Contested Memories During the Cold War

Scianna, Bastian Matteo

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-26524-3_11

Bastian Matteo Scianna³

Part of the book series: Italian and Italian American Studies ((IIAS))

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Abstract

The campaign on the Eastern Front has always been an important part of Italian collective memory and therefore also an aspect of the troubled attempt to get to grips with the ‘Fascist War’.

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Notes

1.
Giusti, La campagna, 7.
2.
Mondini and Schwarz, Dalla guerra, 117ff.; Focardi, Il cattivo tedesco, 77ff.
3.
Osti Guerrazzi and Schlemmer, “I soldati italiani,” 391.
4.
Mondini and Schwarz, Dalla guerra, 134ff.
5.
Mario Isnenghi, Dalla Resistenza alla desistenza. L’Italia del ‘Ponte’ (1945–1947) (Bari: Laterza, 2007). On the interplay between domestic politics and the Soviet Union, see Agarossi and Zaslavsky, Togliatti e Stalin.
6.
TNA, FO 371/37356, Soviet attitude towards Italy, 28 Sept. 1943.
7.
Arkadi Waksberg, Gnadenlos. Andrei Wyschinski (Bergisch Gladbach: Lübbe, 1991).
8.
Still, he had little to no expertise on Italian affairs, ibid., 337ff., 353.
9.
He even stuffed his hotel room’s keyhole with paper, IWM, Doc.13329, 05/481, Maj. E.B. Howard—Diary, Part One, 6 Dec. 1943, fol.41.
10.
TNA, FO 371/37356, Clark Kerr (Moscow) to FO, 12 Nov. 1943.
11.
DDI, X:I, doc.102, Prunas to Badoglio, 20 Dec. 1943; Morozzo della Rocca, Politica, 21ff.
12.
Waksberg, Wychinski, 341–42.
13.
DDI, X:I, doc.109, Prunas to Badoglio, 30 Dec. 1943; and ibid., doc.118, Prunas to Badoglio, 12 Jan. 1944. The Italians declared repression to be one only way of removing former Fascists. On the short and incomplete process of de-fascistisation see Romano Canosa, Storia dell’epurazione in Italia. Le sanzioni contro il fascismo 1943–1948 (Milan: Baldini & Castoldi, 1999); Hans Woller, Die Abrechnung mit dem Faschismus in Italien 1943 bis 1948 (Munich: Oldenbourg, 1996); Roy Domenico, Italian Fascists on Trial, 1943–1948 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991); Botti and Ilari, Il pensiero, 415ff.
14.
See the not so amicable exchange between the two in DDI, X:I, doc.115, 10 Jan. 1944.
15.
Mario Toscano, Designs in Diplomacy: Pages from European Diplomatic History in the Twentieth Century (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1970), 260–69; Salvatore Sechi, “Die neutralistische Versuchung. Italien und die Sowjetunion 1943–1948,” in Italien und die Großmächte 1943–1949, ed. Hans Woller (Munich: Oldenbourg, 1988), 95–129. This included claims on parts of the Italian navy, Toscano, Designs, 265f., 279ff.; and the desire to build a Soviet airforce base in southern Italy, much to the concern of the Allies and Badoglio’s government, see TNA, FO 371/43830, Macmillan to FO, 12 Mar. 1944.
16.
Prunas was the de facto Foreign Minister, while Badoglio held the position on paper.
17.
The meeting is brilliantly retold in Toscano, Designs, 269ff.
18.
DDI, X:I, doc.118, Prunas to Badoglio, 12 Jan. 1944, Attachment.
19.
Ibid.
20.
Toscano, Designs, 273.
21.
Ibid., 299; James Edward Miller, The United States and Italy, 1940–1950: The Politics and Diplomacy of Stabilization (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1986), 90ff. Indeed, the Soviets portrayed their early recognition as a benevolent gesture, whereas in fact it was mere power politics vis-à-vis the Western Allies. Yet, the Italians thought it also showed the Kremlin’s willingness to forget the Italian participation in ‘Hitler’s war’, DDI, X:III, doc.152, Carandini (London) to De Gasperi, 2 Feb. 1946.
