ANNALES • Ser. hist, socio!. • 10 • 2000 • 2 (22) 
ZAPISI, POROČILA IN O C E N E / N O T E , RELAZIONI E RECENSTONI / NOTES, REPORTS AND REVIEWS, 575-603 
lok o oddaji v gospodarjenje gozdov in gozdnih zem-
ljišč v družbeni lastnini in gozdov, na katerih je last-
ninska pravica na območju občine Postojna, Gozdnemu 
gospodarstvu Postojna, 
Enak odlok je sprejela Skupščina občine Ilirska 
Bistrica 4. 4, 1966. 
Tudi Skupščina občine Logatec je 18. 3. 1967 spre-
jela sklep, da odda gozdove in gozdna zemljišča v 
družbeni lastnini Gozdnima gospodarstvoma Ljubljana 
in Postojna. 
Zaradi neujemanja občinskih mej in mej gozdnih 
gospodarstev je prišlo do spora med G G Ljubljana in 
Postojna. Spor je bil rešen z odločbo, sprejeto 28. 8. 
1967, ki je dodelila GF Ravnik GG Ljubljana, del druž-
benih gozdov k. o. Kožljek in Bezulak GG Ljubljana, 
del pa GG Postojna, medtem ko so zasebni gozdovi v 
k.o. Kožljek in Bezulak v celoti pripadli h G G Postojna. 
Novo razmejitev med G G Postojna in Zavodom za 
pogozdovanje in melioracijo Krasa so opravili že leta 
1966. 
• Mislim, da v kasnejšem obdobju ni prihajalo do 
večjih sprememb, vsaj kar se imena in mej podjetja tiče, 
VIRI: 
Odločba OLO Gorica št, 03/2780S/1 - 57. 
Odločba o Gozdnih gospodarstvih LRS. 
Odloki: - Skupščine občine Ilirska Bistrica, dne 4. 4. 
1966. 
- Skupščine občine Logatec, dne 18. 3. 1967. 
- Skupščine občine Postojna, dne 4. 4. 1954. 
Odredbi Uprave državnih gozdov Slovenskega primorja, 
dne 8. 4. 1946 indneS. 2. 1947. 
Sklepa Delavskega sveta GGP, dne 14. 2. 1962 in dne 
11.12. 1962. 
Sklepi: - Skupščine občine Cerknica, dne 19.11.1963. 
- Skupščine občine Ilirska Bistrica, decembra 1963-
- Skupščine občine Postojna, dne 26. 12. 1963. 
Uradni listi FLRj: - št. 437/62-1946. 
-Št. 773/106 - 1946. 
-št. 46-419/50. 
Gozdni gospodar 1973. 
Egon Pelrkan 
International scientific meeting: CAUSES AND EFFECTS 
FOR THE MIGRATIONS OF PEOPLE FROM SLOVENE 
ISTRA AFTER WORLD WAR II. Science and Research 
Centre of the Republic of Slovenia, Koper, June 9 th 2000 
On june 9 * 2000, an international conference 
bearing the above title was held by Slovene and Italian 
historians on the premises of the Regional Museum in 
Koper. Organised by the Science and Research Centre 
of the Republic of Slovenia Koper in cooperation with 
the Department of Geographical and Historical Sciences 
of the Trieste University, the Institute of Modern History 
from Ljubljana and the Littoral Historians Society, it at 
the same time constituted the concluding part of the 
work on the European project "PHARE CBC and INTER-
REG II, SLOVENIA - ITALY". 
Twelve historians took part in a discussion dealing 
with the complex events within the area of the "movable 
boundary", i.e. with the causes and effects of various 
political changes that had an impact on the migrations 
of people in the Giulia region from World War I till the 
final delimitation between the two states. The papers 
read at the conference were geographically focused on 
that particular part of the Giulia region that today be-
longs to the Republic of Slovenia, i.e. primarily on the 
wider districts of Koper, Izola and Piran. 
