59 See the report from the Commander of the Milan SAP Brigade Group, Franco, ‘Il lavoro militare al 30 novembre 1944’. The sharp critique concerns events in the Valle dell’Olona (Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. II, p. 675).
60 ‘Informazioni da Milano’, 22 April 1945 (Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. II, p. 668).
61 See ‘Attesismo: un’insidia da sventare’ in the 31 October 1943 Northern edition.
62 Inverni (V. Foa), I partiti, p. 24.
63 ‘Azione’, Bandiera Rossa, 5 January 1944.
64 ‘Relazione del comandante della brigata d’assalto ligure’, 20 April 1944, on the Benedicta massacre (IG, BG, 09981).
65 ‘Rapporto sul sopraluogo alla 6a zona bis del 14–15 febbraio 1945’ (IG, BG, 04508).
66 ‘Rapporto di informazione. Piemonte’, dated 22 February 1945, Turin (IG, BG, 04082).
67 Cited in Ragionieri, Il partito comunista, p. 398
68 See the report by Tommaso on the political and organisational situation in Varese, 27 September 1944 (IG, BG, 010834).
69 As Carlo, Commissar of the 50th Brigade, put it at the meeting of the Biella and Valsesia region Garibaldi Brigades commanders held in Callabiana in November 1944 (see Dellavalle, Operai, p. 196).
70 The Garibaldi Brigades were defined thusly in a report by Giorgio (Oltrepò Pavese) to the Lombardy Delegation, 1 September 1944 (Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. II, p. 302).
71 See Michel, Gli Alleati e la Resistenza in Europa, pp. 40–1.
72 Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. I, pp. 292–3. The constitution of the ‘Party triangle’ was recommended by the Piedmont delegation to the ‘comrades responsible’ for the lower Val di Susa detachments, in a 26 April 1944 communiqué (p. 363).
73 See the report from the 8th Asti Division, 14 January 1945 (cited in Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. III, p. 239ff).
74 As was lamented at a meeting between Party organisers and commissars of the 3rd Lombardia Aliotta Division (Oltrepò Pavese) on 20 October 1944 (record in IG, BG, 01519).
75 See the directive sent from the ‘Group Command for the 40th, 52nd and 55th Brigades’ to the Commander and the Commissar of the 40th Brigade, 22 August 1944 (IG, BG, 0638). At a meeting of ‘the Executive Committee of the PCI with the Command of the N. Nanetti Garibaldi Division’, on 15 April 1945, there was talk of the need not to alarm ‘outside elements’ within the ranks (the record of the meeting is in IG, Archivio PCI). A circular from Orel, ‘responsible Party organiser attached to the division’ had only recently (10 April) made reference, without mincing his words, to the Allied missions (Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. III, pp. 601–2).
76 Padoan (Vanni), Abbiamo lottato insieme, p. 42.
77 Bernardo, Il momento buono, p. 47.
78 As described in a missive from ‘Lucio Nino’ to the Genoa Delegation (IG, BG, 09939).
79 From the aforementioned letter by Sandrelli: Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. I, pp. 125–9.
80 See the letter to the Command of the 1st Piedmont Division, 30 September 1944, signed ‘comrades’ (Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. II, pp. 379–80); the record of the 3 March 1945 Party meeting with the 3rd Lombardia Aliotta Division (Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. III, pp. 435–6); a report from Albero, of that same division, to the insurrectionary triumvirate for Lombardy, 9 March 1945 (IG, BG, 01880); the record of a later Party meeting in the Aliotta Division, 21 March 1945 (IG, BG, 01933). See also the position taken by the Political Commissar of the Arno Division, Giobbe (Danilo Dolfi), reproduced in M. A. and S. Timpanaro’s ‘Introduzione’, in G. and E. Varlecchi, Potente, p. 34.
81 See the letters from the Cell to the commands of the Division and of the 45th, 98th and 100th Brigades, 15 January 1945 (Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. III, pp. 238–9); and the letter of 10 March 1945 from the Veneto Delegation (ISBR, Carte Landi).
82 ‘Serrare le file’, Northern edition, 25 November 1944.
83 In the Biella region, out of around 1,850 Garibaldini in the 5th and 12th Divisions, 600 were Communists and ‘all the commissars and almost all the commanders (if not all) are members of our Party’; moreover, ‘almost all of the intellectuals in the two Divisions’ were Communists (‘Relazione del lavoro di Partito’, signed ‘Bibi’, 3 December 1944: IG, BG, 05299). Other reports soon afterwards gave even higher figures, and also added to these the – significant in themselves – figures for members of the Fronte della gioventù (Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. III, pp. 77–9 and notes). See Dellavalle, Operai, pp. 77, 200. The Ligurian Garibaldi Division commanded by a Catholic (Bisagno), to take another example, had a ‘significant’ proportion of Communists, including the vice-commander, the commissar, the vice-commissar, and the head of the High Command, while the intendant was a priest: ‘Note particolari, 1 agosto 1944’ (IG, BG, 010075).