22.
Much to their concern, see TNA, FO 371/43830, FO to Moscow, 12 Mar. 1944.
23.
DDI, X:I, doc.386, Quaroni to Bonomi, 2 Sept. 1944.
24.
Petacco, L’armata, 220.
25.
Morozzo della Rocca, Politica, 102–3.
26.
Tirone, “La politica,” 198.
27.
Piero Craveri, De Gasperi (Bologna: Il Mulino, 2006), 183.
28.
He remained in this position until 18 October 1946, and became Prime Minister on 10 December 1945 (until 1953), guiding Italy through the constitutional referendum, the parliamentary elections, and assuring her admission to NATO; see ibid., 171ff.
29.
Ibid., 176.
30.
On this issue see Miller, United States, 162–68.
31.
Agarossi and Zaslavsky, Togliatti e Stalin, 161.
32.
Even the Communist Radio Mosca and L’Alba had placed the number of POWs at 80,000 during the war, Morozzo della Rocca, Politica, 106.
33.
Ibid., 111, 114–15.
34.
Ibid., 105.
35.
The Red Army had captured Italians from German prison or labour camps.
36.
Morozzo della Rocca, Politica, 107.
37.
Ibid., 113.
38.
Aldo Agosti, Palmiro Togliatti : A Biography (London: Tauris, 2008), 140.
39.
Alessandro Frigerio, Reduci alla sbarra. 1949: il processo D’Onofrio e il ruolo del PCI nei lager sovietici (Milan: Mursia, 2006), 39. Some parts of this book should be read with caution, as many claims are made without sufficient supporting evidence.
40.
Published in 1945 by L’Unità under the pseudonym Mario Correnti.
41.
Quoted in Agosti, Togliatti , 141; Agarossi and Zaslavsky, Togliatti e Stalin, 165.
42.
Toscano has rightly noted that the Prunas-Vyshinsky talks in January 1944 and the reestablishment of relations had opened the door for the PCI’s participation in the Badoglio government, Toscano, Designs, 304.
43.
Miller, United States, 102ff., 136–37. Also his successor since 19 June 1945, Ferruccio Parri (1890–1981), managed to contain the Communist and Socialist pressures that came from the former resistance movement, ibid., 157ff.
44.
Agarossi and Zaslavsky, Togliatti e Stalin, 75–129; Ennio Di Nolfo, Von Mussolini bis De Gasperi (Paderborn: Schöningh, 1993), 90, 142ff.
45.
Agarossi and Zaslavsky, Togliatti e Stalin, 168.
46.
Ibid., 170–71.
47.
TNA, WO 202/991, MMIA, Intelligence Summary, 31 July 1946, fol.3.
48.
Agarossi and Zaslavsky, Togliatti e Stalin, 170.
49.
TNA, WO 202/991, MMIA, Intelligence Summary, 31 Aug. 1946, fol.4.
50.
Ibid.
51.
Di Nolfo, Von Mussolini , 60–65.
52.
AUSSME, Fondo Messe, b.D(7), c.39, Anno 1945—Inesattezze circa il comportamento dei combattenti italiani in Russia, fol.2.
53.
Ibid., fol.1.
54.
Most recently, Conti, Uomini, 137ff.; see also Argentieri, Messe , 257–308. On his activities during the War of Liberation see Longo, Messe, 391–478.
55.
Osti Guerrazzi, Noi non sappiamo odiare, 112ff.
56.
TNA, WO 208/4185, S.R.I.G. no.16, 18 May 1943.
57.
TNA, WO 208/4185, S.R.I.G. no.125, 17 July 1943.
58.
TNA, WO 208/4185, S.R.I.G. no.58, 4 June 1943.
59.
TNA, WO 208/4186, S.R.I.G. no.139, 19 July 1943; TNA, WO 208/4187, S.R.I.G. no.319, 2 October 1943. Not least because he feared the exposed position of Trieste and Fiume (Rijeka), TNA, WO 208/4187, S.R.I.G. no.309, 19 Sept. 1943.
60.
Cecini, I generali, 157.
61.
