Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
, image = Stragedibologna-2.jpg
, image_size = 300px
, caption = Aftermath of the bombing at the
Bologna
Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...
railway station in August 1980 which killed 85 people, the deadliest event during the Years of Lead
, date = Late 1968 – mid 1988 () Resurgence from 1999 to 2005 ()
, place =
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
(mainly
Northern Italy
Northern Italy ( it, Italia settentrionale, it, Nord Italia, label=none, it, Alta Italia, label=none or just it, Nord, label=none) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. It consists of eight administrative regions ...
)
, result = Far-left and far-right terrorist groups dismantled
, combatant1 =
Supported by:
, combatant2 =
Supported by:
, combatant3 =
Supported by:
, commander1 =
, commander2 =
, commander3 =
, units1 = Armed Forces: +90,000 soldiers (1973) Gladio: 622 members
, units2 = BR: Several hundred active members PL: 1,072 members and collaborators O22: 25 members PAC: 60 militants AO: 200 membersGun Cuninghame, Patrick. "Autonomia In The Seventies: The Refusal Of Work, The Party And Politics", ''Cultural Studies Review''. niversity Of Melbourne, Australia Vol. 11, No. 2 (Special Issue on Contemporary Italian Political Theory), September 2005, pp. 77-94. 3. Ibid. 4. Ibid. 5. Ibid.
, units3 = Ordine Nuovo: 10,000 National Vanguard: 600–2,000 members at varying times NAR: 53 members Terza Posizione: 42
, casualties1 = : 14Sergio Zavoli, The Night of the Republic, Rome, New Eri, 1992. civil servants murdered Armed Forces:
*1 Air Force General murdered
*1 soldier killed
*2 wounded Carabinieri
*15 killed
*3 injured
Polizia di Stato:
*32 killed
*1 wounded Polizia Penitenziaria:
*4 killed
:
* 1 Army officer kidnapped
* 1 diplomat murdered
, casualties2 = BR:
*12,000 Far-left militants arrested
*600 fled the country
*At least 2 killed
* 1 injured
PL:
*At least 5 killed
*1 arrested
O22: 8 arrested PAC:
*1 injured in friendly fire incident
*60 arrested
*several tortured
CS:
*(At least) 1 killed
*5 arrested
AO:
*3 killedBy a prematurely detonated explosive they were planting.
*200 exiled
, casualties3 = Ordine Nuovo: At least 3 arrested NAR: 53 arrested Terza Posizione: 42 indicted
, notes = Total deaths (including civilians): 428, c. 2,000 physical and psychological injuries
, conflict =
The Years of Lead ( it, Anni di piombo) is a term used for a period of social and political turmoil in
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
that lasted from the late 1960s until the late 1980s, marked by a wave of both
far-left
Far-left politics, also known as the radical left or the extreme left, are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left. The term does not have a single definition. Some scholars consider ...
and
far-right
Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...
incidents of political
terrorism
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
.
The Years of Lead are often considered to have begun with the 1968 movement in Italy and the
Hot Autumn
The Hot Autumn ( it, Autunno caldo) of 1969–70 is a term used for a series of large Strike action, strikes in the factories and industrial centers of Northern Italy, in which workers demanded better pay and better conditions. During 1969 and 197 ...
strikes starting in 1969; the death of the policeman
Antonio Annarumma
Antonio Annarumma (10 January 1947, Monteforte Irpino, Campania – 19 November 1969, Milan) was an Italian police officer, policeman who was killed at age 22 while serving during a demonstration organized by the Italian (Marxist–Leninist) Comm ...
in November 1969; the
Piazza Fontana bombing
The Piazza Fontana bombing ( it, Strage di Piazza Fontana) was a terrorist attack that occurred on 12 December 1969 when a bomb exploded at the headquarters of Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura (the National Agricultural Bank) in Piazza Fontana ...
in December of that year, which killed 17 and was perpetrated by right-wing terrorists in
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
; and the subsequent death that same month of
anarchist
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...
,
left-wing
Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...
worker
Giuseppe Pinelli
Giuseppe "Pino" Pinelli (21 October 1928 – 15 December 1969) was an Italian railroad worker and anarchist, who died while being detained by Italian police in 1969. Pinelli was a member of the Milan-based anarchist association named Ponte ...
while in police custody under suspicion of a crime he did not commit.
A far-left group, the
Red Brigades
The Red Brigades ( it, Brigate Rosse , often abbreviated BR) was a far-left Marxist–Leninist armed organization operating as a terrorist and guerrilla group based in Italy responsible for numerous violent incidents, including the abduction ...
, eventually became the most notorious terrorist organization associated with the period; in 1978, they kidnapped and assassinated former prime minister
Aldo Moro
Aldo Romeo Luigi Moro (; 23 September 1916 – 9 May 1978) was an Italian statesman and a prominent member of the Christian Democracy (DC). He served as prime minister of Italy from December 1963 to June 1968 and then from November 1974 to July 1 ...
. Another major crime associated with the Italian Years of Lead was the 1980 bombing of the Bologna railway station, which killed 85 people and was perpetrated by the far-right,
neo-fascist
Neo-fascism is a post-World War II far-right ideology that includes significant elements of fascism. Neo-fascism usually includes ultranationalism, racial supremacy, populism, authoritarianism, nativism, xenophobia, and anti-immigration sent ...
terrorist group known as the
Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari
The Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari ( en, Armed Revolutionary Nuclei), abbreviated NAR, was an Italian terrorist neo-fascist militant organization active during the Years of Lead from 1977 to November 1981. It committed 33 murders in four years, an ...
