Contraband on the slovenian-italian border in the interwar period (1918-1941)

Abstract

The article considers the phenomenon of corruption, its essence, causes and consequences. The social, Purposes of the article is to find out the reasons for the increase in smuggling on the Italian-Slovenian border after the First World War, to define smuggling, to study Slovenian-Italian cooperation in the fight against smuggling, establishing of the relevant Slovenian and Italian institutions and the Rapallo border with Italy (the northern-western section of the Slovenian border), to expand knowledge about the process of smuggling contraband goods and known smugglers, their relations with border guards on the Rapallo border, to study the echoes of smuggling on the Rapallo border in Slovenian literature. For this, general historical research methods are used - periodization, problem-chronological, comparative-historical, synchronistic, historicalgenetic, historical-typological. Results. According to the decisions of the Paris Peace Conference, a number of treaties were concluded, including those concerning the Slovenian northern border. The treaty with Italy, signed in Rapallo in 1920, cut through ethnic Slovene territory so that close relatives, neighbors and friends were on both sides of the border, and land holdings were also divided. The border was established and fortified with barbed wire, concrete bunkers on the Italian side. Small-scale smuggling was carried out by women and children, mostly taken to Italy, due to the higher level of wealth there. Groups of armed smugglers engaged in large-scale cattle smuggling. In the early 1930s, the lira began to fall, and armed clashes began on the borders with deadly results. This epoch in the history of the Slovenian Littoral, where the the Rapallo border passed, found an echo in Slovenian literature. Conclusions. Reasons for smuggling on the Italo-Slovenian border in 1918-1940 were the unfairness of the construction of the Rapallo border on Slovenian lands, difference in prices, low employment on both sides of the border. Italian and Slovenian state institutions cooperated in the fight against smuggling of a wide range of goods. Women, children and famous smugglers, border guards from both sides were involved in the smuggling. The most interesting stories of smugglers at the border became the subject of Slovenian literature.