 
ideologically, which reflected in the formation of two unions. The social democratic 
union, encompassing majorly those stemming from the town’s proletariat, was gathered 
around the figure of Etbin Kristan. One of the social democrat trade unionists was also 
“a decisive and combative” Ljubljana-born tobacco worker, Edvard Kardelj’s mother 
Ivanka, née Breceljnik (1881–1944) (Ratej, 2014, 69), whose sisters Micka and Antonija 
also worked in the factory.8 The other trade union followed Christian-democratic ideas 
spread by Janez E. Krek and encompassed 70–90% of the workers, mainly those originat-
ing from rural areas (Čepič, 1991, 30; Kremenšek, 1976, 98). 
Foremen treat tobacco workers much better than before. Health conditions improved 
considerably. As a result, tobacco workers are now healthier than they used to be, 
and far fewer workers (delavci in delavke) are dying from TB, exhausting work and 
starvation. Tobacco workers also gained a significant improvement in their material 
condition. They are proud to get better wages and regulated pensions. However, not 
everything that tobacco workers should get has been achieved yet, wrote Josip Go-
stinčar, Christian democrat, Krek’s associate and politician (Krek, 1912, 5). 
In 1912, when Gostinčar’s lines were published, the number of workers started 
to decline. The work force dropped below 2200 persons for the first time in 17 years. 
This was a sign of economic recession, conditioned also by the start of tragic prelude 
of the Great War, the Balkan Wars, which gravely affected the surrounding area. Also, 
enterprises across Austria-Hungary felt its consequences, especially those economically 
involved with South-Eastern Europe. The Great War imposed a huge change in tobacco 
production and trade, but also a notable drop in administrative activities. As the majority 
of white-collar workers were enlisted, there is great lack of historical sources for all 
years of the war. Comparison of various sources elucidates on inconsistencies – whereas 
workers’ registers enlisted 14 new employees, namely female refugees from Galicia and 
Istria (mainly from the factory Rovinj), newspapers and various memoirs report on work 
of refugees from Gorizia as well (Strle, 2015, 115).
6 The rural population did not put much stock into luxury goods, which were advertised in the newspapers. 
They instead invested money into items for agricultural needs and, as evident from the interesting notes of 
peasant housemaid Neža Rejec, for medical purposes (TM, Osebni in družinski fondi, t. e. 9, Rejec, Neža: 
Dnevnik stroškov in dogodkov [Diary of costs and events]).
7 SI ZAL, LJU 134, t. e. 11, Matična knjiga stalnih radnika [Register of permanent employees], 1879–1935.
8 Popisi prebivalstva [Population censuses] 1890, 1910 and 1910.
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UNDER THE MONOPOLY OF BELGRADE (1918–1941)
Economic growth after the Great War demonstrated its slowest rate in contemporary 
European history (Berend, 2013, 94). This troublesome reality affected the newly estab-
lished kingdom even more and on almost all levels of socio-political life, as presented 
through its ambiguous interplay of aspects both continuous and sporadic. Pro-Habsburg 
management and administration were left no choice but to leave their positions. The state 
tobacco monopoly moved from Vienna to Belgrade, which from 1918 supervised eight 
tobacco factories, among which the Tobacco Factory Ljubljana was the oldest and among 
the most significant.9 War exhausted the tobacco warehouse, production declined by two 
thirds compared to the pre-war years, the number of workers almost halved and their 
social security was at stake.10 Poor working conditions, indecent salaries, layoffs, slow 
governmental responses, and growing inflation pushed tobacco workers to the edge.
Impressed by the worldwide strike movement and following solidarity calls for strike 
actions of tobacco workers in Zagreb, Sarajevo, Banja Luka, and Niš, the tobacco work-
ers in Ljubljana also organized a strike in 1920. It is noteworthy though, that women 
were reported to be excluded from the protests during the strike by its social-democratic 
organizers, and thus the majority of tobacco workers continued working.11 It is not yet 
clear why such a gender-based decision took place, although it most probably reflects the 
mental and ideological framework of the social democracy in Ljubljana. In the turbulent 
post-war time, social-democrats split into progressive and conservative factions where the 
latter clearly withdrew from the support of political claims of women. It seems that the 
gender-biased context of the strike was a consequence of various local features, including 
the interpersonal realities within the social-democratic movement itself.
To a current-day historian, the most evident change exhibited by the political 
regime lies in the nature of administrative sources, which became more sporadic, 
poorer and statistically undervalued, especially in comparison to former Austrian 
standards, although many procedural and regulative proceedings remained the 
same. According to these sources, the employment rate in the factory increased 
only in the mid-1920s.12 In 1925, the first new women workers were employed. 
Moreover, among the 43 workers hired, women represented 58% of the newly 
employed working force. Whereas women occupied unqualified positions in the 
production of tobacco goods, men were hired also as carpenters, locksmiths, night-
9 The Yugoslav tobacco factories were in Banja Luka, Ljubljana, Mostar, Niš, Sarajevo, Travnik, Zagreb, 
and Senj.
10 Harman, glasilo Tobačne Ljubljana, 3. 3. 1959: V. Ambrož, Delavsko gibanje med obema vojnama v 
Tobačni tovarni Ljubljana [The workers’ movement between the two world wars in the Tobacco Factory 
Ljubljana], 16.
