This year the Society of Fiumani Studies celebrates the 60th anniversary of its refoundation in exile in Rome. In 1923 it was founded in Fiume and in 2023 it will celebrate its centenary.

 

Remembering the Historical Archive-Museum of Fiume of the Society of Fiume Studies, founded in Rome in 1963, aims to be a further stimulus for a deeper understanding of the silenced history, however it is erroneously known, lived with great dignity by the population of Fiume fleeing from the Yugoslav communist dictatorship to preserve above all their identity and freedom.

Institution recognized by decree of the then Minister of Public Education, the Hon. Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, dated 12 July 1972, in which the qualification of archive of "exceptional historical interest" is shown.

In 1987 the Superintendency of Archives for Lazio placed the Fiume Archive, due to its notable historical interest, under the protection discipline provided for by article 38 of Presidential Decree 30.91963, n. 1409.

Law 92/2004, establishing the Day of Remembrance, recognizes the Historical Archive Museum of Rijeka as a cultural asset of the history of Rijeka and the Julian-Dalmatian exodus.

 

Witness in Silence

 

The origins of the Historical Archive Museum of Fiume of the Society of Fiume Studies (founded in the Julian-Dalmatian Quarter of Rome, 1963)

The need to save memory

 

Very significant, I believe, to begin the narration of the facts relating to the world of memory of the Fiume exiles, are the words of the writer of Jewish origins Paolo Santarcangeli (1909-1995), an exile from Fiume, who in his book Il porto dell'Aquila decapitata writes:

«No, no return is possible. Let us think instead about the reason for our absence, our dispersion in the world […]. Let us then leave our city in old prints and old photographs, or let us raise it in the intangible world of dreams, let us make it the symbol of human suffering, of a bond that goes beyond historical and political facts. Let us banish from our hearts every resentment, every feeling of an offence suffered and let us open them instead to pity for man, much more virile, because more difficult, because he demands courage, faith, patience: indeficienter!»

With these noble words Santarcangeli introduces us to a superior world made up of the values ​​of the spirit, of understanding and solidarity, without which many people, exiles and not, who have contributed to the preservation of memory in the many years that have passed since those tragic events, would not have had the honor nor the reason to work until today. The exodus from Fiume was the response of the people of Fiume to the liberticidal policy imposed by the Yugoslavian communist regime after the Second World War. Over 90% of the Italian population of Fiume abandoned the city in the space of a few years.

Over time, starting in 1946, numerous associations of Fiume exiles were formed in Italy, but almost all of them no longer exist, such as the various Fiume Leagues, the “Eneo” Nautical Society, the “Tartini” String Orchestra directed by maestro Nino Serdoz; others, however, such as the Fiume section of the CAI (Italian Alpine Club), the Fiume section of the National League and above all the Association of Italian Fiume People in the World – Free Municipality of Fiume in Exile (AFIM acronym), based in Padua, still manage to carry out, despite the inevitable physiological decline, an interesting activity. One of the strong points is the newsletter La Voce di Fiume, founded in 1966, published by AFIM, which still today ideally unites the Fiume people in exile in Italy and around the world. The current President Franco Papetti, who recently took over from Guido Brazzoduro, together with the representatives of the association participate and promote initiatives in the city of Fiume, often together with the Society of Fiumani Studies.

Among the most active historical-cultural associations of Fiume, the one entrusted with the task of safeguarding, valorizing and passing on to future generations the history and cultural identity of Fiume of Italian character is precisely the Society of Fiume Studies with its Historical Archive-Museum of Fiume based in Rome.

The first idea of ​​collecting the memories of Fiume in an archive-museum had already arisen in 1956, as can be seen from a dense correspondence between Monsignor Luigi Torcoletti and Dr. Nino Perini after a beautiful exhibition of Fiume relics, but it took several more years before a practical initiative in this direction was reached.