. The terrorist organizations were gradually disbanded and their members arrested throughout the 1980s, with sporadic political violence continuing in Italy until the late 1980s and resurfacing to a lesser extent in the late 1990s until the mid-2000s.
Origin of the name
The term's origin possibly came as a reference to the number of shootings during the period, or a popular 1981 German film ''
Marianne and Juliane
''Marianne and Juliane'' (german: Die bleierne Zeit; lit. "The Leaden Time" or "Leaden Times"), also called ''The German Sisters'' in the United Kingdom, is a 1981 West German film directed by Margarethe von Trotta. The screenplay is a fictionalize ...
'', released in Italy as ''Anni di piombo'', which centered on the lives of two members of the West German militant far-left group
Red Army Faction
The Red Army Faction (RAF, ; , ),See the section "Name" also known as the Baader–Meinhof Group or Baader–Meinhof Gang (, , active 1970–1998), was a West German far-left Marxist-Leninist urban guerrilla group founded in 1970.
The ...
which had gained notoriety during the same period.
Background
There was widespread social conflict and unprecedented acts of
terrorism
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
carried out by both right- and left-wing groups. An attempt to endorse the
neo-fascist
Neo-fascism is a post-World War II far-right ideology that includes significant elements of fascism. Neo-fascism usually includes ultranationalism, racial supremacy, populism, authoritarianism, nativism, xenophobia, and anti-immigration sent ...
Italian Social Movement
The Italian Social Movement ( it, Movimento Sociale Italiano, MSI) was a neo-fascist political party in Italy. A far-right party, it presented itself until the 1990s as the defender of Italian fascism's legacy, and later moved towards national ...
(MSI) by the
Tambroni Cabinet
The Tambroni Cabinet was the 15th cabinet of the Italian Republic led by the Christian Democrat Fernando Tambroni. It lasted from 25 March to 26 July 1960. The government received the necessary vote of confidence from the parliament thanks to th ...
led to rioting and was short-lived. Widespread
labor unrest A labour revolt or worker's uprising is a period of civil unrest characterised by strong labour militancy and strike activity. The history of labour revolts often provides the historical basis for many advocates of Marxism, communism, socialism and ...
and the collaboration of
countercultural
A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Hou ...
student activist
Student activism or campus activism is work by students to cause political, environmental, economic, or social change. Although often focused on schools, curriculum, and educational funding, student groups have influenced greater political e ...
groups with
working class
The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...
factory workers and pro-labor radical leftist organizations such as
Potere Operaio
Potere Operaio ("Workers' Power") was a radical left-wing Italian political group, active between 1967 and 1973. (It shouldn't be confused with "Potere Operaio Pisano" which was one of the components of a competing revolutionary group, Lotta Conti ...
and
Lotta Continua
Lotta Continua (LC; en, Continuous Struggle) was a far-left paramilitary organization in Italy. It was founded in autumn 1969 by a split in the student-worker movement of Turin, which had started militant activity at the universities and factor ...
culminated in the so-called "
Hot Autumn
The Hot Autumn ( it, Autunno caldo) of 1969–70 is a term used for a series of large Strike action, strikes in the factories and industrial centers of Northern Italy, in which workers demanded better pay and better conditions. During 1969 and 197 ...
" of 1969, a massive series of strikes in factories and industrial centres in
Northern Italy
Northern Italy ( it, Italia settentrionale, it, Nord Italia, label=none, it, Alta Italia, label=none or just it, Nord, label=none) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. It consists of eight administrative regions ...
.
Student strike
Campus protest or student protest is a form of student activism that takes the form of protest at university campuses. Such protests encompass a wide range of activities that indicate student dissatisfaction with a given political or academ ...
s and labour strikes, often led by workers, leftists, left-sympathizing laborers, or Marxist activists, became increasingly common, often deteriorating into clashes between the police and demonstrators composed largely of workers, students, activists, and often left-wing militants.
The
Christian Democrats
__NOTOC__
Christian democratic parties are political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social ...
(DC) were instrumental in the
Italian Socialist Party
The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the longest-living parties of the country.
Founded in Genoa in 1892, ...
(PSI) gaining power in the 1960s and they created a coalition. The assassination of the Christian Democrat leader
Aldo Moro
Aldo Romeo Luigi Moro (; 23 September 1916 – 9 May 1978) was an Italian statesman and a prominent member of the Christian Democracy (DC). He served as prime minister of Italy from December 1963 to June 1968 and then from November 1974 to July 1 ...
in 1978 ended the strategy of '' historic compromise'' between the DC and the
Italian Communist Party
The Italian Communist Party ( it, Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) was a communist political party in Italy.
The PCI was founded as ''Communist Party of Italy'' on 21 January 1921 in Livorno by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party (PSI). ...
(PCI). The assassination was carried out by the
Red Brigades
The Red Brigades ( it, Brigate Rosse , often abbreviated BR) was a far-left Marxist–Leninist armed organization operating as a terrorist and guerrilla group based in Italy responsible for numerous violent incidents, including the abduction ...
, then led by
Mario Moretti
Mario Moretti (born 16 January 1946) is an Italian terrorist and convicted murderer. A leading member of the Red Brigades in the late 1970s, he was one of the kidnappers of Aldo Moro, the president of Italy's largest political party ''Democrazi ...
. Between 1968 and 1988, 428 murders were attributed to political violence in the form of bombings,
assassination
Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have ...
Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari
The Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari ( en, Armed Revolutionary Nuclei), abbreviated NAR, was an Italian terrorist neo-fascist militant organization active during the Years of Lead from 1977 to November 1981. It committed 33 murders in four years, an ...
Prima Linea
Prima Linea (in English: "Front Line", literally "First Line") was an Italian left-wing terrorist group, active in the country from the late 1970s until the early 1980s.
Context
Following the 1969-70 large-scale series of industrial action in ...
*
Red Brigades
The Red Brigades ( it, Brigate Rosse , often abbreviated BR) was a far-left Marxist–Leninist armed organization operating as a terrorist and guerrilla group based in Italy responsible for numerous violent incidents, including the abduction ...
Timeline of events
1969
Public protests
Public protests shook Italy during 1969, with the
autonomist
Autonomism, also known as autonomist Marxism is an anti-capitalist left-wing political and social movement and theory. As a theoretical system, it first emerged in Italy in the 1960s from workerism (). Later, post-Marxist and anarchist tend ...
student movement being particularly active, leading to the
occupation
Occupation commonly refers to:
*Occupation (human activity), or job, one's role in society, often a regular activity performed for payment
*Occupation (protest), political demonstration by holding public or symbolic spaces
*Military occupation, th ...
of the
Fiat Mirafiori
The Stabilimento di Mirafiori (in English, the Mirafiori Factory) is the headquarters and industrial district of the Italian automobile manufacturer Fiat, a subsidiary of FCA Italy, which is part of Stellantis, and is the headquarters of CNH Ind ...
automobile factory in
Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
.
Killing of Antonio Annarumma
On 19 November 1969,
Antonio Annarumma
Antonio Annarumma (10 January 1947, Monteforte Irpino, Campania – 19 November 1969, Milan) was an Italian police officer, policeman who was killed at age 22 while serving during a demonstration organized by the Italian (Marxist–Leninist) Comm ...
, a Milanese policeman, was killed during a riot by far-left demonstrators. He was the first civil servant to die in the wave of violence.
Piazza Fontana bombing
The
Victor Emmanuel II Monument
The Victor Emmanuel II National Monument ( it, Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II), also known as Vittoriano or Altare della Patria ("Altar of the Fatherland"), is a large national monument built between 1885 and 1935 to honour Victor E ...
, the
Banca Nazionale del Lavoro
Banca Nazionale del Lavoro S.p.A. (BNL) is an Italian bank headquartered in Rome. It is Italy's sixth largest bank and has been a subsidiary of BNP Paribas since 2006.
History
Founded in 1913 as Istituto Nazionale di Credito per la Cooperazione, ...
in Rome and the
Banca Commerciale Italiana
Banca Commerciale Italiana (COMIT), founded in 1894, was once one of the largest banks in Italy. In 1999 it merged with a banking group consisting of Cassa di Risparmio delle Provincie Lombarde (aka Cariplo; est. 1823) and Banco Ambroveneto, wh ...
and the
Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura
The Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura or BNA, was an Italian bank that existed from 1921 to 2000.
History
Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura was established in Milan in 1921 by Count (who after his death was succeeded by his nephew Giovanni Aulet ...
in Milan were bombed in December.
Local police arrested 80 or so suspects from left-wing groups, including
Giuseppe Pinelli
Giuseppe "Pino" Pinelli (21 October 1928 – 15 December 1969) was an Italian railroad worker and anarchist, who died while being detained by Italian police in 1969. Pinelli was a member of the Milan-based anarchist association named Ponte ...
, an anarchist initially blamed for the bombing, and
Pietro Valpreda
Pietro Valpreda (29 September 1932 – 6 July 2002) was an Italian anarchist, poet, dancer and novelist.
He was sentenced to prison on charges of being responsible of the December 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing; in 1987 was acquitted by the Supre ...
. Their guilt was denied by left-wing members, especially by members of the
student movement
Student activism or campus activism is work by students to cause political, environmental, economic, or social change. Although often focused on schools, curriculum, and educational funding, student groups have influenced greater political e ...
, then prominent in Milan's universities, as they believed that the bombing was carried out by fascists. Following the death of Giuseppe Pinelli, who mysteriously died on 15 December while in police custody, the radical left-wing newspaper ''Lotta Continua'' started a campaign accusing police officer
Luigi Calabresi
Luigi Calabresi (14 November 1937 – 17 May 1972) was an Italian Police officer in Milan assassinated by far-left terrorists. This was one of the most important murders during the historical period of social turmoil and political violence in It ...
of Pinelli's murder. In 1975, Calabresi and other police officials were acquitted by judge
Gerardo D'Ambrosio
Gerardo D'Ambrosio (29 November 1930 – 30 March 2014) was an Italian magistrate and politician.
Born in Santa Maria a Vico, Caserta, D'Ambrosio graduated in law in Naples in 1952.Giorgio Dell’Arti, Massimo Parrini. ''Catalogo dei viventi''. ...
who decided that Pinelli's fall from a window had been caused by his being taken ill and losing his balance.
Meanwhile, the anarchist Valpreda and five others were convicted and jailed for the bombing. They were later released after three years of
preventive detention
Preventive detention is an imprisonment that is putatively justified for non- punitive purposes, most often to prevent (further) criminal acts.
Types of preventive detention
There is no universally agreed definition of preventive detention, and m ...
