---
title: Soldati italiani! (Austro-Hungarian leaflet on Trieste and Trento)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/soldati-italiani-austrian-leaflet-trieste-1918/
description: Text-only leaflet headed 'Soldati italiani!' that tells Italian troops Austria-Hungary never wanted war with Italy, that Trieste is the monarchy's only…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![Soldati italiani! (Austro-Hungarian leaflet on Trieste and Trento)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/soldati-italiani-austrian-leaflet-trieste-1918.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/soldati-italiani-austrian-leaflet-trieste-1918.jpg)

# Soldati italiani! (Austro-Hungarian leaflet on Trieste and Trento)

Text-only leaflet headed 'Soldati italiani!' that tells Italian troops Austria-Hungary never wanted war with Italy, that Trieste is the monarchy's only large port and 'never Italian', and that Italy's ministers, aided by Gabriele d'Annunzio's 'foolish bluster', led them into the war. The tells: blame is parked on named Italian politicians and on Britain, closing with 'the English merchant' as 'this vampire' who is taking Malta, Brindisi and Corfu.

- **Date:** 1918
- **Period:** [First World War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=wwi)
- **Made by:** Austro-Hungarian forces on the Italian front (leaflet speaks for the monarchy; no printer or issuing office named on the sheet)
- **Region:** [Western and Central Europe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=western-central-europe)
- **Country:** [Austria Hungary](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=austria-hungary)
- **Medium:** [Leaflet](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=leaflet)
- **Issuer type:** [Mixed](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=mixed)
- **Regime:** [Austria Hungary](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=austria-hungary)
- **Leader:** [Karl I](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=karl-i)
- **Audience:** [Enemy forces](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=enemy-forces)
- **Purpose:** [Persuade or win support](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=persuade-support)
- **Themes:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military), [Empire and colonialism](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=empire-colonialism)
- **Event:** [World War I](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=world-war-i)
- **Techniques:** [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/) [Scapegoating](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/scapegoating/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Europeana 1914-1918 (user-contributed collection), via Europeana](https://www.europeana.eu/en/item/2020601/https___1914_1918_europeana_eu_contributions_5728), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain by age (printed 1918); contributor's scan also CC BY-SA 3.0 on Europeana 'Propaganda austriaca', Europeana 1914-1918 contribution 5728, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Europeana.

## Text on the object

Original (Italian) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
Soldati italiani!

L' Austria-Ungheria non ha mai desiderato di entrare in guerra contro l' Italia. Nel 1915 l' Italia dimenticò tutti i vantaggi della triplice alleanza, tutti gli appoggi dell' Austria-Ungheria e della Germania ed assalì proditoriamente i suoi alleati mentre questi si trovavano in una lotta dificile e faticosa.

Per quanto riguarda noi — lo ripetiamo sempre — ci limitiamo a difendere il territorio della nostra patria, non essendo nostra mira nè di togliervi alcunchè del vostro possesso territoriale nè di espellervi dall'Adriatico e dal Mediterraneo.

„Trento e Trieste“ e „l'Adriatico“ sono i motti coi quali i vostri ministri senza coscienza — servendosi delle sciocche fanfaronate di un Gabriele d'Annunzio — vi hanno spinti in questa guerra terribile.

Trento e Trieste, dalle quali siete oggi, dopo tre anni e dopo enormi perdite sanguinose, più lontani che mai, vengono difese da tutti i popoli della monarchia con tutte le forze.

Ed ecco perchè:

L'Austria non può esistere senza Trieste che è l' unico porto grande della monarchia, un punto di vitale importanza. Porti come Trieste ed anche migliori voi ne avete per lo meno 15. Il vostro governo ha speso di nuovo recentemente rilevanti importi per l'ampliamento dei porti di Napoli, Genova, Ostia ecc,, allora con quale ragione si vuole rapirci l'unico nostro porto che, unito all'Italia - senza il retroterra austriaco - non potrebbe fiorire e sarebbe rovinato economicamente per sempre? Trieste non è stata mai dominio italiano, i suoi vasti dintorni e l' intero suo retroterra sono prettamente slavi e nella città stessa quasi il 40 per cento degli abitanti sono di nazionalità slovena.

Ed anche Trento è territorio austriaco intangibile.

SOLDATI!

Perchè continuate a combattere per questi scopi fantastici che non potete mai raggiungere? Perchè rimanete al servizio del mercante inglese e perchè vi sacrificate ancora per questo vampiro? Non vedete che egli si è insediato a Malta, a Brindisi a Corfù per dominare l'Italia e l'Adriatico per sempre non solo economicamente ma anche strategicamente?
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
Italian soldiers!

Austria-Hungary never wished to enter a war against Italy. In 1915 Italy forgot all the advantages of the Triple Alliance and all the support of Austria-Hungary and Germany, and treacherously attacked its allies while they were in a difficult and wearying struggle.

As for us, we say it again and again, we limit ourselves to defending the territory of our homeland, it not being our aim either to take anything from your territorial possessions or to expel you from the Adriatic and the Mediterranean.

"Trento and Trieste" and "the Adriatic" are the mottoes with which your unscrupulous ministers, making use of the foolish bluster of a Gabriele d'Annunzio, have driven you into this terrible war.

Trento and Trieste, from which you are today, after three years and after enormous bloody losses, farther away than ever, are being defended by all the peoples of the monarchy with all their strength.

And here is why:

Austria cannot exist without Trieste, which is the monarchy's only large port, a point of vital importance. Ports like Trieste, and even better ones, you have at least 15 of. Your government has recently spent considerable sums again on enlarging the ports of Naples, Genoa, Ostia etc.; so by what right do they want to seize from us our only port, which, joined to Italy and without the Austrian hinterland, could not flourish and would be economically ruined for ever? Trieste has never been an Italian dominion; its wide surroundings and its whole hinterland are purely Slav, and in the city itself almost 40 per cent of the inhabitants are of Slovene nationality.

And Trento too is untouchable Austrian territory.

SOLDIERS!

Why do you go on fighting for these fantastic aims that you can never reach? Why do you remain in the service of the English merchant, and why do you still sacrifice yourselves for this vampire? Do you not see that he has installed himself at Malta, at Brindisi, at Corfu, to dominate Italy and the Adriatic for ever, not only economically but also strategically?
```

Printed as on the sheet, including the single-f 'dificile', the doubled comma in 'ecc,,' and the German-style low-high quotation marks. The scan ends at the last question; no signature or dateline is visible. Translation is a machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader.

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