Italia Irredenta

(Written by Politicus, taken from the journal “The Fortnightly”, Volume 97, 1915.)

Italy is an extremely densely populated land, and the natural resources of the country are totally insufficient for maintaining a large population. Per square mile there are no fewer than 318.8 people in Italy, as compared with 310.4 in Germany, 189.5 in France, and 100.5 in Spain. As the Peninsula possesses practically no coal and no iron, the foundation of prosperous manufacturing industries is extremely difficult, for cheap coal and iron form the basis of successful manufacturing industries. At the same time, the prevalence of bare and rocky mountains throughout the Peninsula, an irregular rainfall, frequent droughts, the scarcity of subsoil water, the lack of forests, and the absence of large rivers and streams, make the highest development of agriculture impossible. In these circumstances, it is only natural that Italy cannot nourish her rapidly growing population, that she has a very considerable emigration, and that important Italian colonies are to be found, not only in trans-oceanic countries, but in all her neighbour States. The French territories bordering upon Italy with Nice, the Swiss Canton Ticino, the southern part of the Austrian Tyrol, Istria with Trieste, Corsica and Malta, are very largely peopled with Italians.

The Italians are a proud, ambitious, and exceedingly patriotic nation. Their population of 36,000,000 is insufficiently large compared with that of the other Great Powers. The strength of a nation largely depends upon its population. Hence many Italians desire to join to their country the territories near by, upon which Italy has some claim on the ground of history, and especially on that of nationality. However, whilst scarcely a single Italian will be found ready to advocate wresting by force Corsica and Nice from France, the Canton Ticino from Switzerland, or Malta from England, the vast majority of the people passionately desire to take by force the districts peopled by Italians which are retained by Austrians. The reason for this discriminating attitude is obvious. The Italians living under the French, Swiss, and British flags are prosperous, happy, and free. Those living under the Austrian flag are, and always have been, persecuted, oppressed, and ill-treated. Italy has a historic and well-founded grievance against Austria, and Austria has, with incredible short-sightedness, done her utmost to keep that grievance alive. Thus she has created that movement which is usually called "Italia Irredenta," the unredeemed Italy—a movement which strives to bring about the reunion of Italy with all the outlying Italian territories, but which in reality is aimed exclusively against Austria-Hungary.

Since the fall of the Roman Empire, Italy was divided against itself and had ceased to be a State. The country became split up, and many States occupied the Peninsula. Through their divisions and internecine wars, Italy declined and became a prey to other nations, and with Italy's power, Italy's prosperity and civilisation almost disappeared. Slowly the consciousness of a common language and of a common nationality arose. Many Italians began to recognise that unity gives strength; that Italy could find salvation only if it should once more become an organised single nation. The war of the French Revolution and Napoleon's conquest of the Peninsula greatly strengthened the spirit of nationalism and a longing for national unity among the Italians. The overthrow of the great Corsican seemed to promise to the Italians the dawn of a new era. But they had reckoned without Prince Metternich. That great Austrian diplomat intended to make all Italy an Austrian dependency and an Austrian possession. He refused to acknowledge the existence of an Italian nation, stating at the Congress of Vienna that "Italie ne représente qu'une union d'États indépendants, réunis seulement sous la même expression geéographique."

According to him, Italy was merely a geographical expression. He treated with contempt the essential unity of the nation and the loud claims for freedom and self-government raised by the leading Italian people. Owing to his action, Italy was cut up at Vienna for the benefit of Austria. The Austrian Emperor was given the kingdom of Lombardo-Venezia. An Austrian Archduke became Governor of Milan. Austrian princes were made Grand Dukes of Tuscany and Dukes of Modena and of Parma. Austria ruled indirectly also the non-Austrian portions of Italy. The Bourbon King of Naples and Sicily had to bind himself that he would not introduce any institutions irreconcilable with those prevailing in Lombardo-Venezia. Metternich even endeavoured to form a confederation of Italian States dominated by Austria, but he met with a refusal from the King of Sardinia, who was supported by the Emperor of Russia.

At the Congress of Vienna, Austria split up Italy into a number of artificial States, brought the whole country under her domination, and prepared everything for ruling Italy by dividing it against itself, and by over-awing the people. The political reforms which had been introduced into Italy during the revolutionary and the Napoleonic era were abolished. ... All Italian professors who were suspected of liberal views were dismissed. The Press was muzzled. The right of free speech was taken away from the people. All Italians suspected of liberal views or patriotic leanings were spied upon, imprisoned, or hounded out of the country. All Italy began to swarm with police agents, spies, and informers. A most rigorous passport system was introduced, under which suspected Italians were forbidden to travel in their own country, and to leave their homes, even for a few days. The Austrian prisons were filled with Italian patriots. The leading Italians, poets, authors, and scientists were treated as conspirators and common criminals. The poet, Silvio Pellico, was sent for life to the prison of Spielberg. The Lombardo-Venezian kingdom was strongly fortified and filled with Austrian soldiers, and Austrian troops acted as police and executioners in the non-Austrian States of Italy as well. They suppressed the revolution which had broken out in the kingdom of Naples and in the States of the Church.

Owing to this rule of terrorism and persecution, the people were forced to defend themselves by forming secret revolutionary societies. Oppression created despair, and despair violence. Great men like Mazzini preached the employment of anarchistic methods against Austria. Popular risings of the outraged people were ferociously suppressed by the Austrian military. After repeated unsuccessful revolts, the Italians recovered their freedom and their unity in the wars of 1859 and 1866. Austria had to withdraw from the Peninsula, but she retained some valuable districts in the north and in the north-east of Italy, the Southern Tyrol, the Trentino, as the Italians call it, and Trieste and the surrounding districts. The fathers and grandfathers of the present generation have lived and suffered under the Austrian yoke, and they have fought against that country. It is, therefore, not unnatural that there exists throughout Italy a ferocious inherited hatred against the land of the Hapsburgs, especially as Austria has done all in her power to keep that hatred alive by perpetuating in the Italian districts still under her control the wrongs which she had inflicted upon Italy herself until she was driven out of the country. In 1914 a valuable study, L'ltalia D'Oltre Confine—Le Provincie Italiane d'Austria, by Virginio Gayda, was published by Fratelli Bocca, Turin, and much of the information given in the following pages has been taken from that large and reliable book.

During a century Austria has followed the identical policy towards the Italians under her sway. Seeing in them a nation of dangerous conspirators, she has thought it necessary to rule them not by the civil power, but by the military. In the old Lombardo-Venezian kingdom Field-Marshal Radetzki was more powerful than the local governors and the Emperor at Vienna. Even now the military lays down and supervises the policy which is followed by the Austrian Government in the Trentino and in the districts of Trieste. Both districts are treated like a conquered land, both are overawed by numerous fortresses, and by large bodies of troops drawn from the non-Italian portion of Austria's population. In both districts Austria strives to denationalise the Italians by swamping them with men of another nationality, who enjoy the unswerving support of the Government. Austria endeavours to destroy the Italian elements in the Trentino by setting against them the Germans. They are to be converted into Germans. In the district of Trieste, on the other hand, Austria is exploiting the desire of the neighbouring Slavs to acquire that town. Hence she imports into Trieste and the surrounding districts large numbers of Slavs, and endeavours to convert the Italians living in them into Slavs.

The town of Trieste is essentially an Italian town. Some years ago, when visiting it, I arrived in the Porto Vecchio. The boat landed at the Molo San Carlo, and I was driven by the Via del Corso through the Piazza Carlo Goldoni, past the Teatro Goldoni, through the Via del Torrente and the Via Stadion, past the Giardino Publico and the Piazza d'Armi, through the Via Miramar to the Castle of Miramar. In Trieste all the street names are Italian, and so are practically all the inscriptions. The people one sees about look like Italians, and speak Italian. The Burgomaster of the town is called Podestà. One forgets that one is on Austrian soil. Close to Trieste and along the shore are numerous Italian towns and villages, such as Servola, Muggia, Nabresina, Monfalcone, but further inland the towns and villages bear Slavonic names, such as Herpelje, Basovizza, Smarje, etc. The Venetians founded colonies along the Adriatic. The coast towns of Istria and Dalmatia bear Italian names and are largely Italian, but the hinterland is Slavonic.

