A Civil War (48 page)

143
‘I rappresentanti delle Commissioni interne riceviti dal Prefetto', in
La Fabbrica
, September 1943 (quoted in Spriano,
Storia del Partito comunista italiano
, vol. V, p. 14).

144
See the
Intervista sulla guerra partigiana
given to L. La Malfa Calogero and M. V. de Filippis, p. 22. For Turin, and in general, see Giovanni's ‘rapporto' from 5 to 15 September 1943, in P. Secchia,
Il PCI e la guerra di liberazione 1943–1945. Ricordi, documenti inediti e testimonianze
, Milan: Feltrinelli, 1973, p. 117 and note. For Florence, the report by A. Pieri, of the Arno Garibaldi division, in ISRT,
CVL
, Comando militare toscano, envelope 5, folder 7, p. 2. See also G. Grassi,
Nota storica
, prefacing
Atti CLNAI
, p. 10.

145
Northern edition, 29 September 1943. On 31 October the newspaper was to publish an article entitled ‘A Lecco e nel Friuli la Guardia Nazionale infligge duri scacchi agli aggressori nazi'. See also the 7 and 25 November 1943 issues.

146
Bollettino del Partito
, 1 October 1943.

147
IG,
Archivio PCI
. ‘Form the National Guard? It was no longer the times of the Risorgimento, we had said to each other', is what Pajetta writes today,
Il ragazzo rosso va alla guerra
, p. 7.

148
IG,
Archivio PCI
.

149
See the ‘Breve monografia sul movimento partigiano in Italia', contained in the first number of a bulletin edited by the press office of the CLNAI (ISRT,
Carte Francesco Berti
, envelope II, folder 3).

150
Manifesto of the Modena CLN, 14 November 1943, quoted in Gorrieri,
La Repubblica di Montefiorino
, p. 85.

151
See
L'Unità
, Roman edition, 3 November 1943, article entitled ‘Il primo e l'ultimo 28 ottobre del facismo repubblicano', and
Il Combattente
, 7 December 1943, article entitled ‘La Guardia Nazionale Popolare e la Guerra di liberazione nazionale'.

152
See the minutes of the session of the Carnia (free zone) CLN of 7 August 1944, in IRSFVG, Fondo Magrini, envelope CLV, folder III.

153
Istituzioni di un corpo di polizia nella zona liberata. Relazione approvata da CLN zona liberata nella seduta del 30 settembre – 1 ottobre 1944
, quoted in M. Leganani, ‘Politica e amministrazione nelle repubbliche partigiane',
Quaderni del Movimento di liberazione in Italia
, Milan, undated, vol. 2, p. 46.

154
Letter of the delegation of the Command of the Garibaldi brigades for Tuscany to the Command of the Arno division (quoted in G. and E. Varlecchi,
Potente
, pp. 207–8).

155
See for example
Avanti!
, Roman edition, 30 December 1943, article entitled ‘Per le bande dei volontari della libertà', where the word ‘partigiani' and the distastefully sounding expression ‘milizia popolare e volontaria' are also used.

156
Atti CVL
, Appendix I, document L, p. 539;
Avanti!
, Rome edition, 12 January 1944;
L'Italia Libera
, Rome edition, 19 January 1944;
L'Unità
, Rome edition, 30 January 1944;
La Punta
, 2 February 1944.

157
Letter by Ciro, commander of the group of Valsesia, Ossola, Cusio, Verbano, and Costanzo divisions, delegate of the Command in Switzerland, 29 January 1945 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. III, p. 304).

158
Report signed Giovanni, 10 October 1943 (IG,
Archivio PCI
).

159
Il Popolo
, northern edition, 25 September 1944, ‘Saluto ai giovani studenti'.

160
‘Relazione sull'attività del CLN dal 1 dicembre 1943 al 15 febbraio 1944', written by the Communist member (IG,
BG
, Toscana).

161
Bianco,
Guerra partigiana
, p. 46.

162
Fratelli d'Italia. Organo del Comitato veneto di liberazione, ‘edizione per Vicenza'
, 30 July 1944, article entitled ‘I partigiani del popolo'.

163
Rome edition, 15 March 1944, article entitled ‘Italia che nasce e Italia che muore'.

164
See for example Gorrieri,
La Repubblica di Montefiorino
, p. 296.

165
This was the title of a newspaper ‘a cura della 7a Brigata GL “P. Stefanoni”, Divisione patrioti Valtoce, Raggruppamento “Di Dio” '.