11 Slovenec, 14. 4. 1920: Stavka v tobačni tovarni [Tobacco factory strike], 3; Naprej, 14. 4. 1920, Stavka 
tobačnega delavstva [Tobacco workers’ strike], 2. In parallel, female tobacco workers in Rovinj attended 
solidarity strikes as well. 
12 SI ZAL, LJU 134, t. e. 9, Knjiga sezonskih delavcev [Book of seasonal workers] (1915–1935); t. e. 11, 
Matična knjiga delavstva [Workers’ register] (1923–1939).
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guards and officials. A year later, 9 unqualified female workers as well as 3 women 
officials were employed out of the 23 new employees total.
Despite all the effort and good intentions reflected in the social legislature of the 
Kingdom SHS, the tobacco workers’ conditions did not improve (Kresal, 1982, 109–115). 
Furthermore, in comparison to the pre-war times, their situation actually worsened in 
many aspects. Workers’ booklets of the interwar time demonstrate a division in the work 
force between permanent, temporary and seasonal workers. Whereas permanent workers 
had represented the largest group of employees until 1913, they became a rare breed after 
1918, getting their status only after 5 years of permanent work. The status of temporary 
or seasonal worker was much cheaper for management, as only permanently employed 
workers were entitled to receive pension insurance. That stimulated a manipulative trend, 
one that is clearly visible in workers’ registers: workers were often fired and employed 
again shortly thereafter, and thus lost the possibility of achieving permanent employment. 
Strikingly, registers of permanent workers listed no women from 1918 up to 1935. In this 
period, permanent positions were only reserved for administrative decision-makers, a few 
dozen qualified artisans and some unqualified male workers.
Another obstacle for permanent employment in the interwar was the age of an 
employee. Many of those who had permanent records were prematurely retired. On the 
other hand, notes in the workers’ registers clearly show the practice that dictated men 
Fig. 1: Production hall in the 1930s, author: Hugon Hibšer (Mestni muzej Ljubljana 
/ City Museum of Ljubljana – MGML, št. / No. 65574).
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who were over 40 and women older than 35 at the time of employment could not be 
permanently employed. Thus, Elizabeta Matjašič, born in Ptuj in 1889, could not attain 
permanent employment in 1926 because she was considered too old. Some factual details 
of Elizabeta’s unfortunate fate add to the harshness of that time: the 37-year-old mother of 
four children became a widow just 10 days before she was accepted in the factory, which 
insinuates financial difficulties triggered by the death of her husband, while her seasonal 
status in the factory did not resolve her vulnerable social position.
The unfavorable post-war years added to an overall dejection with the global conse-
quences of the Wall Street Crash of 1929, which left a deep imprint upon the Tobacco 
Factory Ljubljana as well. However, only 20 new employees had been employed already 
between 1927 and 1929. They were all men, apart from one poorly paid female auxiliary 
worker. Massive layoffs due to “lack of work” followed in 1930 and 1931, however many 
of the workers left by themselves. This clearly indicates worsening in the tobacco workers’ 
status. Salaries were lowered several times and ninety workers retired in 1932. Among 
them was also 29-year-old Marija Gorup from Ljubljana, an inspector with a permanent 
labor contract. It is also obvious from the workers’ register that the factory had not hired 
any new workers from August 1930 until November 1932. Only then did work positions 
for 19 women and 13 men open up. The newly occupied working places reveal that the 
management was struggling with the crisis by saving money on salary expenses. Women 
workers earned 25 dinar, regardless of actual position (worker or auxiliary worker), while 
male auxiliary workers were employed for 29 dinar daily.13
At this point we should briefly focus our attention on the interesting practice of pay-
ment according to gender. Before the crisis, unqualified workers of both sexes had the 
same salary. When payment cuts of 20% hit both men and women workers alike due to 
the crisis, the eventual increase of salaries from 1932 and onward did not apply to women. 
Women were also not entitled to receive child benefits applying to children up to 14 years 
of age unless they were widows or wives of disabled husbands. Despite all the difficulties, 
the position of tobacco worker was still one of the most coveted among factory workers. 
This indicates the difficult position of workers across the country, reflected in the archival 
material as unstable and precarious and pointing toward a large amount of undeclared 
work. According to Tomažič (1972–73, 83), many tobacco workers often increased their 
poor income by helping out (“pedenunga”) in the taverns.
The economic restoration in the 2nd half of the 1930s is also evident from the workers’ 
registers. They indicate that permanent employment contracts became a rule from November 
1936 onward, valid for those temporarily employed who had demonstrated 5 years of work. 
During 1937, the factory employed 151 new workers. Among them were 145 women (96%), 
the majority of whom were let go and then re-hired a month later (comp. Kresal, 1998, 99). Up 
to the outbreak of WWII, no further employment on such a massive scale took place.
13 Salaries in the Tobacco factory Ljubljana in 1934 for the comparison (din/daily): engineer 56, of-
ficials 34–48 (depending on the position), carpenter 42, locksmith 42, mason 38,5, electrician 38, 
gardener 37, inspector 35 daily worker 28,50, apprentice 8 (SI ZAL, LJU 134, t. e. 11, Matična knjiga 
delavstva [Workers’ register] (1923–1939)).
