RISULTATI RICERCA

In the XIXth century, before the unification of Italy, the sulphur production in the inland part of Sicily increased drammatically the economic gap between this area and the agricoltural districts which were cut off from the new international market. On the other side, the thick road network, built between 1838 and 1860 to transport the mineral output from the sulphur mines to the main commercial harbours, helped in forming a framework of medium towns that became a decisive factor in the development of a modern trading system.

This essay looks into the trends and social dynamics that have affected and still affect the native population, especially the istro-venetian population of Istria, a territory that has always been an ethnically mixed area with a mobile border. In the recent past, that border determined the fate of the two autochthonous ethno-national components, altering their future. The Italian component outnumbered the Slav (Croat and Slovenian) population until the end of WW II, when Istria was still integral part of the wider region of Venezia-Giulia. After Tito’s Yugoslavia gained control over this area, the Italian community became a national minority unable to fit in the new social context, also because it was expected to serve as conveyor belt for Yugoslav socialism and populism. The study has no pretence of exhaustiveness; it intends to contribute to the dissemination of information on some distinctive traits and challenges that accompanied the changes in this border region. This survey may also provide some useful insights on the present situation. The most significant transformations of Istria in the last 50 years are also highlighted, with a special focus on the Italian component, considering it both as Italian community (of those who remained) and as Italian National Minority.

The author outlines the history of the Italian community in Istria and Fiume, which turned into an ethno-national minority after the drawing of new borders and the national and social changes produced by the 1947 Peace Treaty and the 1954 Memorandum of Understanding. The timespan covered corresponds to the particularly critical and prolonged after-war period in Venezia Giulia, marked by the Trieste issue and more specifically by the exodus of the Italian-speaking population of Istra and the Quarnero. This period is described in the light of the internal political evolution of Yugoslavia and the Italo-Yugoslav relations. In the immediate aftermath of the war, a process of progressive demographic decline as well as political and cultural downsizing of the Italian community took place, leading to an ethnic and cultural deficiency that has never been redressed. Despite the very advanced formal legal protection enjoyed by the Italian community in communist Yugoslavia, the regime in power thoroughly emptied the law of its effectiveness. An assimilation policy and nationalistic measures further contributed to the numerical reduction of the Italian community living in Istria and Fiume.

The essay deals with the main events involving Venezia-Giulia, the Istrian peninsula and Fiume (Rijeka) in the aftermath of WW II. The study focuses on one specific event: the unofficial census of the Istrian population carried out in October 1945 to prove the Slav character of the peninsula and thus help to tip the balance, at the Paris Peace Conference, in favour of Yugoslavia in the border dispute with Italy. The study of this anomalous census from every viewpoint points out its several inconsistencies and irregularities, both during the counting operation - planned secretly and carried out by indirect means, i.e. through parish and municipal registers - and upon publication of the count results in the Cadastre national de l’Istrie, where out of a total of 337,408 inhabitants, 234,166 were reported to be of Slav origin (69.4%) and 92,788 of Italian origin (27.5%). The same proportion was found in the survey concerning the distribution of Slav vs. Italian surnames and toponyms. It should be noted that a comparison with previous censuses was made taking into account the official Austrian censuses of 1880, 1890, 1900 and 1910, whereas the Italian 1921 census was thoroughly ignored, as if it had never existed. Moreover, the Fiume municipality was excluded from the 1945 census. The inclusion of Fiume could have produced a significant shift in the regional ethnic balance in favour of the Italian community. As for Pola, then under Anglo-American rule, the count was made on the basis of estimates and projections from the Austrian 1910 census, which were also published in the Cadastre. One of its most outstanding flaws is the later correction to get round the problem of the so-called Indeterminates of the Buie area (approx. 30% of the overall population). The census of that area was repeated in February 1946, when the majority of indeterminates declared to be Croats. The manipulations become all the more visible by comparing the 1945 count with the first official Yugoslav survey of 1948, when many Istrian areas reported a significantly higher concentration of Italians in comparison to 1945 in spite of the substantial exodus that had occurred in the meantime.