On 27 November 1960, on the express initiative of Attilio Depoli and other exiled intellectuals from Fiume, such as Enrico Burich, Giorgio Radetti, Gian Proda and Vincenzo Brazzoduro, the Society of Fiume Studies was founded and the general assembly met for the first time in a hotel in Rome with the following agenda:

 

1. Reconstitution of the Company

2. Approval of the Statute

3. Election of the President and Councilors

4. Future activity

 

It was decided to establish the headquarters of the company in Rome and the first elected president was Professor Attilio Depoli; the six councilors voted by the assembly were: Enrico Burich, Carlo Chiopris, Casimiro Prischich, Gian Proda, Giorgio Radetti, Salvatore Samani.

In 1963 it was possible to plan the creation of a Fiuman archive-museum thanks to some premises that the Opera per l’Assistenza ai Refugei Giuliani e Dalmatia would have made available to the Fiuman Studies Society.

As for the statute of the Society, the Fiume exiles who took on the responsibility of directing it drafted a new document suited to the new historical reality of the time and faithful to the text of the one in force in Fiume during the Italian period, which in article 1 stated: “The aim of the Society of Fiume Studies is to illustrate the Fiume region, as well as to collect and study the documents and relics that concern it”. Subsequently, in 1999, art. 1, for reasons related to the geopolitical changes underway in the former Yugoslavia, was extended to read: “The Society of Fiume Studies […] has as its aim the study and illustration of Fiume, Liburnia, the Carnaro islands and all the Adriatic territories of similar culture, from the most distant past to the present, as well as to collect and preserve the memories and documents that concern them […]”. In art. 4 of the statute, explicit reference is made to the Museum Archive of Fiume:

«It has established in its headquarters the Historical Archive Museum of Rijeka, to which each member contributes with his own work and with the donation of relics, documents, books and magazines, interesting to the history of Rijeka».

Also in 1999, the full text of the Fiumano Cultural Manifesto was inserted into the Statute, signed by important personalities from the political and cultural world, including Senator for life Leo Valiani, a native of Fiume, Prof. Claudio Magris (current honorary president of the Society of Fiumani Studies), the honorable Gianfranco Fini, Luciano Violante and many others. This document, drawn up by the Board of Directors of the Society of Fiumani Studies, referred to the dialogue with the city of origin Fiume (Rijeka-Croatia) resumed shortly before the dissolution of Yugoslavia in 1991; the Manifesto underlined, among other things, the desire for collaboration of the Fiumano association with all the institutes or associations present in the city of Quarnera with similar cultural aims:

«The Society of Fiumani Studies, well aware of the inescapable historical reality of a cultural identity of Fiuman of Croatian character, today absolutely prevalent, urges the collaboration of all those who interpret this Croatian identity in order to concretely achieve, within the context of European culture, the overcoming of every anachronistic opposition and thus reconstruct, together, the history of the city in full respect of the two Italian and Croatian cultures […]».

But let's go back for a moment. Reconstituted, therefore, in 1960, the Society of Fiumani Studies of Rome wanted to represent the ideal continuation of the society founded in Fiume in 1923, as heir to the deputation of Homeland History. At that time, in order to disseminate the discoveries and the outcome of the studies on the city and its surrounding territory, it was decided to publish a magazine of Fiumani studies with the name Fiume, which continued to be published from 1923 until 1940. The promoters of this initiative aimed, fundamentally, to bring to the knowledge of the people of Fiume the history of the city and the Quarnerino territory. The magazine Fiume, which since 2000 has had the subtitle of Adriatic studies, is published regularly and is directed by Prof. Giovanni Stelli who is also the president of the Society of Fiumani Studies, who took over from Amleto Ballarini in 2017.

The first president of the association in Fiume was Guido Depoli, while among the councilors there were Attilio Depoli, Arturo Meichsner, Silvino Gigante, Salvatore Samanich, Antonio Smoquina, Edoardo Susmel, and others. These, therefore, are the oldest roots of the association that arose in exile.

