A Civil War (111 page)

27
A. Malraux,
The Conquerors
, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992, pp. 85, 109, on Garine and Hong (original version:
Les conquérants
, Paris: B. Grasset, 1928).

28
Battaglia,
Un uomo
, p. 37. The destruction of the municipal archives is not to be confused with what happened to the Fascist archives immediately after 25 July 1943 on account of the popular ferment (on this, see Missori,
Gerarchie e statuti del PNF
, p. 89).

29
As Battaglia himself notes in his
Storia della Resistenza
, p. 240

30
See ‘Note sull'azione svolta a Nizza Monferrato il 10 luglio 1944', composed by the Command of the Asti Brigade, 11 July 1944 (IG,
BG
, 05772). The Ligurian edition of
L'Unità
repeatedly published news in this spirit.

31
Report by the Ugo Muccini Brigade, n.d. (IG,
Archivio PCI
).

32
Report on the ‘Gruppo Salvatore', written by Salvatore Auria, n.d. but late 1943 (IG,
Archivio PCI
).

33
Bollettino
No. 49, 28 August 1944, by the Command of the 52
^nd
Fronte Proletario Brigade (IG,
BG
, 0652).

34
See Gorrieri,
La Repubblica di Montefiorino
, p. 119. Similar behaviour was reported in Teramano, Montieri in Tuscany and in the Belluno region: see Ponziani
Teramo 1943–1944
, pp. 157–70; ‘Scontri di partigiani', a list of actions by the Spartaco Lavagnini detachment (IG,
BG
, 011670); and Tramontin,
Contadini e movimento partigiano
, p. 296, on the array of parish reports and diaries.

35
Leaflet ‘Il grano a tutti i cittadini', seemingly from July 1944, signed ‘Il Comitato di unità sindacale' (republished in in Arbizzani,
Manifesti, opuscoli, fogli volanti
, p. 245).

36
Appeal of 10 June 1944 to farmers and peasants (see Catalano,
Storia del CLNAI
, p. 189). The Fascist regime had initiated a ‘battle for wheat' to make the country self-sufficient and not require imports.

37
Undated leaflet, signed by the Ferrara PCI federation (ISRR, A. VIII, f. 1). See also the chapter ‘La battaglia del grano' in Flamigni and Marzocchi,
Resistenza in Romagna
, and L. Arbizzani,
Azione operaia, contadina, di massa
, Bari: De Donato, 1976, Chapter 1.1.

38
See ‘Le Paysan Patriote. Organe des Comités paysans du Midi et du Sud-Ouest', editorial of the 30 August 1943
Notre pain quotidien
.

39
Like, for example, the Modena and province edition of
L'Unità
, in its 4 November 1944 special edition, which, reporting on the destruction of conscription and taxation records in Soliera, attributed this action to ‘the hatred against the Nazi-Fascist oppressor'.

40
See Dario's 22 May 1944 report on the Capelli formation (in the Apennines near Parma). Federici was a longstanding militant, who, arrested in around 1934, had to defend himself from the charge of having asked for a pardon, which he now claimed to have been merely an act of clemency (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. I, pp. 428–9).

41
The inspector attached to the Aliotta division, Albero, to the insurrectionary triumvirate for Lombardy, 24 February 1945 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. III, p. 416).

42
See ‘Rapporto', given by ‘Sala Walter' to the Modena PCI federation, 6 October 1944 (IG,
Archivio PCI
).

43
These falsifications did, however, make it rather easier to issue ‘a serious warning to all those ragbag so-called “left” groups, whose political irresponsibility … serves Hitlerite propaganda and ultimately assumes the objective role of provocation': see the box ‘Manifestini provocatori',
L'Unità
, Rome edition, 15 March 1944.

44
See the letters from ‘the Communist leaders of the Modena formations' to the Modena PCI federation, 2 December 1944, and that of 15 December from the insurrectionary triumvirate to the federation (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. III, pp. 20, 91). As an example of the over-the-top Fascist falsifications, we might cite the leaflet distributed in the name of the Florence PCI, which expressed the desire to ‘destroy the family and traditional culture and exterminate intellectuals, idealists and priests' (see ‘L'ultima arma dei fascisti' in
L'Unità
, Tuscany edition, 12 July 1944). The fact that the Fascists did print leaflets and attribute them to anti-fascists is clear from the report by the minister of labour, Spinelli, to Mussolini on 1 March 1945: in this case, it was a matter of propaganda in favour of socialisation (see Deakin,
Brutal Friendship
, p. 748–9).