Among the many nationalities which are found in the Dual Monarchy the Italians are numerically the weakest. Nevertheless, these suffer from a form of persecution at the hands of the Government which is spared to the other nationalities, for nowhere in Austria-Hungary does the Government try to destroy a nationality by swamping it by the importation of large numbers of men belonging to another nationality. This movement was begun between the years 1845 and 1848, when the spirit of nationalism in Italy became aroused. During those years the Government brought 20,000 non-Italians into the town of Trieste. Afterwards that policy was discontinued, but it was taken up with redoubled energy after the year 1866, when Austria lost Venezia to Italy.

During the last few decades the Government has exploited the differences existing between Slavs and Italians regarding the control and ownership of Trieste, and has imported nearly exclusively Slavonic people into that town. Between 1900 and 1910 the Slavonic population of Trieste increased by no less than 130 per cent., whereas the population of the Slavonic province of Carniola increased by only 3.3 per cent. Whenever a need for workers arises, the Government imports Slavonic men. In building the Tauern Railway the Government imported at one stroke into Trieste 700 Slavonic workers and their families. It imported 2,500 Slavonic workers for the construction of the new port of Sant'Andrea. The Austrian Lloyd, which stands under Government control, introduced 1,300 Slavonic workers into its building yards, and the Stabilimento Technico Triestino was forced to dismiss all its Italian employees, and these were replaced chiefly by Slavs. The result of this policy is apparent from the census figures. Trieste is a flourishing town; it is the Austrian Hamburg, and its population is rapidly increasing. However, although the Italian part of the population is growing quickly, the Slavonic part is growing far more quickly, and the result is that the Italian element is losing ground. Between 1900 and 1910 the proportion of Italians declined from 77.4 per cent. to 74.4 per cent. During the same period the Slavs increased from 16.3 to 19.4 per cent. of the population.

The Government endeavours not only to replace the Italian workers of Trieste by Slavonic ones, but it is replacing the army of Italian officials by Slavs. Trieste swarms with officials of every kind. Formerly, the majority of these were Italians, but these have been replaced not by Germans, but by Slavs. In 1910 of 828 employees at the State railway station only 70 were Italians and 728 were Slavs. Of 358 postmen 95 were Italians and 245 Slavs. Of 500 Custom House officers only 146 were Italians, and of 661 policemen fewer than 100 were Italians. In 1910 there were in Trieste 4,600 State officials; of these 3,700, or four-fifths, were Slavs. In the small Italian towns in the neighbourhood no Italian officials have been left. The elimination of all Italian officials is demanded by the military largely because they fear espionage by Italian postmen, etc. The Law Courts also have become denationalised, and only a few Italians are left in higher positions, because they are difficult to replace. When new men are appointed to positions in the Government service non-Italians are always given the preference. A Slav who knows only Slavonic is appointed, and an Italian who knows Italian, Slavonic, and German is not considered.

Formerly the Law Courts were purely Italian. According to the fundamental laws of Austria-Hungary, the Law Court proceedings should be conducted in the language of the majority. That provision, which is rigorously enforced elsewhere in Austria, is disregarded in the Italian portions of the Monarchy. The Law Courts in Trieste are gradually being made Slavonic. The Slavs began twenty years ago to introduce their language into the Courts. Slavonic lawyers settled in Trieste, and some of the judges accepted documents written in Slavonic. Later on some of them began to allow Slavonic to be used in oral proceedings, the judges acting as interpreters, and before long Slavonic began to be used for giving judgment. When, in 1903, the City protested against Slavonic being used in Court, the then Secretary of State, Mr. Koerber, refused to interfere. The Italian judges are dying out, and Slavonic ones are appointed in their stead. Before long the Italians will have completely disappeared from the Law Courts of Trieste.

Among the most powerful nationalising agencies are the school and the Church. The Austrian Government endeavours to denationalise the Italians by means of the school and the Church, and its policy is powerfully supported by the well-organised Slavs, who strive to conquer Trieste for themselves. More than three-quarters of the inhabitants of Trieste are Italians. Yet there is not a single Italian State school of the ordinary type. The Government supports only a nautical school and a commercial high school, which were founded one in 1754 and the other in 1817. In Trieste and on the sea-coast near by dwell 383,000 Italians. They possess only two intermediate schools maintained by the Government, one at Pola and one at Capodistria.

On the other hand, Cracow, with only 100,000 inhabitants, has five Polish intermediate schools and two technical schools supported by the Government. The Government obviously follows the policy of supporting the Poles and suppressing the Italians. All nationalities dwelling in the Italian districts are encouraged except the Italians. In Trieste and the Italian districts near by there dwell fewer than 20,000 Germans, who are scattered among the Italians. Entirely for these the Austrian Government maintains six intermediate schools at Trieste, Pola, and Gorizia, and most of the German schools stand relatively empty. In 1911-12 the eight classes of the German intermediate school at Gorizia were frequented by only forty-six German scholars. Owing to the lack of educational facilities Italians are forced to send their children to German and Slavonic schools, unless they succeed in establishing schools of their own with their own means.

Recognising the danger of losing their nationality by the insidious educational policy followed by the Austrian Government, a powerful movement for counteracting that policy arose among the Italians living in Austria. The town of Trieste is most active in its effort of defending the Italian nationality by means of Italian schools. In 1911 Trieste maintained 21 Italian elementary schools with 16,570 children and 14 country schools. The town of Trieste spends 1,350,000 crowns a year on its Italian schools, and some of the buildings are monuments of Italian nationalism, being constructed regardless of expense. The town maintains besides eight kindergarten schools at a yearly expenditure of 100,000 crowns. In addition to these, Italian intermediate and technical schools have been founded by the town, and considerable amounts are spent every year in subsidising schools, in buying books and boots for the school-children, and in assisting the parents of very poor children. Trieste spends per year no less than 3,262,000 crowns on education, to which more than one-sixth of its total expenditure is devoted.

Although the people of Trieste are allowed to establish schools of their own and to appoint their teachers, the supreme control is retained by the Government, which directs what subjects may, or may not, be taught. Among the subjects which are forbidden may be found the history of Trieste. The children must not know that Trieste was at one time an Italian town. The attempts of the Government to destroy the Italian spirit among the people are often most ludicrous. By an Ordinance of June 21st, 1913, the Governor, Prince Hohenlohe, prohibited the municipality to name two institutions maintained by it after Dante and after Petrarca. Following the policy of pin-pricks, and fearing treason everywhere, sport meetings arranged by the Italians of Trieste are frequently forbidden, under the plea that they would constitute "a nationalist demonstration." Almost anything may be forbidden as "a nationalist demonstration."

In December 1911 a citizen of Monfalcone was ordered to take down a winged lion on his house, because it resembled that of the Republic of Venice, and therefore involved a political demonstration. Italian music is frequently suppressed as a political demonstration. A child at Trieste, eleven years old, playing at home on the piano, started the Garibaldi hymn. A policeman appeared, ordered her to stop playing, and her father was imprisoned for a fortnight for the treasonable action of his daughter. Freedom of speech and freedom of the Press are, of course, non-existent. On February 13th, 1910, the police destroyed in the Servola furnaces twenty tons of printed paper, the result of numerous confiscations of Italian newspapers and reviews. The Italian charitable and sociable organisations are liable to be dissolved without any cause by order of the Authority. The wearing of the Italian colours, or the use of the Italian flag, is, of course, strictly forbidden, although Italy is Austria's ally.

The Government has not only imported a large army of Slavonic workers into Trieste and has endeavoured to suppress the Italian schools, but it has also striven to denationalise the Church. Of 290 priests in Trieste 190 are Slavs, and Slavism is undermining the Italian Church in exactly the same way it is undermining all other Italian institutions. Encouraged by the Government, the feud between the Slavs and Italians has become so bitter that an Italian can no longer be certain to obtain the blessings of his Church if the priest is a Slav. At Spalato a Croatian priest refused to give burial to an Italian. In Topolovaz, in Istria, the parish priest refused to bury an Italian child. In Sterna the Slavonic priest refused the last sacrament to a man because he was an Italian.

