Izvorni znanstveni članak
Istria 1943
Mario Mikolić
Sažetak
In Istria the national liberation movement had started in 1941, under very difficult conditions of work, as that territory had still been belonging to Italy . The majority of members of CP of Italy had not yet accepted the idea of national up-risal in those parts as a method of fighting against fascism; they had done it only after the capitulation of Italy on 8th September and after the German occupation. Then CPC through its District Committee for Croatian Coastal Area took on the leadership of the national movement there. As the whole territory was under police and military control, their work was more than difficult. But, by 1943, the movement in Istria had spread largely, numerous volunteers from Istria had already joined the troops in Gorski Kotar, and as the eventual capitulation of Italy had been excepted, there grew a necessity for a politically autonomous movement in Istria. Forming of the separate committee for Istria inside the CPC was of vital importance, as it had succeeded, together with other organizations of NLM, to complete the preparations for a mass armed up-risal; the committee openly guided the up-risal from the announcement of the capitulation of Italy.
10th March 1943 is taken as the date of creation of that committee in the village of Karojba. The date had been decided on from the narrations of the participants, but the archive documents from that period talk of 23rd April 1943 as the date. But, the committee had soon undergone some changes so that it was consolidated only towards the end of June 1943.
The forming of a military committee for Istria was of an enormous importance too. The fact was that at the beginning the up-risal was lead by political workers and not by experienced military leadership. In order to organize control and maintain the military behaviour of the rebels, the CPC Committee for Istria initiated the creation of a Head-Quarter for Istrian and Slovene troops, and that was done a few days after the general armed up-risal had begun. However, that was clearly an improvisation of the military leadership, so that soon Croatian Central Head-Quarter had named an Operational Head-Quarter for Istria (the same had been done by Slovene Central H. Q. for Slovene coastal area). That H. Q. had been constituted on 23rd September 1943 in Pazin, and was lead by Savo Vukelić, the commander, and Joža Skočilić as political commissary. The H. Q. had immediately started to form fighting units: the First and the Second Istrian Partisan Brigade and a "unit" Učka. But those decisions had already come too late, because as early as 2nd October the Germans had started a strong offensive which had succeeded to paralyze the national liberation war in Istria. However, after the meeting of the political committee and military leadership towards the end of 1943 in Brgudac (Ćićarija), where past events had been analyzed in details and concrete measures indispensable for further fighting had been carefully planned, the up-risal acquired a new quality: new, smaller partisan squads had been formed. In 1944 those had grown into batallions, brigades, while in August they became a division. That again caused the forming of District Committee for Istria, a District Committee of the Association of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia, District National Liberation Council and so forth.
One of the most important problems of NLM in Istria was the problem of mass mobilization. The Istrians had not been deciding to join partisans very easily, especially during the period until the capitulation of Italy; the psychological, social and economical reasons were numerous. It was difficult to leave the soil and make war in un-known parts, while at home there was still a relative peace without any excessive terrorising. Even the standard of life of Istrian worker and peasant was for the war-time relatively good. Another fact should also be considered: the inhabitants there had been either very young or very old as by the summer of 1943, the Italians had already had mobilized all men and even 17 year old youngsters for the special batallions.
Inspite of all that up-risal in Istria reached its final aim of overthrowing the organs of the Italian government (as Badoglio's government did not give up Istria after the capitulation) and in deciding on joining Istria to Croatia. The decision was accepted by TACNLC and ACNLY; thus, not by annexie but by a revolutionary decision, a revolutionary act and by people's will Istria became a constituent part of Yugoslavia.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
219279
URI
Datum izdavanja:
29.12.1973.
Posjeta: 1.701 *