National liberation movement

1941–1943

The first group of Partisans arrived in the Brkini Hills in September 1941. This was Dolgan’s Company, the first Partisan unit in Primorska, which spread the idea of the Liberation Front and mobilised new fighters. The first Partisan action in Primorska was carried out near Kilovče on 28 October 1941. The Brkini Company was established in April of that same year and continued to carry out actions until the capitulation of Italy. The response of the Italian army to the actions of the resistance fighters was brutal. On 4 June 1942 alone, Italian troops burnt seven villages in the Brkini Hills, the first in the Primorska region, killed 33 people and interned almost 400.

National Liberation Movement

The Italian capitulation on 8 September 1943 triggered a general popular insurrection in Primorska: mass demonstrations, the disarming of the Italian army, the liberation of prisoners, the establishment of popular power (in the form of the National Liberation Council for Primorska as the central authority in the region) and a general mobilisation. New Partisan units were formed: the Slovene-Croatian Istria Detachment, the Snežnik or Brkini Brigade, the 1st Slovene Istria Brigade and the Trieste Brigade. On 16 September the Liberation Front executive committee issued a proclamation on the incorporation of Primorska into Yugoslavia. Deputies from the region were sent to a session of the Assembly of Deputies of the Slovene People in Kočevje.

1943 – 1945

The course of the insurrection was temporarily halted by the Germans’ October offensive, but the leaders of the national liberation movement wasted no time in renewing and improving their organisation. By September 1944 conditions for development and work were very favourable and activities flourished in numerous fields – Partisan schools, propaganda, healthcare, economic activity, and so on. The youth organisation and women’s organisation (ZMS and SPŽZ) were particularly active. Elections were held in the summer and autumn of 1944, following an administrative reorganisation, and in October 1944 the first leadership of the Southern Primorska district was elected. Further new Partisan units were established. The work of the national liberation movement became more difficult in the autumn of 1944 and the winter of 1944–45, particularly in Slovene Istria, as a result of the fortification of the area by the enemy in anticipation of an Allied landing in Istria. A new surge of activity in the spring of 1945 culminated in the liberation of 1 May 1945 and the seizing of power in towns and cities.

Elections to local national liberation committees in the Southern Primorska district took place between July and November 1944, although in some places the presence of enemy forces meant that they could not be held at all. According to incomplete data, around 130 of the 287 electoral units actually voted. Representatives for (local) district assemblies were elected at the same time. The latter quickly held constituent assemblies at which executive committees and district courts were appointed and a representative was elected to the (wider) district assembly. The wider district assembly met for the first time in Padež on 11 October 1944 and elected an executive committee headed by Jože Prosen, alias Radivoj. The committee also included representatives of the clergy and of Italian antifascist organisations.

During the summer and early autumn of 1944 a campaign was also conducted to popularise the agreement between Tito and Ivan Šubašić, the prime minister of the Yugoslav government-in-exile, and the speech given by Tito on the island of Vis on 10 September 1944, when he pronounced the famous words “We do not want what belongs to others, but we will not give what is ours!”, in this way announcing the firm demand that Primorska and Istria be part of Yugoslavia.

In the towns and cities of the coast, the Italian antifascist movement strengthened and spread from autumn 1943 onwards. In organisational terms it was connected on the one hand with the Communist Party of Italy (CPI) and the National Liberation Committee (Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale or CLN) in Trieste, and on the other with the Slovene national liberation movement and Partisan units. The most active members of the movement were its youth members: young Communists who carried out acts of sabotage and other actions. They were organised into Patriotic Action Groups (Gruppi d’Azione Patriottica or GAP) and gathered information, food, weapons and cigarettes for the Partisans and activists, helped mobilise the populace, and so on.

SOUTHERN PRIMORSKA PRINTING SHOP – NAŠ DOM – SNEŽNIK – F-35

It began operation on 15 May 1943 on the orders of the district committee of the KPS for southern Primorska. It was organised by Milan Guček, together with Vidko Hlaj, and run by him until June 1943. It was originally located in a bunker below Gabrovica that once housed a still, but was soon moved to a new bunker dug in the steep slope of a hill called Tinjan near Bertoši. The printing office was named Naš Dom (“Our Home”) and was taken over by Lado Trobevšek, alias Jodi. In November 1943 it was renamed Snežnik (after the nearby mountain) and moved again, first to a cave above the village of Osp, then to Gabrovica, then, in March 1944, back to Osp, then back to a cave above Osp, where it remained until October 1944. Until October 1943 it was run by Trobevšek, then until June 1944 by Just Miklavc, alias Očka. The latter was replaced by Anica Cizej, alias Marjanca, who ran the Žena printing shop, which merged with Snežnik at the end of May 1944. The printing office duplicated literature for the Brkini and Slovene Istria districts, while also sending some literature to Pivka and Trieste. Communications with the printing shop were maintained by courier station P-1.