All the world over Latin is the language of the Roman Catholic Church, but in the Slavonic parts of Austria Latin is being replaced by Slavonic. At Lindaro a Croatian priest refused to baptize an Italian child because the father wished the function to be conducted in Latin. The Croatian bishop Mahnic ordered the priests in the island of Quarnero to give religious instruction in the Italian schools in the Croatian language, although the children understand only Italian. Apparently, the Slavonic priests are in many cases the agents of an aggressive nationalism. Their race patriotism seems to be stronger than their faith, and they rebel against Rome. How determined is their opposition to the use of Latin may be seen from the fact that on October 28th, 1913, an Italian schoolmaster at Sogignacco, in Istria, was proceeded against in the Law Courts for having disturbed the Roman Catholic divine service because he had sung the Litany in Latin in a procession. Some Slavonic priests are so determined to conquer the country for Slavism that they have endeavoured to force the Slavonic language into purely Italian centres. The Slavonic priests have begun to say in Slavonic masses, sermons, and prayers, and even in Italian Trieste Slavonic has begun to be used in the churches. Naturally, many Italians have left their church in disgust.

The Slavs have founded powerful societies, which provide the Government with Slavonic workers from the Slavonic hinterland, which establish co-operation among them, and which strengthen their cohesion in every possible way. The Narodni Dom gives to every married Slavonic worker who settles in Trieste the complete furniture of a room and of a kitchen. That is, of course, a great inducement for poor people who cannot make a living in Austria to get married and settle in Trieste instead of emigrating.

In self-defence against the attacks of the Government and the Slavonic organisations, the Italians have created organisations of their own. Among these the Lega Nazionale is the best known and the most powerful. It was created in 1890. In 1901, after ten years' existence, the League possessed 131 local groups in Austria, with 24,000 members. It maintained 21 schools and institutions of its own and subsidised eight others. At the end of 1911, after twenty years of existence, the membership had increased to 42,041, and it maintained 74 schools of its own, subsidised 136 others, arid maintained besides 153 libraries and other institutions. It has a yearly income of more than 600,000 crowns and a capital of more than 1,000,000 crowns. In view of the fact that there are only 800,000 Italians in Austria, who, by voluntary contributions, have collected these sums, these results are certainly most remarkable, and are a monument to the patriotism of the Italian people.

Elsewhere in the Italian provinces of Austria the Italians are persecuted as they are in Trieste. Not far from Trieste lies Pola, the Austrian Portsmouth. Of the 4,000 workers employed at the Pola Arsenal, 3,000 who were Italians have been dismissed. In a single year practically all the Italians employed at the Law Courts were replaced. Pola, like Trieste, is pre-eminently an Italian town. But in Pola also the Slavs are increasing far more rapidly than the Italians. In ten years the number of Slavs and Germans at Pola has doubled, while that of the Italians has increased only by one-fourth. In Pola, as in Trieste, the Government endeavours to denationalise the Italians by starving the Italian schools and promoting the teaching of Slavonic. As Pola is an important naval base, the methods employed for terrorising the Italians and for depriving them of their work are far more ruthless than at Trieste.

The sea towns along the Austrian Adriatic, such as Capodistria, Isola, Pirano, Salvore, Umago, San Lorenzo, Cittanova, Parenzo, Orsera, Rovigno, Fasan, are absolutely Italian. But the interior of the peninsula of Istria is Slavonic, except for Italian islands which are found here and there. The Italian farmers in Istria are experiencing hard times, and are gradually deserting the country for the town. Their place is taken by Slavs, whose requirements are smaller than are those of the Italians, and the acquisition of Italian farms is facilitated by the Slavonic cooperative societies, which, desirous of driving out the Italians, consider the acquisition of Italian land as a patriotic deed.

Until recently Italians carried on the Austrian Merchant Marine, but Austria endeavours to drive the Italians from the sea. Lately Austria has established navigation schools, where only the Croatian language is taught. Austria evidently endeavours to make it impossible for Italians to exist and to make a living on the Adriatic coast.

The Italian Tyrol, the Trentino, occupies a most important strategical position. A glance at the map shows that the protecting wall of the Alps is penetrated by the Austrian Trentino. The Austrian frontier ends in the middle of the Lago di Garda. Hence, an Austrian army can penetrate without difficulty into the Italian plain. The Trentino is an Austrian sally-port, which constantly threatens Italy's integrity and peace. Austria has maintained that important position in order to be able to strike a mortal blow at Italy at any moment.

In view of its strategical importance, it is only natural that the military is supreme in the Trentino, especially as the country is practically purely Italian. In Southern Tyrol dwell 373,000 Italians and only 12,000 Germans, and the majority of the latter are soldiers or Government officials. The capital, Trento, or Trent, is purely Italian, and so are the smaller towns. The Trentino is protected against Italy by numerous and extremely powerful fortifications, which command all the approaches from Italy, and the peace garrison consists of thirty-six battalions of infantry, three battalions of engineers, five battalions of fortress artillery, twelve batteries of mountain and field artillery, etc. Regardless of expense, the Government constructs every year military roads. Considering the Trentino a district of the greatest military importance, the Austrian Government, guided by its soldiers, endeavours to overawe the Italian element of the country.

As the Italian Tyrol slopes towards Italy, Italy is its natural market. However, the Austrian Government impedes traffic between Italy and the Trentino in every possible way, and discourages trade and industry. The carriage roads and telephones end at the Italian frontier. The great water powers of the Trentino remain unutilised because the Austrian Government does not allow electric power derived from them to be sold in the Italian plain. Italian financiers are prevented by Austria developing the Trentino, which Austria refuses to develop. The Trentino, like Trieste, lives under a régime of petty persecution. In Trieste, the history of Trieste must not be taught. In the school-books employed in the Trentino history ends with the year 1815. To the school-child history ends at the time when the awakening of nationalism in Italy began. In the Trentino, as in the other Italian provinces of Austria, Italian Associations are prohibited.

Arrests for suspected espionage are frequent in the Trentino and in Pola, and throughout the Italian districts the Italians are spied upon and denounced to the police. People who are suspected of nationalist leanings are expelled. People who are suspected of espionage are often kept in prison during months without trial. In the Trentino the Government endeavours, more ruthlessly than elsewhere, to stifle industry and liberty among the Italians. Unable to make a living, many Italians emigrate from the Trentino. While the Austrian Government encourages the Slavs in Trieste and the districts surrounding it, it encourages the pan-Germanic agitation in the Trentino, and that agitation is all the more successful as it disposes of very considerable funds obtained partly from Austria and partly from Germany.

There are about 800,000 Italians in Austria, and these occupy two extremely valuable positions. The Trentino is a point of the greatest strategical value, the possession of which is of vital importance to Italy. Its possession would secure that country against a sudden invasion from Austria. Trieste is extremely important as a commercial harbour, and Pola is a most excellent war harbour. The Italian shore of the Adriatic is flat and practically harbourless. The Austrian shore of that sea is studded with a large number of excellent natural harbours. The eastern shore of the Adriatic dominates the western, and Valona, lying at the narrow opening of that sea, is at the same time its Gibraltar and its Portsmouth. While Italy is obviously entitled to the possession of the Trentino, both for geographical and national reasons... While, owing to the number of Italians living in the towns, Italy has the strongest claims to Trieste and Pola, the Slavs lay claim to these towns, because they require outlets to the sea. ...the Italians have the stronger claim to Trieste on the ground of nationality...

The Destruction of Palazzo Longo in Capodistria

Palazzo Longo, build in the 16th century
Demolished in February 2018

The destruction of Italian heritage in Istria continues, as the Slovenian government recently demolished the historical Palazzo Longo in the city centre of Capodistria.

The historic Palazzo Longo is – or rather was – an imposing and prestigious 16th century building, built in Venetian Renaissance style, which belonged to the noble Longo family who lived there for centuries. The Longo family originated in Venice in the 6th century, but later spread throughout the Italian world, with branches in Italy as well as in Istria and Dalmatia. The oldest mention of the family in Istria dates back to 1202 with Martinus Longus.

One member of the family in Istria, Francesco Longo, was Podestà of Capodistria in 1510, when the city belonged to the Republic of Venice. The last members of the Longo family lived in the Palazzo until the 1890's. The building was regarded as one of the most important Renaissance buildings in the city of Capodistria.

