I visited slovenia last week and i visited a cave in postojna with a "russian bridge" build by russian POW's in WW1. That made me wonder why they had them build that bridge. And made me wonder about the conflict in slovenia during WW1.
Slovenia was part of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy during the First World War, and as such would have been drafted into the Austro-Hungarian Army. Slovenia was involved in the fighting on the Italian Front in WW1. They participated in the Battles of Isonzo, which were a series of battles in Western Slovenia. A series of 12 battles was fought from May 1915 to October 1917, resulting in a German-led victory over the Italians. These battles were extremely bloody and led to about half of Italy's wartime casualties ( 300,000 out of 600,000). More that 30,000 ethnic Slovenes died in the fighting, and many civilians were hurt as well. Many Slovenes ended in Italian refugee camps and were badly mistreated. The Italians treated the Slovenes as enemies of the state, and technically they were, as they fought for the Austrian Kaiser.
I could not find information on this bridge specifically, but POWs were often used in manual labor, such as building infrastructure. I am guessing that the government wanted a bridge there, and assigned these POWs to build it.
Hope that answers that, let me know if there is anything missing and or needs clarification. As always sorry if I made mistakes, English isn't my first language.
Actually, just last week Putin visited Slovenia to commemorate the said POW's. They built a mountain road that was vital for supplying the front line, and many of them died from landslides and bad work conditions.
Slovenians viewed the war much like the other Slavic nations of Austria-Hungary did. Many felt they were fighting for someone else, and not their own nation. This was especially true on the Russian front, where many would defect to the enemy side. This changed once Italy entered the war though. It was fought on home soil and everyone saw them as enemies.