ACTA HISTRIAE
30, 2022, 2
UDK/UDC 94(05) ISSN 1318-0185ACTA HISTRIAE 30, 2022, 2, pp. 263-564
UDK/UDC 94(05) 
Zgodovinsko društvo za južno Primorsko - Koper
Società storica del Litorale - Capodistria
ACTA HISTRIAE
30, 2022, 2
KOPER 2022
ISSN 1318-0185
e-ISSN 2591-1767
ACTA HISTRIAE • 30 • 2022 • 2
ISSN 1318-0185                UDK/UDC 94(05)             Letnik 30, leto 2022, številka 2
e-ISSN 2591-1767
Darko Darovec
Gorazd Bajc, Furio Bianco (IT), Stuart Carroll (UK), Angel Casals Martinez (ES), 
Alessandro Casellato (IT), Flavij Bonin, Dragica Čeč, Lovorka Čoralić (HR), Darko 
Darovec, Lucien Faggion (FR), Marco Fincardi (IT), Darko Friš, Aleš Maver, Borut 
Klabjan, John Martin (USA), Robert Matijašić (HR), Darja Mihelič, Edward Muir 
(USA), Žiga Oman, Jože Pirjevec, Egon Pelikan, Luciano Pezzolo (IT), Claudio 
Povolo (IT), Marijan Premović (MNE), Luca Rossetto (IT), Vida Rožac Darovec, 
Andrej Studen, Marta Verginella, Salvator Žitko
Urška Lampe, Gorazd Bajc, Lara Petra Skela, Marjan Horvat, Žiga Oman
Petra Berlot
Urška Lampe (angl., slo.), Gorazd Bajc (it.), Lara Petra Skela (angl., slo.)
Zgodovinsko društvo za južno Primorsko - Koper / Società storica del Litorale - Capodistria© 
/ Inštitut IRRIS za raziskave, razvoj in strategije družbe, kulture in okolja / Institute IRRIS for 
Research, Development and Strategies of Society, Culture and Environment / Istituto IRRIS 
di ricerca, sviluppo e strategie della società, cultura e ambiente©
Zgodovinsko društvo za južno Primorsko, SI-6000, Koper-Capodistria, Garibaldijeva 
18 / Via Garibaldi 18, e-mail: actahistriae@gmail.com; https://zdjp.si/
Založništvo PADRE d.o.o.
300 izvodov/copie/copies
Javna agencija za raziskovalno dejavnost Republike Slovenije / Slovenian 
Research Agency, Mestna občina Koper
Dvoboj med Charlesom de Lamethom in Charlesom de Castriesom 12. oktobra 1790. 
Jean-François Janinet (1752-1814) (Muzej Carnavalet, Pariz) / Duel between Charles 
de Lameth and Charles de Castries on October 12 1790. Jean-François Janinet (1752-
1814) (Carnavalet Museum, Paris) / Duello tra Charles de Lameth e Charles de Castries 
del 12 ottobre 1790. Jean-François Janinet (1752-1814) (Museo Carnavalet, Parigi). 
Redakcija te številke je bila zaključena 30. junija 2022.
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ACTA HISTRIAE • 30 • 2022 • 2
Volume 30, Koper 2022, issue 2
VSEBINA / INDICE GENERALE / CONTENTS
Matjaž Grahornik: Tragičen vstop v novo leto: 
smrt Franca Jožefa grofa Herbersteina v dvoboju 2. januarja 1713 ............................
Un tragico ingresso nell’anno nuovo: la morte in duello di 
Franz Joseph conte di Herberstein il 2 gennaio 1713
A Tragic Start to a New Year: The Death of Franz Joseph 
Count Herberstein in a Duel on 2 January 1713
Alessandro Fausti: Relazioni di amicizia tra Salò e Venezia. 
Il caso della riedizione degli statuti della Magnifica Patria .........................................
Friendship Relations between Salò and Venice. The Case of 
the Re-edition of the Statutes of Magnifica Patria
Prijateljski odnosi med Salòjem in Benetkami. 
Primer nove izdaje statutov »Magnifice Patrie«
Marija V. Kocić & Nikola R. Samardžić: British Sources 
on the Crisis of the Venetian Patriciate during the Second 
Morea War: The Case of Daniel IV Dolphin ..................................................................
Fonti britanniche sulla crisi del patriziato veneziano nel periodo 
della seconda guerra di Morea: il caso di Daniele IV Dolfin
Britanski viri o krizi beneškega patriciata v času druge 
morejske vojne: primer Danieleja IV. Dolfina
Jelena Knežević & Julian Köck: Theodor Mommsen in 
Montenegro (1862) ...........................................................................................
Theodor Mommsen in Montenegro (1862)
Theodor Mommsen v Črni gori (1862)
Milena Kavarić & Rajka Đoković: Čedomorstvo u 
modernoj i suvremenoj Crnoj Gori ..............................................................................
L’infanticido nel Montenegro in età moderna e contemporanea
Infanticide in Modern and Contemporary Montenegro
263
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297
325
347
377
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Ivona Jovanović & Jasna Potočnik Topler: The Contribution of 
First Teachers of French at Petrovic’s Court to the Transformation 
of Society and the Affirmation of Montenegro in Europe .........................................
Il contributo dei primi insegnanti di francese alla 
corte dei Petrović alla trasformazione della società e 
l’affermazione del Montenegro in Europa
Prispevek prvih učiteljev francoščine na Petrovićevem dvoru 
k preobrazbi družbe in uveljavitvi Črne gore v Evropi
Ivan Jeličić: I migliori elementi d’italianità. 
Local Political Power Ascension and Italianization during the 
First Years of Post-world War I in Volosca–Abbazia, 1918–1920 ............................
I migliori elementi d’italianità. L’ascesa al potere 
locale e l’italianizzazione nei primi anni del primo 
dopoguerra a Volosca–Abbazia, 1918–1920
I migliori elementi d’italianità. Vzpon lokalne politične moči 
in italijanizacija v prvih letih po prvi svetovni vojni v 
Volosko–Opatiji, 1918–1920
Marko Medved: L’abuso della religione nella liturgia politica della 
Fiume dannunziana: la benedizione del pugnale nella chiesa di S. Vito ..................
Abuse of Religion in the Political Liturgy of D’Annunzio’s 
Rijeka (Fiume): The Scandal of the Blessing of the 
Dagger in St. Vitus Church
Zloraba vere v politični liturgiji na dannunzijevski Reki:
blagoslov bodala v cerkvi sv. Vida
Larysa Poliakova & Natalia Shkoda: Historiographic Issues Regarding 
the Position of the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches in 
Soviet Ukraine in the Years 1920–1930 ..................................................................
Problemi storiografici relativi alle posizioni della chiesa ortodossa 
e quella cattolica romana nell’Ucraina sovietica negli anni 1920–1930
Historiografska vprašanja glede položaja pravoslavne in 
rimokatoliške cerkve v sovjetski Ukrajini v letih 1920–1930
Klemen Kocjančič: A Contribution to the Role of (Former) 
Red Army Prisoners of War and White Emigrés in Slovenia 
during the German Occupation, 1943–1945 ............................................................
Contributo riguardo al ruolo degli (ex) prigionieri di guerra 
dell’Armata rossa e dell’«emigrazione bianca» in Slovenia 
durante l’occupazione tedesca, 1943–1945
Prispevek k vlogi (nekdanjih) rdečearmijskih vojnih ujetnikov in belih 
emigrantov v Sloveniji med nemško okupacijo, 1943–1945
407
429
451
471
487
ACTA HISTRIAE • 30 • 2022 • 2
Borut Klabjan: Graditi partizanski spomin v socialistični Jugoslaviji: 
slovenski primer v času po drugi svetovni vojni ....................................................
Costruire la memoria partigiana nella Jugoslavia socialista: 
il caso sloveno dopo la seconda guerra mondiale
Building Partisan Memory in Socialist Yugoslavia: 
The Slovene Case after World War II
Boštjan Udovič: “Danke Deutschland!”: The Political and Diplomatic 
Contribution of the Federal Republic of Germany to the 
Creation of Independent Slovenia ............................................................................