Argentieri, Messe , 205–8. Messe filled key positions with his close aides, e.g. Paolo Berardi and Taddeo Orlando. Other generals from British captivity were soon to follow.
62.
Vallauri, Soldati, 294ff., 315ff.
63.
IWM, 05/481, Maj. E.B. Howard—Diary, Part One, 22 Nov. 1943, fol.25.
64.
TNA, FO 660/378, Macmillan to FO, 29 Nov. 1943.
65.
Argentieri, Messe , 216ff., 238ff.
66.
IWM, 05/481, Maj. E.B. Howard—Diary, Part One, 23 Dec. 1945, fos.74–75.
67.
AUSSME, Fondo Messe, b.B(3), c.12, see the handwritten notes to the article “Il problema dell’esercito,” La Voce Repubblicana, 18 July 1944.
68.
See the correspondence in TNA, FO 660/375.
69.
Argentieri, Messe , 218ff.; Benito Mussolini, Memoirs 1942–1943 (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1949), 10–21.
70.
TNA, WO 204/2420, Italian Appointments, 8 Apr. 1945. The British seemed little concerned over Messe’s departure and wholeheartedly embraced Claudio Trezzani as his successor.
71.
TNA, WO 204/3, Maj.Gen. Langley Browning to Lt.Gen. W.D. Morgan, 10 Apr. 1945, fol.3.
72.
The anti-British tone was arguably a reason for this title and subsequent reports showed that the majority of these officers were in the monarchist, not the neo-fascist, camp. The officers present were Marshal Ettore Bastico, and generals Gariboldi, Marazzani, Antonio Sorice, Enrico Frattini, Giuseppe Mancinelli, Alessandro Albert, Roberto Bencivenga, and Arturo Scattini.
73.
General Nicola Bellomo (1881–1945) had saved Bari from German occupation on 9 September 1943. He was later tried for executing British POWs and shot by the British on 11 September 1945, causing bitter Italian reactions.
74.
TNA, KV 3/266, Meeting of Neo-Fascist Senior Officers, 19 June 1947.
75.
Longo, Messe , 470ff.
76.
A close friend of Messe, he had been captured as GOC of the 2nd Libyan Division in December 1940.
77.
TNA, KV 3/266, Italy. Right-Wing and Monarchist Activities, 2 June 1947.
78.
TNA, KV 3/266, Italian Right Wing Groups, 5 Aug. 1947. See also Angelo Michele Imbriani, Vento del Sud. Moderati, reazionari, Qualunquisti (1943–1948) (Bologna: Il Mulino, 1996), 35–41.
79.
Sandro Setta, L’Uomo Qualunque: 1944–1948 (Bari: Laterza, 1975).
80.
TNA, KV 3/266, Italian Right Wing Groups, 5 Aug. 1947.
81.
TNA, KV 3/266, Italy. Right-Wing Para-Military Organisations, 24 July 1947. In command of General Montezemolo, before him, General Armellini had followed the same policy.
82.
In fact, the War Ministry supplied and administered these formations, while the SIM shunned away, fearing investigations by left-wing politicians, TNA, KV 3/266, Italy. The Italian Right-Wing Movement. American Assistance, 11 Aug. 1947.
83.
The force was meant to be ready to protect Venezia Giulia and ‘stay behind’ if regular forces were compelled to withdraw by Yugoslav attacks, TNA, KV 3/266, Italy. American-sponsored force in Venezia Giulia, 21 Nov. 1946.
84.
See also Conti, Uomini, 141ff., 156, for a detailed description of which other former military figures were involved in these monarchist groups; and on Messe’s leadership position and anti-Communist stance. Yet, Conti tends to paint these organisations as reactive formations that stood ready in case of a Communist take-over, rather than themselves seeking to overthrow the new republic, ibid., 156.
85.
TNA, KV 3/266, Italy. The Right-Wing Movement, 13 Aug. 1947.
86.
However, besides Bencivenga, also General Caracciolo di Feroleto and other generals were involved in neo-fascist and right-wing movements, TNA, KV 3/266, Italy. Political Notes, 15 Jan. 1947.
87.
Craveri, De Gasperi , 204.
88.
