A Civil War (156 page)
Authors: Claudio Pavone
The prediction of the ever level-headed Emanuele Artom had been: âThe government will never be able to abandon the partisans. In looking after the ex-combatants, which it cannot avoid doing, we will have to come first.'
31
A certain Major Barni seems to have gone so far as to dream that âin the future republican state only those who participated in the war of liberation will have full rights'.
32
Lelio Basso, with the âsoviets of workers, peasants and soldiers' in mind, thought, not only for the partisans, of âVeterans' Councils', to set alongside those for factories and farms.
33
Dante Livio Bianco had noted alarming symptoms of
trincerismo
(a diehard trench mentality) in the apolitical partisans.
34
And it was indeed the politicisation of the bands, which at the day of reckoning strongly insisted on their militarisation and still more on their final unification under an exclusively military sign, that prevented a partisan diehard veteran's mentality from thriving. Massimo Mila grasped this fact when, warning against the birth of a âpartisan belligerence', he considered âthe partisans going their various ways into different parties and the liquefaction of “unification” a good thing': the partisans, he said, ought to let their voices be heard through their parties.
35
One might also add that those who had more or less candidly professed themselves to be apolitical had chosen their parties too. This is borne out by the fact that while the ex-'regular' servicemen were to conserve a single
association â the âThe National Association of Combatants and Veterans of All Wars' â the partisans were to group themselves very quickly according to the major political and ideological tendencies.
36
But the memory of the Resistance is not exhausted in the partisans' associations. An adequate study still has to be made of the post-war process that presents two apparently contradictory faces. On the one hand, there was the demobilisation not only of the armed partisans but of all âresistance society', only a small part of which would enter âpolitical society'. For the women, this withdrawal often came to seem like expulsion at the very moment when the long wave of the Resistance was bringing them the vote. On the other hand, Italy witnessed the persistence of a memory that, for all the distrust and official celebrations and alternating waves of political preferences, came to constitute a subtle and intricate thread of a fairly broad part of collective consciousness â that in which âthe memory of the wounded, the capacity for endurance, and the refusal of the unacceptable are deposited'.
37
Like all great historical events, the Resistance also influenced those who had not taken part in it, though in a less triumphant way than the
resistenti
would have wished.
38
Recalling the quotation with which this book began, we might observe that those who had seen only the hazards in the two years that had just passed tried to repress the memory of it; those who had experienced it as an opportunity, and who emerged from it transformed, had to strike a difficult balance between the processing of memory and the processing of a project that on no account was to become just a mere scrap of memory.
What one had proved to oneself about oneself became inscribed in the legacy of one's own personal identity: âCertainly it was a mark of character if you were capable of committing yourself so completely; certainly it was a precious thing to have this secular faith in humanity which unfortunately many of us lack or which is so tinged with practical scepticism.'
39
Burying one's machine-gun became the symbol of the interment of a road towards the future, which might
nevertheless be trodden once again: âGiven that for the time being there was no longer anything for them to do, they returned home and buried their machine-guns. But engraved within them there remained that great dream that they had yearned for up in the mountains: the honest and unique dream of social renewal.'
40
In his memoirs, a Fascist was keen to equate the
odi et amo
complex of the
resistenti
regarding the outcome of their experience with the hopelessness of the Fascist catastrophe: âAmong them as well there was by now an air of having been liquidated', he wrote; and he quotes a Fascist prisoner as saying: âYou see, they've screwed you as well.'
41
Perhaps this Fascist longed to find common ground with those who had beaten him in the cultivation of a new myth of the âmutilated victory'. Standing out in contrast to this consolatory and transformist advance is the chasteness of the position taken by the French Fascist Drieu La Rochelle: âBe faithful to the pride of the Resistance, as I am faithful to the pride of the Collaborators. Do not cheat me any more than I am cheating you. Sentence me to death.'
