A Civil War (114 page)

116
See the order of the day of the Central Emilia corps, no. 4, 10 July 1944 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. II, pp. 115–16); and the circular from the 3
^rd
Piedmont Division Commander, Massimo, ‘A tutti i Comandi di brigata e di distaccamento', 4 September 1944 (IG,
BG
, 004990).

117
‘Bollettino n. 43', 22 August 1944, from the Command of the 52
^nd
Luigi Clerici Brigade (IG,
BG
, 0625)

118
See ‘Relazione politica generale' by the political commissar Lamberti, of the 47
^th
Brigade, 27 October 1944 (IG,
BG
,
Emilia-Romagna
, G.IV.3.4).

119
See ‘Rapporto informativo e osservazioni per il Comitato federale', for the Pavia Federal Committee, by the inspector Medici, 10 August 1944. ‘For now', it continues ‘we made the fine gesture of sending back the first ones who came to us, though with the proviso that if this incident should be repeated, the same approach should not be taken again, as men must have full freedom of choice' (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. III, p. 237).

120
See the letter from Libero Villa to the Modena representative of the Partito d'azione (no date – June 1944?), cited in Gorrieri,
La Repubblica di Montefiorino
, p. 375. A similar GL attitude was cited in the case of the 43
^rd
Garibaldi Brigade, adding that ‘the peasants are in large measure influenced by the Garibaldini'. See the letter from the political commissar of the Liguria group to the General Command, 3 August 1944 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. II, p. 193).

121
See circular no. 14 of the ‘Comando Raggruppamento Brigate Garibaldi di Milano e provincia', 13 February 1945: interesting as an urban-focused document, and for its late timing (IG,
BG
, 011084).

122
Bianco,
Guerra partigiana
, p. 96.

123
Flamigni and Marzocchi,
Resistenza in Romagna
, p. 29, and a letter from the commissariat of the Piedmont Delegation to the Commissar of the 2
^nd
Piedmont Division, Paolo (Antonio Giolitti), 18 June 1944 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. II, pp. 37–8).

124
Letter to Moro, in Switzerland, 30 January 1945, in which, together with Ciro, Moscatelli laments the discrimination to which the Garibaldini forced to cross the border were subject. Cited in
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. III, pp. 308–9, note 6.

125
See the critical letter from Simon to the commissariat of the 2
^nd
Liguria Cascione Division, 23 November 1944 (ibid., vol. II, p. 628).

126
See the circular from the Command of the 3
^rd
Piedmont Division, 2 October 1944 (ibid., vol. II, pp. 393–4).

127
See the letter to the Delegation for North Emilia, 9 November 1944 (INSMLI,
Brigate Garibaldi
, envelope 1, folder 4).

128
‘Rapporto informativo e osservazioni', from the inspector for Oltrepò, Medici, to the Federal Committee, 10 August 1944 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. II, p. 237).

129
See the report of Renzi and Schiavi on the 47
^th
Brigade (Emilia), 2 August 1944 (IG,
BG
, 03433).

130
See the letter from the Lombardy Delegation to the Command of the 3
^rd
Aliotta Division, no date (INSMLI,
Brigate Garibaldi
, envelope 2, folder 1, subfolder 1).

131
Bernardo,
Il momento buono
, p. 35.

132
See the letter from Andrea (Mario Lizzero) ‘per il Comando delle Tre Venezie' to ‘Direttivo comunità di …' and to the Command of the Friuli Battalion, 9 October 1943. Andrea explains that ‘the essential thing is never to speak of being revolutionaries, but to be so in reality, without saying so' (IZDG, envelope 534, folder III/1).

133
Words contained in a questionnaire of February 1945 prepared by the commissar of the F. Ghinaglia (Cremona) SAP brigades, seeking some insight as to the cause of this defeat (IG,
Archivio PCI
).

134
I defer to the already vast literature on the free zones, in particular Legnani,
Politica e amministrazione nelle repubbliche partigiane
.

135
IG,
BG
, 01519

136
See ‘Verbale seduta Segreteria (26 novembre 1943)' (IG,
Archivio PCI
).

137
This Spring 1945 circular can be found in INSMLI,
Brigate Garibaldi
, envelope 1, folder 4.

138
See Marelli's report ‘Sul lavoro svolto fra i volontari della libertà in montagna (21–25 dicembre)', 1944 (Piacentino) (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. III, p. 141).

