Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T21:46:51.141Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Integrating Rijeka into socialist Yugoslavia: the politics of national identity and the new city's image (1947–1955)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Marco Abram
Marco Abram*
Affiliation:
Department of History, University of Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article investigates the politics of national identity implemented in Rijeka after World War II, when the city was integrated into socialist Yugoslavia. These national and political transitions posed various challenges to the consolidation of the Yugoslav Communists' power. The nationalities policy embedded in the slogan “Brotherhood and Unity” was the official answer to the national question, promoting collaboration among the Croatian majority, the Italian minority, and other national communities in the city. This article focuses on the definition of postwar Rijeka's image, investigating the relationship between Yugoslav socialism and national identities in everyday political practice. The negotiation of the representation of national identities in a socialist society led to ambivalences, contradictions, and contentions expressed in and through Rijeka's public spaces, highlighting the different orientations of cultural and political actors. The process of building socialist Yugoslavia in this specific borderland context reveals the balance and tension between the multinational framework and the integrative tendencies pertaining to the legitimization and consolidation of the socialist system.

Keywords

socialismnational identitiesRijekaYugoslaviaborderlands
Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 46 , Issue 1 , January 2018 , pp. 69 - 85
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abram, Marco. 2014. “Building the Capital City of the Peoples of Yugoslavia. Representations of Socialist Yugoslavism in Belgrade's Public Space 1944–1961.” Politička Misao 51 (5): 36–57.Google Scholar
Azaryahu, Maoz. 1986. “Street Names and Political Identity: The Case of East Berlin.” Journal of Contemporary History 21: 581–604.Google Scholar
Ballinger, Pamela. 2002. History in Exile: Memory and Identity at the Borders of the Balkans. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Ballinger, Pamela. 2012. “History's ‘Illegibles': National Indeterminacy in Istria.” Austrian History Yearbook 43: 116–137.Google Scholar
Bergholz, Max. 2013. “Sudden Nationhood: The Microdynamics of Intercommunal Relations in Bosnia-Herzegovina after World War II.” American Historical Review 118 (3): 679–707.Google Scholar
Brunnbauer, Ulf, and Grandits, Hannes, eds. 2013. The Ambiguous Nation: Case Studies from Southeastern Europe in the 20th Century. Munich: Oldenbourg Verlag.Google Scholar
Budding, Audrey Helfant. 2007. “Nation/People/Republic: Self-determination in Socialist Yugoslavia.” In State Collapse in South-Eastern Europe: New Perspectives on Yugoslavia's Disintegration, edited by Cohen, Lenard J. and Dragović-Soso, Jasna, 91–129. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press.Google Scholar
Crowley, David, and Reid, Susan E., eds. 2002. Socialist Spaces: Sites of Everyday Life in the Eastern Bloc. New York: Berg.Google Scholar
Diener, Alexander C., and Hagen, Joshua. 2013. “From Socialist to Post-socialist Cities: Narrating the Nation Through Urban Space.” Nationalities Papers 41 (4): 487–514.Google Scholar
Dota, Franko. 2010. Zaraćeno poraće: konfliktni i konkurentski narativi o stradanju i iseljavanju Talijana Istre. Zagreb: Srednja Europa.Google Scholar
Dukovski, Darko. 2001. Rat i mir istarski: model povijesne prijelomnice (1943. 1955.). Pula: C.A.S.H. Google Scholar
Gabrič, Aleš. 2004. “National Question in Yugoslavia in the Immediate Postwar Period.” In Jugoslavia v hladni vojni, edited by Fischer, Jasna, 425–448. Ljubljana: Inštitut za novejšo zgodovino.Google Scholar
Gentile, Emilio. 2006. La grande Italia. Ascesa e declino del mito della nazione nel ventesimo secolo. Milan: Mondadori.Google Scholar
Giuricin, Ezio, and Giuricin, Luciano. 2008. La Comunità Nazionale Italiana. Storia e Istituzioni degli Italiani dell'Istria, Fiume e Dalmazia (1944–2006). Rovigno: Centro di Ricerche storiche.Google Scholar
Haug, Hilde Katrine. 2012. Creating a Socialist Yugoslavia: Tito, Communist Leadership and the National. London: I. B. Tauris.Google Scholar
Virloget, Hrobat, Katja, , Gousseff, Catherine, and Corni, Gustavo, eds. 2015. At Home but Foreigners: Population Transfers in 20th Century Istria. Koper: Univerzitetna založba Annales.Google Scholar