Coat of Arms of the Longo Family
Palazzo Longo, Capodistria

Abandoned for many decades, the building – owned by the Slovene government – was neglected and left to rot. It was sold by the municipality to a private owner named Doris Božič in 2010 during an auction. In 2015 there was a plan to restore the building. However, representatives of the Slovene Ministry of Culture declared that the building was unstable, dangerous and needed to be demolished.

The implicit and shameful admission behind this declaration is that the Palazzo had been so severely neglected by the Slovene government for so many years that they allowed the building to fall into decay, no doubt intentionally so.

On January 31, 2018 the government declared that the building must be demolished within 30 days. The demolition of the Palazzo Longo was completed in February 2018. It is expected that a new shopping centre or hotel will be built on the site of the old Italian Renaissance building.

As was recently admitted by Slovene author Vesna Mikolič, following the exodus of the Italian population after World War II the city of Capodistria was repopulated with Slovenes from other regions of Yugoslavia who did not identify with the Mediterranean city nor with its historical cultural heritage. The new Yugoslav administrators and Slovene immigrants deliberately neglected buildings in order to hide or suppress the Italian character of the Istrian city. As a result, many of the old Italian structures fell into decay and were often vandalized by hoodlums.

In light of the long history of destruction of Italian heritage in Istria on the part of the Yugoslav and post-Yugoslav governments, as well as the frequent desecrations of monuments and buildings still conducted by anti-Italian vandals to this day, it is difficult not to see this most recent demolition as part of an intentional plan to neglect an ancient building and purposefully allow it to fall into ruin in order to provide a justification for its destruction. Whether this negligence was intentional or not, the responsibility nonetheless must fall on the Slovene authorities, who owned and irresponsibly neglected the structure for so many years.

Today an alarming number of other historic Italian buildings of Capodistria are falling into a state of decay and are also facing the threat of demolition. The Palazzo Totto, Palazzo Bassegio, the ex-Servite Monastery, the Venetian “A Gheffo” House and several medieval structures are all in danger of being demolished. If this occurs, then what will be left of old Italian Capodistria?

Statements of Lawrence Yates Sherman on the Treaty of London

Here we have the statements of Senator Lawrence Yates Sherman, who spoke before the United States Congress on August 4, 1919, on the Treaty of London and how the Entente Powers failed to honor the treaty and uphold their promises to Italy after World War I:

When Italy cast her strength into the war against the Central Powers it was a vital decision. Five million Italian soldiers created a battle line from the Alps to the sea; 500,000 dead and 1,000,000 wounded with $13,000,000,000 expenditure testify to the greatness of the Italian sacrifice. ... Germany was compelled to withdraw soldiers, artillery, and war supplies to strengthen Austria in her struggle against the new enemy on her southern flank. A neutral Italy would have left the dual empire free to send its military forces to strengthen Germany and enable the latter power to concentrate instead of compelled to divide her forces in the drive toward Paris and the channel ports. Italy's casting her lot, therefore, with the allied powers marks a decisive event in the fortunes of war. It ranks with the entry of the United States in the Great War against the Central Powers. Italy sat at the peace table knowing that she merited recognition commensurate with her sacrifice. Prior to her entering the war in 1915 a treaty was concluded, dated April 26 of that year, with Great Britain, France, and Russia. Under its terms the peace treaty entitled Italy to receive the district of Trentino, the entire southern Tyrol to its natural geographic boundary, the River Brenner, the city and suburbs of Trieste, Goritzia, and Gradisca, all of Istria to Quarnero, including: Volosca and the Istrian islands of Cherso and Lussino, and also the smaller islands of Plavnik [Plauno], Unia, Canidole, Palazzuolo, San Pietro dei Nembi, Azinello, and Grutzo, together with the neighboring islands.

... Our President had denounced and still denounces secret treaties. That denunciation is continued in the league of nations. I share in the dislike of such diplomacy in the future relations of civilized powers; but I can not reach that ultra level of morality that condemns a secret treaty, after having received its benefits and permitting the beneficiary to retain all the advantages and repudiate the promise... It [the London Treaty of 1915] gained for the Allies the Italian Nation. It was not merely Italy's military and naval strength she cast into the scale against Germany. I repeat, it was the creation of a battle line on Austria's southern flank, which drew from the eastern front in France strength then vital to German success. The morale of the Allies was strengthened beyond the estimate. In the foregoing situation President Wilson condemned the London Pact and denied the duty of Great Britain and France under its provisions to give Italy her frontiers guaranteed in that treaty

... If our President had not injected himself and the United States Government into the conference against the treaty, Italy would have received the guaranteed boundaries and territories for which she has performed a full service. There is no moral turpitude nor essential wrong in giving Italy the entire benefit promised in the treaty.

The ninth of President Wilson's points in his address to Congress on January 8, 1918, declares: A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be effected along clearly recognizable lines of nationality.

It is possible that when the President delivered this message he did not know of the London treaty of 1915, affecting Italy's frontier. Let that be assumed, although I doubt whether he lacked such knowledge. It was generally understood as early as 1916 that such a treaty existed and was the prevailing motive that carried Italy into the war for the Allies. This one of the 14 points is lamentably executed. Another idealism wrecked. I am in accord with the invalidity of secret treaties applied to future transactions, but I can not arouse my indignation over secret treaties which were vital steps in overcoming a treacherous public enemy, whose methods were without restraint either by common humanity or by any known rule of diplomacy or civilized warfare. I find it impossible to attain the sublime moral frenzy into which our President works himself when entranced by his ethereal phrases adapted only to the high altitude of the politically sanctified. I believe Italy is entitled to the full measure promised her in the 1915 treaty.

In the absence of such benefits Italy's claims at the hands of her allies have not been equitably met. Disappointment and ingratitude are the lot of Italy at Paris in return for her great sacrifice. President Wilson is responsible for Italy's exclusion from the fruits of victory. She lies on the tidewater of the Mediterranean, with the Adriatic Sea extending along her eastern and northern border. Within her boundaries and beyond in other countries are the Alps. In that mighty chain of mountains to her east and northeast are the ancient and historic passes through which Asiatic and eastern invaders have for thousands of years poured their warlike hordes on the frontiers of western Europe. The Alps are nature's defenses. The passes are the natural gateways and are supremely vital to the defenses of Italy. Through these passes came the great Slavic invasions in the fourth and fifth centuries. Their silent walls, if their stony lips could speak, would tell when Attila, the scourge of God, marched with his legions to subjugate western Europe and destroy Christendom. They would record the invasion of the Ostrogoths under Theodoric, when the flood of Asiatic barbarism again poured over western Europe. These silent witnesses saw the great Hun invasion in 943 A.D. Italy's defenses can not be safe by merely making the shore line of the Adriatic her northeastern and Southeastern boundaries. It would compel her to maintain a navy at tremendous expense far beyond what ought to be imposed upon her.

All the great Alpine basin, whose waters flow into the Adriatic Sea, is Italian territory. Those mountain heights and valleys, reared by the Omnipotent in imperishable majesty and beauty, are Italy's. The hand of God traced her everlasting boundary lines in the snow-crowned peaks and sunlit swiftly-flowing rivers that fall into the great Italian sea.

Along the eastern shore of the Adriatic is a narrow belt of coast land about 210 miles long and from 1 mile to 35 miles wide. This zone of fairly level plain is bounded on the east by the Dinaric Alps, an almost continuous precipitous wall of rugged mountains, rising in places in cliffs 6,000 feet above the sea level. This mountain chain is Italy's eastern defense. The Adriatic, unless fortified and manned by a formidable navy, is the facile highway for attack. The nation that owns or controls the plain between the Alps and the Adriatic commands, when fortified, Italy's Adriatic boundary. It is a perpetual menace. Dalmatia is of consequence in the future of Italy.

... President Wilson turned a deaf ear to Italy, and Great Britain and France, somewhat relieved to have our Government assume responsibility, silently acquiesced. I should like to have seen Lloyd-George's face when he acquiesced or allowed it to pass unchallenged. I believe if he could have been observed, the honest Welshman would have been seen to blush.

