A Civil War (110 page)

177
‘Informazioni dall'Emilia', 4 October 1944 (IG,
BG, Emilia-Romagna
, G.IV.2.8.)

178
‘Relazione della riunione del Comando Brigata Tollot del giorno 27 marzo 1945', in Bernardo,
Il momento buono
, p. 228.

179
Letter to the 4
^th
Piedmont Division (IG,
BG
, 04998).

180
Title of the editorial of
La Vérité
of 15 September 1943; ‘Sulla guerra',
Prometeo
, 1 March 1945.

181
‘Circolare del PCI sui CLN', 29 October 1943, from the Rome federation of the PCI (
Documenti inediti sulle posizioni del PCI e del PSIUP
, p. 103).

182
Canfora,
La sentenza
, p. 72.

183
Report from Giacomo, Modena, to the Emilia-Romagna insurrectionary triumvirate, 27 March 1945 (IG,
Archivio PCI
).

184
For example, a 9 March 1944 report by Remo Scappini to his local federal committee speaks of the Genova PCI ‘resembling an old maximalist formation' (Gibelli and Ilardi,
Lotte operaie: Genova
, p. 115).

185
For a quick overview of these groups, see A. Peregalli, ‘L' altra Resistenza. La dissidenza di sinistra durante la RSI', in
Studi bresciani. Quaderni della Fondazione Micheletti
, 1986, 1, pp. 31–7.

186
This being the expression used by Spriano,
Storia del Partito comunista italiano
, vol. V, p. 125.

187
As seen from Rome, ‘The Northern comrades, starting with Longo and Secchia, were not, by any chance, still developing the “leftist” tendencies of not long before?' (Pajetta,
Il ragazzo rosso va alla guerra
, p. 105).

188
Inverni (V. Foa),
I partiti
, p. 79. See also how Ragionieri wrote of sectarianism as ‘a safety-valve of that never-tamed class spirit whose needs could never be satisfied by means of the national-unity policy' (
Il partito comunista
, p. 396).

189
A term advanced in the literature by L. Cortesi: see in particular ‘Storia del PCI e miseria del riformismo', in
Belfagor
, XXXII, 2, 31 March 1977, esp. from p. 204, and ‘Pietro Secchia da Livorno alla Resistenza',
Belfagor
, XLI, 6, 30 November 1986, esp. pp. 436–7.

190
‘Commento al rapporto organizzativo', signed ‘Alfredo', 25 December 1943 (IG,
Archivio PCI
); and Luraghi,
Il movimento operaio torinese
, pp. 43–4.

191
See the record of the 16–18 December 1944 meetings (IG,
Archivio PCI
, ‘Direzione. Verbali riunioni 1944').

192
These words appear in Secchia's article ‘Il sinistrismo maschera della Gestapo', p. 17.

193
See the leadership's instructions ‘to all party-activists' who reached Turin on 4 November 1943 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. I, p. 122).

194
‘De Staline à Vlassov',
La Vérité
, 20 July 1943.

195
See the letter from the Lombardy Delegation to the Command of the 1
^st
Valsesia Division, 9 August 1944 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. II, p. 231); the letter from M. N. of the 1
^st
Division to the Secretariat of the Milan Federal Committee of the PCI (IG,
BG
, 06199); and the letter from M. ‘on behalf of the Secretariat of the Federal Committee', 10 August (‘Caro Michele', IG,
BG
, 08729).

196
See Giovanni's report of 2 December 1943 (IG,
Archivio PCI
).

197
See ‘Relazione sulla insurrezione armata e conseguente liberazione della città di Massa e Carrara', sent from the local federation to the PCI leadership in Rome on 24 April 1945 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. III, pp. 687–92). A vigorous call to armed struggle was published in
Azione libertaria
of 15 September 1944, such that the masses would not be ‘shapeless and docile' upon the arrival of the Allies.

198
See the testimony of Nelia Benissone Costa, in Bruzzone and Farina, eds,
La Resistenza taciuta
, p. 34.

199
Peregalli,
L'altra Resistenza
, p. 33.

200
This judgment on
Stella Rossa
was made in Osvaldo Negarville's report of 12 January 1944, cited in Dellavalle,
Lotte operaie: Torino
, p. 230.

201
‘Riunione dei rappresentanti di Partito' (‘Meeting of Party representatives'), in a Padua workshop, 18 March 1945 (IG,
Archivio PCI
; reproduced in part in
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. III, pp. 490–4).