TNA, KV 3/266, Italy. The Right-Wing Movement, 13 Aug. 1947.
89.
“Apoliticità dell’Esercito,” Il Tempo, 7 June 1947.
90.
AUSSME, Fondo Messe, b.D(7), c.39, Anno 1945—Inesattezze circa il comportamento dei combattenti italiani in Russia, fol.2. He also defended Italian generals against Yugoslavian accusations and countered demands to extradite them, Conti, Criminali di guerra, 241ff.
91.
AUSSME, Fondo Messe, b.B(3), c.12, “Le carte di Messe,” La Voce Repubblicana, 23 Aug. 1946.
92.
Messe, La guerra, 301–69.
93.
Craveri, De Gasperi , 235–38.
94.
Miller, United States, 190ff.
95.
More detailed in Sara Lorenzini, L’Italia e il trattato di pace del 1947 (Bologna: Il Mulino, 2007).
96.
The British noted “indications that Tito will refuse or delay signing [the] Peace Treaty owing to loss of prestige involved”, TNA, KV 3/266, AFHQ to War Office, 2 Feb. 1947, fol.6.
97.
Sechi, “Die neutralistische Versuchung,” 101ff., 111.
98.
Morozzo della Rocca, Politica, 175ff., 392.
99.
DDI, X:II, doc.332, De Gasperi to Tarchiani (Washington), 13 July 1945. In fact, the Soviets vetoed Italian membership until 1955, when her satellites Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary were also accepted. The US had proposed immediate Italian membership at Potsdam, Miller, United States, 172.
100.
DDI, X:II, doc.144, Quaroni to De Gasperi, 23 Apr. 1945; and ibid., doc.193, Quaroni to De Gasperi, 13 May 1945.
101.
U.S. Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS), 1946, Paris Peace Conference: Proceedings, Vol. 3 (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1970), doc.22, Byrnes-Nenni Conversation, 31 July 1946.
102.
DDI, X:II, doc.310, Quaroni to De Gasperi, 4 July 1945.
103.
DDI, X:II, doc.314, Quaroni to De Gasperi, 6 July 1945.
104.
De Gasperi busily tried to rally other European leaders to revise the treaty proposals, which, for instance, allowed for the accord with Austria over South Tyrol, Craveri, De Gasperi , 246ff.
105.
DDI, X:IV, doc.88, Quaroni to De Gasperi, 31 July 1946. De Gasperi tried to restrain some anti-Communist tendencies in the press as late as 1950, Craveri, De Gasperi , 177. One must not forget that this was the early Cold War, and in the US, too, this was a high time of vicious anti-Communism in the papers, Miller, United States, 175.
106.
FRUS, 1946, Paris Peace Conference: Proceedings, Vol. 3, doc.49, 10 Aug. 1946.
107.
Craveri, De Gasperi , 250–52.
108.
He had left Italy already after two months in mid February 1944.
109.
Waksberg, Wychinski, 393–96.
110.
DDI, X:III, doc.174, Quaroni to De Gasperi, 9 Feb. 1946.
111.
The Soviets altered their position on this issue in February 1948, when it seemed opportune to hurt British ambitions in Africa and support an Italian trusteeship over Somalia to counter tensions over Trieste.
112.
DDI, X:IV, doc.68, Quaroni to De Gasperi, 26 July 1946; and ibid., doc.315, Quaroni to De Gasperi, 16 Sept. 1946. The Soviets supported the Yugoslavian attack on Roatta. His trial had been a key project in Count Sforza’s early designs for de-fascistication, but Roatta ‘escaped’ from internment in March 1945. The Yugoslavs wanted to trial him as war criminal, Conti, Criminali di guerra, 109, 119ff., 285ff.
113.
Sechi, “Die neutralistische Versuchung,” 119.
114.
Morozzo della Rocca, Politica, 186.
115.
Argentieri, Messe , 259–60; Lorenzini, L’Italia, 86.
116.
“Russians Sneer at Italian Record in Wars,” The Sydney Morning Herald, 6 Sept. 1946, 1. In fact, most of his outbursts were not even included in the official protocol, Morozzo della Rocca, Politica, 211.
117.