139
See the report by Piero, political commissar of the 3
^rd
Aliotta Division, to the General Command, 27 December 1944 (ibid., pp. 144–9).

140
See a note referring to the ‘most serious matters' that the inspector Dario had noted with regard to the formations of the Alessandrino area, April 1945 (ibid., p. 617, n. 1).

141
See Flamigni e Marzocchi,
Resistenza in Romagna
, p. 172.

142
‘Il Comando della 11a divisione Cuneo al Comando della polizia divisionale', 14 January 1945, and ‘Il Comando della 6
^a
zona ligure al Comando militare regionale e al CLN della Liguria', 24 November 1944 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. III, p. 230, and vol. II, pp. 637–9).

143
From an anonymous document of 23 December 1943 (IG,
Archivio PCI
).

144
See the two reports by Andrea ‘from the partisan command of the Friuli battalion', both from 27 September 1943 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. I, pp. 95–9).

145
According to the intendent's report ‘on the military events subsequent to the date of 27 March 1944', n.d., referring to the Benedicta killings (IG,
BG
, 09955).

146
See the letter from the inspector stationed with the 3
^rd
Division, Albero (Oltrepò Pavese), to the insurrectionary triumvirate for Lombardy, 24 February 1945 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. III, p. 416).

147
Report ‘Alla Segreteria federazione milanese del PCI', 15 September 1944 (IG,
BG
, 06320). Moscatelli gives the following figures: seven had been signed up to the Party prior to 25 July, nine recruited during the ‘45 days', and ‘66 promoted to Party ranks at the meeting in tribute to the Red Army': a total of 82 among around 1,000 men.

148
Testimony of Guglielmo Vannozzi, in Portelli,
Biografia di una città
, pp. 264–5.

149
‘Alcuni rilievi sull'organizzazione della 3a divisione' (Liguria), n.d. (IG,
BG
, 010473).

150
See the letter from the Command of the divisions in the Valsesia, Ossola, Cusio, and Verbano areas (Cino and Ciro) to the Delegation for Lombardy, 12 February 1945 (IG,
BG
, 07907).

151
Testimony of Nelia Benissone Costa on the assembly held at the Turin Microtecnica plant (Bruzzone and Farina,
La Resistenza taciuta
, p. 55).

152
Thus commented
Il Partigiano
, published by Rome's Comando Superiore Partigiano (headed by Carlo Andreoni, after his departure from the PSIUP) in the article ‘Vecchi stomaci', 9 February 1944, which also states, ‘We are not prepared to set any question aside …').

153
Thus commented
Carnia Libera
, 1 March 1945, in the article ‘Noi Garibaldini', which estimates the Garibaldi formations as accounting for 73 percent of all partisan forces.

154
Bernardo,
Il momento buono
, pp. 167, 196.

1
Bravo and Jalla,
La vita offesa
, p. 296.

2
INSMLI,
CLNAI
, envelope 6, folder 2, subfolder 6.

3
Testimony of Bruno Vasari, an Action Party member from Trieste born in 1911 (Bravo and Jalla,
La vita offesa
, p. 300).

4
See the ‘circular' from the Command of the SAP Brigades group for Milan and its province, 1 January 1945. The same conceptions appeared in the subsequent ‘Circular No. 12' of this same Command, from 30 January (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. III, pp. 181, 311–12).

5
See, for example, the letter from the political commissar of the Friuli division, Andrea Lima, to the Udine CLN, 31 January 1945 (ibid., pp. 312–19).

6
From the article ‘Del comunismo', 15 September 1944, which begins ‘Each country makes
its own
revolution'.

7
Their illusions in the American people quickly having collapsed, Aligi Barducci and his friends convinced themselves that ‘only the Russian people, which had made its own revolution, could help the Italian people to do likewise'; thus did M.A. and S. Timparano sketch out the development of a group of young people born under fascism (G. and E. Varlecchi,
Potente
, p. 75, n. 1).