As far as the Slovene historians were concerned, the 
conference also constituted, as already said, the con-
cluding part of the above mentioned project lasting one 
year, while to the Italian colleagues it was in effect only 
its beginning, for the project was indeed entered jointly, 
but they began to work on it almost a year later (it was 
not their fault). The Slovene historians thus presented 
their yearly work on the project, while the Italians ac-
quainted us with the work carried out to date and par-
ticularly with the plans for the project in the ensuing 
year. Apart from this they presented the results of some 
analyses that had been prepared by their researchers in 
the last few years and were in terms of their contents in 
tine with the project's framework ( Secret census of 
"nonindigenous" peopfe in the Giulia region in 1939, 
immigration of Italians from the Italian interior to the 
Giulia region after 1920, etc.). 
The first to appear in front of the gathered historians 
was Raoul Pupo from the University of Trieste - with the 
paper entitled Views of the latest Italian historiography 
on the emigrations from Istra (Orientamenti delta piu 
recente storiografia itafiana sull'esodo istriano). 
In his opinion, the exodus was in fact a constituent 
part of the process of continental extent and should thus 
be talked about in the context of the movements of 
people that took place after World War II and involved 
millions of people. In order to understand it, we should 
empiace it in the period beginning with the end of 
World War I. In the history of the Giulia region, the 
speaker argued, this was the turning point, the time 
when the mechanism felt apart that had enabled devel-
opment of local society and when the period of demo-
graphic stagnation began, in which the Giulia region 
was no longer attractive for potential immigrants but, on 
the contrary, began to exile its inhabitants. 
The speaker further argued that the "exodus" could 
be basically defined as a phenomenon of a mass ban-
ishment of an ethnic group from its original homeland, 
yet was not caused by official procedures but by persis-
tent pressures of the environment. Even the pace of exo-
577 
ANNALES • Ser. hist, socio!. • 10 • 2000 • 2 (22) 
ZAPESI, P O R O Ô I A IN OCËNË / NOTE, RE IAZIONI E RECENSION1 / NOTES, REPORTS AND REVIEWS, 575-603 
dus, he insisted, is different in different periods, although 
the causes are diverse, for mass migrations occurred 
every time when the belief began to prevail amongst the 
Italian population that the Yugoslav supremacy was fi-
nal. Here we should not neglect the political aspects, for 
they played the main part in the people's decision to 
migrate. This is why that particular process should be 
studied, in which the destiny of the Italians was being 
decided, as well as the structure, mentality and conduct 
of the authorities, i.e. at the level of institutions as well 
as at the level of political parties. 
The second speaker, Piero Purini (Trieste), presented 
his paper entitled Migration movements in the Giulia 
region after World War I (I movimenti migratori della 
Venezia Giulia dopo la prima guerra rnondiaie) 
The young Italian historian spoke about explicitly 
strong migration movement triggered off in Trieste im-
mediately after the fall of the Habsburg empire. The 
German-speaking community, which was composed 
mainly of civil servants, almost dispersed due to the very 
numerous departures in the direction of the new Aus-
trian republic and especially Vienna. The emigration of 
this community was no doubt hastened by certain 
measures against it, introduced by the new Italian 
authorities that greatly discriminated the German-
speaking merchants. 
There were some great pressures on the Slovene and 
Croatian inhabitants to leave, which eventually caused a 
mass migration of a very high number of 
"nonindigenous" people to Yugoslavia and Argentina. A 
quantitative assessment, however, is unfortunately ex-
tremely problematic in this case as well. In the speaker's 
opinion, the Italian historiography had greatly neglected 
this phenomenon, while Yugoslav historiography had 
often used the data for political purposes and thus made 
a true assessment of this phenomenon very difficult. The 
official statistical data are also distinctly inadequate, for 
apart from the fact that those who left were not distin-
guished according to their ethnic allegiance, they ap-
pear as completely non-existent in the 1918-1920 pe-
riod. During the emigration of the non-ttaiian popula-
tion, a mass immigration from Italy was taking place; the 
speaker expressed his opinion that more than 130,000 
Italians (50,000 of these to the district of Trieste) immi-
grated to the Giulia region between 1918 and 1931. 
(This thesis was in fact in contrast to the opinion of 
the previous speaker, who stated that after World War I 
the Giulia region become unattractive for potential im-
migrants.) 
The third speaker, Egon Peltkan (Science and Re-
search Centre Koper) presented his paper entitled Secret 
census carried out in 1933 in the Giulia region by the 
Primorska clergy gathered in the Convention of St. 