. Then, two neo-fascists,
Franco Freda
Franco "Giorgio" Freda (born 11 February 1941) is one of the leading neo-Nazi and neo-Fascist intellectuals of the post-war Italian far-right. He founded a publishing house for neo-Nazi thought, and described himself as an admirer of Hitler. He ...
(resident in
Padua
Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...
) and Giovanni Ventura, were arrested accused of being the organizers of the massacre; in 1987 they were acquitted by the Supreme Court for lack of evidence.
In the 1990s, new investigations into the Piazza Fontana bombing, citing new witnesses testimony, implicated Freda and Ventura again. However, the pair cannot be put on trial again because of double jeopardy, as they were acquitted of the crime in 1987."Freda e Ventura erano colpevoli", ''
Corriere della Sera
The ''Corriere della Sera'' (; en, "Evening Courier") is an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan with an average daily circulation of 410,242 copies in December 2015.
First published on 5 March 1876, ''Corriere della Sera'' is one of It ...
'', June 11, 2005 .
The
Red Brigades
The Red Brigades ( it, Brigate Rosse , often abbreviated BR) was a far-left Marxist–Leninist armed organization operating as a terrorist and guerrilla group based in Italy responsible for numerous violent incidents, including the abduction ...
, the most prominent far-left terrorist organization, conducted a secret internal investigation that paralleled the official inquiry. The inquiry was discovered after a shootout between the Red Brigade and the
Carabinieri
The Carabinieri (, also , ; formally ''Arma dei Carabinieri'', "Arm of Carabineers"; previously ''Corpo dei Carabinieri Reali'', "Royal Carabineers Corps") are the national gendarmerie of Italy who primarily carry out domestic and foreign polic ...
at Robbiano di Mediglia in October 1974. The cover-up was exposed in 2000 by
Giovanni Pellegrino
Giovanni Pellegrino (born 5 January 1939 in Lecce) is an Italian politician.
Born in Lecce and a lawyer by profession, he was a Senator of the Republic from 1990 with the Italian Communist Party and the Democrats of the Left to 2001. He also pr ...
, at the time President of the Commissione Stragi (Parliamentary Committee on massacres).
1970
Birth of the Red Brigades
The
Red Brigades
The Red Brigades ( it, Brigate Rosse , often abbreviated BR) was a far-left Marxist–Leninist armed organization operating as a terrorist and guerrilla group based in Italy responsible for numerous violent incidents, including the abduction ...
were founded in August 1970 by
Renato Curcio
Renato Curcio (; born 23 September 1941) is the former leader of the Italian far-left organization, the Red Brigades (''Brigate Rosse'').
Early life
Born of an extramarital affair between Renato Zampa (brother of film director Luigi Zampa) and Jol ...
University of Trento
The University of Trento (Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Trento'') is an Italian university located in Trento and nearby Rovereto. It has been able to achieve considerable results in didactics, research, and international relations accor ...
and later married, and Alberto Franceschini.
While the Trento group around Curcio had its main roots in the Sociology Department of the Catholic University, the Reggio Emilia group (around Franceschini) mostly included former members of the FGCI (the Communist youth movement) expelled from the parent party for their extremist views.
Another group of militants came from the Sit-Siemens factories in Milan; these were
Mario Moretti
Mario Moretti (born 16 January 1946) is an Italian terrorist and convicted murderer. A leading member of the Red Brigades in the late 1970s, he was one of the kidnappers of Aldo Moro, the president of Italy's largest political party ''Democrazi ...
, a union official,
Corrado Alunni
Prima Linea (in English: "Front Line", literally "First Line") was an Italian left-wing terrorist group, active in the country from the late 1970s until the early 1980s.
Context
Following the 1969-70 large-scale series of industrial action in ...
, who would leave the Red Brigades to found another organization "fighter", and
Alfredo Buonavita
Alfredo (, ) is a cognate of the Anglo-Saxon name Alfred and a common Italian, Galician, Portuguese and Spanish language personal name.
People with the given name include:
*Alfredo (born 1946), Brazilian footballer born as Alfredo Mostarda Filho ...
, a blue-collar worker.
The first action of the RB was burning the car of Giuseppe Leoni (a leader of Sit-Siemens company in Milan) on 17 September 1970, in the context of the labour unrest within the factory.
''Golpe Borghese'' attempted coup
In December, a neo-fascist coup, dubbed the ''
Golpe Borghese
The ''Golpe Borghese'' (English: Borghese Coup) was a failed Italian ''coup d'état'' allegedly planned for the night of 7 or 8 December 1970. It was named after Junio Valerio Borghese, wartime commander of the Decima Flottiglia MAS and a her ...
'', was planned by young far-right fanatics, elderly veterans of
Italian Social Republic
The Italian Social Republic ( it, Repubblica Sociale Italiana, ; RSI), known as the National Republican State of Italy ( it, Stato Nazionale Repubblicano d'Italia, SNRI) prior to December 1943 but more popularly known as the Republic of Salò ...
, and supported by members of the ''
Corpo Forestale dello Stato
The State Forestry Corps (Italian: ''Corpo forestale dello Stato'' or ''CFS'') was a national police agency in Italy. It was established on 15 October 1822 by Charles Felix of Sardinia as Amministrazione forestale per la custodia e la vigilanza ...
'', along with right-aligned entrepreneurs and industrialists. The "Black Prince",
Junio Valerio Borghese
Junio Valerio Scipione Ghezzo Marcantonio Maria Borghese (6 June 1906 – 26 August 1974), nicknamed The Black Prince, was an Regia Marina, Italian Navy commander during the regime of Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party and a prominent har ...