«Danke Deutschland!»: il contributo politico-diplomatico 
della Repubblica Federale di Germania alla nascita dello 
Stato indipendente della Slovenia
»Danke Deutschland!«: politično-diplomatski 
prispevek Zvezne republike Nemčije k nastanku slovenske države
513
535
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Ivan JELIČIĆ: I MIGLIORI ELEMENTI D’ITALIANITÀ. LOCAL POLITICAL POWER ASCENSION AND ..., 429–450
I MIGLIORI ELEMENTI D’ITALIANITÀ. LOCAL POLITICAL POWER 
ASCENSION AND ITALIANIZATION DURING THE FIRST YEARS OF 
POST–WORLD WAR I IN VOLOSCA–ABBAZIA, 1918–1920
Ivan JELIČIĆ
Institute of Political History, Villányi út 11-13, 1114 Budapest, Hungary
e–mail: jelicich.ivan@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
This article analyses the rise of local Italian nationalists to power in the Istrian 
municipality of Volosko–Opatija/Volosca–Abbazia in the immediate post-World War 
I period. Through the activity of the Circolo 3 Novembre association, this case study 
displays how local Italian national activists affirmed themselves and were recognized 
as a privileged counterpart by Italian occupational authorities. Further, this article 
displays how a segment of the local nationalists became radicalized, contributing to 
the rise of political violence in the area, as well as supporting D’Annunzio’s occupa-
tion of Fiume/Rijeka.
Keywords: Julian March, Nationalization, Italianization, Volosko–Opatija/Volosca–Ab-
bazia, Circolo 3 Novembre, Political Radicalization
I MIGLIORI ELEMENTI D’ITALIANITÀ. L’ASCESA AL POTERE LOCALE 
E L’ITALIANIZZAZIONE NEI PRIMI ANNI DEL PRIMO DOPOGUERRA A 
VOLOSCA–ABBAZIA, 1918–1920
SINTESI
L’articolo analizza l’ascesa al potere dei locali nazionalisti italiani nel munici-
pio istriano di Volosca–Abbazia nel periodo immediatamente successivo alla Prima 
guerra mondiale. Il caso studio dimostra come, tramite l’attività dell’associazione 
Circolo 3 Novembre, i locali nazionalisti italiani si affermarono e furono ricono-
sciuti come interlocutori privilegiati delle autorità occupazionali italiane. Inoltre, 
l’articolo dimostra come una parte dei nazionalisti locali divenne un elemento di 
radicalizzazione contribuendo alla crescita della violenza politica nell’area, soste-
nendo l’occupazione dannunziana di Fiume.
Parole chiave: Venezia Giulia, nazionalizzazione, italianizzazione, Volosca–Abbazia, 
Circolo 3 Novembre, radicalizzazione politica
Received: 2020-06-30                            DOI 10.19233/AH.2 22.18
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Ivan JELIČIĆ: I MIGLIORI ELEMENTI D’ITALIANITÀ. LOCAL POLITICAL POWER ASCENSION AND ..., 429–450
INTRODUCTION1
The municipality of Volosca/Volosko2 owed its fortune to the Südbahn’s large in-
vestments that shaped the once uninhabited Abbazia/Opatija into a picturesque tourist 
resort. The growth and fame of Istria’s northeastern seashore became so renowned that 
even the municipality was renamed Volosca-Abbazia/Volosko-Opatija. From the end 
of the nineteenth century, the flourishing touristic resort was an Istrian Croatian na-
tional and cultural stronghold at the local and regional political level. Already in 1895, 
Croatian nationalists oversaw the municipality, established a Narodni dom (1904), a 
Croatian-language lower gymnasium (1909), and various nation-oriented Croatian 
associations. These Croatian nationalists did not just dominate administrative power 
within the borders of the town; they also succeeded in electing candidates to the Istrian 
provincial diet. Their political rivals, the Italian nationalists, had limited appeal in the 
area. Volosko had only two registered Italian associations: the Gabinetto di Lettura, a 
declining reading club, and a cycling association, the Club ciclistico Voloscano, founded 
in 1902. Liburnia – the traditional name for the northeastern coastal part of Istria where 
Volosko-Opatija is located – was not a very fertile ground for Italian nationalism com-
pared to nearby Trieste/Trst and to former Venetian-ruled areas of Istria like Rovigno/
Rovinj or Parenzo/Poreč.3 Exceptions were the municipalities of Laurana/Lovran and 
Moschienizze/Mošćenice (in the Italian period later renamed Moschiena), the only two 
localities in Liburnia controlled in the late Habsburg period by Italian nationalists. The 
political contention between Croatian and Italian nationalists was spiced up by the 
presence of Hungarian- and German-speakers as well. The latter were a more impos-
ing factor on communal life thanks to the blossoming of a private German-language 
elementary and middle school, aided by local German-language associations. Yet, some 
of these German associations epitomized social rather than national affiliations (Muzur, 
1998, 99–114; Zakošek, 2005, 9–110; D’Alessio, 2008, 245–247). 
Despite Croatian political dominance and a considerable pinch of Mitteleuropa on 
the Adriatic shores, after 1918 things shifted quickly and Italian nationalists quickly 
prevailed where before they had not. The rise of local Italian nationalists was a direct 
result of regime change in this corner of the dissolving Habsburg Empire. In the former 
Austrian Littoral, the power transition was influenced – and the outcomes were directed 
– by the occupational presence of the Italian state. The administrations that oversaw 
1 This article was written under the auspices of the project NEPOSTRANS, “Negotiating post-imperial tran-
sitions: from remobilization to nation-state consolidation. A comparative study of local and regional transi-
tions in post-Habsburg East and Central Europe,” financed by the European Research Council (ERC) under 
Consolidator Grant agreement no. 772264. I would like to thank Vanni D’Alessio and the NEPOSTRANS 
team members for comments on the previous version of the text. Particular gratitude goes to Cody J. Inglis 
for language editing.
2 When a locality is first mentioned, I deploy the prevailing Italian and Croatian forms. For the sake of sim-
plicity, I later employ the most common form used today, with the partial exception of Fiume/Rijeka given 
its specificity.  
3 For a recent synthesis on the politics in Istria in the late Habsburg period cf. Žitko, 2016.
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Ivan JELIČIĆ: I MIGLIORI ELEMENTI D’ITALIANITÀ. LOCAL POLITICAL POWER ASCENSION AND ..., 429–450
this transition were not stable: they were overseen by the Italian military (November 
1918–July 1919) and then an Italian-organized civil administration was installed that 
lasted even after annexation to Italy with the Treaty of Rapallo in November 1920. In 
the first transition months, the Italian army eagerly supported Italian nationalist groups 
which undermined, marginalized, and contrasted potential or imagined opponents 
to Italian annexation (Mondini, 2006, 55). Likewise, some of these emergent Italian 
nationalistic groups were revealed to be problematic once they started to threaten the 
Italian liberal state, aligning rather with D’Annunzio and constituting or joining the 
nascent fascist movement (Vinci, 2011, 42–59). The ascension of Italian nationalists to 
political control in Volosko-Opatija was, in this regard, a local modality of the transi-
tion to a new state.
Studies on the establishment of the Italian military and civil administration in what 
became Venezia Giulia – and the political radicalization that led to the rise of the fas-
cist movement in the region – are mainly focused on Trieste, Gorizia/Gorica, and the 
Isonzo/Soča area (Apih, 1966; Visintin, 1998; Visintin, 2000; Kacin–Wohinz, 2010; 
Apollonio, 2011; Klabjan & Bajc, 2021, 82–305), while research on the Istrian region 
is foremost centered on the fascist movement and the fascist period (Bon Gherardi, 
1985; Dukovski, 1998). In recent years, studies have focused on some aspects of the 
transition of these areas to the Italian state by examining internments (Bajc, 2012; 
Bajc, 2018) and the position of women in specific professional categories (Verginella, 
2021; Testen Koren & Cergol Paradiž, 2022). However, analyses of how the Italian 
occupation-administered regime changed, and how nationalist principles after World 
War I were implemented on the local scale in peripheral areas of Venezia Giulia, are 
still scarcely present. Attention to the Istrian local postwar dimension is limited to Isola/
Izola (Kramar, 1987, 367–376), Pisino/Pazin (D’Alessio, 2001; D’Alessio, 2007), and 
Capodistria/Koper (Bon, 2017), as well as an overview on Rovinj (Han, 2016) and an 
insight into Dignano/Vodnjan (Delton, 2016).
By focusing on the Volosko-Opatija municipality, this article examines the estab-
lishment and presence of the Italian state at the local level and the process by which 
the status quo ante power balance was overturned in favor of local Italian nationalists. 