Paul's Priests. This was the very first presentation of the 
census carried out in 1933 by the Slovene and Croatian 
clergy gathered in the above mentioned Convention. 
This took place at the time (in the beginning of the 
1930s) when the rank organisation of the Primorska 
(Littoral) clergy had already been united in the Secret. 
Christian-Social Organisation. It originated with a 
merger of the Slovene Christian-socials political organi-
sation and rank organisation of the Slovene and Croa-
tian clergy (i.e. Christian-social political society 
"Edinost" and the Convention of St. Paul's Priests in the 
early 1930s), aiming at a secret national-defence activi-
ties with declared irredentist objectives. In the 30s, the 
organisation was the key element of the national-de-
fence resistance to the denationa! pressures by fascism 
in the Giulia region. In 1936, 276 Slovene and Croatian 
priests were affiliated to the Convention of St. Paul's 
Priests, it is the only statistics prepared for the Giulia re-
gion by Slovenes and Croats during the two wars. 
According to the available archival materials, the 
census was carried out by Slovene and Croatian clergy 
"on the basis of a survey of parish registers", namely for 
all, even the smallest settlements in the Giulia region.: 
The priests pooled the data at the level of parishes, 
deaneries, dioceses and in the end of the entire Giulia 
region. On the basis of the figures in parish churches in 
1933, the statistics shows 545,541 "Yugoslavs" and 
455,389 Italians living in the Giulia region. It consists of 
5 volumes with lists for separate parishes, thus enabling 
also a control over the numbers of the Slovenes and 
Croatians separately. The aim of a special chapter in the 
statistics was to change the ethnic picture in the Church 
of the Giulia region. 
Francesca Krasna (University of Trieste) presented 
her treatise Observations on the 1939 secret census of 
nonindigenous inhabitants in the Giulia region {Alcune 
osservazioni in merito al censimento riservato degli 
"allogeni" def 1939) and gave an account on the last 
official census carried out by Italians in the same region 
in 1921, when it still comprised the so-called 
"nationality section". 
Pio Nodari (University of Trieste) read his paper 
entitled Census of istran refugees and the state of affairs 
in the Koper district after World War I! (I! censimento 
dei profughi istriani e la situazione del Capodistriano 
nei secondo dopoguerra. ) 
Mr. Nodari, who heads the Department of Geogra-
phy at the Trieste University, presented, as a leader of 
the Italian part of the project, some basic orientations in 
the investigations carried out within the framework of 
the Italian part of the interreg II Italy-Slovenia pro-
gramme. The background of research of the Italian col-
leagues was the census of the refugees from the Giulia 
region and Dalmatia, carried in 1955 by the organisa-
tion "Opera profughi". The statistics are kept in the Cen-
tral State Archives in Rome and include the carried out 
census as well as some more or less accurate data on 
separate refugees (more than 200,000 cases). 
As explained by Mr. Nodari, the Italian historians 
578 
ANNALES • Ser. hist, sociol. • 10 • 2000 - 2 (22) 
ZAPI5I, P O R O O I A IN OCENE / NOTE, RELAZIONI E RECENSION! / NOTES, REPORTS A N D REVIEWS, 5 7 M 0 3 
wili survey, during the first part of their research, the lists 
of refugees from the district of the Koper city council. 
Their personal data (e.g. age, sex, brth particulars, place 
of birth, profession, permanent address, etc.) wil! be 
gathered in database suitable for computer statistical 
processing. The database should then be applicable, 
said Mr. Nodari, for a more detailed and multistratified 
analysis of the "exodus phenomenon" in the Koper as 
well as Trieste districts. 
Nevenka Troha (Institute of Modern History in Ljub-
ljana) presented her treatise entitled The measures taken 
by Yugoslav authorities in Zones B of the Giulia region 
and Free Territory of Trieste, and the Italians in the Ko-
per district, dealing with the measures by Yugoslav 
authorities that had an indirect impact on the migration 
of Italians from the part of the Giulia region that be-
longed to Yugoslavia. She asserted that that the Slovene 
part of Zone B of the Giulia region covered extensive 
and utterly Slovene districts and that it was only the Ko-
per district that was ethnically mixed (Slovene-Italian) at 
that time. 