, took part in it. The coup, called off at the last moment, was discovered by the newspaper ''
Paese Sera
Paese ( Venetian: ''Paexe'') is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Treviso in the Italian region Veneto, located about northwest of Venice and about west of Treviso. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 19,898 and an area of ...
'', and publicly exposed three months later.
1971
Assassination of Alessandro Floris
On March 26,
Alessandro Floris
Alessandro is both a given name and a surname, the Italian language, Italian form of the name Alexander. Notable people with the name include:
People with the given name Alessandro
* Alessandro Allori (1535–1607), Italian portrait painter
* A ...
was assassinated in Genoa by a unit of the
October 22 Group
The October 22 Group (Italian: ''Gruppo XXII Ottobre'') was an Italian terrorist organisation, inspired by the Uruguayan Tupamaros, established on 22 October 1969 and dismantled by police in 1971.
Leadership and ideology
The group was led by ...
, a far-left terrorist organization. An amateur photographer had taken a photo of the killer that enabled police to identify the terrorists. The group was investigated, and more members arrested. Some fled to Milan and joined the '' Gruppi di Azione Partigiana'' (GAP) and, later, the Red Brigades.
The Red Brigades considered ''Gruppo XXII Ottobre'' its predecessor and, in April 1974, they kidnapped Judge
Mario Sossi
Mario Sossi (6 February 1932 – 6 December 2019) was an Italian magistrate and politician. He was a prosecutor against members of the October 22 Group, and was captured by members of the Red Brigades on 18 April 1974 in Genoa
Genoa ( ; it ...
in a failed attempt at freeing the jailed members. Years later, the Red Brigades killed judge Francesco Coco on June 8, 1976, along with his two police escorts, Giovanni Saponara and Antioco Deiana, in revenge.
1972
Assassination of Luigi Calabresi
On 17 May 1972, police officer Luigi Calabresi, a recipient of the gold medal of the Italian Republic for civil valour, was killed in Milan. Authorities initially focused on suspects in ''Lotta Continua''; then it was assumed that Calabresi had been killed by neo-fascist organizations, bringing about the arrest of two neo-fascist activists, Gianni Nardi and Bruno Stefano, along with
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
Gudrun Kiess, in 1974. They were ultimately released. Sixteen years later,
Adriano Sofri
Adriano Sofri (born 1 August 1942) is an Italian intellectual, a journalist and a writer. The former leader of the autonomist movement ''Lotta Continua'' ("Continuous Struggle") in the 1960s, he was arrested in 1988 and sentenced to 22 years of ...
Ovidio Bompressi
Ovidio is a given name. Notable people with the name include:
*Ovidio G. Assonitis (born 1943), independent film producer and businessman
*Ovidio Cervi of the Cervi Brothers, the seven sons of Alcide Cervi and Genoveffa Cocconi
*Gabriel Ovidio Cur ...
, and
Leonardo Marino
Leonardo is a masculine given name, the Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese equivalent of the English language, English, German language, German, and Dutch language, Dutch name, Leonard.
People
Notable people with the name include:
* Leonardo da ...
were arrested in Milan following Marino's confession to the murder. Their trial finally established their guilt in organising and carrying out the assassination.
Calabresi's assassination opened the chapter of assassinations carried out by armed groups of the far-left.
Peteano bombing
On 31 May 1972, three Italian
Carabinieri
The Carabinieri (, also , ; formally ''Arma dei Carabinieri'', "Arm of Carabineers"; previously ''Corpo dei Carabinieri Reali'', "Royal Carabineers Corps") are the national gendarmerie of Italy who primarily carry out domestic and foreign polic ...
were killed in Peteano in a bombing, attributed to ''Lotta Continua''. Officers of the Carabinieri were later indicted and convicted for perverting the course of justice.
Carlo Ginzburg
Carlo Ginzburg (; born April 15, 1939) is an Italian historian and proponent of the field of microhistory. He is best known for ''Il formaggio e i vermi'' (1976, English title: '' The Cheese and the Worms''), which examined the beliefs of an Ita ...
, ''The Judge and the Historian. Marginal Notes and a Late-Twentieth-century Miscarriage of Justice'', London 1999, . Original ed. 1991. Judge Casson identified '' Ordine Nuovo'' member
Vincenzo Vinciguerra Vincenzo Vinciguerra (born 3 January 1949) is an Italian neo-fascist activist, a former member of the ''Avanguardia Nazionale'' ("National Vanguard") and '' Ordine Nuovo'' ("New Order"). He is currently serving a life-sentence for the murder of thr ...
as the man who had planted the Peteano bomb.
The neo-fascist terrorist Vinciguerra, arrested in the 1980s for the bombing in Peteano, declared to magistrate Felice Casson that this
false flag
A false flag operation is an act committed with the intent of disguising the actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on another party. The term "false flag" originated in the 16th century as an expression meaning an intentional misr ...
attack had been intended to force the Italian state to declare a
state of emergency
A state of emergency is a situation in which a government is empowered to be able to put through policies that it would normally not be permitted to do, for the safety and protection of its citizens. A government can declare such a state du ...
and to become more
authoritarian
Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political ''status quo'', and reductions in the rule of law, separation of powers, and democratic votin ...
. Vinciguerra explained how the
SISMI
Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Militare (abbreviated SISMI, ''Military Intelligence and Security Service'') was the military intelligence agency of Italy from 1977–2007.
With the reform of the Italian Intelligence Services app ...
military intelligence agency had protected him, allowing him to escape to
Francoist Spain
Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spai ...