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THE DISTURBANCE OF WAR (1941–1945)
Although Yugoslavia was not yet a war-ridden state in September 1939, it was af-
fected by economic changes due to the conflict, which gradually hit the greater part of 
Europe. By April 1941, almost all European states faced troubles with free trade of vari-
ous goods and introduced war economy (Berend, 2013, 92), including the neighboring 
states of Yugoslavia, all members of the Axis powers. The Yugoslavian government and 
other authorities responded to those changes with a series of measures in anticipation of 
war (Ferenc, 2005, 506). Also, the Tobacco factory Ljubljana showed signs of growing 
uncertainty, going by the already negative employment rate in 1940; according to workers 
registers, it only hired 4 male workers and let go 10 of them.14
The remaining worker booklets (majorly belonging to women) give us an impression 
of women’s employment within interwar Ljubljana and its nearby surroundings. The 
vast majority of tobacco workers employed during the war had prior work experience. 
Before being hired at the tobacco factory, they worked as house-maids, textile workers, 
farmhands, seamstresses, clerks, workers in paper-making enterprises and brick-making 
manufactures. In short, the majority of women came from the field of domestic service 
and from private artisans.
With the Italian occupation of the Province of Ljubljana, the tobacco enterprise in 
May 1941 belonged to the third state monopoly in its history, Monopoli di Stato Italiani. 
Conspicuously enough, workers’ registers do not mark any new employment from April 
1941 until March 1942 while 40 new workers are employed afterwards, all of them 
women. Under Italian management, the salaries lowered drastically. They were more than 
halved in comparison with pre-war years; women received a miserable 10,74 lira daily up 
to May 1943, when it rose to 13,91 lira.
After the armistice with Italy, the Tobacco factory Ljubljana did not belong to 
a German monopoly, but, following October 1943, to a pro-Nazi autonomous mo-
nopoly office in the city of Ljubljana, subordinated to the head of the provincial 
management, general Leon Rupnik. Although salaries in this period rose again, the 
production of tobacco products dropped severely and was intended primarily for the 
German army. Tobacco “leftovers” meant for civil use were distributed using ration 
cards in 1944, demonstrating noteworthy gender-based particularities. Namely, ration 
cards initially allowed 10 daily cigarettes to men and only 5 to women. In 1945, the 
daily amount dropped to 5 for men and 2 for women (Čepič, 1991, 42–43). However, 
not all women were allowed to receive ration cards. They were limited additionally 
according to age: those under 22 and over 55 were not entitled to such “benefits”.15 
Consequently, the tobacco black market flourished. Prices quadrupled during the war, 
reaching from 13 to 15 lira for a single cigarette in 1944. There were also frequent 
14 SI ZAL, LJU 134, t. e. 10, Matična knjiga delavstva [Workers’ register] (1939–1945).
15 UL, Naredba o potrošnji tobaka [Order on Tobacco Consumption], Ljubljana, dne 21. decembra 1943, 
Službeni list šefa pokrajinske uprave v Ljubljani [Official Gazette of the Head of the Provincial Administra-
tion in Ljubljana], 1943, 478–479.
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cases of theft of tobacco items from the factory by the workers themselves – despite 
threats of dismissal (Čepič, 1991, 43).
The merciless reality of war left a lasting mark on the personnel in the factory. Ac-
cording to workers’ registers, permanent employment was an exception, there was also 
great insecurity due to the harsh militarized social climate. Quite a few cases of incar-
ceration and internment of tobacco workers were reported due to confirmed or suspected 
relations with the resistance movement.16 Surprisingly, arrested workers’ wives received a 
maintenance fee and child allowances, unless they were suspected of cooperation with the 
resistance as well. Although women were not as noteworthy as targets of military interest 
as men, they too were dismissed from the factory in quite a few cases. As their dismissal 
left behind no explanation in the workers’ register, their participation in the resistance 
movement could not be excluded as the cause, given the large number of women taking 
part in a varied spectrum of illegal activities in the liberation movement (Gerk, 1970; 
Jerina-Lah, 1996; Bernik Burja, 2009; Deželak Barič, 2015). Women tobacco workers 
were present in the liberation movement from the very beginning.17
On the other hand, notes in the workers’ register also point at a handful of male work-
ers who were not on the side of the resistance movement, were reluctant to it or simply 
chose the non-partisan option as being more comfortable and socially secure. Although 
we cannot be sure of their ideological adherence, it is clear that the pro-Nazi and anti-
communist head of the provincial management economically stimulated anti-partisan 
military choices. Thus, two workers were engaged in the Todt organization and one “went 
to work for the SS soldiers und Waffen Unterführerschutz Laibach”. They received no 
payment from the tobacco factory, just assurance of a position in the factory after their 
return.
According to the workers’ register, three workers entered the Slovene Home Guard 
paramilitary service (domobranci), led by Leon Rupnik, the managing chief of the To-
bacco factory Ljubljana, and received substantial social benefits for the duration of their 
service – a full factory salary. To bring the insight of the utilized historical source closer, I 
decided to point to Anton Slana, a single, 28-year-old daily worker without qualifications 
from Brezovica. The three-part remark in his personal file is indicative:
On 6 September 1944, he went to serve the in the Home Guard, as a result of which, 
according to the decision of the head of the provincial administration in Ljubljana, I. 
no. 6431 item 17 on 29 August 1944, he was entitled to the full salary for the period of 
service. See act Tov. no. 1155 of 30. 9.1944.