42
The welding together of the generation of the active anti-Fascists of the
ventennio
and that of the
resistenti
gave birth, as I said earlier, to a long generation, favoured by the fact that the same thing happened in the Resistance as, it has been said, happens in revolutions: namely that thirty- to forty-year-old people âwho believed themselves young'
43
found themselves in positions of command. The generation of the adversities remained a short generation and, in this sense, the post-war period came to an end earlier for them, not without several advantages, before it did for those who felt committed to keeping open the season of the great opportunities. The long generation may be said to have ended only in 1968 (with some initial symptoms in 1956), when, in an Italy where, by virtue of its very longevity, it had been incapable of perceiving all that was new, a new generation appeared on the scene, eager to take up again the task of widening the field of possibility. Up to that moment the generation of anti-Fascism and of the Resistance had been able to grow old without having to face new rites of passage. These appeared in 1968 and were to be extremely demanding; for many of the older generation they were to prove insuperable. But the polemics against
the Resistance as a failed revolution of one's fathers and the subsequent salvage operations (âthe Resistance is red, it is not Christian Democrat') are perhaps less significant, from the point of view of passages between generations, than the auroral and truly
resistenziale
atmosphere recalled some years later by a
sessantottotino
(sixty-eighter):
I still have the memory of a profound euphoria, an experience of happiness, of great faith in ourselves and in others. The extraordinary thing was above all seeing in a very brief space of time the transformations that took place in people. Young people who until the day before I had seen as moderates and totally indifferent to social problems changing their attitude completely, as if the discovery of new tools of communication made it possible to draw out of the unconscious of each what until that moment had lain buried.
44
When Parri had been crushed âbetween the two theological and cardinalitial faces of the two illustrious leaders of the left and the right [Togliatti and De Gasperi] and by the symmetrical glinting of their spectacles', and the faces of the ushers of the Viminale glowed with satisfaction that the intruders had been driven out,
45
something was already over:
In the history of post-war Italy, Prime Minister Parri emerges as an appealing and tragic figure. A man of unquestioned integrity, of lofty aspirations and a conscience tempered through long suffering, he had a Lincolnian grandeur. But the very lack of political and administrative experience that made him so attractive as a symbol of a new and better Italy was also his ruin.
46
For many, that was the beginning of the end of the post-war era, and they heaved a sigh of relief. Some were delighted, and were even more delighted on 18 April 1948, that the danger had been avoided. Others seized the opportunity to turn their backs on the terrible recent past without deeply engaging their passions, if passions they had. Others still concentrated on the effort for survival, which required work, food and home, as well as the rediscovery of the capacity simply to have fun. This is what Colonel Stevens failed to grasp when, from the microphones of Radio London, he contrasted with a Europe hard at work on the job of reconstruction an Italy where â what are they doing? â âIn Italy they're dancing.'
47
Perhaps nobody expected years that might have seemed, as Calvino said, a new
belle époque
. When these years came, they came as a surprise above all to those who had seen the moral catastrophe suffered by mankind at Auschwitz as foreshadowing the final catastrophe of the entire species, which Hiroshima, also a product of man, showed to be possible
48
â and to those who had at that same time placed their trust in new struggles and newly attainable concord to rescue and redeem the future.
1
See Chapter 3.2.
2
For an example of this type of critique of the theory of political exchange, see Hirschman,
Shifting Involvements
, pp. 94â100.
3
Testimony of Raffaele Maruffi, mechanical engineer born in 1924 (Bravo and Jalla,
La vita offesa
, p. 195).
4
This image was used, with regard to the
impegno meridionalista
(i.e. post-war efforts to develop the socio-economic conditions of the South of Italy), by Rossi-Doria in his 1967 report
L'osso e la polpa dell'agricoltura meridionale
. See M. De Benedictis, âManlio Rossi-Doria', in
Belfagor
XLV (1990), pp. 284â5.
5
See âIntervista sulla guerra partigiana', an interview he gave to L. La Malfa Calogero and M.V. de Filippis, pp. 22â4. Note the statement that âmilitary formations are not the place for doing politics' in âProposte di una delibera del CLNAI per la costituzione di una commissione responsabile delle operazioni militari in Lombardia', late December 1943 (
Atti CVL
, Appendix 1, paragraph 5).
