The author examines the relationships between the two communist parties in a territory populated by two ethnic communities that the two interested states attempted to annex. Given the fact that the Communist Party of Slovenia/Yugoslavia and the Italian Communist Party either led or belonged to the group of political organizations that participated in the liberation struggle, their ties and co-operation had profound implications. The fundamental dilemma emanated from the relation between the national and the social and/ or class structures, and both had to take into account their domestic situations, too. Putting into the foreground the solution of the Slovene national issues, the Communist Party of Slovenia managed to attract the Slovenes living in Venezia Giulia, and by emphasizing-the socialist revolution and close ties with the Soviet Union won also the sympathies of Italian workers in this province who thus opted against the orientation of their own Italian Communist Party.