On 22 January 1945, he resumed factory work. See act. Tov. no. 138 of 18 January 1945.
On 9 June 1945, dismissed inclusive 31 May 1945 for violation of §25 point 2 of the 
Rules of Work.18
16 SI ZAL, LJU 134, t. e. 34, Speech of the director Mirko Knez in 1952.
17 A handful of “cigararce” were members of the Liberation Front (SI ZAL, LJU 134, t. e. 102, a. e. 1907); 
Revolutionary movement before and during the war, manuscript by Franci Miš [s.a].
18 SI ZAL, LJU 134, t. e. 10, Matična knjiga delavstva [Workers’ Register] (1939–1945).
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Without any biographical context of Anton Slana’s case, we cannot speculate 
what stimulated his decision to join the Home Guard. However, even if his military 
service lasted only a couple of months, it was most probably evaluated as unac-
ceptable in the post-war society. The last remark, already written in the post-war 
period, presumably relates less to the violation of work rules and more to an admin-
istratively supported removal of a worker who was most probably considered a pro-
Nazi collaborator, a traitor. While existing data make any conclusions open-ended, 
the fact of Slana’s dismissal doubtlessly points at the birth of a new era. The era 
of state-induced socialism, which brought far better opportunities for the working 
class than ever before, yet – marking no significant difference compared to previous 
historical periods – turned out to be exclusionary to its ideological opponents. The 
dividing wartime reality, properly embedded in the widespread phrase “either with 
us or against us,” stretched into the post-war period.
“HONOR AND AUTHORITY TO WORK!” (1945–1962)
The Yugoslav legacy of the war appears quite tragic in the comparative per-
spective as given by Tony Judt in his renowned monograph Postwar. In regard 
to the war-related death toll, Yugoslavia infamously came in second in Europe, 
directly after Poland, and thus suffered a striking shortage of men. The mate-
rial consequences were appalling as well. The economical infrastructure was 
severely damaged, including one third of its pre-war industrial capacities (Judt, 
2005, 17–18). Also, the Tobacco Factory Ljubljana, again lead from Belgrade 
after June 1945, entered the post-war period with numbers already in the red, 
damaged by bombings, the machinery outdated, work force reduced and with-
out sufficient supplies of tobacco. An impression from the workers’ booklets 
hints that the factory recovered quicker than following WWI. First, massive 
employment already occurred between 1946 and 1948, that is in the years when 
productive capabilities rose again and after the first five-year plan (petletka) 
was set in motion.
Immediate post-war economic modernization turned away from patterns of the 
European West. It also deviated from the directives outlined by communist political 
leaders during the war, namely from prototypical ideas of national self-determination 
and self-management of the working people as evident from the inner functioning 
of Slovene National Liberation Committee (Vodušek Starič, 1983, 11). Instead, it 
adapted the socialist Soviet model comprising nationalization of property, hyper-cen-
tralized economic planning, and fostered industrialization (Prinčič, 2005). Initiatives 
of working groups, appropriated from the Soviet concept of “udarnik,”19 also took 
place in the Tobacco factory Ljubljana. Workers’ booklets clearly indicate that col-
lective voluntary work, renovation work, the economization of labor and innovation 
19 A campaign intended to increase worker productivity and to demonstrate the superiority of the socialist 
economic system, known also as Stakhanovite movement.
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in productive processes was stimulated either by public praise or financial rewards. 
According to data in workers’ booklets, financial stimulations where higher for men 
than for women.
In 1947, women represented about 65% of the entire work force, of which 
high-qualified workers comprised 1,89%, qualified 8,81%, semi-qualified 64,11%, 
and unqualified 23,18%.20 The work force according to both genders was gradually 
getting more diverse in terms of positions within the factory, which demonstrates 
the growing complexity of work processes. Right in this period, the feminization of 
white-collar workers in the factory took place, as women gradually gained a consid-
erable share among accountants, secretaries, recording clerks, and more gradually 
also as sectional leaders. In parallel, the previous working experiences of blue-collar 
workers changed as well, exhibiting a noticeably wider plethora of skills. Traditional 
occupations, typical for pre-war women in the area of Ljubljana and surroundings 
(domestic servants, seamstresses, textile workers, sellers and brick-makers), were 
upgraded with a noteworthy share of categories unusual for female assignments, such 
as bakelite worker, glass inspector, railway worker, and various types of artisans 
and industrial workers. Such a shift, as is evident from workers’ booklets, is doubt-
lessly a sign of social modernization, but also a reflection of the economic hardship 
that accelerated during wartime, when women had to take on many “manly” duties 
(Verginella, 2006, 53).