.
Casson's investigation revealed that the right-wing organization Ordine Nuovo had collaborated with the Italian Military Secret Service, SID (''Servizio Informazioni Difesa''). Together, they had engineered the Peteano attack and then blamed the Red Brigades. He confessed and testified that he had been covered by a network of sympathizers in Italy and abroad who had ensured that he could escape after the attack. "A whole mechanism came into action", Vinciguerra recalled, "that is, the Carabinieri, the
Minister of the Interior
An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...
, the customs services and the military and civilian intelligence services accepted the ideological reasoning behind the attack."
1973
Primavalle fire
A 16 April 1973
arson
Arson is the crime of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, wat ...
attack by members of
Potere Operaio
Potere Operaio ("Workers' Power") was a radical left-wing Italian political group, active between 1967 and 1973. (It shouldn't be confused with "Potere Operaio Pisano" which was one of the components of a competing revolutionary group, Lotta Conti ...
on the house of neo-fascist
Italian Social Movement
The Italian Social Movement ( it, Movimento Sociale Italiano, MSI) was a neo-fascist political party in Italy. A far-right party, it presented itself until the 1990s as the defender of Italian fascism's legacy, and later moved towards national ...
(MSI) militant
Mario Mattei
Mario Mattei (6 September 1792, Pergola, Marche – 7 October 1870) was an Italian Cardinal, of the Roman noble House of Mattei. He became Dean of the College of Cardinals in 1860.
Personal life
Mario Mattei was born on 6 September 1792 in Pe ...
in
Primavalle
Primavalle is the 27th ''quartiere'' of Rome, identified by the initials Q. XXVII. It is part of the Municipio XIV.
History
Thanks to several archaeological discoveries, the first settlements in the area can be dated back to 1st century BC: a ...
,
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
, resulted in his two sons, aged 22 and 8, being burned alive.
Milan Police command bombing
During a 17 May 1973 ceremony honoring Luigi Calabresi, in which the Interior Minister was present,
Gianfranco Bertoli
Gianfranco is a compound Italian language, Italian given name, consisting of Gian- and Franco. ''Gian-'' comes from Giovanni and is used in compound names. It is closest to John or French Jean. Gianni means "God is gracious" and Franco means "Free ...
, an
anarchist
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...
, threw a bomb that killed four and injured 45.
In 1975, Bertoli was sentenced to life imprisonment: the Milan Court wrote that he was embroiled in connections with the far-right, that was a SID informant and a confidant of the Police.
In the 1990s it was suspected that Bertoli was a member of
Gladio
Operation Gladio is the codename for clandestine "stay-behind" operations of armed resistance that were organized by the Western Union (WU), and subsequently by NATO and the CIA, in collaboration with several European intelligence agencies during ...
but he denied it in an interview: in the list of 622 Gladio members made public in 1990, his name is missing.
A magistrate investigating the assassination attempt of Mariano Rumor found that Bertoli's files were incomplete. General Gianadelio Maletti, head of the SID from 1971 to 1975, was convicted ''in absentia'' in 1990 for obstruction of justice in the Mariano Rumor case.
1974
Piazza della Loggia bombing
In May 1974, a bomb exploded during an anti-fascist demonstration in
Brescia
Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo. ...
, Lombardy, killing eight and wounding 102. On 16 November 2010, the Court of Brescia acquitted the defendants:
Francesco Delfino
Francesco, the Italian (and original) version of the personal name " Francis", is the most common given name among males in Italy. Notable persons with that name include:
People with the given name Francesco
* Francesco I (disambiguation), sev ...
(a Carabiniere),
Carlo Maria Maggi
Carlo Maria Maggi (Milan, 1630 – Milan, 1699) was an Italian scholar, writer and poet. Despite being an Accademia della Crusca affiliate, he gained his fame as an author of "dialectal" works (poems and plays) in Milanese language, for which he is ...
,
Pino Rauti
Giuseppe Umberto "Pino" Rauti (19 November 1926 – 2 November 2012) was an Italian fascist and politician who was a leading figure on the radical right for many years, although Rauti was describing himself as a "leftist" and "non-fascist." Invo ...
,
Maurizio Tramonte
The Piazza della Loggia bombing was a bombing that took place on the morning of 28 May 1974, in Brescia, Italy during an anti-fascist protest. The terrorist attack killed eight people and wounded 102. The bomb was placed inside a rubbish bin at t ...
, and
Delfo Zorzi
Delfo Zorzi (born July 3, 1947), presently known as , is an Italian-born Japanese neo-fascist.
Biography
Delfo Zorzi was born in Arzignano, near Vicenza, Italy, on July 3, 1947. In 1968 he moved to Naples to study Asian languages, later graduat ...
neo-fascist
Neo-fascism is a post-World War II far-right ideology that includes significant elements of fascism. Neo-fascism usually includes ultranationalism, racial supremacy, populism, authoritarianism, nativism, xenophobia, and anti-immigration sent ...
group). The prosecutor had requested life sentences for Delfino, Maggi, Tramonte, and Zorzi, and acquittal for lack of evidence for Pino Rauti. The four defendants were acquitted again by the appeal court in 2012 but, in 2014, the supreme court ruled that the appeal trial would have to be held again at the appeal court of
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
for Maggi and Tramonte. Delfino and Zorzi were definitively acquitted. On 22 July 2015, the appeal court sentenced Maggi and Tramonte to life imprisonment for ordering and co-ordinating the massacre.