Therefore Italy is told she can not profit by secret treaties for which she has paid the price in blood and a supreme good faith in keeping Italian national honor. She loses a commercial port and a naval base by a single stroke of the Wilson pen. Her northeastern defenses against future enemies are untenable under the settlement made by the Paris conference. A few days ago Croatia rebelled against her status in the new government. She demanded independence. The revolt was quelled, it is true, but its population is restless. There is no guaranty to Italy of stable conditions on her northeastern Adriatic shore, with Fiume in other hands.

... The new Jugo-Slav Republic is an experiment. More than the ordinary uncertainty attending the launching of a new State inheres in the undertaking. The population included in the limits of this new State are not homogeneous. They are of diverse racial origin, language, religion, and ideals. While generally of the Caucasian race, there is a decided strain of Turkish blood in some of the people of this newly created State. There is another equally perceptible strain of Mongolian origin. Nowhere in all Europe can there be found such mingled strains of blood or such a hybrid population as here is sought to be welded into this new State. Their language is not alike; many dialects, of the same language are spoken, and more strains of blood can be found in the population of the proposed new State than in any other population sought to be united under the flag of a single government.

The attempt to fuse such a polyglot people into a self-governing State is characteristic of the indifference exhibited in the league of nations for actual as against idealistic conditions. It is a magazine charged with all the elements of potential explosion. A large portion of its people are accustomed to an unsettled life consequent upon unstable surroundings in the frequent local wars which have prevailed there and devastated their country for many years. That element is not disposed to the tranquillity of private occupation. They are more or less inured to violence, and are of nomadic habits. The foundation for stable government is not there, and the prospects are not reassuring. Italy can not be criticized for wishing a strong frontier against such a restless neighbor, whose presence upon the Adriatic border of Italy practically constitutes another Mexico—and we all know what Mexico on our own border means.

... Shantung is given Japan pursuant to a secret treaty exacted by the latter power in 1917 and notes of 1915 and 1918. It was the price of Japan's permission to China to declare war with the Allies and a part also of the price of Japan's nominal participation in the war. Japan's sacrifices are unworthy of mention with those of Italy. She watched the progress of the great war with an eye somewhat single to her own advantage. Her military forces fought the German in Shantung to seize the proceeds of Germany's robbery of China. Neither international law nor the new code of international morals based on the condemnation of secret treaties can justify the plunder of China. The league of nations and the peace treaty will be condemned by the impartial historian for the sanction of this flagrant crime. President Wilson brands his denunciation of secret treaties with insincerity when he refuses Fiume to Italy, after her heroic sacrifices, and in obedience to secret treaties delivers Shantung to Japan, despite her course of studied selfishness in the Great War.

I fail to understand, Mr. President, why in the case of Japan a secret treaty is sanctified, while in the case of Italy it is condemned. I can explain it in no other way than by saying that Japan has become the Prussian of the Orient, and it was desired to placate her at the peace conference.

Italy is awakening to new life. She begins to show a resurrection of her mighty powers manifested through the centuries. Her Mediterranean and Adriatic ports are adapted to be gateways for an extensive commerce. With the danger of the dual empire and restless provinces on the east removed, she can again develop into a large factor in Europe. With the common peril to the Allies removed, it is difficult to resist the conclusion that Great Britain watches with jealous eye the chance of every European nation to divide her supremacy in foreign trade and merchant shipping. When the piping days of peace return, Great Britain, as of old, will look after her own affairs to the exclusion of all other countries.

... Italy is practically ignored in the material benefits apportioned to the Allies in the treaty. The reparation commission is controlled by those who inflict upon her this humiliation. England and France are the large beneficiaries of German indemnities. Italy is excluded.

... Not by my vote will I so requite our loyal associate in a common peril for her faith and her sacrifice. This great nation must be dealt with in terms of justice. Her men died amid Alpine snows, on the Piave, and in Macedonia. They fought in Siberia, in Lybia, within sight of Jerusalem's holy memories, and where Nineveh's crumbling walls tell of the unspeakable vanity of all human things. With one-thirty-second of the area of continental United States and one-third of our population, she sent 5,000,000 soldiers to bear arms under the colors of Italy and prove, not alone their allegiance to Victor Emanuel III and their country but their supreme faith in us and our associated nations. The epic of Italian heroism is written in blood from eastern France to the Holy Land, from the Baltic to the Sea of Galilee. Her unrequited faith and service cry from the Paris conference to this Senate Chamber for American justice. A league of nations born of repudiation of Italy's claims and the spoliation of China is cursed from birth with an irredeemable outrage on the rights of two ancient and friendly powers.

—Senator Lawrence Yates Sherman, Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 66th Congress of the United States of America, August 4, 1919

Statements of Lawrence Yates Sherman on Fiume

Here we have the statements of Lawrence Yates Sherman, a United States senator who spoke before the U.S. Congress on August 4, 1919, on the Italianity of Fiume and Fiume's right to join Italy:

Passing north along the shore line the Istrian Peninsula suggests the port city of Fiume, the storm center of controversy at the peace conference.

Anciently Fiume was a part of Venice. In the age of that city's commercial glory, when she commanded respect by her wealth and power, Fiume dwelt in the overflow of her plenty and magnificence. She continued Italian until the Corsican, wielding the military strength of France, became the dispenser of thrones and gave territory to his military allies. Napoleon delivered Fiume with certain adjacent country to Austria. It remained a possession of the dual empire until Austria-Hungary toppled with Wilhelm II to defeat. When the London treaty of 1915 was concluded the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was not foreseen. The results of such a division of territory were not undertaken to be anticipated. Fiume was a part of Hungary. It therefore, with the change in spirit and effect, has become a part of Italy's guaranteed frontier if she is to be protected on her Adriatic boundary as France is to be guaranteed against German aggression by the provisions of the treaty respecting the Rhine and the limitation on fortified posts. If France is given Alsace-Lorraine, Italy ought to have restored to her her Italia irredenta and be given Fiume, as her people ask.

Anciently Hungary was composed—down to the time of this treaty—of Hungary proper, of Croatia, of Fiume, and the adjacent district appurtenant to and subject to the free city of the earlier days of Fiume. Various smaller countries, including Croatia-Slavonia, are created into the Jugo-Slovakia State. If there is anything in self-determination, the city of Fiume, 75 per cent Italian, belongs to Italy and ought by simple justice alone to have been given her by the treaty agreed upon at the Paris conference. The various racial and political elements of the Jugo-Slavic government can not be fused into a homogeneous unit by a mere decree of the Paris conference. No covenant of the league of nations will obliterate the ancient feuds that have divided and reddened the Danube Provinces from Belgrade to Salonika. Tranquillity on Italy's Adriatic border, she knows full well, is not secured by the league of nations fiat. Italy takes counsel of human experiences. Her history reaches through many centuries. Her experiences with the nations of Europe abundantly justify her in asking adequate security for her boundary lines now. Since 1915 she can not forget that Croatian soldiers under Austrian colors fought Italian troops savagely. The Croatian forces carried spiked war clubs that would have done honor to a native of equatorial Africa or a Modoc Indian in North America. Italy knows the character of her eastern Danube Province neighbors. She believes in the peace league, as we do, and in adequate guaranties, as France believes, as evidenced by the treaty now pending in this Chamber... She has no faith that the Jugo-Slav State is so constituted that Italy will be well able to defend her frontiers unless the security claimed is given.

Fiume is the port city of the northeastern Adriatic. It is the converging point for the trade of the eastern interior. Its prospects for commercial importance are encouraging, and, with the blessings of peace, it will gather to itself commercial strength. The city is Italian in blood, language, and tradition. Italia irredenta from the Trentino to the south shore of Dalmatia is at least 65 per cent Italian by the ordinary tests applied in race analyses. Fiume in December, 1918, had a total population of 46,264, with 35,000 Italians. The vote of its people praying for union with Italy, taken October 30, 1918, less than two weeks before the armistice was signed, declared by an emphatic majority for that amalgamation. Self-determination, which has been a favorite solution of the problem on the lips of others, is invoked by Italy in vain. President Wilson turned a deaf ear to Italy, and Great Britain and France, somewhat relieved to have our Government assume responsibility, silently acquiesced. I should like to have seen Lloyd-George's face when he acquiesced or allowed it to pass unchallenged. I believe if he could have been observed, the honest Welshman would have been seen to blush.

