TIGR

TIGR (an acronym of the place-names Trst, Istra, Gorica, and Reka), fully the Revolutionary Organization of the Julian March T.I.G.R. (), was a militant anti-fascist and insurgent organization established as a response to the Fascist Italianization of the Slovene and Croat people on part of the former Austro-Hungarian territories that became part of Italy after the First World War, and were known at the time as the Julian March. It is considered one of the first anti-fascist resistance movements in Europe. It was active between 1927 and 1941. thumb|220px|right|Memorial plaque to TIGR activists in Ocizla on the [[Karst Plateau who were active in the 1930s]]

== Background == thumb|430px|right|The Treaty of Rapallo and the Italianization of ethnic Slovene areas that included a quarter of Slovene ethnic territory and approximately 327,000 out of a total population of 1.3 million Slovenes, on the map of present-day Slovenia with its traditional regions' boundaries. While the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy was a multi-national empire, which allowed a relatively large degree of cultural autonomy to the different peoples and ethnic groups, Italy was a nation state, and its governments had little intention of allowing the existence of separate national movements and identities on its territories. Issues regarding the use of the Slovene and Croatian languages in public administration and in the educational system, therefore, became the main point of contention between the Italian authorities and the Slovene and Croatian minorities.