With certain limitations (for some international 
stipulations in respect of the occupied districts were 
considered), the Yugoslav administration of Zone B took 
a number of measures to enforce people's power. These 
were of "class" character but more often affected, due to 
their social structure, the Italians than the Slovenes or 
the Croats. Such were, for example, the measures on the 
deserters' property, on confiscations, abolition of land-
tenant relations, agrarian reform, annulment of auctions 
and forced disappropriation. 
While respecting bilinguality and national rights of 
the Italians, the Military Administration and civil 
authorities kept dividing people, in the sense of the slo-
gan "those who are not with us are against us", between 
those loyal to them, i.e. Slovenes and "honest demo-
cratic Italians", and between adversaries that were gen-
erally called "fascists". In order to make the latter inca-
pacitated, they often chose no means, e.g. arrested 
them, dismissed from services, took their civil and po-
litical rights, made it very difficult for them to enter Zone 
A. The Italians were also often vexed, largely due to the 
fact that during fascism the great majority of them living 
there either openly supported fascism or stayed passive 
during various measures taken by fascist authorities to 
thwart national awareness of the Slovenes. Thus some 
very cold relations and sometimes even hatred existed 
between the Italian and Slovene (Croatian) inhabitants. 
janez Kramar (Koper) presented his paper entitled 
Migrations from Izola during 1945-1956. Fie asserted 
that between the fall of fascism (July 25th 1943) and the 
national liberation mainly those migrated from this area 
who feared vengeance due to their deeds against the 
Istran Slovenes. Amongst the emigrants there were also 
a number of Italian land tenants. One of the reasons for 
leaving was also the hatred of the Slovene and Croatian 
peasants who for national and social reasons had joined 
the National Liberation Movement 
After the liberation, many emigrated from Zone B. 
The Italian emigration, however, depicted this as a flight 
of the people who had to run, including those who had 
settled in Izola during the war because of air raids. 882 
inhabitants of Izola emigrated to Italy at that time. 
The second period of migrations after that prior to 
1945 took place during 1948 and 1952, although to 
much lesser extent. The empty houses and flats were 
settled by immigrants. 
The period between the end of 1953 and 1956 can 
be according to the speaker denoted as the time of truly 
mass migrations from Izola. At the end of his presenta-
tion he promised that a list of 7273 inhabitants of Izola 
would be published, who in accordance with the data 
from Italian archives left: Izola during the fall of fascism 
and the end of 1956. 
Jure GombaC (Faculty of Philosophy Ljubljana) pre-
sented the treatise entitled Migrations from Koper and its 
vicinity during 1954-1956. He illuminated the events at 
the time when a memorandum on the consensus be-
tween the governments of Italy, Great Britain, USA and 
Yugoslavia on the Free Territory of Trieste was initialled 
on October 5 l i l 1954 after some very prolonged talks, 
negotiations and threats with clash of arms. A memo-
randum on the agreement in which the governments of 
both countries were instructed, in nine articles, how to 
divide the territory as well as how to deal with the 
newly annexed land and the people living there was 
also signed.. Namely, on the basis of Article 8 of the 
memorandum these people were given a year to decide 
whether to gather their property, leave their homes and 
leave for a new country, or to stay and try their luck in 
the places in which they lived. 
All those Italians who did not wish to leave their 
homes and decided to "preserve the Italian language 
and culture", as promised to them in the constitution of 
the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and in the 8 articles 
of the London Memorandum, were invited to build, 
together with their Slovene and Croatian brothers, 
socialism in the new homeland. Alt those, on the other 
hand, who had been from 1945 on leaving their 
firesides in Rijeka, Pula, Rovinj, zadar, Umag, Piran and 
Koper for unknown destiny, were advised to think it 
over once more and not to succumb to the propaganda 
by the CLN. 
The majority of the applications to leave the former 
Zone B of the Free Territory of Trieste for Italy was from 
October 26ih 1954 on dealt with and granted without 
any major problems, especially if the applicants were of 
the Italian nationality. 
Ivica Pletikosic (Science and Research Centre Koper) 
wrote and presented his paper entitled Migrations from 
Piran during 1941-1956. He believes that it would be 
difficult to find, in the history of this littoral town, mi-
579 
ANNALES • Ser. hist, socio}. • 10 • 2000 • 2 (22) 
ZAPISI, PORO&LA IN OCEIME / NOTE, RELAZiONl E RECENSIONI / NOTES, REPORTS AND REVIEWS, 575-603 
grationaiiy more vivacious time as was this period from 
the beginning of the war to the eariy 1961. 