45
See the letter from the insurrectionary triumvirate to the federation of 15 December 1944, cited in the previous note, as well as that from the Modena federal committee to the triumvirate, from 4 January 1945 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. III, pp. 194–201). On the fate of the Modena division, later returning to PCI control, see Gorrieri,
La Repubblica di Montefiorino
(the comments on Davide appear on p. 283).

46
‘Appello all'operaio', leaflet held in the ISRT, Raccolta volantini, DC Firenze (clandestini 1943–1944).

47
See, among the many possible examples,
Libertà. Organo del movimento democratico cristiano
, 15 April 1944 (quoted in Bianchi,
I cattolici
, p. 264); ‘Attenzione' in
Il Popolo
, Northern edition, 20 August 1944; the ‘Strictly personal report' from Ossola to the DC central military committee (held in the De Gasperi archive and quoted in Bianchi,
I cattolici
, p. 247); and Terracini's 30 September 1944 complaints to the CLNAI, protesting the squadrism of the kidnappings carried out by the Val Toce division commanded by Di Dio (see Catalano,
Storia del CLNAI
, pp. 276–7). One example of this type of argument appears in the leaflet ‘Lavoratore, tu devi ragionari', held in the Archivio Osoppo in Udine.

48
Il Popolo
, Northern edition, 25 November 1944.

49
See ‘Esame della corrispondenza censurata al 30 giugno 1944' (ACS, SPD, CR, RSI, envelope 9, folder 3). The words cited appear in a letter from Milan.

50
Manuscript of G.M.'s memoirs,

51
As Alfredo wrote to the PCI leadership in December 1943 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. I, p. 163). See also his (unsigned) ‘Rapporto sugli scioperi di Torino' from late November 1943, which appears in the same volume.

52
See Flamigni and Marzocchi,
Resistenza in Romagna
, pp. 148–9.

53
See the order of the day passed at Scurzolengo (Asti) on 22 July 1944 (IG,
BG
, 05481). On the Fascist efforts to set workers and peasants against one another, see Legnani,
Aspetti
, p. 21; Ganapini,
Lotte operaie: Milano
, pp. 152, 177–8; and G. Bertolo, ‘Introduzione a Le campagne e il movimento di resistenza', in
Operai e contadini
, p. 267.

54
‘Gli scioperi torinesi e il loro significato',
La Riscossa italiana
, December 1943.

55
Report from the commissar of the Perugia federation, Comparozzi, ‘Sulla situazione politica nella nostra provincia', 27 January 1944 (IG,
Archivio PCI
).

56
See ‘Relazione sulla situazione politica e militare della nostra provincia', Terni, 1 February 1944 (IG,
Archivio PCI
).

57
See the letter from the ‘federal political secretariat' of the Forli PCI to ‘the committees in the countryside, to all our responsible officials', undated but concerning the 25–29 March 1944 strike (cited in Flamigni and Marzocchi,
Resistenza in Romagna
, pp. 290–1).

58
See ‘Relazione del lavoro militare di Cremona provincia e Mantova', 3 November 1944, signed ‘Mario' (IG,
BG
, 011248) and ‘Relazione su Mantova', undated but late 1943, in
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. I, p. 195.

59
Report of 10 November 1943, quoted in Ragionieri,
Il partito comunista
, p. 342.

60
See Cicchetti,
Il campo giusto
, p. 46.

61
Anonymous note of 17 November 1943 (IG,
Archivio PCI
).

62
See ‘Rapporto del caposettore', undated. Another report, from 27 September 1944, signed ‘Tommaso', comments that ‘the greater part of the workers – including our own comrades – are tied to the countryside and thus do not feel a compelling need for wage increases and thus taking action over such demands'.

63
See ‘Rapporto sul lavoro di Partito in Bergamo', unsigned, 29 December 1943 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol I, p. 192).

64
As Portelli puts it in
Biografia di una città
, p. 68.

65
‘We Communists … must absolutely oppose these manoeuvres' – see the record of a ‘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).