84 Bianco, Guerra partigiana, p. 42.
85 See the report from Pietro, Commissar of the 1st Division, to the Piedmont Delegation, 23 June 1944 (Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. II, pp. 61–4).
86 See, for example, the letter from the ‘comrades responsible’ for the Piedmont Delegation to their equivalents in the Val di Susa, 12 July 1944 (Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. III, pp. 116–20); the letter from the Command of the 3rd Piedmont Division (the person who penned this must have been an old member, since they wrote ‘Partito Comunista d’Italia’ rather than ‘Partito Comunista Italiano’) to the Command of the Giustizia e Libertà formations, Susa Alpine battalions (IG, BG, 004944); ‘Camicia rossa’, an article in La voce della realtà. Giornale murale per la popolazione a cura della 19a brigata d’assalto Garibaldi Eusebio Giambone, 13 August 1944 (IG, BG, 04741); and the letter from the Lombardy Delegation to the Command of the 3rd Aliotta Division, 10 November 1944, which issues a reprimand for the paper Il Garibaldino, speaking as if it were an organ of the PCI (INSMLI, Brigate Garibaldi, envelope 1, folder 1, subfolder 2).
87 Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. III, pp. 116–20.
88 ‘Relazione del responsabile militare del Triumvirato insurrezionale della Liguria, Gi.’, 5 July 1944 (Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. II, pp. 97–8).
89 Note to the Command Delegations, 4 December 1944 (INSMLI, Brigate Garibaldi, envelope 1, folder 4).
90 According to the Division daily report (IZDG, envelope 272a, folder 1/A.C.7).
91 A Stella Rossa Brigade operating in Piacentino was commanded by a communist (‘who behaved very badly, and added to that was a Montenegrin, obtuse and rigid as steel’). It published the paper L’Umanità nuova, termed ‘indecent’ – such was the judgment passed in the report ‘Comando della 6a zona ligure al responsabile militare del triumvirato insurrezionale della Liguria, Giovanni’, 2 November 1944, which guaranteed that the paper would change its name to Guerriglia (Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. II, pp. 527–30, rich in commentary on the regional press). The Montenegrin was probably unaware (and the writer of the letter probably did know) that Umanità Nova was an anarchist title.
92 See Mautino, Guerra di popolo, p. 36, and Fogar, Le brigate Osoppo-Friuli, p. 278.
93 Avanguardia. Giornale della gioventù socialista, June 1944.
94 Here, we are essentially referring to the oft-cited Saggio bibliografico.
95 On this tradition, see De Felice, Nomi e cultura, pp. 37–9, where he recalls how the ‘habit of conveying social protest and the hope for a new, different life by means of one’s children’s names’ was signalled in Ernesto Ragionieri, Dall’Unità a oggi, vol. IV, Book 3, La Storia d’Italia, Turin: Einaudi, 1976, p. 2076.
96 See the GNR reports cited in Pansa, L’esercito di Salò, pp. 33, 54–5, 76–7; and Bocca, La Repubblica di Mussolini, p. 152.
97 See the report ‘Il Sopraluogo in Valle di Lanzo’, 24 February 1944, signed Garelli (Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. I, pp. 268–71).
98 See Dario’s report ‘Cari compagni’ (n.d., but late Spring 1944) reporting upon the sectarianism of the brigades in Tuscany (IG, Archivio PCI). See also the eponymous report from the inspector Paolo, 15 June 1944 (Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. II, p. 34).
99 See t
he report of the Command of the 40th Matteotti Brigade to the Milan PCI federation, 10 July 1944 (Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. II, pp. 113–14; and the letter from the Commissar Gracco addressed to the ‘delegate-inspector of the North Emilia Garibaldi Brigades), 2 August 1944 (Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. II, pp. 188–9).
100 ‘Relazione sul movimento partigiano della zona di confine umbro-marchigiana’, by Celso Ghini, 16 August 1944 (IG, Archivio PCI).
101 Report by the Command of the 7th Garibaldi Division, 1 September 1944 (IG, BG, 05640).
102 See the instructions issued on 7 September 1944 (Casali, Il movimento di liberazione a Ravenna, vol. II, pp. 269–70). See also the circular from the Ravenna Provincial SAP Command, 8 September 1944, which conclude with the appeal ‘Unity! Unity! Unity!’; and also the letter from the Commander of GAP Sector No. 3 (Russi) to the squad-leaders, 16 September (Casali, Il movimento di liberazione a Ravenna, vol. I, p. 76, and vol. II, p. 317). In the same area, on 18 February 1944 Asdrubale wrote to Matteo on the issue of propaganda, commenting that ‘any text is fine, as long as it’s revolutionary’, this propaganda being distributed among young people, soldiers and women (Il movimento di liberazione a Ravenna, vol. II, p. 283).
