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The Typographers’ Community of Fiume: Combining a Spirit of Collegiality, Class Identity, Local Patriotism, Socialism, and Nationalism(s)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2018

Ivan Jeličić
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Austrian History Yearbook , Volume 49 , April 2018 , pp. 73 - 86
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Copyright © Center for Austrian Studies, University of Minnesota 2018 

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Footnotes

The author would like to thank Rok Stergar and Vanni D'Alessio for their comments on an earlier version of this text, the two anonymous reviewers for their suggestions, and Nancy M. Wingfield for her suggestions and revisions that substantially improved this text.

References

1 In this article, I employ only Fiume, the Italian name for Fiume/Rijeka. I am not, however, making a national claim over the city or its inhabitants. The reason for my choice is twofold: On the one hand, Fiume was the most commonly used name during the Habsburg era and, regardless of the mother tongue of its inhabitants, was used in both the Hungarian and the Italian languages as city's official name and as such occurred in official documents. Croatian language materials, however, usually referred to the city as Rijeka or Rieka. On the other hand, contemporary Rijeka/Fiume is a product of the expansion of the city Fiume, an interwar Italian city, which was joined with Sušak, an interwar Yugoslav city, and other suburbs in 1947. During the period examined here, Sušak was part of Croatia-Slavonia, bordering the corpus separatum, while some western suburbs of contemporary Rijeka/Fiume were part of Istria in Cisleithania. Fiume is the historical term that defines a territorially and politically more limited area than the present-day city.

2 The case of local print workers is an interesting research topic as Ljubinka Karpowicz and Mihael Sobolevski have noted in Sindikalni pokret u općini Rijeka do 1941. godine [The trade union movement in Rijeka district until 1941] (Rijeka, 1990), 77; Vlado Oštrić mentioned an ongoing study during the 1970s in “O počecima radničkog pokreta u Senju 1874–1914” [On the beginnings of labor movement in Senj 1874–1914], Senjski zbornik [The review of Senj] 7 (1976/79): 29. However, nothing has been published. The monograph on the graphic workers of Croatia omits Fiume/Rijeka entirely, while mentioning Sušak only in the period after 1918, Cecić, Vinko, Historija organizacije i političkih borba grafičkih radnika Hrvatske 1870–1955 [The history of organization and political struggle of the graphic workers of Croatia 1870–1955] (Zagreb, 1955), 246–49Google Scholar. There is also a study of the printers of the northern Adriatic, but it concentrates on Opatija/Abbazia: Oštrić, Vlado, “O vezama i suradnji između istarskih i sjevernojadranskih grafičkih radnika do Prvog svjetskog rata” [On the relations and collaboration between Istrian and North Adriatic graphic workers until World War I], in Labinska Republika 1921. godine. Zbornik radova [The Labin Republic of 1921: Collection of works], eds. Brajković, Vladislav and Bratulić, Vjekoslav (Rijeka, 1972), 119–43Google Scholar.

3 Brubaker, Rogers, “Ethnicity without groups,” European Journal of Sociology 43 (Aug. 2002): 163–89Google Scholar.

4 See King, Jeremy, Budweisers into Czechs and Germans: A Local History of Bohemian Politics, 1848–1948 (Princeton, 2002)Google Scholar; Judson, Pieter M., Guardians of the Nation: Activists on the Language Frontiers of Imperial Austria (Cambridge, MA, 2006)Google Scholar; Zahra, Tara, “Imagined Noncommunities: National Indifference as a Category of Analysis,” Slavic Review 69, no. 1 (Spring 2010): 93–119Google Scholar; and Zahra, Tara and Judson, Pieter M., “Sites of Indifference to Nationhood,” Austrian History Yearbook 43 (Apr. 2012): 21–27Google Scholar.

5 On Fiume's history, see Fried, Ilona, Fiume città della memoria 1868–1945 (Udine, 2005)Google Scholar; Klen, Danilo, ed., Povijest Rijeke [History of Rijeka] (Rijeka, 1988)Google Scholar; and Stelli, Giovanni, Storia di Fiume (Pordenone, 2017)Google Scholar. For the Dualist period, the best accounts are the two unpublished PhD theses: Ljubinka Karpowicz, “Riječki corpus separatum 1868–1924” (PhD diss., University of Ljubljana, 1986) and William Klinger, “Negotiating the Nation: Fiume, from autonomism to state making (1848–1924)” (PhD diss., European University Institute, 2007).

