A Civil War

by Claudio Pavone

  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 1st 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 3rd 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 10th 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 3rd 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).

  27 See the ‘Decisione’ of the CLNAI of 29 March 1945 (Atti CVL, p. 463). There was to be no difference in the command badges (‘distintivi di commando’); see the ‘Regolamento interno del CVL’, 18 April 1945, already cited (ibid., pp. 490–2).

  28 See Battaglia, Un uomo, p. 129.

  29 See R. A. Webster, The Cross and the Fasces, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1960, pp. 166, 210.

  30 Among the many documents along these lines, see the letters sent by the delegation for Lombardy 15 November 1944 to the Command of the 1st and 2nd division group, and 2 November 1944 to the Command of the ‘13 Martiri di Lovere’ brigade (INSMLI, CVL, envelope 93, folder 4).

  31 See M. Legnani, ‘Documenti della guerra partigiana: le ‘Guide del commissario’, in Il Movimento di liberazione in Italia XVII: 81 (1965), pp. 61–74. Comparison with the party texts, conserved in ISRP, was suggested to me by Gianni Perona, to whom I give my thanks. See G. Perona, ‘Le forze della resistenza e l’insurrezione’, in L’insurrezione in Piemonte, Milan: Franco Angeli, 1987, pp. 311–43, esp. pp. 335–46.

  32 Bernardo, Il momento buono, pp. 63–4.

  33 ‘Relazione sulla visita fatta da me il 14–15 agosto [1944] alla formazione 13 Martiri’ (Bergamasco), signed Lesia (?) (IG, BG, 010560).

  34 INSMLI, CVL, envelope 93, folder 4 (November 1944).

  35 It is curious that this proposal was made in a report to the provincial CLN of Udine, 31 January 1945, which advocated unification with the Osoppo (Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. II, p. 319). For the tasks entrusted to commissars in the brief period of the ‘Comando Coordinamento GOF’ (Garibaldi – Osoppo Friuli), see order of the day no. 7 of 2 November 1944 (IZDG., envelope 272b, folder I/B).

  36 ‘Relazione sulla mia ispezione in Valtellina’, signed Domenico, 4 August 1944 (IG, BG, 0540).

  37 Such was the case with Remo, transferred to a post other than that of commissar of the 51st Capettini brigade. See ‘Relazione dell’ispezione alla 3a divisione Lombardia Aliotta’, 12 October 1944, signed Giorgio (IG, BG, 01492). For Remo’s intemperance in his articles in Il Garibaldino, see the document cited in Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. II, pp. 529–30, n. 9.

  38 See Fogar, Le brigate Osoppo-Friuli, pp. 330–41, which gives a balanced reconstruction of the activities performed in the Osoppo formations by the commissars or, as they preferred to call them in that environment, political delegates. During the brief period of Garibaldi–Osoppo unification, the Christian Democrats had been concerned that the positions of command did not all remain in Communist hands.

  39 See Webster, La Croce e i Fasci, p. 228.

  40 Tersilla Fenoglio Oppedisano’s testimony, in Bruzzone and Farina, eds, La Resistenza taciuta, pp. 153–4. The commissars referred to by Fenoglio ‘had studied in jail’.

  41 See the text of Giorgio Agosti’s account Formazioni GL.

  42 See the ‘Memoria per generale Valenti’ (Cadorna) by General Trabucchi, 28 February 1945 (INSMLI, CLNAI, envelope 10, folder I, subfolder 2) and R. Cadorna, La riscossa, Dal 25 luglio alla Liberazione, Milan–Rome: Rizzoli 1948.

  43 ‘Informazioni sul movimento partigiano nel Veneto’, February 1945, anonymous (Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. III, p. 423).

  44 See the complaints against this evolution expressed in a letter by Michele, political commissar of the 1st Gramsci (Ossola-Valsesia) division, to Marco, commissar of the 82nd Osella brigade, 16 November 1944 (ibid., vol. II, pp. 598–9), as well as the report on the ‘visita alla 47a brigata Garibaldi’ (Parmense), 29–30 December 1944. Signed Pini (?) (IG, BG, Emilia-Romagna, G. IV.2.6). See also the pamphlet ‘Funzioni del comandante e del commissario politico’, edited by the Command of the 8th Asti division (IG, BG, 05816).

  45 See the report by Ferrarini (Enzo Costa) on the inspection at the forces of the Parma Apennines, July 1944, in which it is added that ‘only two commissars are proletarian and old comrades’ (‘solo due due commissari sono proletari e vecchi compagni’) (Le Brigate Garibaldi vol. II, p. 121).

