“Istria Is Ours, and We Can Prove It”: An Examination of Istrian Historiography in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Abstract

Istrian historiography written throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries tends to refl ect the often contentious discourse between Italian irredentists and Slavic nationalists relating to the peninsula’s nature and belonging. On the one hand, Italian historians and polemicists suggest that Istria and Istrianity were primarily Italian, and therefore the region should be part of an Italian state. Until the end of the Trieste Crisis in 1954, many Italians continued to debate the nature of the region and its population, but the frequency of such publications tapered off with most of the peninsula falling to communist Yugoslavia. On the other hand, Croatian scholars and polemicists claimed the region and its population were thoroughly Slavic, and that Italians historically were aggressors and oppressors. However, another group of scholars has entered the debate, suggesting that Istrian identity is a hybrid, and this hybridity has historical roots. Its population, they claim, professes and promotes an Istrian identity, which consists of Slovene, Croatian, and Italian infl uences. The new camp reflects the continued politicization of identity in Istria into the 1990s, by both nation-building Croatian nationalists seeking the construction of a monolithic Croatian identity and regionalists searching for more regional and local autonomy. This illuminates the historic and contemporary political and social struggles to ascribe some kind of belonging to this contested borderland region.

Dark Shades of Istria

“…Istria has not been excluded from these changes, although there do not seem to be radically different interpretations of Istrian history among Croatian scholars of the past and the present, in the cultural, social, political and economic sense. However, historians of younger generations, like Dukovski and D' Alessio, interpret regional history in the light of regional coexistence and cooperation (Ashbrook, 2006),³² which is in line with the modern approaches and concepts in examining the contact areas in Europe (Pelikan, 2012, p. 282;Verginella, 2010Verginella, , p. 2012). In addition, scholars pointed out some research assumptions of the national-political historical paradigm, like 'defining key controversial topics in which "national historiography" is included in each national discourse and where the interpretations are the most ideological and consequently controversial' (Pelikan, 2012, p. 283; see also Verginella, 2010).…”

“…The Italian part (especially politicians and intellectuals) expressed the need to preserve and strengthen the role of the Latin and Roman legacies and diminish the Slavic cultural traces in the region's past, which made interethnic relations more difficult.¹¹ After w w i and the annexation of Istria to Italy, especially after Mussolini seized power in 1922, this turned into state repression in order to facilitate assimilation and denationalisation of Croats and Slovenes. Numbers show that these measures were not completely successful¹² -see Scotti (2008), D' Alessio (2006 and Mat-¹⁰ See also Ashbrook (2006); Klaić (2014;. ¹¹ Šetić (2008, p. 106), according to Bertoša, identified economic, political, cultural and mental dimensions of the crack among the Istrian nations.…”

“…in the region -Italians -felt and behaved as a culturally superior nation for centuries, which triggered discomfort and resistance among the Slavs (Ashbrook, 2006;Orlić, 2012;Pirjevec, 2015;Rožac-Darovec, 2010;Rusinow, 1963a;Strčić, 2011;Verginella, 2009b;Yriarte, 1883).¹⁴ After wwii, the reversal of a sense of superiority occurred in the Yugoslav territory (Hrobat Virloget, 2015). Istria was, consequently, known as a region of conflicts, intolerance and lack of understanding (Ashbrook, 2006, p. 28;Orlić, 2012, p. 13;Šetić, 2008, p. 105).¹⁵ Cooperation and conflicts were, and still are, influenced by public opinion, which is linked in different ways to the interpretation of past events and memory (D' Alessio, 2012a).…”

“…Today's strong identification with the region, which is greater than in other parts of Slovenia and Croatia, is thus the result of the complex history, the geographical position on the Upper Adriatic at the junction of the Latin and Slavic world with open borders, the proximity to developed and democratic Western Europe, the remoteness from the Balkan hotspots and the relatively good economic standard. Consequently, the area is labelled with Istrian multi-ethnicity, multi-culturality, diversity and hybridity (Ashbrook, 2006;Baskar, 1999;Bufon, 2008a;Hrobat Virloget, 2015;Knez, 2010;Medica, 1998;Orlić, 2009;Raos, 2014;Rumiz, 1994;Šantić, 2000;Šuligoj, 2015a;Urošević, 2012;Žerjavić, 1993, p. 633),²¹ and with multilingualism and mixed practices, which identify people within their multilingual/multi-ethnic/multi-cultural setting (Skelin Horvat & Muhvić-Dimanovski, 2012;Urošević, 2012). Istria is thus more about identification rather than identity as a set of choices, which were made in the bi-ethnic/multi-ethnic communities, accompanied by constant processes of assimilation, linguistic socialisation and nationalisa-tion²² (D' Alessio, 2006, pp.…”

Dark Events of the Istrian Countryside: An Electronic Media Perspective

“…According to the Treaty of Rapallo signed on 12 November 1920, almost all territory of the former Austrian Littoral, including Istria, was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy (Lipušček, 2012;Šuligoj, 2015a). A great socio-economic crisis in the Pula and the whole peninsula (Marsetič, 2006b;2006a), which, together with the state fascist terror, led to an increased emigration of the Slavic population and Italian antifascists (Dukovski, 2010;Hrobat Virloget & Čebron Lipovec, 2017, p. 47;Violante, 2009, p. 98); Slavic rebels as well as native local Italians of different political ideologies were persecuted by the fascists due to their common work in an antifascist coalition movement (Ashbrook, 2006;Violante, 2009). Moreover, systematic 'ethnic refinement' of the population was upgraded by the organised immigration of the 'true Italians' from other parts of the kingdom, which additionally influenced the change in the ethnic structure in Istria.…”