Therefore Italy is told she can not profit by secret treaties for which she has paid the price in blood and a supreme good faith in keeping Italian national honor. She loses a commercial port and a naval base by a single stroke of the Wilson pen. Her northeastern defenses against future enemies are untenable under the settlement made by the Paris conference. A few days ago Croatia rebelled against her status in the new government. She demanded independence. The revolt was quelled, it is true, but its population is restless. There is no guaranty to Italy of stable conditions on her northeastern Adriatic shore, with Fiume in other hands.

... The new Jugo-Slav Republic is an experiment. ... Fiume is not the natural seaport for the larger part of this region. The cities east and southeast, more than a dozen in number, with over 500 miles of coast line, give access to the sea. Among these ports are Spalato and Cattaro. Both these ports are reached by railway connecting with Bosnia, Herzegovina, Slavonia, Serbia, and the hinterland. It is claimed this region of the Jugo-Slav State requires Fiume for the passage of its commerce. The groundlessness of this contention is exposed by showing that only 13 per cent of the imports and exports passed through Fiume before the war, while Croatia, the adjacent Province to Fiume, sent only 7 per cent of her entire imports and exports through this entrance to the Adriatic.

Fiume has been a separate body politic, annexed, however, to the Hungarian Crown. It has not been a part of Croatia. The Hungarian Parliament in 1868 declared the right of Fiume, the city, the harbor, and the district to be such. Croatia on November 15, 1868, by its Diet, after full debate, accepted the Hungarian law, declaring Fiume a separate municipality or district by an almost unanimous vote. That vote has never been repealed or otherwise reversed.

It seems idle for Croatia and her Jugo-Slav associates now to set up claims to the city. Fiume is not only traditionally Italian, but her blood, customs, and soil have been Italian in act or spirit for centuries. While annexed to Hungary it was an artificial union, brought about by military force, which has never extirpated the Italian character. Therefore Italy is justified, when the Austro-Hungarian artificial jurisdiction founded upon force is destroyed as a result of the war, in asking to resume the natural relations subsisting between Fiume and the mother country.

Shantung is given Japan pursuant to a secret treaty exacted by the latter power in 1917 and notes of 1915 and 1918. It was the price of Japan's permission to China to declare war with the Allies and a part also of the price of Japan's nominal participation in the war. Japan's sacrifices are unworthy of mention with those of Italy. She watched the progress of the great war with an eye somewhat single to her own advantage. Her military forces fought the German in Shantung to seize the proceeds of Germany's robbery of China. Neither international law nor the new code of international morals based on the condemnation of secret treaties can justify the plunder of China. The league of nations and the peace treaty will be condemned by the impartial historian for the sanction of this flagrant crime. President Wilson brands his denunciation of secret treaties with insincerity when he refuses Fiume to Italy, after her heroic sacrifices, and in obedience to secret treaties delivers Shantung to Japan, despite her course of studied selfishness in the Great War.

... With Fiume handed over to the league of nations as a mandatory trust to be administered by four or five out of the nine on the council, or in the hands of a weaker nation with no foreign commerce, and especially under the provisions of the treaty, Great Britain's influence in that port will be paramount. That is a fort of her far-seeing policy. If I were an Englishman I would not criticize it, but as an American I do. I believe it to be part of her coming struggle to control the merchant shipping and the foreign commerce of Europe, as she has done for many centuries. Her people, she being at home an island empire, are a sea-faring people. The flag of her merchant shipping goes to the ports of every country. Both her regular lines of shipping and her tramp steamers are found wherever there is a commerce to gather. Following her well-known disposition therefore to take care of her commerce, to gather into her treasury and into her markets all that there is in Europe and in the Far East, she looks with an eye single to her own advantage upon the placing of Fiume in the hands of the league of nations to be administered under four-year limitations, with a vague promise that some time in the future it will be returned to Italy. As the Senator from New Hampshire suggests, with Italy in control, with Fiume an Italian port, Italy would have the advantage and not the British Empire; and this is where we, acting under the lead of our President, are expected to pull the British chestnuts out of the Commercial fire of the future.

... Italy is practically ignored in the material benefits apportioned to the Allies in the treaty. The reparation commission is controlled by those who inflict upon her this humiliation. England and France are the large beneficiaries of German indemnities. Italy is excluded. There can be no reply to her modest claims, fortified by the wish of the people of Fiume to be returned to their own people. It is no compensation to reply that Fiume is to be converted into a mandatory city, held by the league or some of the principal member powers. Like Shantung, to delay is to deny. If it can not be given now to Italy, if ingratitude manifests itself at this early stage, it will mature into open hostility at the end of any given period when Italy claims, by the self-determination of the people and her own rights, the annexation of the city.

—Lawrence Yates Sherman, Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 66th Congress of the United States of America, August 4, 1919

40 Days of Terror: The Yugoslav Occupation of Trieste

Trieste was under Yugoslav occupation from May 1 to June 12, 1945
and Western Allied occupation from June 1945 to October 26, 1954
(Image: Return of Trieste to Italy, 1954)

It is April 1945. The war is in its final stages. On April 28th Benito Mussolini and several members of the Italian government are assassinated by Italian Communist Partisans. On the following day, April 29th, General Heinrich von Vietinghoff, Supreme Commander of the German Forces in Italy, through his representative General Karl Wolff, accepts the unconditional surrender of Caserta imposed by British Field Marshal Harold Alexander, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in the Mediterranean. Later that evening, Marshal Rodolfo Graziani, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Italian Social Republic, surrenders himself to the Anglo-Americans in Milan.

The bulk of the Wehrmacht is already in retreat. The troops of the Italian Social Republic have been ordered to disarm, but continue fighting in some parts of Piedmont and Julian Venetia. On April 30th most of Trieste is in the hands of Italian Partisans belonging to the National Liberation Committee (CNL). But with Josip Broz Tito's Yugoslav Partisans already penetrating the suburban villages and nearing the gates, the city of Trieste is full of anxious waiting, uncertain of its fate.

The Yugoslavs are in a hurry to arrive first in Trieste, ahead of the Anglo-Americans, so that they can claim credit for the “liberation” of Trieste and Julian Venetia, which – they hope – will force the Western Allies to recognize Yugoslavia's claims over Italy's northeastern territories – namely Julian Venetia, with Istria and Trieste – at the peace conference.

The Italian Partisans in control of Trieste since April 30th are comprised of Socialists, Liberals and Anti-Fascists, but not Communists. The Italian Communists of Julian Venetia instead follow the directive of Palmiro Togliatti, leader of the Italian Communist Party (PCI), who joined his Communist Partisans to the Italian-Slovenian Anti-Fascist Executive Committee (CEAIS), which is disassociated from the CLN and operates in favor of the Yugoslav Communists.

On May 1st, the Yugoslav Partisan 9th Corps – composed of Slovene Communists – enters Trieste and begin their infamous forty-two day occupation. The CLN is cast aside and the Yugoslav Partisans falsely claim responsibility for “liberating” Trieste. The Italian flags are lowered and in their place they raise red flags with the hammer and sickle and tricolor flags defaced with red stars, a Communist symbol used by Yugoslavia and other Communist countries.

The Western Allies arrive in Trieste the following day, on March 2nd, with the 2nd New Zealand Division commanded by Gen. Bernard Freyberg. The Yugoslavs, however, assume full powers in Trieste and the reign of terror begins. They entrust the command to Gen. Josip Cemi, who is replaced a few days later by Gen. Dusan Kveder. Franc Stoka, a Slovene Communist, is appointed as Political Commissar.

The city is ruled according to marshal law. They impose draconian ordinances restricting all freedom. Despite the war already being over, the Yugoslavs declare a “state of war” and impose a brutally long curfew from 3:00 PM to 10 AM. Citizens are only permitted to leave their homes for 5 hours per day. Trieste's clocks are also moved back one hour to match those of Belgrade, so that the city can be artificially placed in the same time zone as Yugoslavia.