Specific attention will be devoted to local Italian national activists and the practices 
they pursued in the postwar period to obtain power and ensure the triumph of Ital-
ian nationalism in the municipality. A central aspect will be research on the Circolo 
3 Novembre, a cultural association founded after the war which informally acted as 
a local interest group, whose existence was known but not systematically researched 
(Dukovski, 1998, 44). Finally, the article will display how the nationalists, supported 
by the Italian occupational authorities, organized a paramilitary group and became an 
element in catalyzing violence, fostering the organization of radical elements that laid 
the basis for the local fascist movement.
This article is based mainly on archival documentation held in the State Archives 
in Rijeka in the fonds of the political district and municipality of Volosko-Opatija, 
combined with personal data stored in the residential records collection for the interwar 
period held in the same archive. These administrative local sources have rarely been 
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Ivan JELIČIĆ: I MIGLIORI ELEMENTI D’ITALIANITÀ. LOCAL POLITICAL POWER ASCENSION AND ..., 429–450
used in historical research, and given the very dubious preservation or at least hardly 
traceable original documentation on the Circolo 3 Novembre group and its leading 
members, these sources present an essential source base for reconstructing the associa-
tion’s activity. By analyzing these sources, this article provides original insight into 
the leading figures of local Italian nationalism in a less-studied area of Istria during the 
first postwar years, thus contributing to our understanding of the area’s transition to the 
Italian state at the local level.
FROM THE HABSBURG EMPIRE TO ITALY
In the Volosko-Opatija political district, the transition of bureaucratic power from 
Habsburg officials to new, self-proclaimed national authorities happened without radi-
cal or violent upheavals. By the end of October 1918, the Austrian district captain was 
replaced by a district chief appointed by a district committee of the National Council 
of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs (hereafter SCS National Council). Effective control by 
new national authorities was almost only restricted to the district’s seat, and the mere 
existence of the local SCS National Council was soon proven to be ephemeral. A few 
days after the discharge of the former captain, on November 4 a small Italian naval fleet 
reached Opatija, recognizing the SCS National Council at first. But when the armed 
Italian presence was consolidated, it was dismissed on November 13 (Šepić, 1961, 350, 
358). The removal of the SCS National Council closed the short parentheses of South 
Slav authority and the beginning of the establishment of Italian sovereignty over the 
Volosko-Opatija district and municipality. Though nearly the entire district was part 
of territories assigned to Italy by the 1915 London Memorandum – better known as 
the Treaty of London (Bajc, 2017) – the area was not instantly annexed to Italy. The 
military occupied the Austrian Littoral – now Venezia Giulia – and a military governor 
oversaw its administration. While the occupational authorities maintained the previous 
administrative divisions, new military legislation alongside Austrian civil law were in-
troduced (Capuzzo, 1992). The situation on the ground was more contingent, however. 
The Italian military officer appointed as Volosko-Opatija’s civil district commissioner 
(replacing the position of district captain) took his office only in January 1919, while 
Captain Umberto Sala, appointed civil commissioner of Kastav municipality in No-
vember 1918, started gathering information on parts of the district, exercising duties 
beyond a municipal commissioner (Jeličić, 2020, 102–103).
Unlike Kastav, the Volosko-Opatija municipality was commissioned only in January 
1919. On January 4, 1919, a special commissioner – an Italian military officer with no 
links to the local environment – took the municipality from the previous office holder, 
Andrija Stanger. It was a considerable symbolic turning point, since Stanger (1853–
1934), the prewar mayor and local lawyer, had held this position uninterrupted since 
1895 as a representative of the strongest local political group, the Croatian nationalists 
(Szabo, 2007–2008). While the SCS National Council was disbanded shortly after the 
war to open the road for the establishment of Italian sovereignty, Stanger’s removal 
proved to be the next logical step towards the Italianization of the district’s most 
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Ivan JELIČIĆ: I MIGLIORI ELEMENTI D’ITALIANITÀ. LOCAL POLITICAL POWER ASCENSION AND ..., 429–450
important municipality. Apart from the weight this change held on the national sym-
bolical level, the introduction of a special commissioner to the municipality triggered 
a loss of political representation that would last for years to come. This deficiency of 
representation was solved only when the area was annexed to Italy and a new municipal 
board was appointed. Most members of the new municipal board were members of a 
new postwar association, the Circolo 3 Novembre. In studying this crucial organization, 
one comes to understand how local Italian nationalists obtained influence well before 
these territories became official parts of the Kingdom of Italy.
“THERE IS ALWAYS A NEW CITIZEN ENROLLING 
IN THE ITALIAN LOCAL ASSOCIATION”4
At the end of World War One, in the costal part of the district of Volosko-Opatija, 
Italian-oriented associationism was in a deplorable state. In a report from the Kastav 
civil commissioner to the Venezia Giulia Governor, written around December 1918, 
a section of the Dante Alighieri Society existed in the municipality of Lovran, while 
sections of the same society, or the Lega Nazionale, were not to be found in Volosko-
Opatija. Although some individuals were members of these associations, the main dis-
trict’s municipality was without cornerstone Italian organizations. The late-Habsburg 
Italian school association Lega Nazionale, disbanded by the authorities during the war, 
and the Dante Alighieri Society, a group aiming to spread and defend Italianity abroad 
and after the war in newly occupied territories (Wörsdorfer, 2009, 68–73), were miss-
ing from Volosko-Opatija. Yet, the civil commissioner of Kastav indicated a notable 
exception: “The only Italian organization with a political and irredentist profile (even 
though in a latent state) was the ‘Volosca Cycling Club’ now resurrected with a new life 
under the banner ‘Circolo 3 Novembre’ including around 80 members.”5
The Circolo 3 Novembre was officially founded at the end of January 1919, but, 
as mentioned in Sala’s report, the preparations were already made in December 1918. 
Formally, the circle—which bore the date of the Armistice of Villa Giusti—was an 
association with cultural aims. It was founded to organize conferences and festivities, 
and aimed “to carry out activity of national education (svolgere opera di educazione 
nazionale).”6 While for the Kastav civil commissioner, and according to a later 
published fascist-era local publication the Circolo 3 Novembre grew out of the local 
4 DARI 616, CDVo, AG, b. 54, Ufficio I.T.O. e Centri I.P., Appunti del C.I.P. di Volosca, R. Governatorato di 
Trieste, Ufficio I.T.O. Centro I.P. Volosca, Situazione generale, Volosca, 13.7.1919. “Nelle società italiane 
locali c’è sempre qualche nuovo cittadino che si iscrive…”.
5 DARI 616, CDVo, AG, b. 42 (new signature), 1–I–1919, Amministrazioni comunali, Comune di Ca-
stua, Regio Commissario Civile di Castua, Relazione politica ed amministrativa del comune di Castua, 
N. 2 [s.a.], Nozioni varie sulle condizioni del comune di Abbazia–Volosca, nei riguardi dell’ammini-
strazione comunale, delle organizzazioni periodiche, economiche e religiose e degli istituti d’istruzio-
ne, 2) L’organizzazioni politiche, 30. “L’unica organizzazione Italiana con carattere politico e irreden-
tista (benché larvato) era il “CLUB CICLISTICO VOLOSCANO” ora risorto a nuova vita col titolo di 
“CIRCOLO TRE NOVEMBRE” conta un’ottantina di soci”.
6 ASTs, CGC VG, Gabinetto, b. 52, 24/1 Circoli di cultura nella V.G., Volosca, Statuto del “Circolo 3 novembre“.
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prewar irredentist cycling association (Costantino, 1936, 12–13). As the civil com-
missioner of the Volosko-Opatija political district noted, the circle provided a place 
of “sure confidence for patriotic ideas (sicuro affidamento per idee patriottiche),” and 
was also worthy of financial support, since the association was made up of the “best 
elements of Italianness (i migliori elementi d’italianità).”7 The patriotic association 
was thus smoothly recognized by the military governor of Venezia Giulia and enjoyed 
institutional support and appreciation by the military authorities. For instance, the 
municipal commissioner retroactively asked for the cancellation of the electricity 
bill for the Circolo 3 Novembre’s charity festivity in December 1918,8 while in April 
1919 the local Italian military intelligence office—the Informazioni Truppe Operanti 
(ITO)—reported that the circle needed around one thousand candles to illuminate 
the coast on the occasion of the expected annexation.9 Predictably, in the following 
months, the Circolo 3 Novembre, and the recently created branch of the Dante Aligh-
ieri Society, rallied further supporters. As the Volosca ITO office reported in July: 
“There is always a new citizen enrolling in local Italian associations (Nelle società 
italiane locali c’è sempre qualche nuovo cittadino che si iscrive (…),” estimating 170 
members for the Circolo 3 Novembre and 120 members for the local committee of 
Dante Alighieri Society.10 While it is not easy to evaluate how many members were 
active inside the society, nor possible to find out individuals’ reasons for joining the 
associations, the membership roster certainly grew. 