6
Though himself very political, the Garibaldian commissar Eros (Didimo Ferrari: see the fine pages devoted to him in Battaglia,
Un uomo
) wrote, together with the commander Monti, that âdoing politics merely means preparing the body, will and spirit for action' (report on âoperational activity', late October 1944 (?), IG,
BG
,
Emilia-Romagna
, G.IV).
7
Battaglia,
Un uomo
, pp. 186â9.
8
M.A. and S. Timpanaro, âIntroduzione' in G. and E. Varlecchi,
Potente
, p. 33.
9
Bianco,
Guerra partigiana
, pp. 62â3, on a document he drew up on 26 March 1944 in his role as a political commissar: later published in part in
Formazioni GL
, pp. 78â80.
10
Fogar,
Le brigate Osoppo-Friuli
, p. 286
11
âBollettino n. 43', by the Command of the 52
nd
Luigi Clerici Brigade, 22 August 1944 (IG,
BG
, 0625).
12
INSMLI,
CLNAI
, envelope 8, folder 12.
13
It would be interesting to compare this Resistance understanding with the results of the historiography which, beginning with the studies of Alberto Aquarone, has insisted on the gradual âdepoliticisation' of the Fascist Party.
14
LRI
, pp. 228â31 (the letter is from summer/autumn 1944; Ulivi was shot on 10 November of that year).
15
âIl principio (Orientamenti liberali)', edited by the Piedmont section of the PLI (supplement to issue 5 of
L'Opinione
, n.d).
16
The text is quoted in Gorrieri,
La Repubblica di Montefiorino
, pp. 390â1. See âLa Democrazia cristiana invita i giovani a lavorare per un'Italia miglioreâ, editorial of the 25 September 1944 Northern edition of
Il Popolo
.
17
âRisveglio',
Risorgimento Liberale
, Rome edition, 15 March 1944.
18
Diena,
La rivoluzione minimalista
, p. 8.
19
As
Giustizia e Libertà . Notiziario dei patrioti delle Alpi Cozie
, April 1944, put it (quoted in Giovana,
Storia di una formazione partigiana
, p. 105).
20
Artom,
Diari
, p. 151 (26 January 1944).
21
The words of âmachine shop worker' Georges Navel in his
Travaux
, cited â though not agreeing with him â by Caffi,
Critica della violenza
, p. 93.
22
Rome edition, 12 January 1944.
23
See A. Rossi-Doria,
Il ministro e i contadini. Decreti Gullo e lotte nel Mezzogiorno (1944â1949)
, Rome: Bulzoni, 1983.
24
F. Traniello, âStato e partiti alle origini della Repubblica nel dibattito storiografico', in
Italia contemporanea
135 (AprilâJune 1979), pp. 3â15, esp. p. 5.
25
Foa,
Carlo Levi
, pp. 50â1.
26
Spinelli,
Io, Ulisse
, p. 117.
27
Note the sharpness with which Foa claimed that the parties had failed their first anti-Fascist duty: âto tell the truth' (Inverni,
I partiti
, p. 17).
28
Spinelli,
Io, Ulisse
, p. 102. As he began to distance himself from the PCI, Spinelli remained moved by âSecchia's immense rescue effort, which I could only manage to explain with the idea that he, at heart, wanted to save a friend, showing what was, for a Bolshevik, a reproachable weakness' (ibid., p. 247).
29
Battaglia,
Un uomo
, p. 80. See also pp. 5, 6.
30
âOrigini del movimento',
Bollettino Popolo e LibertÃ
, 1, pp. 2â3.
31
Hirschman,
Shifting Involvements
, p. 100, with reference not only to Machiavelli but also to Sartre's
Mains sales
. âSartre's epigones' have developed a true âManichean myth' around this play: âto act implies sacrifice, in the superstitious sense of the term', forcing one to âreduce to ashes that which one holds most dear'. E. Morin, â
La dialectique et l'action'
, in
Arguments
, AprilâMay 1958, p. 13, quoted by L. Sciolla, âOpposizione intellettuale e PCF: l'esperienza di “Arguments” ', in
Rivista di storia contemporanea
X (1981), p. 132.
