The Istrian Crisis after World war II: from the time of the Options — optants to Cominform (1947-1951)

Abstract

This article analyzes the issue of the options for Italian citizenship made available by the Peace Treaty for Italians living in territories annexed to Yugoslavia. Based on former Yugoslav sources now available in Croatian archives, this article proposes a different interpretation from the one offered by national historiographies. In particular, it offers an analysis from the inside of the decision-making process of various Yugoslav bodies, in order to explore their assumptions, articulations, evolution and contradictions. The article discusses the overall policy of “popular power” toward the Italian population, which was marked by profound contradictions between stated objectives and repressive practices. It then analyzes the impact of the Cominform crisis on the territory, which brought about a new emergency for the regime, just when the crisis linked to the definition of the border with Italy had terminated. In relation to these two simultaneous phenomena, Yugoslav authorities reacted using repressive measures and introducing a policy of violence, which determined and led to the so-called population options, and to a series of migration waves of optants, exiles or “esuli”.