The author based his research on the sources kept in 
the Piran town archives, on the materials provided by 
the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia in 
Ljubljana, and on the materiais kept in the Koper city 
library. He pointed out the following migration waves in 
the town of Piran: 
Even before the fascist forces attacked the Kingdom 
of Yugoslavia, the inhabitants of Rijeka began to retract 
to safety, initially those best, informed. And some of 
these made use of the empty Piran holiday capacities. 
At the turn of 1943, Piran was reached by a new 
wave of refugees from Zadar. They must have really been 
pushed on, for this was the only migration wave in the 
dealt with period. Until the end of the war, Piran also 
accepted a mass of refugees from Pula, most of them in 
the very last two months of the European butchery. 
Until the Anglo-American note was issued on Octo-
ber 1953, the majority of the Piran people hoped 
that the town would be given to Italy. When all hopes 
were finally shattered on that particular day, the inhabi-
tants began to leave their town in large numbers. In the 
autumn of 1953, the first great wave (500 people) was 
triggered off. Over the winter the migrations were then 
reduced, but culminated again in the summer of 1954 
(900 people). The entire story was repeated in the ensu-
ing year (summer wave of 1100 people) and ended in 
the spring of 1956. Only 500 indigenous inhabitants 
remained in the town. 
By 1961 the consequences of these mass migrations 
were at least partially mitigated. This was also the pe-
riod, when the town was Slovenised to the greatest ex-
tent (later on it was being increasingly Yugoslavianised). 
Boris M. Gombac (Science and Research Centre Ko-
per) is the author of the treatise entitled Migrations from 
Monfalcone during 1945-1948, in which he presented 
the political background of numerous Italians leaving for 
Yugoslavia between 1945 and 1948. According to the 
author, this great migration involved a few thousand 
Italian souls and affected one of the greater industrial 
centres in the Giulia region. People were leaving their 
birthplaces in Monfalcone and surrounding villages of 
the lowland Friuli in the vice of semifeudai farming 
conditions and great crisis in shipbuilding to find social 
justice in the promising country. They were leaving 
firmly convinced that life over there would be better, that 
in the country of socialism no poverty would pursue 
them. 
The names of emigrants, their birth particulars, 
names of their fathers and places of residence are in his 
opinion an excellent profile of the Monfalcone society 
of that time. 
Sandi Volk (Institute for Ethnic Issues) made his 
appearance with the treatise CLN1 and exodus from 
Zone B of the Free Territory of Trieste (Organisational 
proposals to the Italian government for the admission 
and settling of the refugees from May 1954). 
The treatise deals with those standpoints of the CLNl 
- National Liberation Committee for istra (Comitato di 
liberazione nazionale dell'lstria) - that refer to the solu-
tion of the problems arising due to the arrival of Istran 
refugees. The author analysed the document from May 
1954 kept in File No. 65 in the Commissariato Generale 
del Governo v Archivio di Stato di Trieste, with which 
the CLNl presented its proposals regarding the settling of 
refugees from Zone 8, who began, after the American 
note issued on October 8Eh 1953, a mass migration to 
Zone A of the Free Territory of Trieste. In this 24 pages 
long typescript the problem is presented comprehen-
sively and in great detail. Proceeding from the assess-
ment that the measures to solve the refugee problems 
were from 1945 on unsystematic and improvised, the 
CLNl laid down a number of suppositions: delay in set-
tling the refugees will not dissuade the Italians from 
leaving Zone B and will bring certain political advan-
tage only the Yugoslav side, the communists and 
"indipendists"; temporary solutions and measures must 
have as short-term character as possible and must be 
directed towards a final solution of the refugee problem; 
to achieve this, a considerable intervention by the state 
will be needed, and the state means must be used pri-
marily to stop the strong Italian nuclei in the Trieste and 
Gorizia districts; as many refugees as possible must be 
settled in Trieste or as near to Yugoslavia as possible, or 
as near to the Free Territory of Trieste as possible. Mak-
ing of the entire settling plan must be ceded to a special 
office within the government's presidency itself, while 
its actual implementation must be left to the following 
three institutions: Ente Tre Venezie (Institution for Three 
Veneto regions) that would attend to the settling of. 