32
Bruzzone and Farina,
La Resistenza taciuta
, p. 110.
33
V. Foa, âLe strutture economiche e la politica economica del regime fascista', in
Fascismo e antifascismo (1918â1948). Lezioni e testimonianze
, Milan: Feltrinelli, 1962, p. 281.
34
Germani,
Autoritarismo
, especially the concluding pages.
35
âAbbiamo intervistato un partigiano', in
Voce Operaia
, 19 November 1943.
36
Todorov, âLa tolleranza e l'intollerabile', p. 95, paraphrasing Spinoza.
37
âOnly a ruling class which feels itself to be threatened is afraid to flaunt a double standard'. E.P. Thompson,
Customs in Common
, London: Merlin, p. 55.
38
âDichiarazione costitutiva', by the Partito Italiano del Lavoro (pamphlet âPartito italiano del lavoro â “Popolo e Libertà ”,' January 1944, p. 32).
39
See Bianco,
Guerra partigiana
, and Fenoglio,
Il partigiano Johnny
, p. 182.
40
Meneghello,
Bau-sète
, p. 69.
1
F. Calamandrei, âPiero Calamandrei mio padre', essay introducing P. Calamandrei,
Diario 1939â1945
, Florence: La Nuova Italia, 1982, pp. xiiâxiii.
2
Falaschi,
La Resistenza armata
, pp. 163, 165. This concerned the story of a partisan who had to shoot a girl as a spy, but feared that he might previously have known her. But then he could tell from her teeth that this was not the case, and shot her without further hesitation.
3
See Arendt,
The Origins of Totalitarianism
, New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1951, Part III.
4
B. Fenoglio,
Una questione privata
, Milan: Garzanti, 1965, p. 28.
5
Calamandrei,
La vita indivisibile
, p. 119 (4 November 1943).
6
Testimony of Nelia Benissone Costa, in Bruzzone and Farina,
La Resistenza taciuta
, p. 60.
7
Testimony of Milan's Ida Rovelli in
A voi cari compagni
, p. 69.
8
Cicchetti,
Il campo giusto
, p. 220.
9
R. Sbardella, âMovimento reale e critica della politica', in L. Vitale and C. Pavone, eds,
Contro l'autonomia della politica
, Turin: Rosenberg & Sellier, 1978, p. 64 (âQuaderni di Fabbrica e Stato', 6â7).
10
I. Calvino, âLa sfida al labirinto', in
Il Menabò di letteratura
5 (1962), p. 95.
11
Battaglia,
Un uomo
, pp. 60â1.
12
Gobetti,
Diario partigiano
, p. 15.
13
J. Michelet,
Le peuple
, Brussels: Meline, Cans et Compagnie, 1846, pp. 205â6; with these words begins Chapter 1, âL'amitié', of part III, âDe l'affranchissement par l'amour: La Patrie'.
14
Testimonies of Maria Luisa Fasana Oggero and Natalina Bianco Giai (Bravo and Jalla,
La vita offesa
, p. 108).
15
Partito italiano del lavoro â âPopolo e Libert
à , January 1944.
16
âConoscerci',
La Voce dei giovani
, 1 August 1944 (very likely written by Delfino Insolera).
17
On all this, see the chapter âConflitto, solidarietà , organizzazione', in Levi,
I sommersi e i salvati
.
18
See, on this development, A. Lay, âUn' etica per la classe: dalla fraternità universale alla solidarietà operaia', in
Rivista di storia contemporanea
XVIII (1989), pp. 309â35.
19
The 20 March 1944 edition featured the subheading: âWe take liberty as our principle, equality as our means, fraternity as our end. Proudhon.'
20
See Chapter 4.2, above. Note Hood's memoirs,
Pebbles from my Skull
.
