Arditi del Popolo
Encyclopedia
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
's National Fascist Party
National Fascist Party
The National Fascist Party was an Italian political party, created by Benito Mussolini as the political expression of fascism...
and the violence of the Blackshirts
Blackshirts
The Blackshirts were Fascist paramilitary groups in Italy during the period immediately following World War I and until the end of World War II...
(squadristi) paramilitaries. It grouped revolutionary trade-unionists, socialists, communists, anarchists, republicans
Republicanism
Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by means other than heredity, often elections. The exact meaning of republicanism varies depending on the cultural and historical context...
, etc., as well as some former military officers, and was co-founded by Mingrino, Argo Secondari, Gino Lucetti
Gino Lucetti
Gino Lucetti was an Italian anarchist and would-be assassin.Born in Carrara, Italy, he fought in the assault troops during World War I. Later he emigrated to France, from where he returned to attempt the assassination of Benito Mussolini, Italy's Fascist Duce...
– who tried to assassinate Mussolini on 11 September 1926 – the deputy Guido Picelli and others. The Arditi del Popolo were an offshoot of the Arditi
Arditi
Arditi was the name adopted by Italian Army elite storm troops of World War I. The name derives from the Italian verb Ardire and translates as "The Daring Ones"....
elite troops, who had previously occupied Fiume in 1919 behind the poet Gabriele d'Annunzio
Gabriele D'Annunzio
Gabriele D'Annunzio or d'Annunzio was an Italian poet, journalist, novelist, and dramatist...
, who proclaimed the Italian Regency of Carnaro
Italian Regency of Carnaro
The Italian Regency of Carnaro was a self-proclaimed state in the city of Fiume led by Gabriele d'Annunzio between 1919 and 1920.-Impresa di Fiume:...
. Those who split to form the Arditi del Popolo were close to the anarchist Argo Secondari and were supported by Mario Carli
Mario Carli
Mario Carli was an Italian poet, novelist, essayist, diplomat, and journalist.-Life:Carli was born in San Severo, Apulia, to Florentine father and Apulian mother....
. The formazioni di difesa proletaria (Proletarian Defense Formations) later merged with them. The Arditi gathered approximately 20,000 members in summer 1921.
Relations with the workers' movement and organized parties
Composed of socialists, anarchists and communists, the Arditi del Popolo was not supported by the socialist parties (neither by the Italian Socialist PartyItalian Socialist Party
The Italian Socialist Party was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy founded in Genoa in 1892.Once the dominant leftist party in Italy, it was eclipsed in status by the Italian Communist Party following World War II...
, PSI, nor by the Communist Party of Italy
Communist Party of Italy
The Communist Party of Italy was a communist political party in Italy which existed from 1921 to 1926. That year it was outlawed by Benito Mussolini's fascist regime. In 1943, the name was changed to the Italian Communist Party.-Foundation:The forerunner of the party was the Communist Faction...
, PCI). The Arditi were criticized by the socialist newspaper Avanti!
Avanti! (Italian newspaper)
Avanti! is an Italian daily newspaper, born as the official voice of the Italian Socialist Party, published since December 25, 1896. It took its name from its German counterpart Vorwärts.-History:...
on July 7, 1921, following a demonstration in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
the previous day.
On July 10, 1921, Lenin wrote in the Pravda
Pravda
Pravda was a leading newspaper of the Soviet Union and an official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party between 1912 and 1991....
an article praising the Arditi and criticizing the Bordigan
Amadeo Bordiga
Amadeo Bordiga was an Italian Marxist, a contributor to Communist theory, the founder of the Communist Party of Italy, a leader of the Communist International and, after World War II, leading figure of the International Communist Party.- Early life :Bordiga was born at Resina, in the province of...
tendency of the PCI which opposed militant anti-fascism . On August 3, 1921, the PSI signed a "pacification pact" (patto di pacificazione) with the National Fascist Party, while the General Confederation of Labour
Italian General Confederation of Labour
-External links:**...
(CGT) and the PSI refused to officially recognize the anti-fascist militia. Furthermore, the PCI ordered its members to quit the organization because of the presence of non-communists in its ranks. The PCI organized by themselves some militant groups (the Squadre comuniste d'azione), but their actions were relatively minor and the party kept a non-violent, legalist strategy.
The Bordigan tendency was opposed by the Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci
Antonio Gramsci
Antonio Gramsci was an Italian writer, politician, political philosopher, and linguist. He was a founding member and onetime leader of the Communist Party of Italy and was imprisoned by Benito Mussolini's Fascist regime...
