"Češkoslovaško-italijanska mala vojna"

The article presents the less known side of the First Trial of Trieste, undoubtedly one of the milestones in the history of Slovenes and Croatians in the Venezia Giulia region of that time. The execution of four Slovenes who had resorted to violence in resisting Fascist politics and were consequently sentenced to death by shooting, reverberated in the international public as well. Mussolini wanted to have done with the defendants completelybut not only that, the sensationalism of the trial had another, wider significance forthe Italian duce - his aim was to use the trial process to demonstrate the solidity of his regime. Such behaviour already hinted at more aggressive and unconcealed imperialistic politics of Italy in the Danube-Balkans area that would start taking its final shape in the 1930s. The illegal activities of the defendants have been treated by many historians already, and the trial itself has been the subject of various thorough studies so fartherefore, the present study chooses to lend special attention to the international extent of the trial, it being one of the events that had the strongest repercussions within the Yugoslav-Italian disputes in the period between the two world wars. In those weeks of 1930, the trial was covered by numerous newspapers. Since the process and especially the verdict made the greatest stir in Czechoslovakia, the study takes a more thorough look at the events taking place in and the opinions coming from this country. A large majority of the press manifestly condemned the Italian regime, taking the side of the \u27Yugoslav minority\u27, and the public, under the influence of the press, assumed a similar standpoint. Demonstrations and protests took place. Official politics, on the other hand, were more composed: Czechoslovak diplomacy, led by Beneš, apologized to the Italian government and within a few weeks silenced the anti-Italian campaign. In addition to numerous newspaper articles mentioned in the study, the information on the evaluation of the official politics is undoubtedly of the greatest interest. In his own report, the Czechoslovak Consul to Trieste, Krbec, related the reports by all the other diplomats present at the Trial as well. The death verdict gave rise to protests and demonstrations throughout Czechoslovakia, and the Slovenes also received support from the United States of America, especially in the form of memoranda. The newspaper campaign ended after a few weeks, but the grudges between the two states remained. This is partly evident from Mussolini\u27s bearing in the following years, and when in 1938, along with western democracies, he consented to the takeover of the Czechoslovak border areas by Hitler\u27s Germany