farmers, Consorzio nazionale fra cooperative pescatori e 
affini (National consortia of Fishing Co-operatives) that 
would take care of the fishermen, and Opera per 
I'assistenza ai profughi giuliani e daimati (Institution for. 
the Aid to the Istran and Dalmatian Refugees) that would 
attempt to find jobs for tradesmen and small merchants 
as well as to solve any other problems regarding all Is-
tran refugees. The final aim of this plan was, apart from 
the ultimate solution of the refugee issue, to preserve the 
refugee communities and their social structure. 
The author asserted that this CLNl plan soon became 
a kind of a guidance for the Italian government in the 
attempt to solve the refugee problem, for its directives 
and some actual proposals were approved already at the 
meeting held on August 7 th 1954 in Rome by the repre-
sentative of the Ministerial Council, the CLNl and the 
above mentioned institutions. Although not in full and 
with some not negligible deviations, this plan is still 
recognisable in all measures and actual solutions that:; 
the Italian government accepted in the ensuing years for ; 
a final solution of the refugee problem. 
580 
ANNALES • Ser. hist sociol. • 10 • 2000 • 2 (22) 
ZAPISI, POROČILA IN O C E N E / N O T E , RE IAZ IONI E RECENSION) / NOTES, REPORTS A N D REVIEWS, 373-603 
The last historian to appear at the conference was 
Alessandra Argenti Tremul (Koper) with her paper enti-
tled An analysts of migrations from northwestern Istra on 
the basis of official papers published at that time. The 
sources upon which she based her research were the 
papers published in Italian language by the Yugoslav 
authorities between 1945 and 1956. The authoress be-
lieves that with an analysis of the articles published at 
that time it can be assessed that the responsibility for the 
exodus (mass migration by the Italian population from 
northwestern Istra) was being ascribed to the Italian 
government, which functioned primarily through CLNIs. 
As the main reasons for this exodus, the Yugoslav papers 
stated "the loss of their privileged positions inside the 
society", "political irredentic activities and Italian propa-
ganda", "national feelings of the Italians", "strong kinship 
and economic ties between the littoral belt and Trieste" 
and "reinstatement of the socialist order in Yugoslavia". 
In a long discussion that followed, the following 
historians also took part: Milica Kacin Wohinz (Institute 
of Modern History Ljubljana), jože Pirjevec (Trieste-ZRS 
Koper), Roberto Spazzaii (University oí Trieste), Anna 
Maria Vinci (University of Trieste), Milan Gregorič 
(Koper), Nevenka Troha (Institute of Modern History 
Ljubljana), Egon Pelikan (ZRS Koper) and a number of 
other people. 
Amongst the most interesting appearances during the 
long discussion was no doubt that of jože Pirjevec, who 
with his lifelong experiences called attention of the pre-
sent to the fact that the Italian project of counting the 
emigrants from the Giulia region would probably come 
across the same cases as was the case of his father. 
Namely, in the list of optants that the statistics will 
reckon among "esuli" there will appear the Slovene 
Pierazzi from Sežana who first of all had had his surname 
changed with a decree by the fascist authorities and then 
retreated, under the communist rule, to Trieste as a 
successful merchant, it thus will not be possible to simply 
reckon all the refugees among Italians - "esuli" - merely 
on the basis of the names Italianised by the fascist 
authorities. And if there were up to 30% of emigrants of 
Slovene and Croatian nationality among them, the myth 
about "merely Italian exodus" of course quickly changes 
not only in quantitative but also in contentuai sense. 
One of the critics (or rather observations) expressed 
at the conference by a number of participants was that 
Croatian historians should be also present at the meet-
ings of this kind. This is of course true from the conten-
tuai as well as professional standpoints, although it 
should be taken into consideration that in this case we 
were dealing with a Phare programme which stipulated 
cooperation between Italian and Slovene historians (as 
also evident from the title of the conference). It is hoped, 
however, that an opportunity will arise in the near future 
to organise a meeting at which our Croatian colleagues 
could also take part. 