AUSSME, Fondo Messe, b.D(7), c.39, Anno 1945—Inesattezze circa il comportamento dei combattenti italiani in Russia, fol.3.
118.
Morozzo della Rocca, Politica, 187. Even Italian workers called a strike during the signing ceremony in February 1947. On reactions in Italy see Lorenzini, L’Italia, 107–16.
119.
In an obituary almost one decade later, he was still described as hostile and disrespectful towards Italy, see Amedeo Giannini, “Andrea Viscinski,” Rivista di Studi Politici Internazionali 22, no. 1 (1955): 110–12.
120.
TNA, WO 202/991, MMIA, Intelligence Summary, 30 Sept. 1946, fol.1.
121.
On the reorganisation see Nuti, L’Esercito; Effie Pedaliu, “Britain and the Reconstruction of the Post-Fascist Italian Armed Forces, 1943–1948,” Cold War History 2, no. 1 (2001): 39–68.
122.
Miller, United States, 193.
123.
The Baistrocchi trial triggered renewed attacks, TNA, WO 202/991, MMIA, Intelligence Summary, 30 Sept. 1946, fol.3. Detailed in Botti and Ilari, Il pensiero, 428ff.
124.
Diplomatic circles and Moscow’s official press organs both attempted to alter his comments and argued that his depictions concerned the Fascist war effort alone and did not hold true for democratic Italy, Morozzo della Rocca, Politica, 187.
125.
Montgomery had described 8 September 1943 as the “biggest double cross” in history and had few positive words to say about the Italian military, which led to fierce reactions and even an official Italian protest, see e.g. Paolo Monelli, “Il generale quindici a uno,” La Stampa, 4 Nov. 1958, 4.
126.
AUSSME, Fondo Messe, b.B(3), c.17, L’Unità del 11 settembre.
127.
Argentieri, Messe , 260.
128.
Morozzo della Rocca, Politica, 187.
129.
AUSSME, Fondo Messe, b.B(3), c.12, “La guerra di domani,” La Voce Repubblicana, 28 Sept. 1946. Indeed, Messe later argued against neutralist positions, Argentieri, Messe, 264.
130.
AUSSME, Fondo Messe, b.B(3), c.17, Appunto, fol.1.
131.
Argentieri, Messe , 262–63.
132.
AUSSME, Fondo Messe, b.D(7), c.39, Anno 1945—Inesattezze circa il comportamento dei combattenti italiani in Russia, fos.4–6.
133.
AUSSME, Fondo Messe, b.B(3), c.17, Appunto, fol.2.
134.
Palmiro Togliatti, “Stia zitto il Signor Messe,” L’Unità, 26 Feb. 1947.
135.
Craveri, De Gasperi , 257.
136.
Agarossi and Zaslavsky, Togliatti e Stalin, 172.
137.
Morozzo della Rocca, Politica, 394.
138.
Ibid. The countries had also supplied detailed lists.
139.
Ibid., 385.
140.
After the final sessions in New York in November and December 1946, the Council of Foreign Ministers finally concluded the Italian peace settlement. It was signed in Paris on 10 February 1947, and ratified by the Italian constitutional assembly on 31 July 1947. It entered into force on 15 September 1947. Italy had to pay small reparations, lost all her colonies (including those acquired before the Fascist seizure of power in 1922), had to accept minor border adjustments with France (and major ones with Yugoslavia), the armed forces were limited to 300,000 men and the fleet went into Allied hands. Trieste became a Free Territory until a final settlement on the city’s status was reached. Detailed in Lorenzini, L’Italia, 99ff., 116ff., 155ff.; Clementi, L’alleato Stalin, 191–235.
141.
Miller, United States, 223.
142.
Di Nolfo, Von Mussolini , 197ff.
143.
Craveri, De Gasperi , 273–79.
144.
In December, he brought the Liberals, the Republicans, and Social Democrats (which had split from the Socialist Party) back into his coalition, see ibid., 267ff., 278ff.
145.
Di Nolfo, Von Mussolini , 210–18.
146.
Ibid., 223.
147.
Miller, United States, 240.
148.
Ibid., 237.
149.