In August 1919, the carabinieri and the ITO office delivered detailed reports on 
the Circolo 3 Novembre, estimating membership and identifying and evaluating their 
executive board. For the carabinieri, the circle performed activities of national and 
patriotic propaganda, organizing public festivities with charitable purposes. However, 
the propaganda activity could not be considered highly fruitful. The activities were 
organized thanks to donations, but the monthly fees were insufficient for the circle’s 
propaganda activity to function properly.11 The carabinieri’s disenchanted descrip-
tion was counterpoised by the ITO office, which added a pompous adjective to its 
description of the circle, which they said carried out “very useful activity in favor of 
Italianness (opera utilissima d’italianità).”12 The Circolo 3 Novembre was estimated 
at being somewhere between 160 and 170 members, with the military intelligence 
7 ASTs, CGC VG, Gabinetto, b. 52, 24/1 Circoli di Cultura nella V.G., Volosca, Il Commissario distrettuale 
al Governatorato, 9 febbraio 1919.  
8 DARI 472, CVA, b. 143, Anno 1919, N. 736, Il Circolo 3 Novembre al commissario straordinario di Volo-
sca, Volosca, 20.2.1919. 
9 DARI 616, CDVo, AG, b. 54, Ufficio I.T.O. e Centri I.P., Appunti del C.I.P. di Volosca, Appunti del 
C.I.P., 13.4.1919.
10 DARI 616, CDVo, AG, b. 54, Ufficio I.T.O. e Centri I.P., Appunti del C.I.P. di Volosca, R. Governatorato di 
Trieste, Ufficio I.T.O. Centro I.P. Volosca, Situazione generale, Volosca, 13.7.1919.
11 ASTs, CGC VG, Gabinetto, b. 52, 24/1 Circoli di Cultura nella V.G., Volosca, Legione Carabinieri Reali, 
Oggetto: Circoli di Cultura, 2.8.1919.
12 ASTs, CGC VG, Gabinetto, b. 52, 24/1 Circoli di Cultura nella V.G., Volosca, R. Governatorato della Ve-
nezia Giulia. Stato Maggiore – Ufficio I.T.O. Oggetto: Circoli di Cultura, 11.8.1919, 2.
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service providing the higher number.13 Despite these small numerical and descriptive 
differences – which display the military intelligence service’s sympathies towards the 
Italian nationalistic association – both institutions mostly agreed on who were the 
“best elements of Italianness” which composed the association’s executive board.14
The president of the Circolo 3 Novembre was the lawyer Noè Percich (Opatija, 
1879–1951)15; the vice president was Ettore Costantini (Pazin, 1868–Asolo, 1949), 
also a lawyer16; the secretary was the chief of the post office Nicolò Bracco (Neres-
ine/Nerezine, 1887–Opatija, 1930)17; the treasurer was the tax office clerk Ramiro 
Voncina (Opatija, 1895–L’Aquila, 1946)18; while the law student and supply office 
employee Lidio Vladiscovich (Volosko, 1897–Italy, ?) –later Valdini19 – was the soci-
ety librarian. The district physician Pietro Coporcich (Spalato/Split, 1869–Bolognano 
d’Arco, 1955),20 the supply office employee Oscarre Suban (Trieste, 1875–Fiume, 
1935),21 and the municipal secretary Rodolfo Treo (Volosko, 1878–?, emigrated to 
Argentina in 1922)22 were councilors or members of the executive board. Between 
January and August 1919, a change to the Circolo’s presidency structure should be 
noted. In January Pietro Coporcich was listed as president of the association, while 
the teacher Giuseppe Tomsich (Pula/Pola, 1890–Opatija, 1945)23 – later Tosi – was 
listed as secretary (Micich, 2013)24. The declassing of those two was probably not 
the result of internal conflicts inside the association, since the figures composing the 
Italian nationalist leadership seemed at that time rather stable. Such an impression is 
proven by considering another association founded the same year. 
Almost half a year after the Circolo 3 Novembre’s foundation, in June 1919, the 
Volosko-Opatija committee of the Dante Alighieri Society was established. At the 
beginning, the local branch of Dante counted 70 members; a month later, about 120.25 
The same month, the Circolo 3 Novembre was registered as a permanent member 
13 Compare ASTs, CGC VG, Gabinetto, b. 52, 24/1 Circoli di Cultura nella V.G., Volosca, Legione 
Carabinieri Reali, Oggetto: Circoli di cultura, 2.8.1919 and R. Governatorato della Venezia Giulia. 
Stato Maggiore – Ufficio I.T.O. Oggetto: Circoli di Cultura, 11.8.1919, 2–3.
14 Unlike the ITO, the carabinieri noted Guido Ghergorina (Volosca, 1886–?), a state employee, as a 
society librarian. DARI 536, Az, CA, C, Ghergorina Guido.
15 DARI 536, Az, CA, Si Percich dott. Noè.
16 DARI 536, Az, CA, Si Costantini Ettore and L’Arena di Pola, 23.3.1949: Necrologio di Costantini Ettore, 4.
17 DARI 536, Az, C Bracco Nicolò.
18 DARI 536, Az, CA, Si Voncina Ramiro.
19 DARI 536, Az, CA, Si Valdini Lidio (già Vladiscovich). The notary Valdini is reported in Padova in 
1966 among the founders of the association “Free Municipality of Fiume in Exile.” L’Arena di Pola, 
12.4.1966: Libero Comune di Fiume in esilio. Vuole seguire le orme del confratello zaratino, 1.
20 DARI 536, Az, CA, Si Coporcich dott. Pietro and L’Arena di Pola, 27.6.1954: Ricerca, 2.
21 DARI 536, Az, CA, S Suban Oscarre and CF, IRP, Suban Oscarre.
22 DARI 536, Az, S Rodolfo Treo.
23 DARI 536, Az, Ca, Si. Tosi Giuseppe già Tomsich.
24 ASTs, CGC VG, Gabinetto, b. 52, La Direzione del Circolo 3 Novembre al Regio Commissario civile distrettuale 
Volosca–Abbazia per il Regio Governatorato della Venezia–Giulia (Sezione affari civili), Volosca, 28 gennaio 1919.
25 DARI 616, CDVo, AG, b. 54, Ufficio I.T.O. e Centri I.P., Appunti del C.I.P. di Volosca, R. Governa torato 
di Trieste, Ufficio I.T.O. Centro I.P. Volosca, Situazione generale, Volosca, 13.7.1919
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of the Dante Alighieri Society. Such a registration displays the ties between Ital-
ian associations, an overlap evinced by the members of the executive board. The 
president of the local Dante Alighieri branch was Ettore Costantini; its vice president, 
Pietro Coporicich; secretary, Giuseppe Tomsich. The treasurer was the district tax 
office clerk Enea Tomassich  (Opatija, 1883–?, still alive in 1945)26. The last two, 
along with Nicolò Bracco, the pharmacist Ernesto Ghersettich (Pazin, 1864–Padova, 
1920),27 the lawyer to the district commissioner’s office, Demetrio Medeot (San 
Lorenzo di Mossa, today San Lorenzo Isontino, 1888–Trieste, 1919),28 the maritime 
commissioner Gualtiero Toncich (Opatija, 1882–?, in Italy after 1945),29 and the tax 
office clerk Oliviero Voncina (Prelucca/Preluk (Volosko), 1885–Opatija, 1946)30 were 
the association’s councilors. 
The figures inside executive boards of the Circolo 3 Novembre and the local Dante 
Alighieri branch lead one to conclude that the predominant roles in local Italian national 
associations were held by individuals born in the district or former Austrian citizens who 
settled in Volosko-Opatija years before the war.31 On the executive boards of both as-
sociations, those born in the 1860s and 1870s predominated over those born in 1890s.32 
The presence of several age groups suggests that the association was a reference point 
and an interest group for the local, nationally affiliated Italian community. That is not 
to say that this Italian irredentist association was inclusive. Women did not enjoy the 
privilege of being appointed as members of the directory of the association, though by 
the Circolo 3 Novembre’s statute their participation was not precluded. Profession and 
workplace are also two valuable features to understand the composition of associations. 