First murder by the
Red Brigades
The Red Brigades ( it, Brigate Rosse , often abbreviated BR) was a far-left Marxist–Leninist armed organization operating as a terrorist and guerrilla group based in Italy responsible for numerous violent incidents, including the abduction ...
On 17 June 1974, two members of MSI were murdered in
Padua
Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...
. Initially, an internal feud between neo-fascist groups was suspected, since the crime had occurred in the city of
Franco Freda
Franco "Giorgio" Freda (born 11 February 1941) is one of the leading neo-Nazi and neo-Fascist intellectuals of the post-war Italian far-right. He founded a publishing house for neo-Nazi thought, and described himself as an admirer of Hitler. He ...
. However, the murder was then claimed by the Red Brigades: it was the first murder of the organization, which, until then had only committed robberies, bombings, and kidnappings.
Planned neo-fascist coup
Count Edgardo Sogno said in his memoirs that in July 1974, he visited the
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
(CIA) station chief in Rome to inform him of preparations for a neo-fascist coup. Asking what the United States (US) government would do in case of such a coup, Sogno wrote that he was told, "the United States would have supported any initiative tending to keep the communists out of government."
General Maletti declared, in 2001, that he had not known about Sogno's relationship with the CIA and had not been informed about the coup, known as '' Golpe bianco'' (White Coup), led by
Randolfo Pacciardi
Randolfo Pacciardi (1 January 1899 – 14 April 1991) was an Italian politician.
He was a long-time member of the secular, centre-left Italian Republican Party.
An ardent anti-fascist, he lived in exile for many years and was an officer of the ...
.
Philip Willan
Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philips who popularize ...
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', March 26, 2001.
Bombing of Italicus train
On 4 August 1974, 12 people were killed and 48 others injured in the bombing of the Italicus Rome- Brenner express train at
San Benedetto Val di Sambro
San Benedetto Val di Sambro ( Medial Mountain Bolognese: ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Bologna in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about southwest of Bologna.
The Italicus Express bombing and the Train 904 ...
. Responsibility was claimed by the
neo-fascist
Neo-fascism is a post-World War II far-right ideology that includes significant elements of fascism. Neo-fascism usually includes ultranationalism, racial supremacy, populism, authoritarianism, nativism, xenophobia, and anti-immigration sent ...
terrorist organization
Ordine Nero
The Ordine Nero ( it, Black Order) was an Italian terrorist fascist group founded in 1974 following the dissolution of the fascist Ordine Nuovo. Between 1974 and 1978, bombings by ON led to a number of woundings and deaths, having orchestrated s ...
SIOS Servizio Informazioni Operative e Situazione (Operative Informations and Situation Service) was an Italian military intelligence and security service serving from 1949 until 1997. Its main duty was safeguarding the internal security of military bas ...
military intelligence agency in 1969, and head of the SID from 1970 to 1974, was arrested in 1974 on charges of "conspiracy against the state". Following his arrest, the Italian secret services were reorganized by a 24 October 1977 law in an attempt to reassert civilian control over the intelligence agencies. The SID was divided into the current
SISMI
Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Militare (abbreviated SISMI, ''Military Intelligence and Security Service'') was the military intelligence agency of Italy from 1977–2007.
With the reform of the Italian Intelligence Services app ...
, the
SISDE
Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Democratica (Intelligence and Democratic Security Service), was the domestic intelligence agency of Italy.
With the reform of the Italian Intelligence Services approved on 1 August 2007, SISDE was replac ...
, and the CESIS, which was to directly coordinate with the
Prime Minister of Italy
The Prime Minister of Italy, officially the President of the Council of Ministers ( it, link=no, Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri), is the head of government of the Italian Republic. The office of president of the Council of Ministers is ...
In 1974, some leaders of the Red Brigades, including
Renato Curcio
Renato Curcio (; born 23 September 1941) is the former leader of the Italian far-left organization, the Red Brigades (''Brigate Rosse'').
Early life
Born of an extramarital affair between Renato Zampa (brother of film director Luigi Zampa) and Jol ...
and Alberto Franceschini, were arrested, but new leadership continued the war against the Italian right-wing establishment with increased fervor.
The Italian government showed reluctance in addressing far left terrorism. The ruling
Christian Democracy
Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism.
It was conceived as a combination of modern democratic ...
party underestimated the threat of the Red Brigades, speaking of "phantom" Red Brigades, emphasizing instead the danger of neo-fascist groups. The Italian left wing also was less worried by the existence of an armed communist organization than by the possible abuses by the police against protesters, calling for the disarmament of police during street demonstrations.
The year before, ''
Potere Operaio
Potere Operaio ("Workers' Power") was a radical left-wing Italian political group, active between 1967 and 1973. (It shouldn't be confused with "Potere Operaio Pisano" which was one of the components of a competing revolutionary group, Lotta Conti ...
'' had disbanded, although ''
Autonomia Operaia
Autonomia Operaia (Italian: ''Workers' Autonomy'') was an Italian leftist movement particularly active from 1976 to 1978. It took an important role in the autonomist movement in the 1970s, alongside earlier organisations such as ''Potere Operaio'', ...
'' carried on in its wake. ''Lotta Continua'' also dissolved in 1976, although their magazine struggled on for several years. From the remnants of ''Lotta Continua'' and similar groups, the terror organization ''
Prima Linea
Prima Linea (in English: "Front Line", literally "First Line") was an Italian left-wing terrorist group, active in the country from the late 1970s until the early 1980s.