Franco Ferraresi, Threats to Democracy: The Radical Right in Italy After the War (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), 15ff., 51ff.; Parlato, Fascisti senza Mussolini , 171ff.
150.
Craveri, De Gasperi , 326–31; Gabriella Fanello Marcucci, Scelba. Il ministro che si oppose al fascismo e al comunismo in nome della libertà (Milan: Mondadori, 2006), 128ff.
151.
Argentieri, Messe , 264.
152.
AUSSME, Fondo Messe, b.B(3), c.12, “L’apoliticità di Messe,” La Voce Repubblicana, 10 June 1947.
153.
Di Nolfo, Von Mussolini , 150ff., 233.
154.
Morozzo della Rocca, Politica, 396.
155.
Detailed in Francesco Bigazzi and Evgenij Zhirnov, Gli ultimi 28. La storia incredibile dei prigionieri di guerra italiani dimenticati in Russia (Milan: Mondadori, 2002).
156.
Morozzo della Rocca, Politica, 116, 387.
157.
Sechi, “Die neutralistische Versuchung,” 117.
158.
Sforza’s reply to Brosio, cited in Morozzo della Rocca, Politica, 388.
159.
Ibid., 390–91.
160.
Ibid., 392.
161.
Detailed in Ilari, Storia militare, 51ff.; Craveri, De Gasperi , 355ff., 368ff.
162.
Pagan, Il prezzo, 215–36.
163.
Printed in AUSSME, Fondo Messe, b.A(1), c.4.
164.
AUSSME, Fondo Messe, b.A(1), c.5. For which some were also dragged to court.
165.
“Tolloy risponde,” La Libertà d’Italia, 31 Mar. 1949.
166.
“Contro i diffamatori dell’Unione Sovietica, contro l’indifferenza per i reduci dell’Armir,” L’Unità, 12 Mar. 1949.
167.
AUSSME, Fondo Messe, b.D(7), c.54, PCI. Comitato Nazionale di Iniziativa per l’inchiesta sull’ARMIR, 24 Mar. 1949.
168.
AUSSME, Fondo Messe, b.D(7), c.54, Note, 8 Feb. 1949.
169.
Agarossi and Zaslavsky, Togliatti e Stalin, 173.
170.
Petacco, L’armata, 222.
171.
Morozzo della Rocca, Politica, 97.
172.
Franzoni had been imprisoned in Russia and became a moral authority; he also aided Messe as a witness in his case against L’Unità in 1955, AUSSME, Fondo Messe, b.D(7), c.56, Testimoni citati dalla parte civile. His memoirs were posthumously published, see Enelio Franzoni, Memorie di prigionia: Russia. Un sacerdote dal fronte alla deportazione, 1941–1946 (Chiari: Nordpress, 2008).
173.
Agarossi and Zaslavsky, Togliatti e Stalin, 173–74. They attempted to show that another military chaplain, Giovanni Brevi, had been placed on the list of war criminals due to Franzoni’s testimony, and not due to D’Onofrio’s actions. Brevi was only released in 1953, see his memoirs, Russia 1942–1953 (Milan: Garzanti, 1955).
174.
As claimed in Petacco, L’armata, 228; Daniele Cherubini, I prigionieri italiani in Unione sovietica (Rome: Prospettiva editrice, 2006), 148. Concurrently, the twenty-eight remaining prisoners of the ARMIR stood trial in Kiev. On the accusations and the diplomatic tug of war, see Bigazzi and Zhirnov, Gli ultimi 28; Agarossi and Zaslavsky, Togliatti and Stalin, 158. Sixteen were repatriated in 1950 (including the three Alpini generals), but subsequent attempts for the remaining eleven (one had died in 1947) failed in 1952, not least due to Vyshinsky who was still Foreign Minister, according to Cherubini, I prigionieri, 156.
175.
Agarossi and Zaslavsky, Togliatti e Stalin, 175–76.
176.
Argentieri, Messe , 277.
177.
Giusto Tolloy, “Una manovra fallita,” Avanti!, 15 Jan. 1955.
178.
The Soviets had already told the Italian Ambassador in Moscow, Manlio Brosio, in July 1948 that they were compiling documents on Italian war crimes, not least to put political pressure on Rome, Agarossi and Zaslavsky, Togliatti e Stalin, 79.