We, the organisers, sincerely hope that a conference 
will be held soon, at which our Croatian colleagues 
could take part as well. Namely, it has to be underlined 
that the issue of migration from Croatian Istra and Dal-
matia is a problem with quantitatively very different di-
mensions. And it would probably be very useful if the 
Italian public as well as politics are made to understand 
this, ft is therefore perhaps even right that we, the Slo-
venes, are occupied primarily with historical problems 
that concern us directly. In this sense, let me say that 
Slovenia can deal with migrations from its today's terri-
tory that was relatively small, with minority (without 
rights) that after World War II remained in the Republic 
of Italy and a number of times "overpaid" the number of 
emigrants who declared themselves, when leaving its 
territory, Italian nationals. 
At the end let me mention a couple of facts and 
questions that are indeed relative to the historical pro-
fession merely as the latest historical issues and were 
not an actual subject at the conference but were raised 
in the ensuing discussion. 
During the discussion, the Koper journalist Milan 
Gregorie agreed with the introductory speaker that the 
fstran exodus should be placed into a wider context of 
European migrations, which were caused by World war 
II, but that the present political comparison should then 
be observed in the light of the European context. Ac-
cording to his words, a comparison with the Sudeten 
exodus would be most eloquent. While from some two 
hundred to two hundred and fifty Istrans left their 
homeland in a ten-year period (from 1945 to 1956) 
mostly with the option to chose the nationality in accor-
dance with the international stipulations, some three 
million Sudeten Germans were exiled in a tittle more 
than a year. The plans for this exile were made prior to 
the war; they were published in a special memorandum 
by the Czech government and were given a concrete 
political support by the Allies. All this mass of people 
was robbed, virtually overnight, of the citizenship with a 
decree issued by the President of the Czech Republic, 
while the exile itself was organised by the Czech gov-
ernment. In the autumn of 1946, some thousand railway 
compositions were prepared to leave for the West. A 
similar case was the exile of 32,000 Germans from Brno 
to the Austrian border, except that these exiles had to 
leave on foot. During the journey a few tens of these 
unfortunate people died each day of hunger, illness, 
revenge, etc. In this sense it should be pointed out, said 
the speaker, that the Istrans had their movable and par-
tially unmoveable property at their disposal. Prior to the 
departure they were able to sell their real property, and 
in cases when nationalised real estates were in question, 
Yugoslavia had enacted the principle of indemnity, al-
though the optants were not satisfied with it. The Sude-
ten Germans, on the other hand, were completely ex-
propriated. They lost everything and even had to give 
ANNALCS • Ser. hist, socio!. • tO • 2000 • 2 (22) 
ZAPIS!, POROČILA IN OCENE / NOTE, RELAZIONI T RECENSIONI ! NOTES, REPORTS A N D REVIEWS, 575-603 
away their securities, precious metal, pieces of art, etc. 
Apart from it: all, Germany fully resigned, with a le-
gal deed, from all property claims as well as from any 
indemnities, while Slovenia and Croatia have been un-
der a constant pressure in connection with the property 
of the optants, for which they have been scrupulously 
paying the indemnity ... 
The speaker also pointed out that the thesis about 
the ethnic cleansing and the ''Balkan manners" has been 
supported even by the moderate Italian politics; in this 
respect he called our attention to the standpoints of Ro-
co Buttiglione in the European Parliament and his 
"appeal" to the President of the Slovene Republic. 
If I myself am allowed to make a comparison with 
the events in our immediate neighbourhood, the exodus 
of the Istran Italians (or Sudeten Germans, or "Slovene" 
Germans) seems to me, in a historical perspective and in 
some aspects, truly comparable with the present course 
of events in the Balkans. The "Balkan manner" of the 
exodus can be in the historical perspective seen also in 
a more instmctive way. The exodus of Italians (from Istra 
arid Dalmatia) as well as of Serbs (from Kosovo, Sla~ 
vonia, Dalmatia, etc.) or German ethnic minorities took 
place - from historical perspective - only when states-
manly, cultLiral and political elites of the majority nation 
that were infatuated with their own superiority abused 
their minorities as an instrument for their own imperial-
istic pLirposes. In the case of our western neighbour, this 
happened, after World War I, through the annexation of 
territories densely populated by the Slovenes and Croats 
and, in World War II, through the aggression on the 
neighbouring country. The theory, according to which, 
for example, the colloquial language of the tenuous 
higher stratum of a littoral town implicitly defines the 
state allegiance of entire regions had after all led to 
Mussolini's conviction (he brought the idea to a logical 
conclusion) that the "righteous Italian border would run 
along the Dinaric ridge above Dalmatia...". And one of 
the very well known slogans, according to which 
"Serbian land spreads in all those places where Serbian 
graves are", was in effect derived from a very similar 
standpoint-
All these problems should of course be a matter of 
the past, a matter of history and historians. And this is 
why we are happy to except cooperation by our Italian 
colleagLies, who have been tackling these problems with 
historical distance and professional responsibility at: the 
same time. 