The only legal newspaper is “Il Nostro Avvenire”, a Communist newspaper which serves an anti-Italian and pro-Yugoslav political agenda. All other newspapers are banned. Manifestations of national sentiment are strictly prohibited. Public gatherings are forbidden. All economic and industrial entities are seized. Movement of vehicles is restricted.

The Yugoslav Partisans use the slogan “Smrt Fazismu - Svoboda Narodu!” (“Death to Fascism - Freedom to the People!”) to justify their killing of non-Communists and those who are opposed to Yugoslav imperialist designs in Italy. The Yugoslav secret police, the OZNA, whose barbaric methods surpass those of the Gestapo, is given carte blanche to round up and imprison any Italians who are deemed a threat to Yugoslav occupation.

The “Guardia del Popolo” (also called “Difesa Popolare”) – a Yugoslav civilian police force composed of Slovene Communists – is also used as a political tool to influence the social fabric of the city. They go about the city seeking to eliminate non-Marxists and sow terror through violent repressions and ethnic cleansing.

Thousands of citizens are taken from their homes, on an average of one hundred per day, under the pretext of being “Fascists” or “Nazi collaborators”. Very few, however, are actually Fascists or collaborators; in fact most are ordinary Italian civilians; some are officers, and still others are even Socialists and combatants who fought among the Italian Partisans, who are also targeted by the Yugoslavs despite sharing the same anti-Fascist ideology.

On May 4th thousands of Yugoslav peasants arrive in Trieste, shouting their provocative slogan “Trst je nas!” (“Trieste is ours!”). On May 5th approximately 50,000 Italians organize a peaceful march in Trieste to protest against Yugoslav annexation plans. They wave Italian flags and sing Italian songs in a parade, to demonstrate that Trieste is an Italian city. A column of protesters turns onto Via Imbriani – a street in Trieste – whereupon the Yugoslav soldiers open fire on the unarmed civilians, killing five and wounding ten. Three of the victims are women.

This event will be remembered as the Massacre of Via Imbriani.

The names of the dead are:

1. Graziano Novelli, 20 years old;
2. Carlo Murra, 19 years old;
3. Mirano Sanzin, 26 years old;
4. Claudio Burla, 21 years old;
5. Giovanna Drassich, 69 years old.

And the wounded:

1. Albino Canaletti;
2. Manlio De Mattia;
3. Tancredi Kolarski, who is disabled as a result;
4. Camillo Carmeli;
5. Angelo Cavezza;
6. Antonio Kreiser
7. Augusto Mascia;
8. Pina Solimossi;
9. Renato Artico;
10. Marialuisa Fonda.

Meanwhile, the Western Allies simply observe and report to their commanders, without intervening. On May 8, 1945 the U.S. State Department publishes a memorandum, stating:

“The Yugoslavs are even trying to establish civil control in the eastern part of Udine, the Italian province beyond Venezia Giulia. In Trieste the Yugoslavs are using all the familiar tactics of terror. Every Italian of any importance is being arrested. Yugoslavs have taken over complete control and are conscripting Italians for forced labor, seizing the banks and other valuable property, and requisitioning grain and other supplies on a large scale. The Archbishop of Gorizia and other priests have been arrested, and many others are threatened.”

In the city of Trieste and its environs, terror becomes the norm: Tito's goal is to “make Trieste Yugoslav” and annex the city to Yugoslavia. This is to be achieved through ethnic cleansing, by “cleansing” Trieste of Italians and replacing the population with Slavs.

Just as the Yugoslavs had already been devoting themselves to committing a true genocide in Dalmatia, Istria, Fiume and the rest of Julian Venetia, so too in Trieste the Italian population is subject to a serious attempt at ethnic cleansing. Several thousand Italians from Trieste disappear, simply vanishing without a trace and never return.

Many Italian citizens are killed in the Foibe Massacres; others are deported to concentration camps, such as the ones in Goli Otok or Borovnica, known as the antechamber of death. Trieste itself is transformed into one large concentration camp. They target not only Fascists, but also left-wing Italians, indiscriminately making slaughter of both Fascist and anti-Fascist, military and civilian, male and female, adult and child. Indiscriminate arrests, confiscations, requisitions, robberies and violence of all kinds exasperate the people of Trieste, who in vain plea for help from the Western Allies.

The Yugoslavs also begin to eliminate traces of Trieste's Italian character and openly Slavicize the toponyms. On May 19th the main street in Trieste, “Corso Italia”, is changed to “Corso Tito”.

Monsignor Antonio Santin, Bishop of Trieste and Capodistria, describes the atmosphere in the city:

“Everyone was filled with alarm and fear... Violence dominated the city; they attacked everything that was Italian. Every day Slovenes demonstrated throughout the city, with Yugoslav and Communist flags hanging from the windows. Hundreds upon hundreds of unarmed civilians, policemen and civil servants were taken away simply because they were Italians; they were thrown into the sinkholes at Basovizza and Opicina. Tied with barbed wire, they were placed on the edge of the pit and then killed with machine gun fire and plunged to the bottom.”

(Mons. Santin, “Al tramonto”, 1978)

The writer Silvio Benco likewise speaks of Trieste in those days:

“Pain and terror reigned in Trieste. We listened to the jubilation of so many people on the radio, people living in the happily liberated cities... but over us loomed the degradation of being cheated by fate.

All that the city had loved was attacked, denied, suppressed, covered by myriads of foreign labels like a funeral blanket; the Flag of the Italian Nation was shot with bullets, monuments were besmirched, soldiers were camped at the base of the statue of Giuseppe Verdi... Never before had Trieste suffered such cruel deformation of her face and inversion of her sentiments.

Nor could Italians be certain of their lives: every night the Yugoslavs searched homes and took away people on trucks, some of whom never came back. Every day thousands of citizens from the other provinces of Italy [occupied by the Yugoslavs] fled towards the Isonzo, even on foot; and when, in response to all this anguish, a huge crowd gathered in the streets shouting "Italy! Italy!", machine guns unloaded on them.

It seemed that the very name of Italy was to be dead and buried.”

(Silvio Benco, “Contemplazione del disordine”, 1946)

The Anglo-Americans, in need of the port of Trieste for their own lines of communication to Central Europe, and finding that Tito proved himself each day more and more unreliable and no better than a tyrant, finally force the Yugoslav troops to withdraw from Trieste and retire beyond the Morgan Line. On June 9th, in Belgrade, the Yugoslav dictator and his Chief of Staff Gen. Arso Jovanovich sign an agreement with the Anglo-Americans.

Before leaving Trieste, the Yugoslavs take everything they can load onto their vehicles. They clean out the Bank of Italy, stealing 183 million lire – equivalent to $1.83 million according to the exchange rates in Allied-occupied Italy (or approx. $9.6 million according to pre-war exchange rates).

On June 12, 1945 the Yugoslav occupation officially ends. But some of their ardent supporters stay behind, and these elements will clandestinely continue the Yugoslav struggle against Italians, resorting to terrorist activities, such as kidnapping and killing of Italian civilians.

The citizens of Trieste joyfully celebrate when the Yugoslavs leave. However, the agreement signed between the Yugoslavs and the Anglo-Americans, known as the Belgrade Agreement, also constitutes the devastating loss of Italian Istria, which is to remain under Yugoslav occupation.

The Western Allies militarily occupy Trieste for the next nine years, until it is finally reunited with Italy on October 26, 1954.

See also:
40 Days of Trieste: Slavs Celebrate a Communist Dictator
April 25: The Feast of San Marco – Not Liberation
A City Hostile to the Austrians: Irredentism in Trieste
Trieste, the Most Italian City
Making Trieste Slavic: Ethnic Cleansing and the Attempted Slavicization of Trieste

April 25: The Feast of San Marco – Not Liberation

Feast of St. Mark (Festa di San Marco)

On April 25, while most of Italy is celebrating the Feast of the so-called “Liberation”, the Julian-Dalmatian exiles are celebrating another feast: that of St. Mark.

Official mainstream historiography, written by the victors of war, depicts April 25 as a day of joy and celebration, a day which represents the liberation of Italy from Fascism, the reintroduction of democracy and Italian freedom, and the end of the Second World War. Such an interpretation ignores the terrible crimes and atrocities committed by the Allied Powers in Italy, the brutal violence and massacres perpetrated by the bands of partisan terrorists, the many persecutions conducted by the Communists, the Allied restoration of the Mafia, and the silent war that carried on in many Italian regions even after the official cessation of hostilities.