179.
Ibid., 175; Cherubini, I prigionieri, 146.
180.
TNA, FO 371/102077, Leading Personalities in Italy 1952, 20. Indeed, Messe influenced many appointments and lobbied for former comrades. For example, he pressured Mancinelli’s appointment as Chief of the Defence Staff over the head of several more senior officers, TNA, FO 371/113120, WT 1192/1, Clarke to Eden, 26 Mar. 1954, fol.2. Likewise, the Italian President’s military adviser in 1956, General Alberto Roda, had fought with Messe as commander of the XX Corps’ artillery in North Africa. Messe had demanded his release from allied captivity so he could take part in the War of Liberation, TNA, FO 371/124186, Leading Personalities in Italy 1956, 32.
181.
Gianfranco Franci, “Morto Messe, comandante dell’Armir e delle truppe italiane in Tunisia,” La Stampa, 19 Dec. 1968, 9.
182.
AUSSME, Fondo Messe, b.x27, c.AA, Andreotti to Messe, 21 Dec. 1962.
183.
“De Gasperi vuole Messe a ministro della Difesa,” L’Unità, 18 June 1953.
184.
Argentieri, Messe , 269–70.
185.
AUSSME, Fondo Messe, b.X27, c.Profili, Indro Montanelli, “Incontri: Messe,” Corriere della Sera, 18 Nov. 1954, 3.
186.
Ibid.
187.
The Unione Combattenti maintained an office in the Ministry of Defence.
188.
TNA, FO 371/124186, Leading Personalities in Italy 1956, 24. As mentioned above, the role of veterans and their associations needs further research; for now, see Bistarelli, La storia del ritorno; Mondini and Schwarz, Dalla guerra.
189.
AUSSME, Fondo Messe, b.B(3), c.15, Ferruccio Ferrini, “Equivoci e caso Messe,” Il Pensiero Nazionale, 31 Mar. 1955.
190.
The Unione celebrated the 24 May, the date of Italy’s entry into the First World War in 1915, Delio Mariotti, “Le celebrazioni del 24 maggio,” La Stampa (Sera), 24 May 1955.
191.
Argentieri, Messe , 297.
192.
AUSSME, Fondo Messe, b.A(1), c.4, Tolloy—Democrazia e Forze Armate, Speech in Chamber, 19 June 1956.
193.
AUSSME, Fondo Messe, b.B(3), c.15, Canevari to Brazilian Newspaper Tribuna Italiana, 22 July 1955.
194.
An overview can be found in AUSSME, Fondo Messe, b.D(7), c.53.
195.
Maurizio Ferrara, “Profilo di un guerriero,” L’Unità, 23 Feb. 1955.
196.
Pagan, Il prezzo, 316ff.
197.
Messe’s old comrade Mancinelli was a vital figure in the EDC negotiations; see Daniele Caviglia and Alessandro Gionfrida, Un occasione da perdere. Le Forze Armate italiane e la Comunità Europea di Difesa (1950–54) (Rome: APES, 2009).
198.
Argentieri, Messe , 272–73.
199.
Ibid., 278.
200.
Ibid., 279.
201.
Sereni had worked against the Italians during their occupation of France, which he had declared in a letter to the Carabinieri in July 1945, which Messe read out in the aula.
202.
Argentieri, Messe , 282.
203.
AUSSME, Fondo Messe, b.X27, c.Note biografiche varie, “Un nuovo vivace incidente al Senato tra Messe e Terracini,” Roma, 9 Mar. 1955.
204.
See the wide collection in AUSSME, Fondo Messe, b.A(1), c.6, Sereni—Stampa. Messe also collected old documents from tribunals on Sereni and information concerning his exile in France during which he had spread anti-Italian propaganda (i.e. anti-Mussolini propaganda), AUSSME, Fondo Messe, b.A(1), c.7.
205.
See Messe’s handwritten note on the cover, in AUSSME, Fondo Messe, b.A(1), c.8.
206.