The Informbiro period, starting in June 1948, also imposed an economic blockade 
upon Yugoslavia by the USSR and its adherent states. New terms in international 
relations stimulated Yugoslav redirection into self-management, a holistic socio-
economical system conditioned not only by collectivized property, but also by col-
lective decision-making and dividing profit between workers in market-targeting 
enterprises (Rusinow, 1977; Vodušek Starič, 1983; Samary, 2017). The Tobacco 
Factory Ljubljana officially launched self-managing orientation by introducing the 
first workers’ council on 24 August 1950, following the example of many other Yu-
goslav enterprises.21 However, in contrast to other worker’s councils of Slovene (or 
Yugoslav) industries, the tobacco factory included into its deciding body a markedly 
bigger share of women (Vodušek Starič, 1983, 94; Čepič, 2005, 963).22 Although 
no female director was ever in charge of the Tobacco Factory Ljubljana, there were 
women always present in both the workers’ councils and management board of the 
factory during the time of the Socialist regime.23
20 SI ZAL, LJU 134, t. e. 13, The chronicle of the factory, manuscript by Viktor Ambrož, 1950.
21 SI ZAL, LJU 134, t. e. 34, a. e. 1, Delu čast in oblast! [Honour and authority to work!], A Ivanka Babnik’s 
speech on the introduction of self-management in the factory, 1950.
22 The first worker’s council was comprised of 8 women out of 24 of council members, presenting one third 
(33%) of the council: Vida Pezdir, Slava Dolinšek, Angela Šušteršič, Ela Žulj, Minka Kos, Marija Tancar, 
Slava Japelj, and Pavla Knez. The Slovene average of women in workers’ councils was only 8%.
23 SI ZAL, LJU 134/3, t. e. 86, a. e. 1004, Chronicle of the Tobacco Factory Ljubljana with com-
mentaries, a collective assignment of the historical circle of the Marjan Novak Jovo Primary 
School, Ljubljana Vič, 1986.
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Despite a considerable shift in official propaganda, many economic historians defend 
the opinion that Yugoslav economy in many aspects continued with Soviet principles 
(Prinčič, 2005; Simic, 2018). Ljudska pravica, a newsletter of Communist party Slovenia, 
presents operative units of the Tobacco Factory Ljubljana in its recognizable propagan-
distic manner, praising the good work ethic of the so-called udarnik. The fact that opera-
tive units, informally titled with the military term “assault brigades”, were named after 
the leading woman in the working group,24 hints at the nature of the attitude shift not 
only toward the working class, but also to women workers – thereby indicating a Soviet 
influence. However, such empowerment in Slovenia was not only taken from the Marxist 
ideology and Soviet patterns, but was also based on the massive engagement of women 
in the national liberation movement during WWII. 
Workers’ registers after WWII reveal the common practice of women increasing their 
employability options with additional courses in accounting, bookkeeping, stenography, 
marketing, statistics, etc. They also show that white-collar workers gained work experience 
before entering the tobacco factory. For women from the blue-collar sector, the education 
level was still low, many had not even finished elementary school. The production workers’ 
workplace seems to have been evaluated according to their task abilities and estimations of 
their superiors. Promotion and transitions between production and administration were pos-
sible, but do not appear to have been as frequent. Women were not present among mobile 
professions such as commercial traveler, yet the number of production foremen among 
women rose. There are indications supported by memories and chronicles but not by serial 
sources that women took on the tasks of foremen during both world wars. In 1956, the 
factory announced a course for qualified workers with a final exam. Only 11 out of 30 
workers passed the exam, 9 of whom were women (Horvat, 1960, 21). The Tobacco Factory 
Ljubljana had by far the highest rate of forewomen (with more than 42% of women leading 
production lines) compared to other Yugoslavian tobacco factories in 1959.
Minutes, reports, enclosed items of various kinds and other documentation available 
among the files of the factory’s management board provide an idea of how socialist ideol-
ogy was enforced in the tobacco factory. Apart from productive directives and organiza-
tion of work processes, they mediated values, which were, when taking into account 
the preceding periods, definitely worker-friendly. The factory’s welfare options from the 
turn of the century (cantina, medical facilities, library, kindergarten) were significantly 
improved with rewards for efficient productivity, introducing a division of profit, edu-
cational possibilities, housing options, reduction of working hours, extended year leave, 
leisure activities, possibilities to take advantage of the union’s vacation home (in Selce, 
Kvarner from 1957 on) etc. Requests to shorten work hours due to schooling, sickness, 
breastfeeding or childcare were usually granted if they were based on an expert’s positive 
opinion. The socially secure position of the working woman seems to have been one of 
the fundamental issues of the socialist project (Bonfiglioli, 2019).
24 Ljudska pravica, 27. 2. 1950: Tobačna tovarna v Ljubljana med najboljšimi svoje stroke v državi [The 
tobacco factory in Ljubljana is among the best in its field in the country], 1. Working brigades were named 
after the leaders of production lines, workers Vera Molek, Vera Tavčar, Slavka Bižon in Slava Dolinšek.
