TIGR - Background

Background

While the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy was a multi-national empire, which allowed a relatively large degree of cultural autonomy to the different peoples and ethnic groups, Italy was a nation state, and its governments had little intention to allow the existence of separate national movements and identities on its territories. Issues regarding the use of Slovene and Croatian languages in public administration and in the educational system, became the main point of contention between the Italian authorities and the Slovene and Croat minorities.

On 13 July 1920, under a pretense of a retaliation for the insurgency in Split, the National Hall in Trieste, the cultural and economic centre of Slovene inhabitants of Trieste, was burned by the Blackshirts. The act was praised by Benito Mussolini, who was at the time yet to become a duce, as a "masterpiece of the Triestine fascism" (capolavoro del fascismo triestino...).

Most native Slovenes resisted these policies with the support of local Catholic clergy of the Slovene origin. However local Slovene and Croatian teachers, writers, artists and clergy have been brutally punished for resisting Fascist ethnic cleansing policies. For example, Lojze Bratuž, a Slovene choirmaster who led several Slovene language church choirs and resisted the persecution of Slovenes in the area around Gorizia, was arrested on 27 December 1936, tortured and forced to drink petrol and engine oil and died because of it.

The situation was further worsened by the rise of the Fascist movement. This inaugurated the Fascist violence against Slovenes and Croats in the Julian March. In the spring of 1921, several episodes of anti-Slavic violence, which mostly took place in Istria, culminated in Labin miners' rebellion (March-April 1921) and the Marezige revolt (May 1921), in which the Croat and Slovene locals openly revolted against Fascist incursions. Eventually, both revolts were suffocated with the intervention of the Italian police forces.

After the Fascist movement came to power in 1922, anti-Slavic policies were enforced as part of Fascist Italianization. In 1923, the use of Slovene and Croat languages in all public offices, including post offices and means of public transport, was prohibited. In the same year, the Gentile reform declared Italian as the only language of public education; by 1928, all Slovene and Croat schools, including private ones, were closed down. In 1925, the use of Slovene and Croat was prohibited in the courts of law. All Slovene and Croat names of towns and settlements were Italianized. By 1927, all public use of Slovene and Croat languages was prohibited. Children were prohibited being given Slavic names, and all Slavic-sounding surnames were administratively given an Italian-sounding form. The Fascist Italianization went so far as to prohibit Slavic inscriptions on gravestones.

By 1927, all Slovene and Croat associations - not only political, but also cultural, educational and sport associations - were dissolved, as were all financial and economic institutions in the hands of the Slovene and Croat minority. Since 1928, the State law started limiting the use of Slovene and Croat also in the churches, and in 1934, all use of Slovene and Croat in Roman Catholic liturgy (including singing and sermons) was prohibited.

These Italianization policies were accompanied by a State violence directed against all opposition to the regime. Hundreds of Slovenes and Croats were interned in prison camps throughout Italy, while tens of thousands emigrated abroad, mostly to Yugoslavia and South America.