202
Report by Colombi on
Stella Rossa
, No. 20, August 1944 (cited in Ragionieri,
Il partito comunista
, p. 395).

203
Report by Giovanni, 8 December 1943 (IG,
Archivio PCI
).

204
A shadow was cast over the absorption of
Stella Rossa
into the PCI by the mysterious death of one of the group's leaders, Temistocle Vaccarella, in Milan in May 1944 (see, among others, Anonimo Romagnolo,
1943–45
, pp. 328–35). On
Stella Rossa
, see Luraghi,
Il movimento operaio torinese
, pp. 202ff and 241ff.

205
Letter of 6 December 1943 in Longo,
I centri dirigenti del PCI
, p. 172.

206
See the criticisms made by the commissar of the 1
^st
Gramsci Division, Michele, in a letter to the commissar of the 118
^th
Servadei Brigade, Aldo Tuto, of 3 March 1945, and Moscatelli's severe reprimand of Fagno on 6 March (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. III, p. 434 and n. 2).

207
‘Il congresso di Bari',
Il Lavoratore
, 3 March 1944 (cited in Peregalli,
L'altra Resistenza
, p. 34). On the Venegoni group, see Ganapini,
Una città, la guerra
, p. 67.

208
The article ‘Borghesia e fascismo' was criticised in a letter ‘From the Party's inspector' ‘To the 3
^rd
Division comrades', 8 November 1944 (IG,
BG
, 01589).

209
See the
Bandiera Rossa
articles ‘Orizzonte rivoluzionario' (22 October 1943); ‘Perché collaborare?' and ‘Chiarificazione' (5 October 1943); ‘L' ora presente e noi' (29 October 1943); ‘L'URSS e le realizzazioni comuniste' (7 November 1943); and ‘La funzione dell'URSS nel conflitto mondiale' (5 December 1943).

210
See ‘Riassunto di un intervento del compagno Giulio nel federale di Roma', 27 November 1943 (
Archivio PCI
).

211
See ‘Equivoco da chiarire?',
Bandiera Rossa
, 22 October 1943, responding to an article with a similar title (but without the question-mark) in
L'Unità
of 10 October.
L'Unità
's reply, ‘Punto e basta', on 26 October, was haughty rather than violent in tone.

212
‘La via maestra',
Bandiera Rossa
, 7 November 1943.

213
See the
Bandiera Rossa
article ‘Noi sovversivi!', 22 October 1943, and ‘Necessità e base di un accordo', 5 January 1944, which dealt with the need to work with the anarchists, who had first awoken ‘the clouded minds of the Italian proletariat'.

214
See S. Corvisieri,
Bandiera rossa nella Resistenza romana
, Rome: Samonà e Savelli, 1968, p. 8. On p. 67 he also reports that the MCd'I had 2,098 recognised combatants in Rome (as against the PCI's 2,336).

215
The MCd'I was militarily active in Zagarolo, Palestrina, Olevano, and Anagni: see the PCI reports ‘Caratteristiche generali della zona' and ‘Relazione politica 5a zona Prenestina', March 1944 (IG,
Archivio PCI
). On the guerrilla struggle in the Prenestini mountain area, see V. Tedesco,
Il contributo di Roma e della provincia nella lotta di liberazione
, Cassino-Roma: Amministrazione provinciale di Roma, n.d., pp. 320–4 and 482–8.

216
Avanti!
of 22 August 1943, which gives news of the foundation of the PSIUP: ‘Capitalism … is rapidly marching towards its own ruin, in Italy in particular as well as everywhere else'.

217
After the fusion of the MUP (Movimento di unità proletaria) with the PSI and the subsequent formation of the PSIUP (6 August 1943), in October Basso left the Party, founding the Fronte proletario rivoluzionario in Milan. Its paper was called
Bandiera Rossa
. On this whole series of events, see Salvati,
Il Psiup Alta Italia
, pp. 61–88. See also the documents on the CLN by the left wing of the PSIUP from September to October 1943, reproduced in
Documenti inediti sulle posizioni del PCI e del PSIUP
, pp. 93–8.

218
This is how Salvati,
Il Psiup Alto Italia
, p. 63, summarises the stance of Basso and the group of which he was leader.

1
See the appeals aimed at women in the ‘Stampa non periodica' section of ‘Gruppi di difesa della donna', in
Saggio bibliografico
, nos. 3023–145. Compare this to ‘Esame della corrispondenza censurata al 30 giugno 1944', in ACS, SPD, CR, RSI, envelope 9, folder 3.