AUSSME, Fondo Messe, b.B(3), c.15, Canevari Letter to Brazilian Newspaper Tribuna Italiana, 22 July 1955, fol.4.
207.
AUSSME, Fondo Messe, b.X27, c.Note biografiche varie, Emilio Canevari, “Chi è Messe,” Roma, 9 Mar. 1955.
208.
Luigi Pintor, “Messe portabandiera dell’UEO,” L’Unità, 8 Mar. 1955.
209.
AUSSME, Fondo Messe, b.E(8). The whole folder contains newspaper excerpts on the court sessions.
210.
“Messe spiega perché si ritirò dal fronte sovietico e dalla Tunisia,” La Nuova Stampa, 8 July 1955, 6.
211.
Argentieri, Messe, 294.
212.
The process is described more detailed in, Argentieri, Messe , 285ff. Messe’s preparation and documents relating to the process can be found in AUSSME, Fondo Messe, b.D(7), c.40, c.41, c.42, c.43, and c.46. Even Mussolini’s wartime memoirs—which included attacks on Messe—were cited as evidence of the latter’s non-fascist stance.
213.
Messe had prepared dossiers on the witnesses, contained in AUSSME, Fondo Messe, b.D(7), c.43.
214.
The document can be found in AUSSME, Fondo Messe, b.E(8), c.Sentenza contro L’Unità. After their appeal, the initial verdict of eight months’ confinement was changed into a high fine, Argentieri, Messe, 293–300.
215.
Even if we account for a possible bias of the judges and prosecutors, this marked an independent court ruling.
216.
Despite the fact that Messe widely published a declaration on the process in several newspapers, AUSSME, Fondo Messe, b.E(8), c.Testo remissione querela contro L’Unità, 27 Jan. 1958.
217.
AUSSME, Fondo Messe, b.B(3), c.12, Pantaleo Ingusci, “Maresciallismo e nazionalismo. Le baracche della retorica,” La Voce Repubblicana, 4 Nov. 1955.
218.
AUSSME, Fondo Messe, b.B(3), c.12, Messe to Director of La Voce Repubblicana, 12 Nov. 1955, fol.5.
219.
Ibid.
220.
AUSSME, Fondo Messe, b.A(1), c.1956, Idea Italiana. Articoli su On. Tolloy.
221.
On 14 June 1960, AUSSME, Fondo Messe, b.A(1), c.4.
222.
Camera dei Deputati, Atti Parlamentari, IV Legislatura, Discussioni, 30 Sept. 1964, 10124.
223.
Agarossi and Giusti, Una guerra, 473.
224.
See Lucio Lami, Isbuscenskij. L’ultima carica (Milan: Mursia, 1970).
225.
[Col.] Carlo De Virgilio, “Poloj. Ultima carica,” Rivista Militare 39, no. 4 (1983): 135–41; Rodolfo Puletti, “G. Vitali: ‘Trotto, galoppo…caricat! Storia del Raggruppamento truppe a cavallo—Russia 1942–1943,” Rivista Militare 42, no. 6 (1986): 146–47; G. De Marco, “Giorgio Vitali: ‘Sciabola nella steppa,’” Rivista Militare 32, no. 5 (1976): 137–38.
226.
The movie is rather unheroic as the character played by Mastroianni tries to evade military service. Generally, the Russians are depicted as generous and helpful, and the Italians as mere victims with iconic scenes of the retreat from the Don.
227.
AUSSME, Fondo Messe, b.X27, c.AA, Messe to Zigiotti, 9 Jan. 1963, fos.2–3. He also claimed that the Giovani Fascisti Division had behaved gallantly under his command in Tunisia.
228.
Ibid., fol.4.
229.
Gianfranco Franci, “Morto Messe, comandante dell’Armir e delle truppe italiane in Tunisia,” La Stampa, 19 Dec. 1968, 9.
230.
Marco Nese, “Il generale ‘ardito’ che disobbediva al Duce,” Corriere della Sera, 17 Jan. 2007, 41.

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Bastian Matteo Scianna

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Scianna, B.M. (2019). Contested Memories During the Cold War. In: The Italian War on the Eastern Front, 1941–1943. Italian and Italian American Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26524-3_11

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