6 Contemporaries employed the term “autonomia,” thus, the name of Autonomist Party. However, as Jeremy King noted, Austrian municipalities had powers of self-government but not complete law-making autonomy. King, Jeremy, “The Municipal and the National in the Bohemian Lands, 1848–1918,” Austrian History Yearbook 42 (2011): 89–109Google Scholar. This was also true for Fiume. See the comments on autonomy in L'Autonomia di Fiume appunti storici e considerazioni. Studio di un vecchio fiumano (Fiume, 1901).

7 A contemporary described the Autonomist Party as a force whose political program was spread to the entire population, see Susmel, Edoardo, Antonio Grossich nella vita del suo tempo 1849–1926 (Milan, 1933), 48Google Scholar.

8 On Sušak, see Rački, Andrija, Povijest grada Sušaka [History of the city Sušak] (Sušak, 1929, reprint Rijeka, 1990)Google Scholar and more on the interwar period, Bartulović, Željko, Sušak 1919.–1947.: državnopravni položaj grada [Sušak 1919–1947, the state-right position of the city] (Rijeka, 2004)Google Scholar.

9 The census data for Fiume is quoted in Fried, Fiume città, 74–78, and Klen, Povijest Rijeke, 233. For Sušak, besides the number mentioned by Klen, Povijest Rijeke, 233, see the Hungarian census data, in particular A Magyar Szent Korona Országainák 1910 évi Népszámlálása [The 1910 census of the Holy Hungarian Crown Lands], vol. 42 (Budapest, 1912), 671.

10 The data on Hungarian language knowledge for 1910 is quoted in Fried, Fiume città, 75. See the place of origin of the immigrants in Fiume for 1910 in A Magyar Szent Korona Országainák 1910 évi Népszámlálása [The 1910 census of the Holy Hungarian Crown Lands], vol. 61 (Budapest, 1916), 54–73.

11 On Croatian claims, see Klen, Povijest Rijeke, 234; Bićanić, Rudolf, “Važnost Rijeke u ekonomskom životu Hrvatske” [The importance of Rijeka in the economic life of Croatia], in Rijeka. Geografija - Etnologija - Ekonomija - Saobraćaj - Povijest - Kultura. Zbornik, ed. Ravlić, Jakša [Rijeka: Geography-ethnology-economy-transport-history-culture-collection] (Zagreb, 1953), 165Google Scholar; and Antić, Vinko, Rijeka u hrvatskoj književnosti XIX. i početkom XX. stoljeća [Rijeka in Croatian literature of nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century] (Zagreb, 1953), 479Google Scholar. For the Italian perspective, see Gigante, Riccardo, Fiume e il nuovo confine, memorie e presagi (Milan, 1943)Google Scholar, 16–17; and Luksich-Jamini, Antonio, “Il movimento delle nazionalità e l'italianità di Fiume,” Fiume 14, no. 1–4 (Jan.–Dec. 1968), 167–68Google Scholar. The number of workers is an estimate of the Fiume Industrial and Trade Chamber. It is unclear what categories were included, and again, Sušak was probably excluded from these numbers.

12 On the owners of Fiume's printing firms, see Lukežić, Irvin, “Riječki bibliopolis” [Rijeka's bibliopolis], in Liburnijski torzo [Liburnian torso] (Rijeka, 1999), 126–51Google Scholar.

13 The number includes typographers, lithographers, and their operatives, in Lukežić, “Riječki bibliopolis,” 135.

14 A Magyar Korona Országainák 1900 évi Népszámlálása [Hungarian Crown Lands 1900 census], vol. 12 (Budapest, 1906), 283; and A Magyar Szent Korona Országainák 1910 évi Népszámlálása [The Saint Hungarian Crown Lands 1910 census], vol. 52 (Budapest, 1914), 1203.

15 Survey of the typographers’ strike, 4 Apr. 1907, P.S. 4514/1907, folder I-2-417, Box 305, Ordinary acts, Year 1907, Hungarian gubernium, DARi-7, State Archive of Rijeka.

16 A sociological research on British typesetters made in the 1960s gives further argument, Cannon, I. C., “Ideology and Occupational Community: A Study of Compositors,” Sociology 1, no. 2 (May 1967): 165–85Google Scholar.

17 Škrbec, Stanislav, Riječka zvijezda Gutenbergove galaksije [The Rijeka star of Gutenberg's galaxy] (Rijeka, 1995), 285–9Google Scholar0.

18 On newspapers published in Rijeka during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, see Lazarić, Lea, “Izvori o riječkim povijesnim novinama 1813.–1918.” [Sources on historical newspapers in Rijeka 1813–1918], Libellarium 2, no. 1 (2009): 65–79Google Scholar.