2
E. P. Thompson writes in his ‘Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the Eighteenth Century',
Past and Present
50 (1971), pp. 76–136 that the ‘market-place was as much an arena of class war as the factory and mine became in the industrial revolution' (p. 120).

3
See, for all this, ‘I Comitati di Liberazione Nazionale nella lotta contro il freddo, la fame e il terrore fascista',
La nostra lotta
, III/1 (1 January 1945), pp. 2–5. The Northern edition of
L'Unità
published, within some of its issues (for example, those of 10 and 30 January 1945), a
Bollettino della lotta del popolo italiano contro il freddo, la fame e il terrore
.

4
Ellwood,
Italy 1943–1945
, p.113, which cites an article from the 11 September 1944,
New York Times
by Ann McCormick.

5
‘Tutti uniti per la difesa del nostro pane',
La Voce operaia
, 16 December 1943.

6
‘Battaglie sindacali', in the 8 November 1943 edition.

7
Northern edition, 25 November 1943.

8
See the 29 September 1943 edition.

9
Calamandrei,
La vita indivisibile
, p. 145 (9 March 1944).

10
L'Unità
, Rome edition, 24 November, 7 and 24 December 1943, 30 March and 18 May 1944.

11
T. Lombardo, ‘Il mercato nero a Roma', in Gallerano, ed.,
L'altro dopoguerra
, pp. 181–90, and F. Anania, ‘Linee di ricerca sui partiti di massa a Roma dopo la liberazione', in M. I. Macioti, ed.,
Oralità e vissuto: l'uso delle storie di vita nelle science sociali
, Naples: Liguori, 1986, pp. 150–9. Anania makes reference to Edoardo D'Onofri's review, ‘Le borgate di Roma e il romanzo di Pasolini' (on Pasolini's novel
Una vita violenta
), published in the second 1960 issue of
Rinascita
.

12
Bravo and Jalla,
La vita offesa
, p. 40.

13
IG,
Archivio PCI
.

14
P. Togliatti, ‘Il PCI e l'autonomia', in
Cronache meridionali
, IV, 7–8, July–August 1957, p. 428.

15
‘Istruzioni del Comando della divisione SAP Torino alle brigate SAP della provincia', 10 November 1944 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. II, pp. 557–61).

16
Special edition in leaflet form, 25 November 1944 (for the Milan strikes).

17
De Luna,
Lotte operaie e Resistenza
, p. 512.

18
Letter from Pordenone, transcribed in the ‘Esame della corrispondenza censurata al 30 giugno 1944' (ACS, SPD, CR, RSI, envelope 9, folder 3).

19
Artom,
Diari
, p. 85 (under the date 23 November 1943). Artom placed his hopes in the arrival of a veteran officer of the International Brigades in Spain; but he was then forced to recognise that not even Carnera – the
nom de guerre
of the officer concerned – would be able to get the men to obey him (p. 97).

20
Vineis (Pietro Secchia) to the Valli di Lanzo military committee, 21 December 1943 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. I, p. 177).

21
This was the plan of the ‘4
^th
Zone Ruggeri Brigade' with regard to Polvareto and Solarolo in Cremona province, from 26 March 1945 (IG,
Archivio PCI
).

22
Bernardo,
Il momento buono
, pp. 71, 57.

23
See Bravo,
La Repubblica partigiana dell'Alto Monferrato
, pp. 232–3.

24
The first two quotes are from a report by Falco, ‘I nuovi e vecchi compagni. Mie impressioni', of the Nino Franchi detachment of the 58
^th
Garibaldi Brigade, 5 November 1944 (INSMLI,
CLNAI
, envelope 8, folder 2, subfolder 12); the third from Chiodi,
Banditi
, p. 33 (12 August 1944).

25
Le Père Duchesne
, September 1942. Robespierre's words were attributed to his speech on universal suffrage given to the National Assembly on 22 October 1789. However, they do not appear on the pages dedicated to this speech (pp. 130–3) in Œuvres de Maximilien Robespierre, VI,
Discours
, I,
1789–90
, ed. by M. Bouloiseau, G. Lefebvre and A. Soboul, Paris: PUF, 1950.

26
L'Unità
, Northern edition, 10 January 1945: ‘A 24 anni dalla fondazione del PCI. Il PC forza essenziale della Rinascita'.