Activities of the Department for the Protection of People and State Security Administration in the Territory of Zones a of Venezia Giulia and Free Territory of Trieste

Abstract

The following article focuses on the activities of the Department for the Protection of People (hereinafter Ozna), the security and intelligence service of the Yugoslav liberation movement and subsequently the Yugoslav state, and its successor State Security Administration (hereinafter UDV) in the territory of Zones A of Venezia Giulia and Free Territory of Trieste. It is a fact that Ozna played one of the key roles during the forty-day Yugoslav occupation of the whole Venezia Giulia (1 May – 12 June 1945), when it was often more important than even the authorities and political bodies. After the Yugoslav Army retreated, a significant part of its system, adapted to the new circumstances, naturally, was preserved in Zone A, where the administration was taken over by the Anglo-American Allied military administration. If we believe the information that during the almost ten-year post-war period (until the reinstatement of the Italian authorities after the signing of the London Memorandum in October 1954) a couple thousand informants of various states were active in Trieste, the agents of the Yugoslav Ozna/UDV were undoubtedly among the most numerous and active.