In 1964, the permanent headquarters of the Società di Studi Fiumani was finally inaugurated in Rome, having rented from the Opera per l'Assistenza ai Refughi Giuliano Dalmati a property located in via Antonio Cippico n. 10 and included in the area of ​​the Quartiere Giuliano Dalmata of Rome (Eur-Laurentina area). The Historical Archive Museum of Fiume was established in the same location. The project of the Archive Museum was not born on the basis of a pre-established plan, but was the fruit of the desire to collect and save from neglect and dispersion the most important aspects of the cultural heritage of Fiume. Enrico Burich, an intellectual from Fiume, wrote in 1963:

"The people of Fiume must have a receptacle in which to deposit whatever can remind them of their past. Memories of our near and distant struggles, of our cultural and economic activity, the relics of our ancestors who distinguished themselves for the good of our city, the images of our fallen and our volunteers in the fight for our Italianness, the works of our artists, whether small or large, always equally dear. We will also reconstruct the face of our city with the help of reproductions, topographical surveys of all times [...] We want to see again the streets and the little squares of the Cittavecchia, our churches, and then our Corso, the main streets, our piers, our theatre and [...] our cemetery with its monuments, cypresses, our tombs [...] What we still carry in our hearts of our unforgettable Fiume will remain among us, alive."

These are intense and moving words by Burich that must be contextualized in the period in which they were expressed, when the majority of Fiume exiles were still prevented by the Yugoslav authorities from returning to their own city, even for simple tourist purposes.

An appeal was therefore made to the Fiume residents in various Italian cities and in the rest of the world and, with the fundamental help of the Fiume Leagues, which had sprung up almost everywhere in Italy, a large quantity of book, documentary and photographic material began to arrive in Rome, together with relics and testimonies of all kinds. It was then decided by the Board of Directors of the Society of Fiume Studies to organize the Fiume Museum Archive by sectors:

• the sector for the conservation and exhibition of memorabilia, photographs, flags, posters and paintings (works by the brothers Carlo and Marcello Ostrogovich, Giorgio Simonetti, Giovanni Butcovich, Oloferne Collavini, Carminio Butcovich-Visintin, Arrigo Ricotti, Romolo Venucci, Tassilo de Guyito, Riccardo Gigante and others are preserved);

• the library section, which has over 5.000 volumes (catalogued electronically, SBN system) regarding the history of Fiume, Istria and Dalmatia from their origins to the present day;

• the section dedicated to the newspaper library in which the issues of magazines and daily newspapers published in Fiume up to 1947 are kept: Termini, Delta, Il Popolo, La Bilancia, L'Eco di Fiume and others; and the newspapers and magazines of the associations of the Julian, Fiume and Dalmatian exodus such as La Voce di Fiume, L'Arena di Pola, Difesa Adriatica, Rivista Dalmatica, but also the Quaderni giuliani di storia or the Proceedings of the Historical Research Centre of Rovigno and the Vijesnik of the State Archives of Fiume-Rijeka. The only existing copy of the first newspaper printed in Fiume, in 1813, the Notizie del Giorno, is also kept here;

• the archive sector for viewing posters, geographical maps and proclamations of the time;

• the archive sector reserved for documents from important personalities of Fiume such as: Michele Maylender (mayor of Fiume during the Austro-Hungarian period), Riccardo Zanella (President of the Free State of Fiume), Antonio Grossich (doctor and senator of the Kingdom of Italy) with the original correspondence between him and Gabriele d'Annunzio, Andrea Ossoinack (last Fiume deputy in the Budapest parliament) and many others. In this sector there is also the important documentation of the “Whitehead” torpedo factory which was built in Fiume in the 19th century. Despite the many difficulties, the Society of Fiume Studies has for some time managed to share the archive description with other important institutions (Luigi Sturzo Institute, Antonio Gramsci Foundation Institute, Lelio Basso Foundation, Ugo Spirito Foundation, etc.) as part of the “Archives of the Twentieth Century” project;

• the Exodus fund sector which includes over 1.500 nominative files of exiles from Fiume, Istria and Dalmatia, the papers of the Casa della Bambina Giuliana and Dalmatia in Rome and of the Giuliano-Dalmatian Quarter, with partial documentation issued by the Opera per l'Assistenza ai Refughi Giuliano-Dalmati;

• the sector which houses the photographic archive, the philatelic collection and the topographic archive.