In the Circolo, liberal professions (two lawyers and a pharmacist) were outnumbered 
by civil servants (two tax office employees, a post office employee, a teacher, a supply 
office employee, a municipal secretary, a district commissioner employee, a district 
physician, and a maritime commission employee), with a borderline case of a law 
student employed at the supply office. While some had been appointed to their office by 
Italian authorities (Treo,33 Suban,34 and probably Valdini), many were public servants 
26 DARI 536, AZ, Comune di Abbazia, Si Tomassich Enea.
27 La Voce dell’Istria, 26.6.1920: Decesso, 1.
28 DARI 616, CDVo, AG, b. 48, 7–I, Personale del Capitanato, 1919, 7–I–a, Personale del Capitanato a) Ci-
vili, Atti relativi al sussidio alla famiglia del dott. Medeot Demetrio e minuta del Telegramma all’Ospedale 
Civico a Trieste.
29 DARI 536, Az, CA, Si Toncich Gualtiero.
30 DARI 536, Az, CA, Si Vocina Oliviero.
31 Typical examples include Costantini, Coporcich, Ghersettich and Suban The only two exceptions 
were Bracco and Medeot, both resident in the municipality since 1919, but who were also former 
Austrian citizens from prewar times. DARI 536, Az, CA, C Bracco Nicolò. Annotazioni: Residente 
nel Comune dal 1919.
32 Those born in the 1860s-1870s include Costantini, Coporcich, Ghersettich, Suban, and Percich, while 
those born in the 1880s include: Bracco, Ghergorina, Treo, Tomassich, Medeot, Toncich, and O. Voncina. 
R. Voncina, Vladiscovich, and Tomsich were born in the 1890s. 
33 DARI 472, CVA, AR, 1921, b. 2, Ad 201/21 ris., allegato.
34 DARI 616, CDVo, AG, b. 45, 1920, 2-C-I, Consorzio Provinciale per l’Approvvigionamento per l’Istria. 
Ufficio di Volosca al Commissario civile del distretto politico di Volosca, 26.6.1920.
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of the former Habsburg state. Hardly of extraction from lower social strata, the two 
associations’ leading figures thus represented a continuity of Habsburg-period, middle-
class Italian national leadership.
There is one additional figure that should not be underestimated—although he 
was not the member of the first board of Circolo 3 Novembre or Dante Alighieri—the 
lawyer Ruggero Sandri (Pula, 1881–Staranzano, 1985).35 Sandri’s initial absence 
originates from his different residency. Before the war, Sandri was a resident and active 
in the Italian associations of the nearby municipality of Lovran (namely in the Lega 
Nazionale and Filodrammatica); after the Italian military occupation, he was appointed 
as a member of the town’s municipal board.36 That Sandri – whose name was among 
the prominent local Italian figures in Sala’s report – had a certain influence is evident 
from Sandri’s February 1919 suggestion that the authorities intern a few Croatian no-
tables from Lovran on Sardinia (Klen, 1955, 10). In November 1919, Sandri moved to 
Volosko-Opatija; his name is first mentioned as member of the executive board of the 
Circolo 3 Novembre in 1921.37 Sandri’s passage, the transfer of a figure of particular 
importance for the local Italian national movement before the war,38 depicts the sym-
bolic reconfiguration of the area: the smaller and already Italian-oriented Lovran was 
abandoned in favor of the larger and economically prominent – and now Italianizing 
– Volosko-Opatija.
Although the Circolo 3 Novembre was formally a cultural association, it pursued 
larger objectives of nationalization, aiming to politically affirm its leaders and gather 
supporters. Already in April 1919 the Circolo wrote to the municipal commissioner 
of Volosko-Opatija, advocating the desire of residents to rename the streets, and 
proposed three leading figures from their association to assist the commissioner.39 It 
was not only symbolic Italianization that the circle pursued. A year later, the Circolo 
3 Novembre protested the recent employment of a “lady of nonitalian nationality” 
in the municipal supply office while local Italians were jobless. In the protest to the 
municipal commissioner, the Circolo even recommended some names, displaying 
its nature as an interest group.40 However, events did not evolve as the local Italian 
nationalists desired. Despite the municipal commissioner’s promise to discharge the 
woman, she remained in office. Three months later, the Circolo even claimed that the 
35 DARI 536, Az, CA, Si Sandri Ruggero and L’Arena di Pola, 10.8.1985: Elargizioni, 8.
36 DARI 616, CDVo, AG, b. 42 (new signature), 1–I–1919, Amministrazioni comunali, Comune di Laurana, 
Il sindaco di Laurana al Regio commissario civile del distretto politico Volosca, Laurana, 6.11.1919 e Pro-
tocollo della Giunta comunale amministrativa, 9.12.1918.
37 DARI 616, CDVo, AG, b. 82, Il Municipio di Volosca–Abbazia al Commissario Civile Distrettuale, Volo-
sca 26 agosto 1921, con allegato l’Elenco delle società sportive–politiche, di ritrovo e simili esistenti nel 
Comune di Volosca–Abbazia. 
38 In 1914 Ruggero Sandri was the local Italian candidate for the Istrian Diet, cf. Il Giornaletto di Pola, 5. 6. 
1914: Nel settimo distretto, 1.
39 DARI 616, CDVo, AG, b. 42 (new signature), Comune di Volosco–Abbazia, Copia. Circolo 3 Novem-
bre–Volosca. No. 31/1919, li 4 aprile 1919, Al Commissario straordinario Sig. Maggiore Cav. de Stadler 
Reggente il Municipio di Volosca.
40 DARI 472, CVA, AR, 1920, b. 2, Circolo 3 novembre al commissario straordinario, 11.4.1920.
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supply office was nationally transforming as, allegedly, the Croatian language was 
used by those employed.41 In October 1920, the circle again urged for changes in the 
municipal supply office, now also requesting that shopkeepers’ signs in the munici-
pality should be written in Italian first, according to the desire of local Italians.42 And 
while the Circolo and the municipal commissioner had diverging views on the issue 
of the municipal supply office, the municipal commissioner positively replied to the 
association’s request to obtain and distribute supplies for poor children who attended 
the local Italian school.43 
The Circolo 3 Novembre’s leaders did not limit themselves to the successful 
presentation of the association’s and its membership’s interests as representative of 
local Italians. In 1920, the Circolo decided to buy a local typographic shop owned by 
Croatian-affiliated figures, allegedly to oppose its potential purchase by socialists and 
contain the damage it could cause to national propaganda. The initiative to obtain the 
propriety by “Italians of Liburnia” was considered favorably by the district commis-
sioner, who hoped that such a purchase would be realized given its “eminently patriotic 
purpose (scopo eminentemente patrio[ttico]).”44 The same year, the Circolo’s executive 
board took the liberty to demand that the district commissioner, after the suspension 
of a court advisor in Volosko, do everything possible so that the former court advisor 
office was assigned to an 
individual of Italian faith, that could hold up the dignity of justice and, at the same 
time, end the political harm the Croatian employees performed in that office to com-
plete detriment of our nation (il posto venga coperto quanto prima da persona di fede 
italiana, la quale possa tenere alto il decoro della giustizia e por fine nello stesso 
tempo alle mene politiche che impiegati croati esplicano in quell’ufficio a tutto danno 
della nazione nostra).45 
As is clear from the aforementioned events, the Circolo 3 Novembre became – if 
it was not imagined as such from the beginning – a society functioning as a lobby-
ing device for local Italian nationalists and their supporters in the immediate postwar 
period, expressing opinions and providing advice to municipal and district authorities. 
The association had only an advisory and not a decisional role, however, and the 
quoted examples show that the Italian authorities regarded the Circolo 3 Novembre 
41 DARI 472, CVA, AR, 1920, b. 2, Circolo 3 novembre al commissario straordinario, 5.7.1920.
42 DARI 472, CVA, AR, 1920, b. 2, Circolo 3 novembre al commissario straordinario, 16.10.1920.
43 DARI 472, CVA, AR, 1920, b. 2, Circolo 3 novembre al municipio, 17.11.1920, Il commissario 
straordinario al Consiglio direttivo del Circolo 3 novembre, 18.12.1920..
44 DARI 616, CDVo, AG, b. 42 (old signature), Circolo 3 novembre, Al Sig. Cav. Guido Farello Commissario 
Civile di Volosca, Volosca, 24 novembre 1920, N.3984, Commissariato civile del distretto politico 
di Volosca–Abbazia, Volosca, 28.10.1920. Oggetto: Acquisto della Tipografia Tomicic. Minuta della 
risposta del commissario al presidente del Circolo 3 novembre.