19 On Zara/Zadar, see Monzali, Luciano, The Italians of Dalmatia: From Italian Unification to World War I (Toronto, 2009)Google Scholar.

20 See note 8. On Fiume's torpedo factory, see Casali, Antonio and Cattaruzza, Marina, Sotto i mari del mondo la Whitehead 1875–1990 (Rome, 1990)Google Scholar. Some information on worker wages can be found in Karpowicz and Sobolevki, Sindikalni pokret, 53–80.

21 See the examples from Swedish, Croatian, Russian, and Milanese typographers in Olsson, Lars, “‘We Stand Here as Sellers and Buyers in Relation to Each Other’: On Work, Culture, and Consciousness among Swedish Typographers in the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries,” Scandinavian Journal of History 19, no. 3 (1994): 201–21Google Scholar; Korać, Vitomir, Povjest radničkog pokreta u Hrvatskoj i Slavoniji. Knjiga druga, Radnički sindikati [History of the labor movement in Croatia and Slavonia. Second book, Workers’ unions] (Zagreb, 1930), 480–527Google Scholar; Steinberg, Mark D., Moral Communities: The Culture of Class Relations in the Russian Printing Industry 1867–1907 (Berkeley, 1992)Google Scholar; and Marchetti, Ada Gigli, I tre anelli. Mutualità, resistenza, cooperazione dei tipografi milanesi (1860–1925) (Milan, 1983)Google Scholar.

22 Eric J. Hobsbawm and Joan W. Scott, “Political Shoemakers,” in Hobsbawm, Eric J., Worlds of Labour: Further Studies in the History of Labour (London, 1984), 103–30Google Scholar.

23 Foretić, Dinko, “Socijalistički radnički pokret u Dalmaciji posljednjih godina XIX. stoljeća (povodom 40-godišnjice S.K. Jugoslavije)” [The socialist labor movement in Dalmatia the last years of the nineteenth century (on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia)], Radovi instituta Jugoslavenske Akademije Znanosti i Umjetnosti u Zadru [Proceedings of the Institute of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts in Zadar], eds. Novak, Grga and Maštrović, Vjekoslav, vols. 6–7 (Zagreb, 1960), 5–33Google Scholar.

24 Irvin Lukežić, “Riječki bibliopolis,” 135. The author does not mention that the attempt failed. See Folder Società di mutuo soccorso dei tipografi, Year 1883, Category S21, Magistrato civico, DARi-22. State Archive of Rijeka.

25 Antonio Chiuzzelin founded his own printing firm and published the Autonomist Party newspaper, La Voce del Popolo, and Giuseppe Lengo after the mentioned foreman experience became a clerk in a Workers’ bank. I could find no information on Antonio Usigovich. Lukežić, Irvin, Književnopovijesne vedute [Literature-historical views] (Pula, 2010), 67–69Google Scholar.

26 Klen, Povijest Rijeke, 264.

27 Folder Società tipografica fiumana, 1902, Category F19, Magistrato civico, DARi-22. State Archive of Rijeka; and “Quale è la vera causa?,” Il Tipografo, 1 May 1912, 2.

28 Participants in the 1900 Fiumian Typographic Society Congress agreed to a reciprocity treaty with other organizations. “Società tipografica fiumana,” La Bilancia, 17 Apr. 1900, 2. For example, in 1901 a member of the Fiumian organization received a fee in Zagreb. “Abbonio Quaranti za veljaču. Izkaz primitka vanjskih članova (Abbondio Quaranti for February: Acceptance statement of outside members),” Hrvatski tipograf, 28 Feb. 1901, 4.

29 “Società tipografica fiumana,” Il Popolo, 9 Oct. 1905, 1.

30 “Cose di Fiume,” Il Risveglio, 24 Mar. 1905, 2; and “Corrispondenze da Fiume,” Il Risveglio, 26 Apr. 1905, 2–3.

31 See “Corrispondenze da Fiume,” Il Risveglio, 25 July 1902, 3–4; and “Società di soccorso fra tipografi e fonditori di caratteri dell'Ungheria. Distretto di Fiume. Movimento dei soci dal 16/9 al 29/9,” Il Risveglio, 11 Oct. 1906, 4.

32 On Pressburg, see Babejová, Eleonóra, Fin-de-Siècle Pressburg: Conflict and Cultural Coexistence in Bratislava 1897–1914 (New York, 2003)Google Scholar. Babejová does not mention the printers’ union, but their professional association is quoted by the Fiumian correspondent in “Corrispondenze da Fiume,” Il Risveglio, 25 Oct. 1905, 2.

