Cossacks have long captured the imagination—an exotic, faraway people often portrayed as fierce warriors, freedom lovers, and adventure seekers. As a child, I too was captivated by simplified versions of Russian classics like Gogol's "Taras Bulba" and Tolstoy's "The Cossacks," which romanticized them as noble warriors. The vivid illustrations from these books haunted my childhood dreams for years. However, the reality—especially during World War II—is far more complex and darker than these romanticized portrayals suggest. Their atrocities against Jewish people have often been minimised, and historians have long relegated their role as Nazi collaborators in Western Europe to a mere footnote, overlooked by most.In 1944, the Cossacks arrived in Friuli, in the far northeast corner of Italy. They came not on a heroic mission, but to do the Nazis' dirty work, lured by the promise of a new homeland. In the end they were betrayed - by the Nazis, by the British Army, by the whole world negotiating the end of the Second World War. The only exception were the poor mountain villagers who, despite having to endure them, eventually learned to coexist and empathise with these unexpected occupiers.This story unfolds in the part of Europe where I was born, at the crossroads of East and West, North and South of the continent. It's a European story - forgotten, but crucial to understanding the complexities of our past.Have you been possessed by the devil to come to this country?(Friulian) "Vejso vût il diaul a vignî in chest paîs?" "Have you been possessed by the devil to come to this country?"(Russian) "Brodili, brodili, brodili." "We wandered, wandered, wandered."This is an honest exchange between two women: one, asking, is from Carnia—a small, mountainous region that separates Friuli from Austria. It’s a region within a region, still unique today for its language and cultural identity.Now, many of you listening might not even know where Friuli or Carnia are. But if you pull up Google Maps, you’ll find them tucked away in the top-right corner of Italy, bordering Austria and Slovenia. Together with Trieste, they form Italy's northeasternmost edge—a place where kingdoms and empires have clashed, mixed, and left their mark.It’s the region where the brutal Isonzo front was fought during World War I, where the Nazis occupied during the Second World War, and where, until just 35 years ago, the Iron Curtain began—stretching from Trieste to Stettin. I spent my first 18 years living in the shadow of that curtain.But let’s go back to Carnia: this small, rugged land of mountains and narrow valleys, where Carnic Friulian is spoken—a language born from the fusion of Celtic, Latin, German, and ancient Slavic. Here, the grand events of the world—the empires, wars, and nations that rose and fell—filtered in only as stories. Tales brought back by mountain men who, driven by necessity, emigrated to Austria, France, Switzerland, Germany, even Russia. They’d leave for months or years, returning with a little money and a lot of stories.Carnia was isolated, inhabited by tough, proud people, accustomed to solitude. Few outsiders came here. That is, until 1944, when, in the chaos of World War II, the Nazis brought in a strange mix of Cossack and Caucasian peoples to occupy the region. They were there to crush the partisans, perhaps even to settle—a new homeland for the Cossacks, a "Kosakenland" outside their native lands.This wasn’t just an army—it was an entire displaced people on the move, refugees mixed with soldiers, swept along in the tide of the Nazi war machine. And so, a Cossack woman stood before a Carnic woman, asking for shelter. For eleven long months, they would share a home, memories, and their lives—after wandering, wandering, wandering, in search of a lost homeland.Why did Càrnia become so crucial for the Nazis in 1944? After Italy signed the armistice on September 8, 1943, switching sides and ceasing to fight the Allies, the Nazis swiftly occupied Friuli, Trieste, and Istria. They established the Operationszone Adriatisches Küstenland—the Operational Zone of the Adriatic Littoral—which was, in all but name, a Nazi protectorate.As in other occupied territories, the Wehrmacht guarded key towns and military objectives, while the SS focused on crushing resistance. However, in Friuli, especially in the mountains of Carnia, the SS struggled. By late winter and early spring 1944, partisan battalions had grown stronger, bolstered by young recruits seeking refuge in the highlands.By summer 1944, the partisan movement in Friuli reached its zenith. Relentless sabotage, attacks on German installations, and the elimination of numerous Nazi-Fascist garrisons led to the liberation of several areas.Two "Free Zones" were established—one of them in Carnia, a thorn in the Nazis' side. From these mountains, partisans could block all key passes and cut off German supply lines.Carnia's free zone was ...