45 DARI 616, CDVo, AG, b. 49, Personale dei giudizi e degli uffici Imposte distrettuali, 7–II (1920), 
Circolo 3 novembre al Commissario civile del distretto politico di Volosca, Volosca, 3.7.1920. Docu-
mento allegato alle pratiche Consigliere Guzeli sig. Giovanni: inchiesta.
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rather as a privileged partner. Yet, before the Treaty of Rapallo and the district’s 
official annexation to Italy, this privileged partner was revealed to be problematic. The 
unstable Italian postwar political environment, the border dispute with the Kingdom of 
Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, and Gabriele D’Annunzio’s entrance into Fiume/Rijeka in 
September 1919 complicated relations inside the Italian nationalist camp.
FROM VOLUNTARY DEFENDERS OF THE HOMELAND 
TO EXALTED ELEMENTS 
According to an ITO office report from August 1919, the Circolo patronaged the 
creation of a Legion of Liburnian Volunteers (Legione Volontari Liburnici) and a group 
of young scouts.46 The existence of this paramilitary group was not secret: it was of 
public domain, accepted and supported by the military authorities, displaying and 
enhancing the authorities’ desired loyalty of the locals to the Kingdom of Italy. 
Already in May, a recently established local pro-Italian weekly reported on the 
organization of a fascio dei combattenti in Liburnia. Allegedly, in Lovran, following 
the rest of Italy, “the youth” decided to organize “for all eventualities,” establishing 
a fascio.47 The same source reported that it had around hundred followers, willing 
to put themselves at the fascio’s service for the homeland. The initiative was not 
restricted to Lovran. The same month, the local ITO office enthusiastically reported 
about a private initiative of enlisted volunteers who planned to take up weapons 
to defend the “right cause” in case President Wilson’s April 1919 proposal – the 
partition of Istria with Volosko-Opatija to become part of the South Slav State 
(Cattaruzza, 2007, 117–119, 124) – would materialize. For the military intelligence 
service, the existence of this group of allegedly over 200 volunteers from Volosko 
to Lovran was regarded as a positive sign, suggesting the firm will of Liburnians to 
be part of Italy,48 while potentially armed South Slav groups were not reported, and 
indeed seemed highly improbable (Dubrović, 2020).
That the fascio and the legion were the same group is evident by another ITO report. 
Two weeks after the news about the fascio broke, “some Liburnian volunteers belong-
ing to ‘fascio combattenti’ (alcuni volontari liburnici appartenti al fascio combattenti)” 
were mentioned during a training march in Mošćenice promoted by the Circolo 3 
Novembre (Klen, 1978, 73).49 The training march—actually a procession of armed men 
through the Liburnian coast – offered an opportunity to see in practice how the pro-
motion and defense of Italian nationalism was understood by the paramilitary group. 
Passing through Medea/Medveja, the march participants were involved in a “scuffle” 
caused by shouts of “Long live Wilson!” from a nearby osteria (Klen, 1978, 73). 
46 ASTs, CGC VG, Gabinetto, b. 52, 24/1 Circoli di Cultura nella V.G., Volosca, R. Governatorato della Ve-
nezia Giulia. Stato Maggiore – Ufficio I.T.O. Oggetto: Circoli di Cultura, 11.8.1919, 2.
47 La Voce dell’Istria, 10.5.1919: Il fascio dei combattenti, 1.
48 DARI 616, CDVo, AG, b. 54, Ufficio I.T.O. e Centri I.P., Appunti del C.I.P. di Volosca, Ufficio I.T.O. Centro 
I.P.Volosca, Relazione quindicinale sullo spirito della popolazione e sulla situazione, Volosca, 13.5.1919.
49 La Voce dell’Istria, 24.5.1919: “Legione Liburnica”, 2.
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This incident was not the first one, and the march was not the first action of 
that kind. On May 19, 1919, the Circolo 3 Novembre and the same paramilitary 
legionnaire group organized an excursion to Mount Maggiore/Učka to inaugurate 
a shelter named symbolically after the Duchess of Aosta – wife of the Italian 
3rd Army commander, General Emanuele Filiberto, Duke of Aosta – to whom a 
telegram was sent on the occasion (Klen, 1978, 73). Alongside participants from 
Opatija and Lovran, 40 figures from Fiume were present, a detail that should not be 
neglected.50 As in the case of Medveja, the legionnaires’ Italian patriotic devotion 
was not shared by a local Croatian teacher and some children who, during their 
passage through Veprinac/Apriano, shouted against Italy (Klen, 1978, 73). These 
circumscribed, and fortunately not particularly violent, incidents were symptoms 
of the contestation of Italian sovereignty, of nationalists’ intransigence, but even 
more were signs of authorities’ support for the Circolo 3 Novembre and local 
paramilitary units. All the municipal, village, and military authorities mentioned 
during the march enthusiastically welcomed the legionnaires, while the legion-
naires’ contesters were imprisoned or had to deal with the Italian authorities, as 
the osteria owner in Medveja did. The name of the shelter on Mount Maggiore 
and the telegram make crystal clear the support the paramilitary group enjoyed. 
One question remains, however: Who were these nameless Liburnian volunteers 
and their Fiumian associates?
After the testimony of the osteria owner, the Medveja incident was clarified by 
Captain Giorgio Conighi, attached to Volosko ITO office under the XXVI Army 
Corps. Conighi declared that he was in charge of the volunteers’ legion, that with 
volunteers of Volosko–Opatija, lined up by training officers, Lovran and Fiume 
volunteers, and guests belonging to Sursum Corda – a prewar irredentists’ fight 
training organization (Pupo, 2014, 110) – arranged for a training walk with patriotic 
propaganda purposes.51 Captain Giorgio Conighi’s (Fiume, 1892–Trento, 1977) 
presence in Liburnia and his nationalistic activities are easy to disclose. Conighi 
was the son of the engineer Carlo Conighi, owner of a construction company active 
in Fiume and Volosko-Opatija before World War One. Carlo Conighi was active 
in Fiumian society, president of the local Chamber of Trade and Commerce, was 
interned by Hungarian authorities during the war, and advocated for the city’s 
annexation to Italy after 1918 (Varutti, 2005, 149). In the late Habsburg period, 
his son Giorgio was member of the Fiumian youth irredentist association Giovine 
Fiume, and during the war was a volunteer in the Italian army, obtaining a war 
decoration (Varutti, 2005, 150–151). The young Conighi was a typical example of 
ITO officers’ extraction (Pupo, 2014, 109): a local irredentist with needed language 
50 DARI 616, CDVo, AG, b. 54, Ufficio I.T.O. e Centri I.P., Appunti del C.I.P. di Volosca, Appunti del C.I.P., 
17.5.1919.
51 DARI 616, CDVo, AG, b. 42 (old signature), Comando della 3a Armata, Ufficio C.R.I.T.O. presso il XXVI° 
Corpo d’Armata, Al Comando XXVI° Corpo d’Armata, Ufficio Affari Generali, Oggetto: Schiarmenti circa 
il fatto di Medvea, 7 luglio 1919. Document signed by captain Giorgio Conighi.
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expertise, knowledge of the region and, most of all, a passionate nationalist. Yet, 
Conighi, as a military officer with ties to local society, was not the only one with 
such a résumé in Liburnia. 
In June 1919, at the inauguration of new Italian national street names in 
Volosko-Opatija, legionnaires appeared for the first time in a uniform, instructed 
by Conighi and four other Italian officers. Of the four, at least two were native 
to the Quarnero/Kvarner region: Lieutenants Perugini and d’Alloris.52 Antonio 
d’Alloris was the pseudonym and battle name of Antonio Sirola (Fiume, 1891–?), 
assigned to the Volosko ITO office (Klinger, 2013, 193; Klen, 1978, 77), revealing 
once more the connections between the Italian military intelligence service and 
radical nationalists. Nicola Perugini (Opatija, 1885–Fiume, 1936),53 on the other 
hand, embodies another common background of the more radicalized Italian na-
tionalists in the region: the regnicoli (Italian citizens living in Austria–Hungary). 
Perugini lived in Opatija before World War One, working there as a civil engineer. 
However, Perugini was not Austrian; he was an Italian citizen living in Austria. 