• the IT sector with a dedicated website: Historical Archive-Museum of Fiume

Unfortunately, the spaces of the archive and museum structure have now become insufficient to accommodate so much material and in the future this problem will also need to be resolved, but for some years an archive fund has been created at the Casa del Ricordo in Rome.

An important evolution in the conservation and cataloguing system was achieved with the computerization of the library and documentary material, which allows easier and faster consultation by researchers (ISBN system and participation in the computer project of the Lazio Region – Memoria Lazio 900). There is also the possibility of viewing audiovisual material on Istria, Fiume and Dalmatia, aimed at raising awareness among scholars and visitors to the Museum Archive on the history and reality of the eastern Adriatic lands.

In 1972, the Historical Archive-Museum of Fiume was the object of a detailed visit by an inspector from the Ministry of Public Education, who compiled a favorable report, which was followed by the issuing of a decree by the then Minister of Public Education, the Hon. Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, dated 12 July 1972, which granted the Historical Archive-Museum of Fiume the qualification of archive of “exceptional historical interest” and placed it under the protection of state laws. Subsequently, on 20 February 1987, after a further inspection, a further declaration was issued by the Archival Superintendency for Lazio, which placed the Fiume Archive, due to its notable historical interest, under the protection discipline provided for by article 38 of Presidential Decree 30.91963, n. 1409 7.

However, these recognitions remained on paper for many years and did not help the Fiume exiles much in their work of preservation. Many things have changed in recent years: in addition to the aforementioned Law “The Day of Remembrance”, there is also another State law, the former Law no. 72/2001, then no. 193/2004 and subsequent amendments, “Interventions to protect the spiritual cultural heritage of Istrian, Fiume and Dalmatian exiles”, which supports the activities of the association and other associations of exiles scattered throughout Italy.

Very important are the historical dissemination activities promoted by the Historical Archive-Museum of Rijeka in schools and the research activities of the Society of Rijeka Studies carried out in collaboration with various universities. An activity that has grown exponentially since 2004, thanks also to the opportunities offered by the Ministry of Education, which has established a permanent table with various associations of exiles for the study and dissemination of the history of the eastern border.

Unfortunately in Italy, for the conservation and protection of historical material, everything has been done with serious delay and with the dispersion of the exodus an enormous quantity of documentary, photographic and book material has now been lost. In Trieste, fortunately, the Museum of Istrian, Fiuman and Dalmatian Civilization has been established, curated by IRCI, which is also an institution recognized by Law 92/2004. Also very interesting is the activity carried out by the Multimedia Documentation Center of Trieste and by the two Dalmatian Societies of National History in Venice and Rome. Obviously the numerous associations ANVGD, Coordinamento Adriatico, Associazione delle Comunità Istriane, Unione degli Istriani, etc. also conserve materials of archival interest and well-stocked libraries. In Rome, the Casa del Ricordo has been established, managed by the Società di Studi Fiumani with the ANVGD of Rome, which represents a solid point of reference also in terms of documents.

The Historical Archive-Museum of Fiume, after many years of silence and difficulty, now represents a solid reality in Italy capable of documenting in an organized and usable way the history of the great exodus of the Julian-Dalmatian community, witness and protagonist of a centuries-old history of Italianness. The future is always uncertain, but with this work the Fiume exiles will leave the Italian national community a heritage of great value and a testimony of love for their roots after the great tragedy of the exodus.

Edited by Marino Micich