Not to mention the de facto loss of Italian sovereignty that took place a result of the occupation of Italy by the Allies – an occupation which reduced Italy to political and economic slavery. It is a precarious – and rarely spoken of – political situation that continues today (there are now more than 100 U.S. military bases on Italian soil, an open demonstration of ongoing foreign occupation).

Was April 25th truly a liberation? Let’s recount a few historical facts:

• Was it a “liberation” for the 1,000 Italian civilians killed in Bari on December 2, 1943 as a result of illegal poison gas secretly smuggled into Italy by the Allies?

• Was it a “liberation” for the 3,000 men, women and children raped and sodomized near Monte Cassino by French Moroccan troops during the Marocchinate in May-June 1944?

• Was it a “liberation” for the 614 school children and civilians of Milan, killed by American bombers in the Gorla Massacre on October 20, 1944?

• Was it a “liberation” for the hundreds of Catholic priests and religious slaughtered by the Communist Partisans between 1943 and 1947?

• Was it a “liberation” for the city of Trieste, whose population was terrorized by the Yugoslavs, and which remained under Allied occupation until October 26, 1954?

• Was it a “liberation” for the 20,000-30,000 civilians slaughtered in the Foibe Massacres and the 350,000 Italians forced into exile between 1943 and 1954?

To celebrate April 25th as a national holiday – and to call it a “Day of Liberation” – is an insult to these victims and to all other Italian victims of the war. It is also shameful and disrespectful to all those courageous soldiers who fought under the Italian flag, shedding their blood and sacrificing their lives in battle against those same invaders who are hailed today as “liberators” of the country.

For the Italians of Istria and Dalmatia, April 25th represents genocide, deportation to concentration camps, the massacre of thousands of Italian civilians, the rape, torture, persecution and terror suffered at the hands of the Yugoslav Partisans, the occupation and annexation of Istria and Dalmatia by the Yugoslav Communists, and the expulsion of Italians from their native homeland.

Asking the Italians of Istria, Dalmatia and the Quarnaro to celebrate such events by observing April 25 as a “Day of Liberation” is the same as asking the Jews and Poles to observe September 1 in celebration of the Invasion and Occupation of Poland.

Therefore, Julian-Dalmatian Exiles look to another April 25th: the feast of St. Mark.

The Feast of St. Mark is a liturgical celebration in the Catholic Church, observed universally by the whole church on April 25. Although celebrated throughout the world, the feast is celebrated most energetically in the city of Venice. It almost carries the status of a national feast. St. Mark has always had a special place among the Venetians: he is the patron of the city, and the famous Lion of St. Mark – the ancient symbol of the Republic of Venice – is none other than a symbolic representation of Venice's great patron saint.

Every place the Venetians went, they carried with them the Lion of St. Mark, the symbol of Venetian civilization. In Istria and Dalmatia the palaces, churches and fortresses proudly displayed the Venetian Lion of San Marco. Despite the attempts of the Slavs to dismantle or chisel them away since occupying and partitioning that territory after the war, these lions are still present today, and bear witness to the Italic roots of the culture, history and language of that region.

St. Mark, with all he represents, thus hold a very dear place in the hearts of the Julian-Dalmatian Italians, most of whom are still living in exile in Italy. For them, their hearts and minds are now turned to him on April 25th; not to the disgraceful Day of “Liberation”, but to San Marco, the sacred patron and representative of the culture and civilization of their lost homeland, which today is at the mercy of Croatian and Slovenian occupiers.

The Placitum of Risano

The Placitum of Risano (Italian: Placito del Risano; Latin: Placitum Risanum) is a document issued by an Istrian assembly held at Risano, near Capodistria, in the year 804. It is the most important historical document from Istria in the Early Middle Ages.

Among other things, the placitum is noteworthy for its complaints against Slavic immigrants in Istria. The document is preserved in the National Archives in Venice, Italy.

Historical Background

In the Early Middle Ages, following the collapse of the Roman Empire, Istria successively belonged to the Kingdom of Italy (476-538), Exarchate of Italy (584-751) and Kingdom of Italy (751-952).

Since 774 the Kingdom of Italy had come under the rule of the Carolingian dynasty, who ousted the Longobards from power. During this transfer of power, Istria briefly returned to Byzantine rule. But by 788-789 Istria was fully reintegrated into the Kingdom of Italy under the new Carolingian rulers.

In 799 the King of Italy established the March of Istria, a frontier land within the Kingdom of Italy, designed to protect Italy from invaders – more specifically to keep the Avars, Slavs and Magyars out of Italy. In the following year, Charlemagne was crowned Emperor and the Kingdom of Italy (with Istria) became a constituent kingdom of the Carolingian Empire.

The population of Istria was Latin-speaking and Italian in origin. They clung stubbornly to their Roman laws and heritage. The Slavs had made their first incursions into Istria between 599 and 600. Throughout the first half of the 7th century the Slavs and the Avars made numerous raids into Istria, plundering and destroying many cities, but they never made any permanent settlement in the region.

At the turn of the 9th century Slavs were settled in Istria for the first time; they were brought in as servants to work the land as vassals by John, the Carolingian Duke of Istria. This was fiercely opposed by the native Roman inhabitants. The duke was accused by the Istrians of bringing foreigners into their land, of misusing taxes, and of committing a number of other violations against the rights and privileges they had enjoyed since Roman and Byzantine times.

The Placitum of Risano

In 804 an assembly was convened at Risano, a small town near Capodistria. Here the people of Istria issued a series of complaints addressed to Charlemagne. The acts of the assembly were recorded in a document known as the Placitum of Risano. The document was drawn up by Peter, a deacon of the church of Aquileia, at the behest of Patriarch Fortunatus of Grado.

The assembly was attended by Duke John, by three imperial emissaries, and by 172 juridical witnesses who were selected as local representatives of the Istrian cities and castles. These representatives came from Trieste, Parenzo, Pola, Rovigno, Pedena, Pinguente, Montona, Cittanova, Albona, and several other Istrian towns.

The Istrians swore upon the Gospels and the relics of saints that they would tell the truth, and then proceeded to express their grievances. Among other things, the Istrians complained that Duke John had violated the customs of the country by inviting Slavic immigrants to settle in their land. They further complained that these Slavs usurped their property and threatened to kill the Istrians:

“Moreover he [Duke John] introduced Slavs on our lands: they plough our lands and our clearings, they make hay from our meadows, they use our pasture, and they pay a due to John from these our lands. Now we no longer have cows or horses. And if we say anything, they say that they will kill us.”

The Istrians conclude by saying it would be better to die than to live and be forced to endure such a state of affairs with the Slavs and Duke John:

“For three years we have given the tithes that we owe to the holy church to the pagan Slavs, when John installed them upon the lands of the churches and our people, to his sin and to our perdition. We do all these duties which we have mentioned under violent constraint, which our ancestors never did. And so we are all entering into poverty. And our kinsmen and neighbours in Venice and Dalmatia, and even the Greeks under whose power we formerly were, deride us. If the lord Emperor Charles can rescue us, we can escape; otherwise, it is better for us to die than to live.”

In response to these protests, Charlemagne's emissaries admitted that the duke had abused the Istrian population; they agreed to restore the old Roman customs and to stop Slavic immigration in Istria. Duke John apologized and offered to expel the Slavs back to their own land:

“About the Slavs you have mentioned: let us go to the places where they reside, and let us see where they can stay without damage to you. If afterwards they cause damage to the fields, the woods or the clearances, or any other thing, we shall expel them. Or, if it pleases you better, let us move them to deserted places where they can be of use like other people.”

As a compromise, the Slavs who were introduced by John were settled in some uncultivated districts in the Istrian countryside, where they could work the land as servants, with the permission of the neighbouring Istrian locals. This was the first permanent settlement of Slavs in Istria.

This settlement did not last long, however, as there is no further documentary evidence of any Slavic presence in Istria again until the 12th century.

Full text:
Placitum of Risano (English)
Placitum of Risano (Italian)
Placitum of Risano (Latin)