Arditi del Popolo
Arditi del Popolo (from Italian ardito , German “kühn”, “brave”, Popolo German people) was the name of an anti-fascist Italian organization that existed between 1921 and 1924. Many of its members had belonged to the Arditi storm troop during World War I. It brought together syndicalists , socialists , communists , anarchists , republicans and others as well as some former military officers.
history
The Arditi emerged in 1917 as a specially trained storm troop for trench warfare . It mostly consisted of highly motivated volunteers. Many of these volunteers, who had survived the battles waged with extreme cruelty, could no longer cope with civil life after the war and became politically radical. In 1919 they formed the Associazione Arditi d'Italia without reaching a consensus on their political orientation in the post-war period, which was characterized by political instability, economic crisis and unemployment. A large part of the Arditi sympathized with fascism and joined Mussolini's fighting leagues. In September 1919, an Arditi group supported the nationalist and writer Gabriele D'Annunzio in the occupation of the city of Fiume .
The Biennio rosso , which was characterized by socialist and communist agitation, was followed by the fascist reaction in the Biennio nero in 1921 and 1922 . Left-wing Arditi, tired of the terror of the fascist black shirts , split off from the joint veterans' association in the summer of 1921 and formed the new, militant, anti-fascist group Arditi del Popolo . It was not supported by the Socialist and the new Communist Parties of Italy , although Antonio Gramsci and even Lenin had asked for it. It was also disadvantageous that in this tense time the upper middle class and the economic elite sided with the fascists and favored their seizure of power in order to preserve vested rights and to ensure peace and order.
The Arditi del Popolo , to which the "proletarian defense formations" ( formazioni di difesa proletaria ) joined, had around 20,000 members at the end of 1921. They consisted not only of war veterans, but also of other anarchists and communists . Despite the lack of political support, they achieved several notable successes against fascist black shirts, for example in Parma in August 1922 , when a few hundred Arditi del Popolo, with the support of parts of the population, successfully defended the city against around 10,000 black shirts by Roberto Farinacci and Italo Balbos .
After Mussolini became head of government at the end of October 1922 and began building his totalitarian system, the Arditi del Popolo quickly found itself in an untenable position. They were completely dissolved by 1924. Many of her former relatives fought in the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War . From 1943 to 1945, groups of the Resistenza again carried the name Arditi del Popolo .
literature
- Luigi Balsamini: Gli Arditi del Popolo. Dalla guerra alla difesa del popolo contro le violenze fasciste. Galzerano, Casalvelino Scalo 2002.
- Tom Behan, The Resistible Rise of Benito Mussolini. Bookmarks, 2003.
- Ferdinando Cordova: Arditi e legionari dannunziani. Marsilio, Padua 1969.
- Eros Francescangeli: Arditi del Popolo. Argo Secondari e la prima organizzazione antifascista (1917-1922). Odradek, Rome 2000.
- Ivan Fuschini: Gli Arditi del Popolo. Longo, Ravenna 1994.
- Valerio Gentili: Roma combattente. Castelvecchi, Rome 2010.
- Valerio Gentili: La legione romana degli Arditi del Popolo. Purple Press, Rome 2009.
- Marco Rossi: Arditi, non gendarmi! Dall'arditismo di guerra agli arditi del popolo 1917-1922. FSO, Pisa 1997.