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However, documentation elucidating on heterogeneity and social dynamics 
inside the factory also demonstrates certain contradictions regarding the propa-
gated labor politics and declarations of social equality. Worker inequalities based 
on skill, education, age, gender, even place of origin/residence, as suggested by 
Archer and Musić, influenced not only the decision-making and social mobility 
within the factory, but also the distribution of housing and other restricted benefits 
(Archer & Musić, 2017). The high share of fluctuation of workers, mostly younger 
ones, was recognized as a sign of dissatisfaction and seen as a problem by the 
management board. If we take into account gender specifics in the observed period, 
we also find that despite their numerical predominance in the factory, women never 
achieved more than 45% of membership on the management board and only about 
a third in average.25 The poor share of women in the decision-making bodies of the 
factory could be ascribed to a certain amount of disillusionment/distrust in relation 
to the self-management experiment, which could be sensed through occasional 
25 Minutes of the management board between 1960–1962 reveal that the average women’s share in the mana-
gement board was quite dynamic and it actually dropped in the short sequence taken into account: 36,36% 
in 1960, 29, 62% in 1961 and 27,57% in 1962. This downfall curve does not define the trend throughout the 
existence of self-management, which testifies to the slow growth of the women’s share.
Fig. 2: Women's Day celebration, 8. 3. 1963, author: Marjan Ciglič (Muzej novejše 
zgodovine Slovenije / Museum of Contemporary History of Slovenia – MNZS, št. / 
No. MC630308_13).
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complaints of its leaders in the minutes, yet one cannot circumvent the influence 
of the tenacious tradition of patriarchy. The words of Malči Makarovič, who spoke 
publicly on Women’s Day in March 1961, speak for themselves:
It is by no means enough that we have achieved that such a high percent of women 
was elected to our workers’ council and that we are proud to have a woman 
president due to general slogans and the sincere wish of every one of us. We have 
not done everything to educate our women systematically into real company ma-
nagers. Our women will resolve their problems if they will participate as actively 
as possible in the governing bodies, where their specific problems would also be 
solved through economic and general social problems. […]. The woman must be 
freed from exclusively domestic work and actively involved in all economic and 
social activities, as this is the only way to tear her out of the framework of the 
patriarchy.26
The ardent speaker, who worked as operational planner in the tobacco factory, was 
among a handful of women whose position eventually turned into a springboard for other 
public functions.27 The minutes reveal that their privileged position was conditioned also 
by less measurable aspects than education, age or skill, namely by personal engagement 
and aspirations, social reputation and support from their social network.28 Their organi-
zational activation in the factory often seemed to pave their way to candidacy for various 
commissions, management boards, and workers’ councils as the archival documents 
clearly show that they took on additional tasks, including voluntary work and appeared as 
lucid discussants in meeting debates.
Besides, documents also reveal some practices used by the ordinary workers to 
empower their positions. They indicate how work-related information vividly circu-
lated between the workers, encouraging them to stand for themselves.29 These practices 
especially involve submissions for granting (a loan for) housing, rights for additional 
leave, requests for adjustment of working hours, and pleas for financial supplements. 
26 Harman, glasilo Tobačne Ljubljana, Marec 1961: Malči Makarovič, Uvodni govor [Introductory 
speech], 3–4. 
27 The most influential among them, Zora Šoba, was the head of the factory’s Department of Organiza-
tion and Analysis, also elected to the republic assembly for economic affairs in 1963. Ela Vranjek, 
engineer of geodesy, appeared in the newspaper as an outstanding member of working brigades in 
1953. She was employed in 1960 as an agronomist for cultivation of tobacco, was appointed to a lead-
ing position in worker’s council, and was elected to a national assembly for economy in the late 1970s. 
Mira Jurečič, head of management board in 1959, was elected to the municipal assembly for economy 
in 1963, Metka Mesec finished her degree at the Faculty of Law in 1959 and was the main legal officer 
in the factory thereafter. Slava Avbelj was a member of the commission of the assembly of producers 
of the district people’s committee Ljubljana-Vič in 1960. Malči Makarovič was awarded a special 
prize for contribution to the development of the local community in Vič in 1986.
28 SI ZAL, LJU 134/2, t. e. 1, a. e. 1–4, Various minutes of the ordinary sessions of the Management board.
29 SI ZAL, LJU 134/2, t. e. 1, a. e. 3, Minutes of the ordinary sessions of the Management board from 4. 11. 
1961, 24. 11. 1961, and 8. 6. 1962.
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The women’s share in written submissions corresponds with the share of women in the 
factory, yet the pleas related to childcare were written exclusively by women. They con-
firm the words of Malči Makarovič quoted above regarding women and their “exclusive” 
involvement in “domestic work”.
The beginning of the 1960s outlines the starting point of a new era for the tobacco 
workers in Ljubljana, bringing about substantial investment into the modernization of 
working processes, particularly the mechanization of production. Another aspect ad-
dresses the extended mobility of the workers. A noticeable influx of tobacco workers not 
only from more distant places of Slovenia, but also from other parts of Yugoslavia, namely 
from Croatia, Serbia and BiH, as is apparent from the workers’ registers.30 At the same 
time, Yugoslavia started to open up its international borders, thus enabling conditions 
for negotiations regarding bilateral working contracts with Austria (1966) and Germany 
(1969). These features bring about a number of new perspectives for the research of 
tobacco workers. Hence I decided to end the scope of this very paper in 1962, which 
besides tendencies towards more federalized political organization of the state (Repe, 
1990) also predicts a new socio-economic development.