, and many communist activists, who supported the Arditi. In October 1921, the Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
criticized the "sectarian policy" of the PCI, who threatened those of its members who supported the Arditi with disciplinary measures. However, after the alignement of Gramsci and of L'Ordine Nuovo
L'Ordine Nuovo
L'Ordine Nuovo was a weekly newspaper established in 1919 in Turin, Italy, by a group, including Antonio Gramsci, Angelo Tasca and Palmiro Togliatti, within the Italian Socialist Party. The group were admirers of the Russian Revolution and strongly supported the immediate creation of soviets in...
to the PCI's direction, the anarchist Umanità Nova
Umanità Nova
Umanità Nova is an Italian anarchist newspaper founded in 1920.It wa published daily until 1922, when it was shut down by the fascist regime. In some places its circulation exceeded that of the socialist paper Avanti!...
newspaper remained the sole mouthpiece of the workers' movement which supported the Arditi del Popolo.
Parma and dismantlement of the group
One of the Arditis most important successes was in ParmaParma
Parma is a city in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna famous for its ham, its cheese, its architecture and the fine countryside around it. This is the home of the University of Parma, one of the oldest universities in the world....
in August 1922, when 350 arditi, directed by the World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
veterans Antonio Cieri and Guido Picelli, successfully defended the city against a 20,000-man fascist offensive headed by Roberto Farinacci
Roberto Farinacci
Roberto Farinacci was a leading Italian Fascist politician, and important member of the National Fascist Party before and during World War II, and one of its ardent anti-Semitic proponents.-Early life:...
, who would join the Grand Council of Fascism
Grand Council of Fascism
The Grand Council of Fascism was the main body of Mussolini's Fascist government in Italy. A body which held and applied great power to control the institutions of government, it was created as a party body in 1923 and became a state body on 9 December 1928....
in 1935, and Italo Balbo
Italo Balbo
Italo Balbo was an Italian Blackshirt leader who served as Italy's Marshal of the Air Force , Governor-General of Libya, Commander-in-Chief of Italian North Africa , and the "heir apparent" to Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.After serving in...
, one of the four main planners of the March on Rome
March on Rome
The March on Rome was a march by which Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party came to power in the Kingdom of Italy...
. The Arditi benefitted from massive popular support in this task.
But with complicity of state security forces, the fascists assassinated and detained most of the leaders of the anti-fascist movement, which was completely dismantled by 1924.
Legacy
Many Arditi del Popolo later joined the International BrigadesInternational Brigades
The International Brigades were military units made up of volunteers from different countries, who traveled to Spain to defend the Second Spanish Republic in the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939....
during the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
(1936–39). The name was also re-used by Resistants
Italian resistance movement
The Italian resistance is the umbrella term for the various partisan forces formed by pro-Allied Italians during World War II...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The communists Antonello Trombadori
Antonello Trombadori
Antonello Trombadori was an Italian art critic and journalist.Born in Rome into a family of artists Trombadori lived a happy life in the Villa Strohl-Fern studio-home of his city, coming into contact with numerous intellectuals of the era...
and Luigi Longo
Luigi Longo
thumb|right|Luigi Longo portrayed on a 1981 [[USSR]] postage stamp.Luigi Longo , also known as Gallo, was an Italian communist politician and secretary of the Italian Communist Party from 1964 to 1972.-Early life:...
created an organization thus named on July 25, 1943.
List of members
- Argo Secondari, anarchist
- Gino LucettiGino LucettiGino Lucetti was an Italian anarchist and would-be assassin.Born in Carrara, Italy, he fought in the assault troops during World War I. Later he emigrated to France, from where he returned to attempt the assassination of Benito Mussolini, Italy's Fascist Duce...
, anarchist - Guido Picelli, deputy
- Alberto Acquacalda, assassinated on August 11, 1921 by Fascists
- Riccardo Lombardi (not officially a member but a participant)
- Giuseppe Di VittorioGiuseppe Di VittorioGiuseppe Di Vittorio, also known under the pseudonym Nicoletti , was an Italian syndicalist trade unionist and communist politician, one of the most influential leaders of the labor movement after World War I....
, communist - Vincenzo Baldazzi
- Antonio Cieri
Italian language
- Gentili, Valerio, Roma combattente, Roma, Castelvecchi, 2010
- Gentili, Valerio, La legione romana degli Arditi del Popolo, Roma, Purple Press, 2009
- Balsamini, Luigi, Gli Arditi del Popolo. Dalla guerra alla difesa del popolo contro le violenze fasciste, Casalvelino Scalo, Galzerano, 2002.
- Francescangeli, Eros, Arditi del Popolo. Argo Secondari e la prima organizzazione antifascista (1917-1922), Roma, Odradek, 2000.
- Rossi, Marco, Arditi, non gendarmi! Dall’arditismo di guerra agli arditi del popolo 1917-1922, Pisa, BFS, 1997.
- Fuschini, Ivan, Gli Arditi del Popolo, prefazione di Arrigo Boldrini, Ravenna, Longo, 1994.
- Cordova, Ferdinando, Arditi e legionari dannunziani, Padova, Marsilio, 1969.