Page 95 - Studia Universitatis Hereditati, vol 11(2) (2023)

could go to Trieste, we could take what was Focusing only on the period after 1918, great-
allowed, which was half a kilo of meat, six er changes affected the former Austrian Litto-
eggs, one litre of milk, one quarter of a kilo ral. The territory became the subject of political
of butter, two packets of cigarettes, and they negotiations between the successors of the Aus-
asked us: ‘what else have you hidden?’ [Inter- tro-Hungarian Empire (in this case the State of
locutor 14] SCS, which merged with the Kingdom of Serbia
and Montenegro to form the Kingdom of SCS
The processes of ‘Creating, maintaining, re- on December 1 1918) and the Kingdom of Italy.
st
5
using’ borders are long-term processes that have The latter entered the war in 1915 on the side of
formed the political, economic, cultural and so- the Entente Powers, which emerged victorious.
cial status and relations in society (state). In or- In the negotiations before it entered the war, Ita-
der to understand all these phenomena it is cru- ly was promised territory in the event of victory,
cial to be familiar with the background and including the Crown Land of the Austrian Lit-
motivations that have influenced the creation of toral. The Kingdom of SCS and the Kingdom 95
ti or adaptation in specific historical circumstanc- of Italy signed the already mentioned Treaty of
new borderlines, their maintenance and re-use
Rapallo on 12 November 1920, which meant It-
es. The creation of a demarcation line between
two countries in this area disrupted the exist- aly acquired the territory of the former Crown
Land and parts of Carniola, Carinthia, and Dal-
ta ing contacts in the economic, social and cultur- matia. The intergration into the new country
al spheres. When taking into consideration only
was strongly marked by the Italian inter-war fas-
the northern part of Istria, it should be consid-
ered that the territory was part of a single state cist regime, which officially came to power in
1922. This totalitarian political regime, which
di ice until the end of the 18 century, the short lasted more than twenty years and was strong-
entity for many centuries: the Republic of Ven-
th
ly committed to the ‘ethnic bonification’ of the
French presence at the beginning of the 19 cen-
th
newly acquired territories, drastically affected
tury, the Austrian Empire/Austro-Hungarian
6
the area (Troha 2018, 165–167).
Empire from 1814 until the end of World War I
here and the Kingdom of Italy from 1920 until 1943. tion was even more complicated. This time, the everyday life in the borderland area between yugoslavia and italy after wwii ...
After the end of World War II, the situa-
The newly created border in the period follow-
position of ‘power’ was at least partially reversed
ingWorld War II had drastic consequences on
and new political dynamics came to the surface.
both eastern and western sides. The long-stand-
The victorious new post-war socialist Yugosla-
ing links between the urban centre (Trieste) and
via made clear its demands for the Rapallo bor-
the rural periphery (Istria) were severed, and an
der to be corrected. Yugoslavia was a member
area that had been part of a single state struc-
ture for more than a hundred years found itself
studiauniversitatis
the victorious countries, expressed its demands
in two countries that stood on opposite ‘sides’ in of the Allied Powers in the war and, as one of
for the redemarcation of the area and the crea-
terms of political, ideological and economic doc- tion of a new frontier. The political discourse, or
7
trines. The new reality radically affected the dai- rather the question of the influence of the blocs
ly life of the area’s inhabitants.
In order to understand the process of bor- that emerged after the war (the Eastern commu-
nist Bloc and the Western capitalist Bloc), also
dering, it is necessary to briefly explain the came to the fore in the redrafting of the bor-
events and circumstances that led to its creation.
der between Yugoslavia and Italy (Italy joined
5 The quotation is from the title of project N. J6-2574,
financed by the Slovenian Research and Innovation 6 For the period following World War II see also Kacin-
Agency (ARIS): ‘Creating, maintaining, reusing: border Wohinz and Pirjevec (2000), Pirjevec (2008), Pirjevec,
commissions as the key for understanding contemporary Gorazd Bajc, and Klabjan (2005), Pirjevec et al. (2006),
borders’ (head Marko Zajc, PhD, Institue of Contemporary Troha (1999), Troha (2016), Troha (2019).
History). 7 See note 6.