Istria Between Yugoslavia and Italy

Abstract

This article deals with the position of young people and the role of communist youth organizations in Istria in the years after the World War II. During this period, Istrians were torn between Yugoslavia and Italy, and a diplomatic struggle for territory was being waged. It will briefly address some of the aspects of young Croats and Italians’ daily lives, their political mobilization within larger organizations, and the challenges they faced due to political and social processes occurring during this period. Some of these included upbringing and education, ethnic coexistence, young people’s involvement in reconstructing and building the country through work actions, echoes of the conflict between Yugoslavia and Cominform among young people in Istria, and Italian emigration from Istria. This article will try to answer some questions about how young people coped with these processes in Istria, a troubled border area in a turbulent time, using primarily archival records kept in the Croatian State Archives in Zagreb and relevant literature.