Vzpostavitev italijansko-jugoslovanske državne meje leta 1947 in spomin prebivalcev Loga pod Mangrtom

Abstract

Concerned about their jobs in the Rabelj lead and zinc mine, the miners of Log pod Mangartom wrote to the Government of the People's Republic of Slovenia in February 1947 urging it to intercede on their behalf with the (Italian) administration of the mine to secure their employment. Following the Paris Peace Conference the mine was to be awarded to Italy, whereas the French proposal stipulated that the villages Log pod Mangartom, Strmec and Predel would remain on the other side of the border, in Yugoslavia. For the ninety-six miners who signed the letter and their families, this entailed the loss of their main income which was vital for their subsistence in an Alpine environment characterised by limited natural resources. The author examines the miners' letter to the Government of the People's Republic of Slovenia through the prism of a community and its members living in a border area (amidst specific social and historical moments and their short-term intersection), by taking into account events of long duration that are manifested in the collective (social) memory of the inhabitants of Log pod Mangartom. Individuals and the community to which they belonged are not perceived as passive observers of the "great" history (relations between Allied forces, introduction of a new socialist system, relations between the two blocs and the Cold War, the Cominform conflict, etc.). Rather, the author's main intention is to demonstrate how individuals (and the community) used their life strategies, ways of life and traditions to oppose, change, adapt and subject themselves to each political change, and particularly to the new political and economic conditions established after the dissolution of the Allied Military Government and the annexation of the former Zone A (in the upper Posočje area) to Yugoslavia. The choice facing miners (especially young ones) after 1949 when the local political authorities prohibited them from working in the Rabelj mine, was an alternative between seeking work in other (mining) centres in Slovenia (Yugoslavia), competing for scarce work opportunities in minor economic centres in the area and illegal emigration abroad. Through the use of the oral historical method and on the basis of interviews with members of the local community, the author has demonstrated that in this case, social (collective) memory corresponds to "facts" found in archives, although the viewpoint - "the truth" - of the local community is completely different from or diametrically opposed to "the truth" of local authority structures. Furthermore, this also proves that the social (collective) memory of a community is not always necessarily transformed, suppressed or misleading and that it is (sometimes) also "applicable" for the reconstruction of events rather than solely for the purposes of analysing how an individual or a collective view, perceive and accept a given event through the process of memory transformation

Keywords

kolektivni spomin;meja;rudarji;ustna zgodovina;Log pod Mangrtom;

Data

Language:	Slovenian
Year of publishing:	2010
Typology:	1.01 - Original Scientific Article
Organization:	UP - University of Primorska
Publisher:	Zgodovinsko društvo za Južno Primorsko
UDC:	930.2:341.218.4(497.47)"1947/1949"
COBISS:	1822419
ISSN:	1318-0185
Views:	2860
Downloads:	18
Average score:	0 (0 votes)
Metadata:

Other data

Secondary language:	English
Secondary keywords:	collective memory;border;miners;oral history;Log pod Mangrtom;
URN:	URN:NBN:SI
Type (COBISS):	Not categorized
Pages:	str. 309-336
Volume:	ǂLetn. ǂ18
Issue:	ǂšt. ǂ1/2
Chronology:	2010
ID:	1730874