At the outbreak of the war, Perugini left Opatija and enlisted in the Italian army. 
At the end of the war, he returned to Opatija, where, according to his obituary, he 
was among the founders of the Circolo 3 Novembre and the local Dante Alighieri 
Society committee.54 Finally, there was also the name of a civilian mentioned as a 
legionnaire in the newspaper, the postman Nicolò Bracco, councilor of the recently 
founded Dante Alighieri Society branch and, in April 1919, listed as secretary of 
the Circolo 3 Novembre.
It is evident that membership in local Italian associations and paramilitary 
formations at least partially overlapped. Furthermore, for the Italian nationalists 
of Liburnia, the close organizational and ideological relations with Fiume were 
crucial, as well as—directly or through Fiume—contact with the Trieste-based 
nationalistic association Sursum Corda. The presence of Conighi and the recur-
ring participation of Fiumian volunteers coincides with the formation of paramili-
tary units in Fiume (Klinger, 2011, 29–30; Longo, 1996, 82–84) and points out 
how these connections are a key to understand radicalization in this area and in 
Venezia Giulia. In addition, there is another common feature Fiume and Liburnia 
shared: the contested post-war status. Unlike Fiume, under interallied occupation 
(Kirchner Reill, 2020, 41–54), the Liburnian coast was exclusively under Ital-
ian military occupation. However, for Volosko-Opatija, like Fiume, it was still 
uncertain whether it would be annexed to the Kingdom of Italy. At the Paris Peace 
Conference in April and May 1919, US-American President Wilson and French 
Foreign Minister Tardieu suggested that eastern Istria, including Volosko–Opatija, 
not be ceded to Italy (Lederer, 1966, 226, 246–247). The undefined border is-
sue translated into a sense of insecurity and fluctuating emotions for the local 
52 La Voce dell’Istria, 28.6.1919: Volosca Redenta!, 1.
53 DARI 536, Az, C Perugini Nicola.
54 La Vedetta d’Italia, 6.3.1936: La morte di un patriota, 4.
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population. According to the ITO office, in March and April 1919 local Yugoslav-
oriented figures spread rumors of a territorial outcome unfavorable to Italy (Klen, 
1977, 151, 167–168). At the beginning of July, the population worried about the 
results of the Paris Peace Conference, while at the end of the same month local 
Italians were sure that they would never be torn from the motherland (Klen, 1978, 
86, 93). Until the Treaty of Rapallo, the Wilson line—or at least bargaining over 
parts of Liburnia—was still on the table during the border negotiations between 
Italy and the SCS Kingdom (Lederer, 1966, 256–351). It is no surprise, then, 
that in June 1920 carabinieri noticed again how pro-Italian local associations in 
Volosko-Opatija were easily impressionable, switching from fear of abandonment 
and Yugoslav vengeance to the lively hope of remaining under Italy.55 In the same 
June report, the description of Circolo 3 Novembre members as “exalted elements 
capable of causing unrest due to their intransigence” was symptomatic. This harsh 
judgement was grounded in a specific threat, namely the destruction of a local 
Croatian lawyer’s house if he returned to Volosko.
Recent research has underlined the significance of economic and political 
insecurity in the rise of violence and the fascist movement in the Venezia Giulia 
(Klabjan, 2018; Bresciani, 2019). In Volosko-Opatija, the chances of another tran-
sition of sovereignty, now to the SCS Kingdom, were even higher. The menace for 
local Italian nationalists was the loss of their recently acquired influence, to be 
defeated by the peace treaty – an important element in mobilizing a paramilitary 
group (Gerwarth & Horne, 2012, 3) – and, for some of them, the Italian state was 
not doing enough to ensure the annexation. In this regard, Gabriele D’Annunzio’s 
entrance into Fiume was a realization of some of their hopes, triggering further 
radicalization. 
A few days after D’Annunzio arrival in Fiume, Leo Stirn (Volosko, 1898–?), a 
member of the Circolo 3 Novembre, was walking on the local promenade with an 
Italian tricolor ribbon bearing text “With D’Annunzio for Fiume” when he encoun-
tered three Italian army officers. One of the officers said to Stirn “scoundrel,” while 
Stirn replied “Lieutenant, sir, the scoundrel is probably you, and believe me that 
only the uniform you wear saves you from well-deserved back-handed blows.”56 
This case of a young, local D’Annunzio sympathizer – and soon his follower –fac-
ing down hostile military officers could serve as a useful depiction of the divergent 
attitudes toward D’Annunzio’s venture: there were those who fought in the war as 
professional soldiers, and there were the young nationalists who did not fight at all, 
but aspired to engage in conflict (Mondini, 2019, 55–97). The point here is that the 
Circolo 3 Novembre and its armed volunteers became a problem for Italian state 
authorities and even for the military that supported them. On September 6, 1919, 
the Governor ordered the district commissioner to conduct strict surveillance on 
55 DARI 616, CDVo, AG, b. 55, N.40/2, Riservata del Comando del corpo d’armata, Compagnia CC.RR. 
Volosca al Commissario civile di Volosca, Oggetto: Relazione sullo spirito pubblico. Volosca, 2.6.1920.
56 DARI 616, CDVo, AG, b. 54, Verbale di Rodolfo Treo, 18.9.1919.
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Liburnian legionnaires: they should not join the legionnaires in Fiume and those 
without pertinency (in German Heimatrecht or in Italian pertinenza)57 should be 
evicted from Volosko-Opatija. In an exchange of telegrams, the district commissariat 
provided further information on the legionnaires, assuring the Governor that they 
were not a threat. Formed at the beginning of June, unarmed Liburnian volunteers 
were helped by Italian military authorities and followed directives from Fiume, but 
where without documents to cross the armistice line between the Venezia Giulia 
and Fiume. Furthermore, around August the legionnaires suspended exercises due 
to internal dissent. The group, now reduced to 30 individuals, was incapable of 
violent action.58 As a local, triumphantly fascist work later stated, the district com-
missioner supported the volunteers (Costantino, 1936, 15), though at the time of the 
mentioned telegram exchanges the district commissioner was absent, so it was his 
substitute that was at least diminishing the potential risk (Apollonio, 2011, 182). 
Yet, the allegedly “harmless” Liburnian volunteers without needed documents were 
still involved in D’Annunzio’s occupation of Fiume.
Besides Florio and his brother Floriano Stirn (Opatija, 1894), the brothers 
Ramiro and Oliviero Voncina, Nicolò Bracco, Giuseppe Tomsich (Tosi), Gualti-
ero Toncich, and Lidio Vladiscovich, figures we saw as members of the boards of 
Volosko-Opatija Italian associations, appear on the legionnaires’ list.59 However, 
the title of ‘legionnaire’ does not mean they were in Fiume, but rather that they 
aided D’Annunzio’s followers from Volosko-Opatija, as the Giuseppe Tosi folder 
held at the Vittoriale seems to indicate.60 In any case, the age of the seven Liburnian 
legionnaires reveals that they were relatively young (the oldest one born in 1882 
and the youngest born in 1898), a feature that was not shared by Oscarre Suban. 
The last figure, celebrated later as the “peerless leader of the Circolo 3 Novembre” 
(Costantino, 1936, 24), was a Trieste-born Italian nationalist engaged in violent 
prewar activities, such as attacks on German national organizations in Trieste 
(Klabjan, 2018, 994). Suban, however, had settled in Liburnia in 1907,61 and came 
to be considered a key figure for connections between Fiume and Volosko. The 
other figure organizing those contacts was Nicola Perugini, again member of the 
Circolo 3 Novembre, mentioned alongside Suban as commanding the legionnaires 
that welcomed D’Annunzio and his troops in Fiume. Cleary a portion of local Ital-
ian nationalists radicalized, but this resulted with evident disagreements inside the 
Italian leadership.
57 For pertinency cf. Reill et al., 2022.
58 DARI 616, CDVo, AG, b. 54, Volontari Liburnici, Minute dei telegrammi.  
59 https://fiume.vittoriale.it/wp–content/uploads/2019/04/archivi–elenco–dei–legionari.pdf (last access: 
2022-06-05). Valdini’s name doest not apper on the list, as he requested the status in 1940. Cf. AGF, 
S. III, Legionari e legionarie, fascicolo Valdini Livio.
60 AGF, S. III, Legionari e legionarie, fascicolo Tosi Giuseppe.
61 DARI 536, AZ, Scheda per il comune di Volosca–Abbazia di Suban Oscarre, Residente nel Comune di Vo-
losca–Abbazia dall’anno 1907, e Scheda individuale per il comune di Fiume di Suban Oscarre, provenienza 
e data d’iscrizione: Volosca Abbazia im. 126/1927. Da 8/IV/1927.