66
The expression, and the subsequent consideration on it, appear in Ballone,
Una sezione, un paese
, p. 441.

67
Testimony of Renato Castaldi, in Contini,
Memoria e storia
, p. 119.

68
See on this Bertolo, ‘Introduzione a Le campagne e il movimento di resistenza', pp. 271, 300–03; Ardigò, ed.,
Società civile e insorgenza partigiana
, p. 21; Portelli,
Biografia di una città
, p. 266.

69
Portelli, ‘Assolutamente niente', pp. 135–44.

70
Among the Resistance's proceedings in this sense, we can include the Valle Maira CLN's ban on exporting essential goods (15 July) as well as that made by the popular junta of Castiglione Falletto (7 September 1944) (IG,
BG
, 04534 and 05502); the ‘wine blockade' imposed on the Valsesia-Ossola-Cusio-Verbano region by the political commissar of the Creola Battalion of the 1
^st
Garibaldi Division (see the letter from the Command of the Silvio Loss Brigade, 24 November 1944, IG,
BG
, 07083); and the instruction that ‘Nothing can leave the area in which it is produced', justified with the argument that city-dwellers would be better disposed to rise up if they were going hungry (‘Direttiva di massima e particolari sul servizio di intendenza e sul rifornimento alle formazioni di montagna', from the political commissar of the 3
^rd
operations zone of the Friulian plain, Ario –
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol II, pp. 640–44). In terms of the aftermath of Liberation, we can note the firm position taken by the Arezzo CLN, backed by the prefect (a discharged
Bersaglieri
colonel, nominated by the AMG) against exports of food-goods from the province, on 23 October and 7 November 1944; a contemporary debate on sending two butchers beyond the borders of the province to procure meat (ISRT, envelope 7, folder 1, Verbali del CLN di Arezzo); the 22 May 1945 order by the Command of the Pisacane Brigade forbidding people exporting timber out of Belluno province (Bernardo,
Il momento buono
, document 24). On the issue as a whole, and in particular on its local manifestations in the final months of the RSI, as the central government declined, see Legnani,
Aspetti
, p. 46.

71
‘Sulla via dell'insurrezione si rafforza l'unità fra il popolo delle cino e il popolo delle campagne' in the (duplicated) July 1944 ‘abridged edition published by the Mantua Communist Federation'. See the (printed) Northern edition of 10 July.

72
See, for example, Banfi's ‘Rapporto al Centro del Partito', from Emilia, of 16 December 1943 (IG,
Archivio PCI
, cited in Ragionieri,
Il partito comunista
, p. 343; Ragionieri writes, on p. 373, that matters later improved, which is certainly true, at least in the case of Emilia); Dario's report on the Marches, n.d. but late spring 1944 (?) (IG,
Archivio PCI
); ‘Rapporto del membro del triumvirato insurrezionale del Veneto, Oreste, sulla Federazione di Venezia', 7 March 1945 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol III, p. 452), and a document sent by the Veneto insurrectionary triumvirate on 10 March ‘A tutti I comitati federali' (IG,
Archivio PCI
); and the 14 April 1945 and the 4 March meetings in the eastern sector of Milan (IG,
Archivio PCI
). See also the self-critical article ‘Lotte parzialii e insurrezione nazionali', which appeared in the 23 March 1944 Northern edition of
L'Unità
(cited in Bertolo, ‘Introduzione a Le campagne e il movimento di resistenza' pp. 271–2).

73
See Bertolo, ‘Introduzione a Le campagne e il movimento di resistenza', esp. p. 259, and Ventura,
La società rurale veneta
, esp. pp. 66–7.

74
Poma and Perona,
La Resistenza nel Biellese
, p. 186.

75
Legnani brought attention to this in
Aspetti
and
Politica e amministrazione nelle repubbliche partigiane
.

76
Bertolo, ‘Introduzione a Le campagne e il movimento di resistenza', p. 261; and the document quoted in Legnani,
Aspetti
, p. 41.

77
On all this, see M. Rossi-Doria,
Prospettive della agricoltura italiana
(Rome: Partito d'azione, 1945, published as No. 1 of the ‘Quaderni agrari'). On this point, see ‘La questione agraria: dall'efficientismo tecnocratico al meridionalismo rivoluzionario', Chapter 7 of De Luna,
Storia del Partito d'Azione
, pp. 238–68.