CONCLUSION
Observation of a fifty-year period of labor relations in the Tobacco factory Ljubljana 
brings us to the conclusion that many changes relevant for tobacco workers did not fol-
low the shift in political regimes, but were more gradual and moderate. Also, altering 
social roles and norms as well as other intriguing elements at the intersection of mentality 
and everyday life were neither linear nor uniform, yet they demonstrated fairly different 
rhythms than developments in the field of political history, even though the latter – at 
least in fragments – left its imprints on social life. Stemming from the observed archival 
sources, the “enduring force of mental structures” (Vovelle, 2004, 19) in the fields of 
marital practices, educational standards, and division of labor among the workers took 
place along the gender line, despite the rhetoric of proclaiming gender equality.
Endurance relates to many factors and their complex and dynamic interrelations, 
where places of origin, familial foundations, life-time experiences, a sense of belonging 
to groups, generations, and other frameworks add up in a (always at least slightly unique) 
social and cultural horizon of a particular individual (Assmann, 2001, 34–45). As mental 
formation of an individual is a constant process conditioned by influencing collectives in 
touch (and at times also by desired collectives in absence), there is a sense of exploring 
workers in collective terms, naturally by anticipating not only the universal, but also the 
variety of individual standpoints. 
When observing the organization of work in factories with hundreds of workers, it be-
comes clear that it must have generated intense interpersonal transactions, which accord-
ing to Charles Tilly, “compound into identities, create and transform social boundaries, 
and accumulate into durable ties” (Tilly, 2005, 12). This does not only address strikes and 
30 SI ZAL, LJU 134/1, t. e. 33, Worker’s registers, books 66, 67, 68 (1959–1966).
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protests for better work conditions or illegal activities for the good of the liberation move-
ment during the war. The collective where women prevailed and even shared a common 
appellation – “cigararce” or “fabričanke” – and working processes where women worked 
next to one another and also associated in the spare time, doubtlessly also made space 
for debates over various issues such as life, death, marriage, work, and family. They must 
have also touched upon various taboos regarding pregnancy, motherhood, sexual matters, 
relations to men, etc., presenting a variety of contrasting opinions over various issues. 
If interpersonal contacts are one of the most effective channels influencing individual or 
collective disposition, the Tobacco Factory Ljubljana is indeed an interesting observation 
space for social changes formed from below.
One of the categories apparent in the available workers’ registers was the cat-
egory of marital status. The share of married women among workers was rather high 
throughout the observed period and did not change considerably, reaching around a 
half of all female workers. Many of once single workers remained in the factory after 
marriage. The factory held the traditional reputation of a “family factory” (Čepič, 
1991, 11). In order to follow changes in mentality, I was also interested in observing 
the trends of marital divorce, which was – based on the prevalent Catholic principle 
of inseparability of sacramental marriage – for centuries considered unimaginable 
or almost unfeasible (Cvirn, 2005). The rate of divorce was growing from the 1920s 
onward, but it seems to have been largely triggered by the acute social crises fol-
lowing both world wars (Celello, 2009; Hvalec, 2015). Although the propaganda for 
building a secular society was strong, the number of divorced workers of both sexes 
was not exhibiting an increasing trend in the first post-war years.
However, there was an interesting development line in terms of education and divi-
sion of labor, in particular among white-collar workers. Whereas women did not work 
in this sector before 1913 and were very modestly represented in the interwar time, the 
years after 1945 witnessed a considerable rise of women among white-collar workers. 
Their education level rose as well, also exhibiting several high-qualified workers with 
university diplomas by the beginning of the 1960s. Although blue-collar workers were 
still poorly educated at large, some of them managed to achieve the position of foreman at 
individual production units in the late 1950s. The management and control over produc-
tion was still majorly led by a handful of men whose social reputation appears very high 
from the meeting minutes, but the trend set its course towards gender-equality.
The observation of tobacco workers mirrors aspects of the gradual emancipation of 
women in Slovene society, which was achieved de iure, while de facto it still contained 
many challenges for the future generations. This was clear even in 1980, when notable 
Slovene politician Vida Tomšič held a long speech in the factory on Women’s Day on 
the 8th of March, which was adopted as a fully paid day-off by the factory’s workers’ 
council in 1965.31 In the speech, she outlined the historical development of the worker’s 
position, including its role in self-management, and all the advancements that could not 
be overseen. However, she also revealed the holiday’s conservative content, which “seeks 
31 SI ZAL, LJU/134, t. e. 12, a. e. 22, Worker’s council minutes, 4. 3. 1965.
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to preserve the old, subordinate role of women, the old division of roles between the 
sexes”. She emphasized the socialist meaning of Women’s Day, where the expression 
of gratitude to women and mothers was upgraded “with the idea that workers, women 
workers and girls, together with exploited workers, demand their equality in work in an 
organized manner and fight for a socialist social organization in which work at home and 
in society belongs equally to men and women when they both decide on labor, social and 
family matters.” Her core finding of the current women-worker’s position, was somewhat 
critical and bitterly displeased:
With all the possibilities in the political system of socialist self-government, we have 
not, in fact, made significant shifts in the position of women at work. Most women are 
still employed in less skilled jobs, perform strenuous, usually monotonous work at 
high intensity and are employed in the classic industrial so-called women’s branches. 