166
Giancarlo Puecher was commemorated, for example, by calling him ‘Bandito Puecher!' (see G. Bianchi,
Giancarlo Puecher, a vent'anni, per la libertà
, Milan: Mondadori, 1965, p. 134).

167
In fact it is the name given to a ‘giornale delle Brigate Mazzini', while the ‘Formazioni Mameli' chose the more bizarre one,
Il Guerrigliatore
(see
Saggio bibliografico
, nn. 4114–15 and 4100–02).

168
For example, on 7 December 1943
L'Unità
, Rome edition, published an article entitled ‘Guerriglia', which describes the characteristics of the ‘guerra partigiana' in a very traditional, one might say scholastic, manner. ‘Guerra partigiana' is spoken of in the ‘rapparto di Ermete' (Agostino Novella) from Rome, 26 March 1944 (see G. Amendola and F. Frassati, eds, ‘Documenti inediti sulle posizioni del PCI e del PSIUP dall'ottobre 1943 all'aprile 1944', in
Critica marxista
2 [1965], pp. 131–9). In both cases the sources are Roman.

169
Pajetta,
Il ragazzo rosso va alla guerra
, p. 27.

170
‘Circolare interna n. 3' of 26 September 1944 (
Formazioni GL
, p. 162).

171
This opinion was sent on 10 June 1944 to the regional CLN and to the Command of the 1
^st
division itself (IG,
BG
, 04653).

172
Letter ‘ai compagni delle formazioni partigiani', 23 November 1943 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. I, p. 136).

173
See the minutes of a meeting of 14 March 1945, amply summarised in ibid., vol. III, p. 489, note 2, and
Atti CVL
, pp. 469–70 (6 April 1945).

174
See ‘ordine del giorno n. 4' (‘agenda item no. 4') of 10 July 1944 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. II, pp. 115–16, and relative bibliographical cross-references). Pajetta,
Il ragazzo rosso va alla guerra
, pp. 83–4, presents this as one of its journalistic discoveries.

175
See the circular of 3 April 1945, which issues the CLNAI decision of 29 March (
Atti CVL
, p. 461).

176
‘We had organised the semblance of a General Staff; but the only thing that really counted remained the collaboration between Parri and Longo' (Pajetta,
Il ragazzo rosso va alla guerra
, p. 62).

177
See N. Chiovini, ‘I giorni della liberazione di Cannobio', in
Novara. Notiziario economico
2 (1987), p. 7; and Pajetta,
Il ragazzo rosso va alla guerra
, p. 76.

1
Lazagna,
Ponte rotto
, p. 31.

2
This sort of phenomena is indicated in the report by Grossi (Francesco Scotti), who was in charge of military matters in the Piedmont insurrectional triumvirate, on his visit to the free zone of southern Monferrato and of the Langhe from 19 to 25 October 1944 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. II, p. 494).

3
Bravo,
La Repubblica partigiana dell'Alto Monferrato
, p. 39. In the preceding pages the author had also highlighted the initial distrust towards the Garibaldini-Communists.

4
Battaglia,
Un uomo
, p. 185.

5
See the ‘Osservazioni sulla situazione militare del Partito d'azione nell'Alto Novarese', signed T. Moro for the Novara federation, sent to the Military Command of the party for the Lombrady, 24 March 1945 (
Formazioni GL
, pp. 347–9). The technique of absorption practised by the Green Flames of the province of Brescia in order that ‘the party to which the formation possibly belonged came to lose all influence' is described, by another
azionista
, in the ‘Relazione sopra il distaccamento Barnaba', 19 January 1943 (INSMLI,
CVL
, envelope 93, folder 5).

6
Quoted in Revelli,
La guerra dei poveri
, p. 483.

7
Letter to the CMRP of 18 August 1944 (
Atti CVL
, p. 163).

8
For example, in September 1944 Brandani (Mario Mammuccari), Communist representative of the military command of the city of Turin, wrote these words about the ‘New Movement of National Redemption' (‘Nuovo Movimento di Redenzione nazionale'): ‘The apolitical character of the movement is suspect. No movement is apolitical. Even soldiers, if they are not mercenaries or adventurers, think politically' (G. Vaccarino, C. Gobetti and R. Gobbi,
L'insurrezione di Torino
, Parma: Guanda, 1968, p. 78).

9
Letters by ‘compagni responsabili' of the 3
^rd
Piedmont division to ‘cari compagni', 10 October 1944 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. II, p. 427). Battaglia mentions formations that were ‘military', but which in fact had relations with Democrazia Cristiana in
Un uomo
, p. 126.