  46 This occurred, for example, in the Modena division in the period of unified Command: see the ‘relazione sull’attività del commissariato’ (undated, but attached to a report to the CUMER dated 2 January 1945), quoted in ibid., vol. III, p. 187, note 2.

  47 This reticence is observed in the report on an inspection of the Ateo Garemi brigade group (Vicentino), 20 February 1945 (ibid., p. 381): perhaps the brigade’s name suggested particular prudence.

  48 Report by Andreis on the inspection of the 6th Langhe division, 12 October 1944. As a remedy, Andreis had organised a school for commissars (ibid., vol. II, pp. 434–5).

  49 Pajetta, Il ragazzo rosso va alla guerra, pp. 127–8.

  50 See order of the day no. 3 of 5 January 1945 of the 9th Cuneo division (IG, BG, 04490).

  51 This is what Cino and Ciro wrote in their ‘Osservazioni e proposte’ for the Communist project for ‘the transformation of the partisan units into regular formations of the Italian army’ (‘la trasformazione delle unità partigiane in formazioni regolari dell’esercito italiano’, 21 January 1945 (Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. II, p. 264).

  52 See the edict of 24 July 1944, attached to the letter of 8 October to Lieutenant Colonel Vanni quoted later, (INSMLI, CVL, envelope 27, folder 2, subfolder I.)

  53 See Atti CVL, pp. 235–7.

  54 The delegation to ‘comandante Gufo’, 1 November 1944 (INSMLI, Brigate Garibaldi, envelope 2, folder I., subfolder I).

  55 Report by Pierino, commander of the 46th brigade, to Piedmont delegation, 11 March 1945 (IG, BG, 05051).

  56 Circular of the (unified) zone Command to all the dependent formations, 3 February 1945 (ibid., 04504).

  57 See for example the letter by Andrea, political commissar of the group of Liguria brigades, to the General Command, 3 August 1944, and the circulars of the Piedmontese and Ligurian GL Commands of 8 July and 25 August 1944 (respectively in Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. II, pp. 192–4, and Formazioni GL, pp. 106–8, 147–8).

  58 IG, BG, 04504.

  59 For example, Sciabola (Lionello Santi), the GL representative, who was parachuted with an allied mission protested (late October 1944) against attempts to disarm him by the Gar
ibaldini of the Biella area (INSMLI, CLNAI, envelope 6, folder 3, subfolder 9), who, according to one of their documents, felt denigrated (report by inspector Gigi, 15 December 1944, in Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. III, p. 79). For the significance of this whole affair, see the section entitled ‘I rapporti tra garibaldini, giellisti e missioni alleate’, in Poma and Perona, La Resistenza nel Biellese, pp. 220–4.

  60 The letter, of 31 December 1944, is in Le Brigate Garibaldini, vol. III, p. 165.

  61 See in this regard a reference, rather too emphatic, in Gorrieri, La Repubblica di Montefiorino, p. 72.

  62 Letter to the delegation for Piedmont, 9 November 1944 (INSMLI, Brigate Garibaldi, envelope I, folder 4, partly published in Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. II, p. 607, n. 2). See also, in ibid., the same General Command’s’ letter to the Piedmont delegation, 17 November 1944, pp. 604–7.

  63 Letter of 17 November 1944, in Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. II, p. 607.

  64 See the report, signed Antonio, on the ‘ritirata [retreat] della 2a divisione Garibaldi Liguria “F. Cascione” in Piedmonte’, late October 1944 (IG, BG, 010247).

  65 See the report by Nestore, political commissar of the 8th Asti division, to the delegation for Piedmont, 18 February 1945 (Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. III, p. 374). For Nando (Ferdinando Pagliassotto), see Formazioni GL, p. 408.

  66 Circular of 8 November 1944, in ‘Bullettino’ n. 2, p. 35.

  67 Minutes of 11 January 1945, in P. Rugafiori, ed., Resistenza e ricostruzione in Liguria. Verbali del CLN ligure, 1944/1946, Milan: Feltrinelli, 1981, p. 190.

  68 Letter by the delegation for Piedmont to the Command of the group of Langhe divisions, 9 April 1945 (Le Brigate Garibaldi vol. III, p. 590). On this point, see in general Pajetta, Il ragazzo rosso va alla guerra, p. 47.

  69 See Bianco, Guerra partigiana, pp. 63–5.

  70 Letter by the General CVL Command to the CMRP, 18 August 1944 (Atti CVL, pp. 162–4) and Martini Mauri, Partigiani penne nere, p. 229.

  71 A minor, but very clear example is given by Colonel Marenco’s SIMAR band in Tuscany, Partigiani penne nere, p. 229.