Page 90 - Dark Shades of Istria
P. 90
Trans-Border Region of Istria
in electoral struggles. We set fire to the Croatian house in Trieste, we
set it on fire in Pula [. . .] In the face of a race like the Slavic, which
is inferior and barbarous, one must not pursue the carrot, but the
stick policy. The Italian borders should run across the Brenner Pass,
Mt. Snežnik and the Dinaric Alps. The Dinarics, yes, those of the
forgotten Dalmatia! [. . .] Our imperialism wants to reach the right
boundaries marked by God and nature, and wants to expand into
the Mediterranean. Enough with the poems. Enough with the evan-
gelical rubbish.
The brutality of the fascist regime was also reflected in the innocent
child victims killed or wounded on 12 March 1921 in Strunjan near Pi-
ran (Brate, 2007; Hrobat Virloget & Čebron Lipovec, 2017, p. 50). In the
context of the then hostile ideology, it could be argued that Istria was on
the path of Slavic deculturation and Italianisation (damnatio memoriae),
which means an unrelenting transformation of ‘barbaric Slavs’ into a cul-
turally more developed society.
w w i i , l i b e rat i on a n d t h e c ol d wa r i n i st ria
The resistance of Slovenians led to the first victims among the anti-fascists
in Marezige in May 1921, who were the first casualties in Venezia Giulia
(Kosmač, 2016, p. 803). Radošević (2021), on the other hand, pointed out
that the first recorded armed conflict with fatalities was in fact the Bat-
tle of Vodnjan in January 1920.⁵⁰ The strike and resistance of the Labin
miners led by Italian leftist/trade unionists (unofficially known as the
Albona Republic, Labinska republika) and peasant national revolt in Še-
gotići (Proštinska buna) (Krmac & Pletikosić, 2001) in the spring of 1921,
should not be overlooked in this context as well. Resistance was escalat-
ing and transforming into a serious armed conflict with the fascist army
on the entire Istrian peninsula. After the armistice of Italy in September
1943,⁵¹ Istria became part of a German Province under the name of Opera-
tionszone Adriatisches Küstenland (The Operational Zone of the Adriatic
Littoral).⁵² At that time – 13 and 26 September 1943 – Istrian representa-
⁵⁰ This was a conflict between Istrian leftists and the carabineers, the army and the fascists.
⁵¹ The term ‘capitulation’ is used uniformly in Slovenia and Croatia.
⁵² It was formed out of areas that previously belonged to fascist Italia: present-day Eastern
Italy, Western and Central Slovenia, and North-West of Croatia. The capital of the zone
was the city of Trieste. More can be found in Ferenc (1966) and Scotti (2008, pp. 82–90).
90
in electoral struggles. We set fire to the Croatian house in Trieste, we
set it on fire in Pula [. . .] In the face of a race like the Slavic, which
is inferior and barbarous, one must not pursue the carrot, but the
stick policy. The Italian borders should run across the Brenner Pass,
Mt. Snežnik and the Dinaric Alps. The Dinarics, yes, those of the
forgotten Dalmatia! [. . .] Our imperialism wants to reach the right
boundaries marked by God and nature, and wants to expand into
the Mediterranean. Enough with the poems. Enough with the evan-
gelical rubbish.
The brutality of the fascist regime was also reflected in the innocent
child victims killed or wounded on 12 March 1921 in Strunjan near Pi-
ran (Brate, 2007; Hrobat Virloget & Čebron Lipovec, 2017, p. 50). In the
context of the then hostile ideology, it could be argued that Istria was on
the path of Slavic deculturation and Italianisation (damnatio memoriae),
which means an unrelenting transformation of ‘barbaric Slavs’ into a cul-
turally more developed society.
w w i i , l i b e rat i on a n d t h e c ol d wa r i n i st ria
The resistance of Slovenians led to the first victims among the anti-fascists
in Marezige in May 1921, who were the first casualties in Venezia Giulia
(Kosmač, 2016, p. 803). Radošević (2021), on the other hand, pointed out
that the first recorded armed conflict with fatalities was in fact the Bat-
tle of Vodnjan in January 1920.⁵⁰ The strike and resistance of the Labin
miners led by Italian leftist/trade unionists (unofficially known as the
Albona Republic, Labinska republika) and peasant national revolt in Še-
gotići (Proštinska buna) (Krmac & Pletikosić, 2001) in the spring of 1921,
should not be overlooked in this context as well. Resistance was escalat-
ing and transforming into a serious armed conflict with the fascist army
on the entire Istrian peninsula. After the armistice of Italy in September
1943,⁵¹ Istria became part of a German Province under the name of Opera-
tionszone Adriatisches Küstenland (The Operational Zone of the Adriatic
Littoral).⁵² At that time – 13 and 26 September 1943 – Istrian representa-
⁵⁰ This was a conflict between Istrian leftists and the carabineers, the army and the fascists.
⁵¹ The term ‘capitulation’ is used uniformly in Slovenia and Croatia.
⁵² It was formed out of areas that previously belonged to fascist Italia: present-day Eastern
Italy, Western and Central Slovenia, and North-West of Croatia. The capital of the zone
was the city of Trieste. More can be found in Ferenc (1966) and Scotti (2008, pp. 82–90).
90