21
Absalom,
Ex prigionieri alleati
, p. 462 and n. 43; Absalom draws his quotes from the article âFucilazione di un rinnegato' in
La Santa Milizia
, weekly of the Ravenna PFR
fascio
, of 8 January 1944; he adds that the Allied authorities later refused the shot man's father any compensation, because âthe help he provided was too little to justify any reimbursement'. However, his widow was paid the sum given for fallen âhelpers'.
22
Saint-Just,
Fragments sur les institutions républicaines
, §6, 2.
23
See the articles âContattismo e sedentarismo, malatti dei cattolici' and â “Contattismo” e contatto personale' in
Voce Operaia
, 16 December 1943 and 5 January 1944. The polemic was directed against the Catholic practice of operating politically by means of personal contacts (which would, in fact, be one of Christian Democracy's strong points). See also the articles âOrganizzazione rivoluzionaria' and âChe fare, noi sacerdoti', in the issues of 4 October and 16 December 1943.
24
See Portelli,
Biografia di una cittÃ
, p. 231. See the letter from the Austrian Communist Franz Reingruber, who had been sentenced to death, to his mother: âYes, this [struggle] has completely absorbed me, but at the very bottom of my heart I loved you with all the intensity with which a son can love' (8 May 1943, in
LRE
, p. 49).
25
Pajetta,
Il ragazzo rosso va alla guerra
, p. 34.
26
Fenoglio,
Il padrone paga male
, p. 127.
27
Such was how Artom noted having heard one militant define communism: Artom,
Diari
, p. 102 (4 December 1943).
28
Albero, to the insurrectionary triumvirate for Lombardy, 9 March 1945 (IG,
BG
, 01880).
29
âAt that time we had no “brakes” put on us, neither by events, nor by politicians, Party leaders standing over us [Longo and him] on account of their capacity and authority': a diary entry written in December 1954,
Pietro Secchia, 1945â1973
, ed. E. Collotti (âAnnali dell'Istituto Giangiacomo Feltrinelli', XIX, 1978, p. 258). Such a situation of relative autonomy primarily concerned the early months of the Resistance. The Party's âprovisional organisational norms', drawn up by Togliatti in Naples on 27 June 1944, were also printed in the North just after Liberation, as No. 1 of
Le guide dell'organizzatore comunista
, Milan: Tip. Rosia, 1945 (my thanks to Giovanni Verni for supplying me with this information). These ânorms' held that âevery communist is a militant'; it is notable that Togliatti himself rendered the word âparty' with a lower-case âp' (IG,
Archivio PCI
, âDirezione. Verbali della Delegazione PCI per l'Italia meridionale').
30
Secchia added âI go to C â¦Â to Colonel X and all his breed when the Party's interest demands it: that is the norm we live by'. In the margin Luca (Gian Carlo Pajetta) made a note: âCould we be less
soldier-ish
in the old manner?'
31
The letter, sent from the âcommissar-general Vineis' to the Valle di Lanzo Military Committee, 21 December 1943, published in
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. I, pp. 173â8. Note the article âLo spirito di partito', in
L'UnitÃ
, Rome edition, 26 October 1943.
32
E. H. Carr,
A History of Soviet Russia, Foundations of a Planned Economy 1926â1929
, vol. II, London: Macmillan, 1971, p. 91. The passage refers to the Communist Party Central Committee meeting of 16â23 April 1929.
33
Spinelli,
Io, Ulisse
, p. 193. Spinelli had been no less of this view in the Communist youth militia, where he was pestered by the âproblems of no significance' which the student comrades, unlike the workers, heaped on him; he termed the suicide of one of these students âa petty-bourgeois act', the suicide having placed â “his own personal preoccupations above his duties as a Communist” â¦Â meeting an icy response from those present. “What are you, made of stone?” one of them said' (ibid., p. 76).
34
Ibid., p. 247.
35
See N. Ajello,
Intellettuali e Pci. 1944â1958
, Bari: Laterza, 1979, p. 187.
36
L'UnitÃ
, 17 October 1980, on the occasion of Longo's death.