33 Kende, János, A magyarországi szociáldemokrata párt nemzetiségi politikája 1903–1919 [The Hungarian social democratic party nationalities politics] (Budapest, 1973), 69Google Scholar.

34 “Commemorazione funebre,” La Bilancia, 2 Nov. 1900, 2.

35 “Ringraziamento,” La Voce del Popolo, 7 Feb. 1905, 3; and “Javna zahvala” [Public thanks/acknowledgement], Novi List, 3 Apr. 1913, 3.

36 “Società professionale fra tipografi e fonditori di caratteri dell'Ungheria. Filiale di Fiume,” Il Risveglio, 25 Sept. 1906, 4.

37 “Corrispondenza da Fiume,” Il Risveglio, 25 July 1902, 4; “Una commemorazione,” Il Popolo, 30 Sept. 1904, 2; “La festa dei tipografi,” La Voce del Popolo, 3 Oct. 1904, 2; “Il comitato festeggiamenti fra tipografi di Fiume,” Il Tipografo, 1 Apr. 1913, 3; “In famiglia,” Il Tipografo, 1 June 1913, 3; and “La cena sociale,” Il Tipografo, 1 Nov. 1913, 3.

38 “Sulle malattie professionali degli operai tipografi,” Il Popolo, 1 Nov. 1902, 1.

39 “Giubileo d'un proto-Banchetto,” La Bilancia, 6 Nov. 1899, 2.

40 Panfilo Castaldi was a fifteenth-century physician and typographer; see Veneziani, Paolo, “Castaldi, Panfilo,” in Dizionario biografico degli Italiani, vol. 21 (Rome, 1978)Google Scholar, accessed 11 Dec. 2017, http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/panfilo-castaldi_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/.

41 “Il V centenario della nascita di Giovanni Gutenberg,” La Bilancia, 16 June 1900, 2; and “I tipografi in festa. La solenne commemorazione di Giovanni Gutenberg,” La Voce del Popolo, 25 June 1900, 1.

42 “Cronaca del carnevale,” La Bilancia, 15 Feb. 1904, 2; “Comunicati,” La Bilancia, 16 Feb. 1904, 2; “Il grande ballo dei tipografi,” Il Popolo, 14 Feb. 1904, 1–2; and “Il ballo dei tipografi,” La Voce del Popolo, 14 Feb. 1904, 2.

43 Emidio (erroneously Emilio in the newspaper text) Capudi is mentioned in the direction of the Confederazione operaia, see “Cronaca di Fiume,” La Confederazione operaia (Trieste), 13 June 1890, 3–4; and Prima guida generale di Fiume (Congiuntivi gli Almanacchi) per l'anno 1891 (Fiume, 1891), 109.

44 On the second Confederazione operaia, see Jozséf Székeres, “Prvi generalni štrajk u Rijeci i djelatnost riječkog radničkog saveza (godine 1901–1902.)” [The first general strike in Rijeka and the activity of Rijeka's workers alliance (years 1901–1902)], Dometi, nos. 7–9, (Rijeka, 1979), 39–50.

45 “I telegrammi da Fiume,” Il Lavoratore, 6 May 1902, 1; “Il Compianto,” Il Lavoratore, 13 May 1902, 2; and “Fiume,” Il Lavoratore, 17 Feb. 1903, 2.

46 On the organization of Hungarian Social Democratic Party see Hitchins, Keith, “Hungary,” in The Formation of Labour Movements 1870–1914: An International Perspective, eds. Marcel van der Linden and Jürgen Rojahn (Leiden, 1990)Google Scholar, 347–66; and Kabos, Ernő, “The Links between the Social Democratic Party of Hungary and the Trade Unions from 1890 to 1914,” in Studies on the History of the Hungarian Trade-Union Movement, eds. Kabos, E. and Zsilák, A. (Budapest, 1977), 42–67Google Scholar.

47 “I tipografi e il 10 ottobre,” La Bilancia, 8 Oct. 1907, 2; and “Proglas riečkih tipografa” [The announcement of Rijeka typographers], Novi List, 8 Oct. 1907, 2.

48 “Le elezioni di ieri,” La Bilancia, 14 Apr. 1910, 1–2.

49 “Quale è la vera causa,” Il Tipografo, 1 May 1912, 2.

50 The Croatian-language professional paper, republishing an article from the Hungarian-language professional paper, wrote that the Fiumian workers have abandoned their previous local patriotic loyalty, in “Rijeka,” Hrvatski Tipograf, 27 Jan. 1912, 1–2.