103 ‘Relazione sulla 6a divisione’, by the inspector Andreis, 12 October 1944 (Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. II, p. 435).
104 See ‘Relazione del responsabile militare del Triumvirato insurrezionale della Lombardia, Fabio, sulla situazione delle forze patriottiche di origine garibaldina’, 16 April 1945 (Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. III, pp. 626–36).
105 ‘Relazione personale sulla situazione generale politico-militare della zona della divisione Garibaldi Nino Nanetti’, Rome, 31 May 1945 (Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. III, pp. 718–22).
106 Padoan (Vanni), Abbiamo lottato insieme, p. 119. The description refers to the GAP battalion commanded by ‘Giacca’ (Mario Toffanin) which, on 7 February 1945, massacred the Osoppo Brigade Commander ‘Bolla’ (Francesco di Gregori), the political commissar, the Action Party’s ‘Enea’ (Gastone Valente) and seventeen partisans at the Porzûs malghe. On the killing, see the letter from ‘Libero’ (Italo Romanelli) addressed to the ‘Segreteria del Partito d’azione per l’Alta Italia’, February 1945 (Formazioni GL, pp. 317–22 and their respective notes).
107 ‘Relazione del compagno Silvio sugli avvenimenti dalla fine di maggio ad oggi nelle province di Terni e Perugia’, 25 June 1944 (IG, Archivio PCI, published in the 23 June 1964 Rinascita.
108 ‘Relazione del commissario politico Remo al comandante di brigata’, on the Giordano Cavestro detachment, undated but from 23 May 1944 (IG, BG, Emilia-Romagna, G.IV.2.2).
109 See the instructions from the political commissar of the 2nd Piedmont Division to all the other political commissars, ‘A tutti i commissari politici’, n.d. (IG, BG, 04667).
110 Letter from the official responsible for the insurrectionary triumvirate for Emilia-Romagna, Cri., to the General Command, 14 July 1944 (Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. II, p. 126). We should also add that this same Cri. lamented the commanders’ failure to salute one another. On the refusal of the Christian-Democrat partisans in Montefiorino to adopt the red star and the clenched-fist salute, see Gorrieri, La Repubblica di Montefiorino, pp. 379–80.
111 Milovan Djilas, Conversations with Stalin, London: Penguin, 1967, p. 61.
112 E. P. Thompson, ‘Anthropology and the Discipline of Historical Context’, in Midland History, vol. 1, p. 3 (1972). K. Thomas (Religion and the Decline of Magic, London: Penguin, 1971) had applied his interpretative criteria to the fact that an old man ‘who had attended sermons his whole life’ thought of God as ‘a kindly old man’, Christ as a ‘docile young man’ and his soul as a ‘great bone in his body’.
113 See ‘Relazione di C. sulla prima visita alle formazioni partigiane della zona di Foligno’, 3 February 1944 (Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. I, pp. 251–5).
114 ‘Lettera aperta ai Garibaldini della Brigata Piave’, 29 August 1944; first appendix to the letter from the Nanetti Division Command to the Command of the Mazzini and Tollot Brigades, 29 August 1944 (Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. II, pp. 283–4.
115 See the letter from the PCI representatives in the Modena Division to the CLN for the province and mountain-region, the CUMER and the representatives of the Christian Democrats, Action Party and Socialists, 22 February 1945 (Le Brigate Garibaldi, pp. 379–80); and Gorrieri, La Repubblica di Montefiorino, pp. 379–80, which underlines the Christian Democrats’ pride in wearing their own symbols.
116 See the order of the day of the Central Emilia corps, no. 4, 10 July 1944 (Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. II, pp. 115–16); and the circular from the 3rd Piedmont Division Commander, Massimo, ‘A tutti i Comandi di brigata e di distaccamento’, 4 September 1944 (IG, BG, 004990).
117 ‘Bollettino n. 43’, 22 August 1944, from the Command of the 52nd Luigi Clerici Brigade (IG, BG, 0625)
118 See ‘Relazione politica generale’ by the political commissar Lamberti, of the 47th Brigade, 27 October 1944 (IG, BG, Emilia-Romagna, G.IV.3.4).
119 See ‘Rapporto informativo e osservazioni per il Comitato federale’, for the Pavia Federal Committee, by the inspector Medici, 10 August 1944. ‘For now’, it continues ‘we made the fine gesture of sending back the first ones who came to us, though with the proviso that if this incident should be repeated, the same approach should not be taken again, as men must have full freedom of choice’ (Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. III, p. 237).
