Page 106 - Studia Universitatis Hereditati, vol 11(2) (2023)

you couldn’t get here… so you had to go the city had lost its natural hinterland (Rožac-
there. [Interlocutor 4] Darovec 2006). This was also explained by my
Oh Madonna, they controlled us, I remem- interlocutors:
ber… They were these babice, customs of- I don’t know how much was allowed, three
ficers, and they would check the women all packs of tiles each, sometimes, sometimes
over, we called them babice [grandmoth- you would take five and they’d send you
ers, note PK]. Then, when I was already trav- back, the customs officer. You had to take
elling with my pass, they would see if you them back to the shop. Strict… there were
had money, you weren’t allowed to have too (also) people who said bejži, bejži and he
much. If you hid it, they took it away… no closed his eyes [methaporically: pretended
penalty, they just took it. [Interlocutor 11] not to see, note PK]. [Interlocutor 8]

Another interlocutor, from the village of
106 Branik (near Nova Gorica) went to Trieste once One customs officer explained to me, look,
he says: They think we’re bad. I know that
a week with her mother. They had vineyards and when he brings iron, because he’s building a
studia universitatis hereditati, letnik 11 (2023), številka 2 / volume 11 (2023), number 2
sold wine, schnapps, meat, fruit and butter in house and he has this iron on his trailer, and ti
Trieste: you ask him how much iron is there? And
At five in the morning the train went from then he lies to you and says exactly as much
Branik to Kreplje [village on the Karst] and as is allowed, and I know because I see there’s ta
to Opčine [Villa Opicina, Italy]… the cus- more and I say, isn’t there a kilo more? No,
toms control was on the train… but when we he says. I ask him twice so he’ll say, yes, yes,
came to Opčine we had to exit the train and a kilo more. Ok, go on, because he’s going
there were desks… I still remember… and to go again anyway, I know that… when he
everything you had, you needed to put on takes you for a fool, he makes an idiot of you. di
them… the Italian control… [Interlocutor 5] [Interlocutor 9]

The Yugoslavs controlled already on the
trains: ‘My mum made herself a pouch from fab- Conclusion
ric and put meat, schnapps and even butter in Through the study of everyday life in a border
it…’ (Interlocutor 5). Women used to hide goods area, the article showed how multi-layered and
under their skirts and if they were subject to se- diverse the effects of a new border on a territo- here
vere controls, the female customs officers ‘exam- ry can be. The case study addressed the territory
ined them carefully… if you did not declare an- of Northern Istria in particular (with some mi-
ything and they found something, they took it nor mentions of the Karst and Goriška regions),
from you… you never got it back… although they with the aim of researching how the sudden ab-
let you go’ (Interlocutor 5). sence in a territory caused by the creation of a
new state border affected the inhabitants. The
Although the controls were strict and un- interest was to study the impact of the new bor-
pleasant on both sides, the Italians and the Yu- der line on the population living on the eastern
goslavs allowed the smuggling of goods to a cer- side of the Yugoslav-Italian border after the end
tain extent. The Yugoslav authorities were aware of World War II.
that people were carrying more than the permit- The main methodological approach was
ted quantities, but ‘in order to keep the social based on holding oral history interviews with
balance, they turned a blind eye’. Even though people who lived (or still live) in the border area. studiauniversitatis
the Italians ‘apparently persecuted smuggling’, I was particularly interested in their experienc-
they allowed it to some extent, as Trieste was es while living close to the border. Their ‘stories’
also marked by the new border situation as revealed a more intimate experience of every-