51 “La festa dei tipografi,” La Voce del Popolo, 3 May 1905, 2; and “Il primo maggio. La festa dei lavoratori,” La Bilancia, 2 May 1905, 2.

52 As Otto Bauer wrote: “After all, we are all affected by national ideology, by national romanticism; few of us would be able even to say the word ‘German’ without its resonating with a peculiar emotional overtone.” Otto Bauer, The Question of Nationalities and Social Democracy, trans. Joseph O'Donnell (Minneapolis, 2000), 19.

53 “Riečko-Sušačko društvo tipografa!!” [Rijeka-Sušak typographers’ society], Hrvatski Tipograf, 16 June 1900, 43.

54 Oštrić notes that Sušak was a weak printing center and until 1914 not organized in unions, in Vlado Oštrić, “O počecima radničkog pokreta u Senju 1874–1914,” 29.

55 “Corrispondenza da Fiume,” Il Risveglio, 25 July 1902, 4.

56 Korać, Vitomir, “Sindikati na Rijeci-Sušaku” [The trade union in Rijeka-Sušak], in Povijest radničkog pokreta u Hrvatskoj i Slavoniji, 2:424–32Google Scholar.

57 See the language knowledge per mother tongue in A Magyar Szent Korona Országainak 1910. évi, Népszámlálása, vol. 61 (Budapest, 1910), 122–23, 127–29, 132–33, 136–37, 140–41, 144–45, 148–49, 152–53, 156–57, and 160–61.

58 On this figure, among the founders of the union of the typographic workers of Yugoslavia and chief editor of the professional paper, see Kolar-Dimitrijević, Mira and Mujadžević, Dino, “Bogoslav Jošt,” in Hrvatski biografski leksikon, ed. Macan, Trpimir (Zagreb, 2005), 6:521Google Scholar.

59 “In casa nostra,” Il Tipografo, 1 June 1913, 2–3.

60 “In casa nostra,” Il Tipografo, 1 Mar. 1913, 1–2.

61 Zimmermann, Susan, Divide, Provide and Rule: An Integrative History of Poverty Policy, Social Policy, and Social Reform in Hungary under the Habsburg Monarchy (Budapest, 2011)Google Scholar.

62 “Dokažimo, da nas ima! Glasovnice za današnjeizbore okružne blaganje” [Let's prove that we are here! Ballots for today's District Company elections], Novi list, 25 May 1913, 1–2.

63 “I candidati per le prossime elezioni della Cassa distrettuale,” Il Popolo, 24 May 1913, 2. Unlike the Croatians’ list, the socialist list did not include professions of the candidates.

64 Birth record N. 876 from 1909, Giulia Linda daughter of Francesco Himmelreich. Birth records from Mar. 1909 to Mar. 1910, Book 1320, DARi-275, State Archive of Rijeka. “Slavenski radnici i izbori riečke okružne blagajne” [Slavic workers and the elections of Rijeka district fund], Novi List, 16 May 1913, 2.

65 “la disdegnosità e l'indifferenza di una razza superiore,” in “Nell'imminenza del Congresso,” in Il Tipografo, 1 Jan. 1914, 2.

66 Ibid.

67 “si spengono tutti i rancori e che italiani, ungheresi e croati si uniscono nel tributo d'omaggio,” in “L'ommaggio a Emidio Capudi,” Il Tipografo, 1 Feb. 1914, 3–4.

68 “In casa nostra,” Il Tipografo, 21 Sept. 1914, 2–3.

69 The Prefetto commissioner to the Prefetto, Fiume, 14 Apr. 1926, Subfolder Società tipografica fiumana, folder 13-7 Unioni e società diverse, Box 130, Cabinet acts, Prefettura di Fiume, DARi-8, State Archive of Rijeka.

70 “Giubileo di lavoro,” Il Risveglio, 15 May 1922, 3; and “Ringraziamento della famiglia Emidio Capudi,” La Vedetta d'Italia, 17 June 1922, 4.

71 “L'unione dei colleghi di Fiume alla nostra Federazione,” Il Risveglio, 15 Dec. 1922, 1.

72 “Tra di loro regna un encomiabile spirito di collegialità e di stima reciproca. Gli anziani fungono da guida ai principianti nelle questioni riguardanti la loro professione, i disoccupati hanno il pieno appoggio di tutti gli altri colleghi,” in The Prefetto commissioner to the Prefetto, Fiume, 17 Dec. 1926, Subfolder Società tipografica fiumana, folder 13-7 Unioni e società diverse, Box 130, Cabinet acts, Prefettura di Fiume, DARi-8, State Archive of Rijeka.