120 See the letter from Libero Villa to the Modena representative of the Partito d’azione (no date – June 1944?), cited in Gorrieri, La Repubblica di Montefiorino, p. 375. A similar GL attitude was cited in the case of the 43rd Garibaldi Brigade, adding that ‘the peasants are in large measure influenced by the Garibaldini’. See the letter from the political commissar of the Liguria group to the General Command, 3 August 1944 (Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. II, p. 193).
121 See circular no. 14 of the ‘Comando Raggruppamento Brigate Garibaldi di Milano e provincia’, 13 February 1945: interesting as an urban-focused document, and for its late timing (IG, BG, 011084).
122 Bianco, Guerra partigiana, p. 96.
123 Flamigni and Marzocchi, Resistenza in Romagna, p. 29, and a letter from the commissariat of the Piedmont Delegation to the Commissar of the 2nd Piedmont Division, Paolo (Antonio Giolitti), 18 June 1944 (Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. II, pp. 37–8).
124 Letter to Moro, in Switzerland, 30 January 1945, in which, together with Ciro, Moscatelli laments the discrimination to which the Garibaldini forced to cross the border were subject. Cited in Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. III, pp. 308–9, note 6.
125 See the critical letter from Simon to the commissariat of the 2nd Liguria Cascione Division, 23 November 1944 (ibid., vol. II, p. 628).
126 See the circular from the Command of the 3rd Piedmont Division, 2 October 1944 (ibid., vol. II, pp. 393–4).
127 See the letter to the Delegation for North Emilia, 9 November 1944 (INSMLI, Brigate Garibaldi, envelope 1, folder 4).
128 ‘Rapporto informativo e osservazioni’, from the inspector for Oltrepò, Medici, to the Federal Committee, 10 August 1944 (Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. II, p. 237).
129 See the report of Renzi and Schiavi on the 47th Brigade (Emilia), 2 August 1944 (IG, BG, 03433).
130 See the letter from the Lombardy Delegation to the Command of the 3rd Aliotta Division, no date (INSMLI, Brigate Garibaldi, envelope 2, folder 1, subfolder 1).
131 Bernardo, Il momento buono, p. 35.
132 See the letter from Andrea (Mario Lizzero) ‘per il Comando delle Tre Venezie’ to ‘Direttivo comunità di …’ and to the Command of the Friuli Battalion, 9 October 1943. Andrea explains that ‘the essential thing is never to speak of being revolutionaries, but to be so in reality, without saying so’ (IZDG, envelope 534, folder III/1).
133 Words contained in a questionnaire of February 1945 prepared by the commissar of the F. Ghinaglia (Cremona) SAP brigades, seeking some insight as to the cause of this defeat (
IG, Archivio PCI).
134 I defer to the already vast literature on the free zones, in particular Legnani, Politica e amministrazione nelle repubbliche partigiane.
135 IG, BG, 01519
136 See ‘Verbale seduta Segreteria (26 novembre 1943)’ (IG, Archivio PCI).
137 This Spring 1945 circular can be found in INSMLI, Brigate Garibaldi, envelope 1, folder 4.
138 See Marelli’s report ‘Sul lavoro svolto fra i volontari della libertà in montagna (21–25 dicembre)’, 1944 (Piacentino) (Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. III, p. 141).
139 See the report by Piero, political commissar of the 3rd Aliotta Division, to the General Command, 27 December 1944 (ibid., pp. 144–9).
140 See a note referring to the ‘most serious matters’ that the inspector Dario had noted with regard to the formations of the Alessandrino area, April 1945 (ibid., p. 617, n. 1).
141 See Flamigni e Marzocchi, Resistenza in Romagna, p. 172.
142 ‘Il Comando della 11a divisione Cuneo al Comando della polizia divisionale’, 14 January 1945, and ‘Il Comando della 6a zona ligure al Comando militare regionale e al CLN della Liguria’, 24 November 1944 (Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. III, p. 230, and vol. II, pp. 637–9).
143 From an anonymous document of 23 December 1943 (IG, Archivio PCI).
144 See the two reports by Andrea ‘from the partisan command of the Friuli battalion’, both from 27 September 1943 (Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. I, pp. 95–9).
145 According to the intendent’s report ‘on the military events subsequent to the date of 27 March 1944’, n.d., referring to the Benedicta killings (IG, BG, 09955).
146 See the letter from the inspector stationed with the 3rd Division, Albero (Oltrepò Pavese), to the insurrectionary triumvirate for Lombardy, 24 February 1945 (Le Brigate Garibaldi, vol. III, p. 416).
147 Report ‘Alla Segreteria federazione milanese del PCI’, 15 September 1944 (IG, BG, 06320). Moscatelli gives the following figures: seven had been signed up to the Party prior to 25 July, nine recruited during the ‘45 days’, and ‘66 promoted to Party ranks at the meeting in tribute to the Red Army’: a total of 82 among around 1,000 men.
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