However, the politics of our neighbouring countries 
(Italy and Austria) is often the reason why even I, a his-
torian, sometimes think about these issues with mixed 
feelings. The myth about Austria, as the first victim of 
the Nazi Germany, as well as the myth about the 
"resistenza" that should cover all stupidities committed 
by the Italian state in the previous century on its eastern 
frontier are today showing us, with their political conse-
quences, how short is the way from the historical my-
thology to the political reality. In the historical profes-
sion, the myths can in a moment by far surpass the mere 
question of "hygiene in this profession" and become a 
wider or even general social phenomenon or trend. For 
this very reason it is also us, the Slovene historians, who 
should be especially concerned with them, not only 
with our own but also with the foreign ones. Czech his-
torians are probably in a much better position - they are 
lucky, for example, that their mighty neighbour has 
faced history in an utterly different way than our neigh-
bours -and this is good for us all. 
Vesna Gomezel Mikolič 
SLOVENSKI SLAVISTIČNI KONGRES V KOPRU. 
5.-7. oktober 2000. 
Kot za večino slovenskih slavističnih kongresov do-
slej je tudi za letošnjega, ki je poteka! v Kopru od 5. do 
7. oktobra v organizaciji Slavističnega društva Slovenije 
in Slavističnega društva Koper, bila značilna množič-
nost, tako z vidika predavateljev in drugih sodelujočih 
kot obiskovalcev. To je v uvodnem nagovoru in iz-
črpnem poročilu o delu Slavističnega društva Slovenije 
v zadnjem letu poudari! tudi dosedanji predsednik tega 
društva dr. Zoltan Jan, ki je bil na občnem zboru pred 
začetkom kongresa po dveletnem mandatu razrešen te 
funkcije in na čigar mesto je bil izvoljen dr. Marko je-
senšek s Pedagoške fakultete v Mariboru. Tako je na 
zborovanju sodelovalo kar 48 referentov, od tega 23 
doktorjev znanosti; na številnih prizoriščih, kjer so po-
tekale različne dejavnosti zborovanja, in sicer v Kristalni 
dvorani Hotela Koper, koprskem gledališču, Osrednji 
knjižnici Srečka Viiharja, knjigarni Libris, galeriji Loža, v 
prostorih Italijanske skupnosti, Kosmačevi hiši v Piranu 
i rt še kje, ter na strokovnih popotovanjih po koprskem 
mestnem jedru, zaledju Slovenske Istre, Krasu in 
Tržaškem pa je bilo vedno dovolj obiskovalcev. 
V uvodnem delu sta zbrane goste poleg dr. Zoltana 
Jana pozdravila tudi koprski župan Dino Pucer, ki se je s 
kratkim nagovorom v narečju lepo zlil z eno izmed 
osrednjih tem letošnjega kongresa, in dr. Lucija Čok, 
tedanja direktorica ZRS Koper in v.d. dekanice fakultete 
za humanistične študije v Kopru. Podelili so tudi na-
grade Slavističnega društva Slovenije, ki so jih za svoje 
zaslužno delo na področju slovenistike prejeli: dr. Agnie-
szka Bfidkowska-KopCzyk, dr. Mihaela Koletnik, prof. 
Marija Končina, prof. Vinko Omerzel in prof. Magda 
Stražišar. Za častne člane društva pa so razglasili: akad. 
prof. dr. janka Kosa (ki se sicer na imenovanje ni odzval 
in ga v Koper ni bilo), prof. Silva Faturja, prof. janeža 
Gradišnika in prof. dr. Zinko Zorko. Po uvodnem pre-
davanju akademika prof. dr. Borisa Paternuja o pogledih 
582