Preliminary communication
https://doi.org/10.32728/h2019.05
The Assembly of the Political Society ʻEdinostʼ in Kozina on 10 July 1922 and the intention to renew the Political Society for Croats and Slovenes in Istria in October 1922
Željko Klaić
orcid.org/0000-0001-8976-4434
; Pula
Abstract
After the accession of Istria, Trieste and Gorizia to the Kingdom of Italy, since the very survival of the Croatian and Slovenian people in these parts came into question, the achievement of political harmony was a dominant issue within the Slovenian and Croatian political order. The activity of the Political Society ʻEdinostʼ from Trieste moved towards the inception of a unified political activity in the area that had found itself under Italy. Even after they became allies because of national interests, the differences in views between liberals and Christian socialists persisted in the unified society. The newsletter of the Istrian Christian socialists, Pučki prijatelj (The Peopleʼs Friend), which started being issued again at the beginning of September 1919, was striving for political concord. In 1919, the editor of the newspaper was advised to avoid writing which would initiate a conflict with the national-liberal movement, and on the eve of the 1921 state elections, the Christian socialists supported members of that movement as Istrian candidates. However, without a political and economic-social programme, it was not possible to establish a strong and effective organization.
As early as the mid-1920, Gorizian priests proposed a programme based on Christian-social principles. The Society ʻEdinostʼ supported the dissemination of these principles, but did not acknowledge them as a social agenda because such principles would create divisions. However, Pučki prijatelj would also begin expressing dissatisfaction with the lack of systematic and organized work. The newspaper expressed its dissatisfaction at the time of the definitive annexation of the Venezia Giulia in early 1921 to Italy, emphasizing the need to reorganize its activities and work. After the May 1921 state elections, social leaders publicly criticized the leadership of ʻEdinostʼ for poor election results in Istria and Trieste, reprimanding the political agenda of the Political Society. Pučki prijatelj was also harsh, primarily criticizing the election program. Therefore, there was no single blueprint for meaningful work in the political, cultural, social and economic field. The election results were the impulse for the Istrian Christian socialists to start thinking that they, like Gorizians, should start working more independently and actively. In July 1921, the Istrian subcommittee of the Political Society ʻEdinostʼ was founded in Kozina, and Božo Milanović was appointed president, which is the position he held until mid-July the following year. At the beginning of Milanovićʼs chairmanship of the Subcommittee, there were no indications of ideological differences in public, except in personal contacts. Only when the Pazin Press Society issued the Istranin calendar for 1922 did the controversy between Učiteljski list (The Teacherʼs Gazette) and Pučki prijatelj show the public the existence of the conceptual differences; the Assembly of the Istrian Subcommittee held in Kozina on 10 July 1922, and the reactions in the newsletters, showed that the sequence events led to a schism. The attempt to renew the work of the Political Society for Croats and Slovenes in Istria was short-lived: the arrival of fascists compelled the conflicting party to reach an agreement, which, however, did not last long because the ideological differences and conflicts could not be overcome.
Keywords
calendar Istranin; Pučki prijatelj; Učiteljski list; Edinost; Goriška straža; Božo Milanović; Virgilij Šček; Josip Wilfan; Ulikse Stanger; Political Society for Croats and Slovenes in Istria
Hrčak ID:
244060
URI
Publication date:
31.12.2019.
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