10
Report by the Command of the Nanetti division, Pesce, 31 May 1945 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. III, p. 720).

11
Such was the case with the De Vitis division (on which see Quazza,
Un diario partigiano
, esp. pp. 190, 199, 202, 205, 238), and what was subsequently said about the influence that the Turin strikes of March 1944 had on the commander Giulio Nicoletta.

12
See the letter by Davide, commissar of the Modena division, to the regional Garibaldi delegation, 29 May 1944, quoted in Gorrieri,
La Repubblica di Montefiorino
p. 280. See also the accusations of sectarianism, due to the lack of ‘un serio lavoro politico', addressed to the bands of the valleys of Lanzo and the province of Genoa by inspector Gr. (Francesco Scotti) in May 1944 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. I, p. 385).

13
See the above-mentioned report in
Formazioni GL
, pp. 267–86. On the report between the Action Party and GL formations, see De Luna,
Storia del Partito d'Azione
, pp. 295–302.

14
On ‘pianurizzazione', see Battaglia,
Storia della Resistenza
, pp. 455–60.

15
See them in
Formazioni GL
, pp. 84–5, 118–20. See also a letter of 13 October 1944 by the GL delegation of the Lombard Regional Command to Colonel Bassi (Bergamasco) (INSMLI,
CVL
, envelope 93, folder 5). Again, on the eve of the Liberation the newsletter of the 10
^th
GL Alpini division, ‘lungo il Tanaro', would feel the need to repeat that the GL were not Action Party formations, though they recognised themselves as being tied to them (article entitled ‘Chiarificazione', April 1945).

16
See Giovana,
Storia di una formazione partigiana
, pp. 61–2, 103–4, 291–3.

17
‘Proposta di riordinamento', undated, no author (Parma zone) (IG,
BG, Emilia-Romagna
, G.IV.3.2).

18
See Bernardo,
Il momento buono
, p. 144. See also point 7 of the ‘Vademecum del volontario della libertà', edited by the CUMER commissariat, 25 August 1944 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. II, p. 263).

19
Minutes of the meeting of 6 July 1944 (IG,
BG
, 04348).

20
See on this point L. Longo,
Un popolo alla macchia
, Rome: Riuniti, 1964, p. 119.

21
Letter to the Cremona SAP Command, 13 November 1944 (INSMLI,
Brigate Garibaldi
, envelope 2, folder I, subfolder 2).

22
Letter by Oreste (Giordano Pratolongo), responsible for military matters in the Piedmont insurrectional triumvirate, to ‘cari compagni', 11 September 1944 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. II, pp. 322–3). Oreste adds that ‘the GL Command is in full agreement with the garibaldino Command'.

23
See E. Martini Mauri,
Partigiani penne nere
, Milan: Mondadori, 1968.

24
In a letter of 13 December 1943, Amendola wrote that the identification between commander and commissar seemed ‘dangerous' (Amendola, Letter a Milano, p. 236). For the
azionisti
's doubts about the very opportuneness of the commissar, see, as regards Galimberti, Parri's testimony (
Intervista sulla guerra partigiana
given to L. La Malfa Cologero and M. V. de Filippis, pp. 23–4), and what Bianco wrote, moving on the basis of the certain political character of the military GL chiefs (Bianco,
Guerra partigiana
, p. 90). See also Giovana,
Storia di una formazione partigiana
, pp. 194ff. A fine portrait of a GL commissar is given by N. Bobbio, ‘Il commissario Mila', in
La Stampa
, 5 February 1989.

25
See ‘Schema di organizzazione of the Command di una brigata d'assalto Garibaldi', circulated 20 May 1944 by the General Command (ISRT,
CVL, Comando militare toscano
, envelope 5, folder 7,
Delegazione toscano delle Brigate Garibaldi
); and the ‘Relazione sullo schema di decreto per l'unificazione delle formazioni partigiane nel CVL' of the Alta Italia executive of the Action Party, 9 January 1945 (INSMLI,
CLNAI
, envelope 10, folder I, subfolder 2).

26
Fearing that unification would lead to the complete disappearance of commissars, some Garibaldi formations had started to appoint commissars as commanders; see the report by Albero (Alberto Cavallotti), inspector at the 3
^rd
Aliotta division, to the Lombardy insurrectional triumvirate, 24 February 1945, and the letter by the Lombardy delegation to the above division, 27 February 1945 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. III, pp. 417, 419–20).