[…] In addition to the poorer qualification structure of employed women, the traditi-
onal burden of women outside the work environment remains a fundamental problem 
and an obstacle to the progress of women in society.32
The fact that the emphasis of Vida Tomšič’s message did not differ much from the 
words of Malči Makarovič, who had held a speech two decades before, demonstrates 
a languid transformation of women’s social roles. Although her words could not be 
objected from the bird’s-eye view and in general, the situation from below insinuates 
a more complex situation, especially if large qualitative differences regarding social 
standing of the workers, their household organization and relations between spouses 
are taken into account.
32 SI ZAL, LJU/134, t. e. 86, a. e. 1002, The speech of Vida Tomšič, 8. 3. 1980.
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TOBAČNI DELAVCI V LJUBLJANI (1912–1962): NEKAJ VPOGLEDOV V 
DRUŽBENE PREOBRAZBE GLEDE NA SPOL
Urška STRLE
Univerza v Ljubljani, Filozofska fakulteta, Aškerčeva 2, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenija
e-mail: strleu@ff.uni-lj.si
POVZETEK
Članek naslavlja družbene vidike tobačne zgodovine, katere empirični te-
melj so ob prevladujočem serialnem gradivu tudi drugi fragmentarni ostanki v 
arhivskem fondu Tobačne tovarne Ljubljana. Časovno članek pokriva poslednja 
leta Habsburške monarhije, dobo Kraljevine SHS (od 1929 znane kot Kraljevina 
Jugoslavija) in začetna leta Titove Jugoslavije, vključno s prelomi, ki sta jih za-
dali obe svetovni vojni. Takšen časovni okvir je bil izbran namerno, z namenom 
zaznati kontinuitete in prelome v družbenih transformacijah, ki so se dogodile 
v različnih političnih režimih, s poudarkom na tem, kako so se kazale v sferi 
dela ljubljanske tobačne industrije. Zaradi obvladljivega števila delavstva, ki 
se je v opazovanem času gibalo od 500 do 2500 ljudi in med katerimi so prevla-
dovale ženske, uporabljeni viri omogočajo tudi detajlno analizo vidikov spola 
skozi perspektivo intersekcionalnosti. Zgodovina enega največjih industrijskih 
kompleksov v Ljubljani potrjuje močne socialne vplive tovarne na mesto s širšo 
okolico, obenem pa zrcali tudi strukturne spremembe, na katere so vplivali 
dinamičen ekonomski razvoj in korenite politične spremembe v regiji. Skozi vire 
se izrisuje tudi spremenljivost kulturne zaznamovanosti in družbene pogojenosti 
vrednotenja tobačnega delavstva. Prispevek očrta ne le spremenljive položaje 
delavstva v času, ampak tudi dinamiko znotraj posameznih političnih okvirov. 
V avstrijskem okviru je bilo doseženih precej delavskih pravic s področja so-
cialnega varstva, ob tem da so tobačne tovarne v okviru dunajskega monopola 
imele neuraden status socialnih podjetij. Tobačna tovarna je na prehodu stole-
tja omogočala razmeroma stalno zaposlitev, varstvo za otroke, nadomestilo za 
bolovanje in z dopolnjenim 35 leti delovne dobe tudi polno pokojnino. Po vstopu 
v novo državo, ki so jo močno določale politične in socialne krize, usklajevanja 
pravnih predpisov in težavna gospodarska stabilizacija, ki se razvila v katastro-
falno gospodarsko krizo, so bili sindikati po učinku manj uspešni, država pa je 
bila delavstvu manj naklonjena. Veliko je bilo stihijskega zaposlovanja, delež 
stalnih zaposlitev se je precej znižal, pokojnine so bile nizke, delovne inšpekcije 
pa so delovale predvsem na formalni ravni. Status delavstva se je precej izbolj-
ševal po drugi vojni, ko se je ob večanju socialne varnosti delavcem po letu 
1950 omogočilo tudi sodelovanje pri upravljanju in delitvi dobička. Ob zelo 
raznovrstni poklicni sestavi zaposlenih v tovarni je glavna pozornost posvečena 
proizvodnemu delavstvu, kjer so vseskozi bile ženske v veliki večini. Za delavke 
je bilo v primerjavi z delavci značilno prejemanje nižjih dohodkov, pri čemer 
se zdi glavni razlog za razlike v plačah delitev dela po spolu, ki je za ženske 
ACTA HISTRIAE • 29 • 2021 • 4
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Urška STRLE: TOBACCO WORKERS IN LJUBLJANA (1912–1962): SOME GENDER-SENSITIVE INSIGHTS ..., 965–988
pomenila delo na slabše plačanih položajih. Razlika v plačah po spolu je sicer 
stalnica, značilna za vsa obdobja delovanja tovarne. Nizke plače pa so delavke 
spodbujale tudi k iskanju dodatnih virov zaslužka. Izrazite spremembe so se 
zgodile na ravni izobrazbene strukture zaposlenih, pri čemer je višja strokovna 
izobrazba načeloma pomenila možnost višjih dohodkov. Izobrazbena stopnja 
zaposlenih žensk se je zlagoma višala šele od druge polovice 20. stoletja dalje 
in v izjemnih primerih dosegla tudi univerzitetno stopnjo.
Ključne besede: tobačno delavstvo, družbeno-politične preobrazbe, spol, delovna raz-
merja, socialna zgodovina
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