Between Communism and Nationalism: Slovene Communist Spatial Politics in the North Adriatic Region, 1943–54

The article deals with the spatial policies of the Slovene communist authorities in the border area of the North Adriatic between 1943 and 1954. At that time, this territory was claimed by several state entities with different ideological and political systems. All of them sought to establish their sovereignty over the region not only politically and militarily but also culturally. Those endeavours included processes of ideologically charged transformation of public space. This also applies to the Slovene communists, whose spatial policies were characterized by a mixture of nationalist and communist impulses. Although the communist authorities agreed in principle to the idea of internationalism, their interventions actually led to spatial Slovenization. At the same time, the communist dimension manifested itself in the negative attitudes towards buildings associated with ideological enemies of communism, especially the Catholic Church and nobility.