Janjetović, Zoran. 2015. “Nacionalne manjine u Jugoslaviji 1945–1955.” In Nacionalne manjine u Hrvatskoj i Hrvati kao nacionalna manjina – Evropski izazovi, edited by Dobrovšak, Ljiljana and Žebec Šilj, Ivana, 63–92. Zagreb: Institut društvenih znanosti Ivo Pilar.Google Scholar
Jović, Dejan. 2008. Yugoslavia: A State that Withered Away. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press.Google Scholar
Judson, Pieter, and Zahra, Tara, eds. 2012. “Sites of Indifference to Nationhood.” Austrian History Yearbook 43: 21–137.Google Scholar
Karge, Hajke. 2014. Sećanje u kamenu – okamenjeno sećanje? Belgrade: Biblioteka XX Vek.Google Scholar
Martin, Terry. 2001. The Affirmative Action Empire: Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union, 1923–1939. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Mevius, Martin, ed. 2009. “Socialist Nations: The Communist Quest for National Legitimacy in Europe.” Nationalities Papers 37 (4): 377–544.Google Scholar
Mihelj, Sabina. 2012. “Drawing the East–West Border: Narratives of Modernity and Identity in the Julian Region, 1947–1954.” In Cold War Cultures: Perspectives on Eastern and Western European Societies, edited by Annette Vowinckel, Marcus M. Payk, and Lindenberger, Thomas, 276–296. New York: Berghahn Books.Google Scholar
Milićević, Nataša. 2007. “Stvaranje nove tradicije: Praznici i proslave u Srbiji 1944–1950.” Tokovi Istorije 4: 169–178.Google Scholar
Orlić, Mila. 2008. “Poteri popolari e migrazioni forzate in Istria.” In Naufraghi della pace. Il 1945, i profughi e le memorie divise d'Europa, edited by Guido Crainz, Raoul Pupo, and Salvatici, Silvia, 25–41. Rome: Donzelli.Google Scholar
Pavković, Aleksandar. 1999. “Yugoslavism: A National Identity That Failed?” In Citizenship and Identity in Europe, edited by Holmes, Leslie and Murray, Philomena, 65–94. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Petrone, Karen. 2000. Life Has Become More Joyous, Comrades. Celebrations in the Time of Stalin. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
“Problemi u partiskoj organizaciji Grada Rijeke.” 1949. In Zapisnici Politbiroa Centralnog komiteta Komunističke partije Hrvatske: 1945–1952, 2, 181, 2005. Zagreb: Hrvatski Državni Arhiv.Google Scholar
Pupo, Raul. 2006. Il lungo esodo. Istria/Milan: le persecuzioni, le foibe, l'esilio/Rizzoli.Google Scholar
Puppini, Marco. 2005. “Il controesodo monfalconese in Jugoslavia tra Trattato di Pace e Risoluzione del Cominform.” In Il mosaico giuliano. Società e politica nella Venezia Giulia del secondo dopoguerra (1934–1954), edited by Puppini, Marco, 65–94. Gorizia: CIRDSS L. Gasperini.Google Scholar
Purini, Piero. 2010. Metamorfosi etniche. I cambiamenti di popolazione a Trieste, Gorizia, Fiume e in Istria 1914–1975. Udine: Kappa Vu.Google Scholar
Radović, Srdan. 2013. Grad kao tekst. Belgrade: Biblioteka XX vek.Google Scholar
Rijeka. Plan grada 1951. Rijeka: Turistički ured.Google Scholar
Riman, Barbara. 2013. “Riječka Slovenka Zora Ausec i Slovenci u Rijeci nakon 1945. godine: ‘bratski narod’ ili nacionalna manjina.” In Intelektualci i rat 1939.-1947. Zbornik radova s međunarodnog skupa Desničini susreti, edited by Roksandić, Drago and Cvijović Javorina, Ivana, 363–378. Zagreb: Filozofski Fakultet.Google Scholar
Riman, Kristina, and Riman, Barbara. 2008. Slovenski dom Kulturno prosvetno društvo Bazovica. Rijeka: Slovenski dom KPD Bazovica.Google Scholar
Roknić-Bežanić, Andrea. 2012. “Rijeka od oslobodenja 1945. do Pariškog mirovnog ugovora 1947. Godine.” PhD thesis, University of Zagreb.Google Scholar
Šarić, Tatjana. 2014. “Srpsko kulturno društvo ‘Prosvjeta’ u Socijalizmu.” Arhivski Vjesnik 57: 307–331.Google Scholar
Sluga, Glenda. 2001. The Problem of Trieste and the Italo-Yugoslav Border: Difference, Identity, and Sovereignty in Twentieth-century Europe. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Susmel, Edoardo. 1939. Fiume e il Carnaro. Milan: Hoepli.Google Scholar
Troha, Nevenka. 2009. Chi avra’ trieste? sloveni e italiani. tra due stati. Trieste: Irsml FVG.Google Scholar
Vinci, Anna Maria. 2015. “Per quale italianità? La nuova mitologia della patria al confine orientale nel secondo dopoguerra.” In La difesa dell'italianità. L'Ufficio per le zone di confine a Bolzano, Trento e Trieste (1945–1954), edited by Diego D'Amelio, Andrea Di Michele, and Mezzalira, Giorgio, 331–354. Bologna: Il Mulino.Google Scholar
Volk, Sandi. 2004. Esuli a Trieste. Bonifica nazionale e rafforzamento dell'italianità sul confine orientale. Udine: Kappa Vu.Google Scholar
Wachtel, Andrew B. 1998. Making a Nation, Breaking a Nation. Literature and Cultural Politics in Yugoslavia. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Wörsdörfer, Rolf. 2009. Il confine orientale: Italia e Jugoslavia dal 1915 al 1955. Bologna: Il Mulino.Google Scholar