8
This reductive interpretation, tied into the polemic against
attentismo
, appears in Ragionieri,
Il partito comunista
, p. 402.

9
A paraphrased version of this old argument was used in the aforementioned ‘open letter' to the dissidents of Stella Rossa, writing that it was necessary to alleviate ‘the burden that has weighed down on the Red Army for over three years'. The dissidents had, moreover, spoken in their paper of the ‘tortured flesh of the Russian people' (see Dellavalle,
Lotte operaie: Torino
, p. 208).

10
On the repercussions of the dissolution of the Comintern, decreed on 15 May 1943, for PCI cadre, see Ragionieri,
Il partito comunista
, pp. 310–18.

11
See the Rome edition of
L'Unità
, 3 November 1943, whose whole front page was covered with the title ‘On the 26
^th
anniversary of the Russian Revolution, the people of the whole world see the dawn of the victory of freedom and of national independence'; see various titles and subtitles of the northern edition of 7 November 1943, and the article ‘Perché è necessario che prenda il potere il CLN' (‘Why it is necessary for the CLN to take power') which sought to dispel ‘leftist' qualms; and the 7 November poster in which the USSR, following an old formulation, was defined as the ‘fatherland of all workers', in P. Secchia and F. Frassati,
Storia della Resistenza
, Rome: Riuniti, Rome 1965, vol. I, p. 300. At the same time,
L'Unità
referred to ‘the victory of the Soviet Union and of its allies'; and the article ‘Con l'URSS per la vittoria e per la libertà!' (‘With the USSR, for victory and freedom!') concluded with the statement that ‘the Soviet Union is guiding the United Nations to victory, the liberation of peoples' (northern edition, 29 September 1943).

12
See the article ‘La schiacciante vittoria dell'Esercito Rosso (oltre la Vistola)' in the Emilia-Romagna edition of
L'Unità
, 30 July 1944, and the 3 July 1944 letter from the Lombardy Delegation of the General Command of the Garibaldi Brigades to the formations of Como province, n.d. (INSMLI,
Brigate Garibaldi
, envelope 2, folder 1, subfolder 1).

13
‘Ottobre rosso', in
La voce della realtà
, published by the 19
^th
Eusebio Giambone Brigade, 13 August 1944 (IG,
BG
, 04741).

14
Editorial ‘Saluto al popolo sovietico', 1 March 1945.

15
‘L'Unione Sovietica combatte in Germania', 7 November 1944.

16
‘L' Armata proletaria ha sfondato lo schieramento tedesco sul Nipro e a Melitopol', Northern edition, 31 October 1943.

17
Letter from the Command of the 1
^st
Zone, signed ‘Curto', to the inspector Simon, 8 July 1944 (IG,
BG
, 010046).

18
Article in the series ‘Domande e risposte', in the northern edition of 7 November 1944.

19
Thus, for example, Pietro addressed himself to his ‘dear comrades' in the Cuneo area on 14 December 1944, exhorting them to read the articles which
La nostra lotta
was publishing on the USSR and on progressive democracy (IG,
BG
, 04467). On the connection between Togliatti's conception of progressive democracy and the Soviet experience of state-building, see F. Sbarberi,
I comunisti italiani e lo Stato 1929–1945
, Milan: Feltrinelli, 1980, especially the fifth chapter.

20
See the article ‘La Costituzione sovietica' in
L'Unità
(Asti), 15 November 1944,
La Costituzione sovietica
, and the 4
^th
Piedmont Division Command's request for the text of the Constitution, on 25 February 1945 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. III, p. 419).

21
The text of these lectures is held at IZDG, envelope 272b, folder 1/A.

22
From the aforementioned testimony of Angelo Raffaelli (Contini,
Memoria e storia
, p. 352).

23
On 24 February 1944 the Commissariat of the General Command circulated ‘outline political report for political commissars, on the events of the week, no. 3' with the theme of ‘The 26
^th
anniversary of the Red Army and the military situation (INSMLI,
Brigate Garibaldi
, envelope 1, folder 4). On 27 February, Rino communicated from the Valli di Lanzo to his ‘dear comrades': ‘Today we have marked the 26
^th
anniversary of the Red Army amidst an openly patriotic and revolutionary atmosphere' (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. I, p. 273).