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At the end of December 1920, on the beginning of the open conflict between 
D’Annunzio’s legionnaires and the Italian army, at an extraordinary Circolo con-
gress – attended by only 43 individuals – the entire executive board resigned.62 Sig-
nificantly, a few days before, at the Circolo’s ordinary congress, the Volosca Fascist 
Party was established.63 It would not come as a surprise if the Circolo’s members 
enthusiastically enlisted in the fascist movement, but the fascio’s own executive 
board seems rather to show a change in the leadership rather than a continuity 
with the immediate postwar associations (Costantino, 1936, 25-26). The Circolo’s 
same executive board experienced some changes, noticeable from July 1920 when 
Suban signed on as president and Tomassich as secretary, while in December of 
the same year Nicola Perugini is reported as the vice president and Oliviero Vocina 
as member of the board. As shown, all four D’Annunzio supporters. An evident 
radicalization continued with the constitution of the Fascist Party, and violent 
actions against political opponents from the end of 1920 increased as Domenico 
Costantino’s Abbazia e la riviera nella prima ora (Abbazia and the Riviera in the 
First Hour, 1936), fascist publication celebratory of violence, testifies. It could 
be argued that this outcome was a legacy and a side effect of Italian military sup-
port for nationalist groups combined with existing local violent elements (Suban) 
and the engagement of a young generation, eager to embrace radical nationalist 
solutions (Klabjan, 2018, 994). Besides or rather simultaneously to the story of 
radicalization, Volosko-Opatija’s post-Habsburg transition to the Italian state is a 
successful account of ascension to power of local Italian nationalists. 
CONCLUSION: THE BEST ELEMENTS OF ITALIANNESS 
INSTITUTIONAL RECOGNITION
As we saw, in January 1919, the municipality of Volosko-Opatija was com-
missioned. A year later, the municipality was still under the supervision of a civil 
commissioner, the third in a row. By June 1920 the commissioner of the provincial 
board of Istria suggested to the district commissioner to appoint a municipal board 
to assist the special commissioner of the municipality. Given the local political 
situation – in June 1920 the state belonging of the district was still not settled by 
a peace treaty – the proposal was discharged by the district commissioner. Finally, 
almost a month after the Treaty of Rapallo was signed, district and provincial 
authorities exchanged correspondence on the regularization of the municipal ad-
ministration of Volosko-Opatija. On February 2, 1921, the first post-war municipal 
board of Volosko-Opatija was definitely appointed by the Venezia Giulia Governor. 
However, it was not a manifestation of a popular vote: the board’s composition 
was suggested by the district commissioner and relevant Croatian politicians were 
62 DARI 616, CDVo, AG, b. 54, Verbale dell’assemblea straordinaria tenutasi d’urgenza la sera del 26 
dicembre 1920 alle 17:30.
63 La Voce dell’Istria, 18.12.1920: Da Volosca. La costituzione del fascio di combattimento nella Liburnia, 1.
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excluded from the new board since they demanded a greater number of total board 
representatives and the election of the commissioner.64 The seven postwar board 
members – without the commissioner serving as the eighth member – was made 
up of four Italian national representatives (Nicola Perugini, Giuseppe Tomsich, 
Ruggero Sandri, and Noè Percich) alongside three politically unengaged figures 
(Edmondo Jelusich [Edmond Jelušić], a photographer, Rodolfo Conrad [Rudolph 
Conrad], a tax officer, and Giuseppe [Josef] Lokey, a hotel owner). The Italian 
preponderance was evident; Ruggero Sandri was appointed as the commissioner’s 
substitute, while Lokey, Conrad, and Jelusich all resigned in a few months.65 In 
practical terms, the Volosko-Opatija municipality was reduced to four deputies, all 
members of the Circolo 3 Novembre. It was the formal recognition of the successful 
rise of local Italian nationalists to power. 
The Italian military occupation of the district was indeed a turning point for 
the political life of Volosko-Opatija. The occupation was not merely the first stage 
towards the establishment of Italian sovereignty, but also a moment of Italianiza-
tion and the slow rise to power of the local Italian nationalists. From the end of 
1918, local leading Italian nationalist figures quickly organized an association – the 
Circolo 3 Novembre – immediately becoming the privileged interlocutor of the 
Italian occupational authorities. This society enjoyed financial and moral support, 
influenced authorities’ decisions, and reversed the local political balance in their 
favor. There was also a side effect of this form of power transition. The Italian 
military support for nationalists in an officially still unsettled area proved to be an 
incentive for political radicalization. The encouragement of paramilitary formations 
guided by nationalists was a step towards a larger deployment of violence, foment-
ing solutions contrary to the liberal state, and thus creating favorable conditions for 
the nascent fascist movement. While the case study of Volosko-Opatija confirms, at 
the local scale, the entangled political dynamics typical for the transition from the 
Habsburg Empire to the Italian state at the regional level, it underlines the agency 
of certain locals in the transition process. The analyzed case of the Circolo 3 No-
vembre association demonstrates how transition was an opportunity for local Italian 
national activists to successfully present themselves to the receptive authorities as 
representatives of a “national community” at the local level, strengthening their 
Habsburg-period positions of power. At least until the rise and consolidation of the 
fascist regime, it can be argued that local Italian nationalists were able to expand 
their positions of power in the new, local postwar Italian context.
64 DARI 616, CDVo, AG, b. 57, N. 232/658, Decreto di nomina della Giunta comunale del Commissario 
generale civile per la Venezia Giulia, Trieste, 2.2.1921.
65 Lokey, for flawed Italian language knowledge, resigned in May. Conrad, for reasons of service and multiple 
commitments, and Jelusich, for disagreements on administrative questions and issues regarding supplies, 
both resigned in June 1921. DARI 616, CDVo, AG, b. 57, Commissario straordinario per il Comune di 
Volosca–Abbazia al Commissario Generale Civile in Trieste e per tramite del Commissariato Civile dis-
trettuale in Volosca, Dimissioni di Lokey Giuseppe, Volosca, 26.5.1921, Copia delle dimissioni di Conrad 
Rodolfo, Volosca, 17.6.1921 and Copia delle dimissioni di E. Jelussich, Volosca, 17.6.1921.
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I MIGLIORI ELEMENTI D’ITALIANITÀ. VZPON LOKALNE POLITIČNE MOČI 
IN ITALIJANIZACIJA V PRVIH LETIH PO PRVI SVETOVNI VOJNI 
V VOLOSKO–OPATIJI, 1918–1920
Ivan JELIČIĆ
Inštitut za politično zgodovino, Villányi út 11-13, 1114 Budimpešta, Madžarska
e–mail: jelicich.ivan@gmail.com
POVZETEK
Članek analizira naraščanje moči lokalne italijanske politične skupine v istrski 
občini Volosko–Opatija/Volosca–Abbazia. Študija primera kaže kako so v obdobju, ki 
je sledilo vojni, lokalni italijanski nacionalisti s pomočjo društva Circolo 3 Novembre 
vplivali na odločitve občinskih in okrožnih oblasti in postajali priviligiran partner in 
pritiskali na oblast. Njihov trud so simbolično in materialno podpirale italijanske 
okupacijske oblasti in su članovi društva obrnuli lokalno politično ravnovesje v svojo 
korist. Neglede na to so se odnosi z nekaterimi lokalnimi italijanskimi nacionalisti 
skozi čas slabšali. Podpora, ki so jo vojaške oblasti zagotavljale nacionalistom je 
bila v tej sporni regiji in ob nestabilni italijanski politični situaciji vzvod za politič-
no radikalizacijo. Paravojaška skupina nacionalistov, ki je imela podporo vojske, 
pomagala je v D‘Annunziovom okupaciji Reke in imela ulogu v ustvaranju lokalne 
fašistične organizacije. Vendar so najuglednejši predstavniki lokalne italijanske 
skupine nacionalistov uspele pridobiti institucionalno prepoznavnost, saj so bili 
delegirani kot člani novega mestnega sveta in s tem na glavo postavili razmerja moči 
v prejšnjem, habsburškem obdobju.
Ključne besede: Julijska krajina, nacionalizacija, italijanizacija, Volosko–Opatija/
Volosca–Abbazia, Circolo 3 Novembre, politična radikalizacija
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