Context
Following the 1969-70 large-scale series of industrial action in ...
'' emerged.
1975
On 28 February, student and fascist activist
Mikis Mantakas
Mikis Mandakas ( el, Μίκης Μάντακας; June 13, 1952 – February 28, 1975) was a Greek nationalist student who was murdered by far-left activists in Italy during the Years of Lead.
Biography
Mikis Mandakas was born in Athens, ...
was killed by far-leftists during riots in Rome.
On 13 March, young militant of
Italian Social Movement
The Italian Social Movement ( it, Movimento Sociale Italiano, MSI) was a neo-fascist political party in Italy. A far-right party, it presented itself until the 1990s as the defender of Italian fascism's legacy, and later moved towards national ...
(MSI) Sergio Ramelli was assaulted in Milan by a group of ''Avanguardia Operaia'' and wounded in the head with wrenches (aka ''Hazet 36''). He died on 29 April, after 47 days in the hospital.
On 25 May, student and left activist Alberto Brasili was stabbed in Milan by neo-fascist militants.
On 5 June,
Giovanni D'Alfonso Giovanni may refer to:
* Giovanni (name), an Italian male given name and surname
* Giovanni (meteorology), a Web interface for users to analyze NASA's gridded data
* ''Don Giovanni'', a 1787 opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, based on the legend of ...
, member of the
Carabinieri
The Carabinieri (, also , ; formally ''Arma dei Carabinieri'', "Arm of Carabineers"; previously ''Corpo dei Carabinieri Reali'', "Royal Carabineers Corps") are the national gendarmerie of Italy who primarily carry out domestic and foreign polic ...
police force, was killed by the Red Brigades.
1976
On 29 April, lawyer and militant of
Italian Social Movement
The Italian Social Movement ( it, Movimento Sociale Italiano, MSI) was a neo-fascist political party in Italy. A far-right party, it presented itself until the 1990s as the defender of Italian fascism's legacy, and later moved towards national ...
(MSI) Enrico Pedenovi was killed in Milan by the organization ''
Prima Linea
Prima Linea (in English: "Front Line", literally "First Line") was an Italian left-wing terrorist group, active in the country from the late 1970s until the early 1980s.
Context
Following the 1969-70 large-scale series of industrial action in ...
''. This was the first assassination conducted by ''Prima Linea''.
On 8 July, in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
Nuclei Armati Proletari The Armed Proletarian Cells ( it, Nuclei Armati Proletari, abbreviated NAP) was far-left terrorist group active in Southern Italy, from 1974 to 1977, during the so-called " Years of Lead". NAP was responsible for numerous terrorist acts.
Organiz ...
''.
On 15 December, in
Sesto San Giovanni
Sesto San Giovanni (; lmo, Sest San Giovann, label=Western Lombard ), locally referred to as just Sesto ( lmo, Sest, links=no), is a ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Milan, Lombardy, northern Italy. Its railway station is the northernmost s ...
Sergio Bazzega
Sergio may refer to:
* Sergio (given name), for people with the given name Sergio
* Sergio (carbonado), the largest rough diamond ever found
* ''Sergio'' (album), a 1994 album by Sergio Blass
* ''Sergio'' (2009 film), a documentary film
* ''Se ...
Francesco Lorusso Pierfrancesco Lorusso (Bologna, 7 October 1952 – Bologna, 11 March 1977), generally known as Francesco Lorusso, was an Italian militant of the far-left organization Lotta Continua who was shot dead by carabinieri in Bologna on 11 March 1977 durin ...
was killed by the military police (the
Carabinieri
The Carabinieri (, also , ; formally ''Arma dei Carabinieri'', "Arm of Carabineers"; previously ''Corpo dei Carabinieri Reali'', "Royal Carabineers Corps") are the national gendarmerie of Italy who primarily carry out domestic and foreign polic ...
) in the university of
Bologna
Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...
.
On 12 March, a
Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
policeman
Giuseppe Ciotta
Giuseppe is the Italian form of the given name Joseph,
from Latin Iōsēphus from Ancient Greek Ἰωσήφ (Iōsḗph), from Hebrew יוסף.
It is the most common name in Italy and is unique (97%) to it.
The feminine form of the name is Giusep ...
was killed by ''Prima Linea''.
On 22 March, a
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
policeman
Claudio Graziosi
Claudio is an Italian and Spanish first name. In Portuguese it is accented Cláudio. In Catalan and Occitan it is Claudi, while in Romanian it is Claudiu.
Origin and history
Claudius was the name of an eminent Roman gens, the most important me ...
was killed by ''
Nuclei Armati Proletari The Armed Proletarian Cells ( it, Nuclei Armati Proletari, abbreviated NAP) was far-left terrorist group active in Southern Italy, from 1974 to 1977, during the so-called " Years of Lead". NAP was responsible for numerous terrorist acts.
Organiz ...
''.
On 28 April, in Turin, lawyer Fulvio Croce was killed by the Red Brigades.
On 12 May, in Rome, 19-year-old student Giorgiana Masi was killed during clashes between police officers and demonstrators.
On 14 May, in Milan, activists from a far-left organization pulled out their pistols and began to shoot at the police, killing policeman
Antonio Custra
Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular mal ...
. A photographer took a photo of an activist shooting at the police. This year was called the time of the "P38", referring to the
Walther P38
The Walther P38 (originally written Walther P.38) is a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol that was developed by Carl Walther GmbH as the service pistol of the Wehrmacht at the beginning of World War II. It was intended to replace the costly Luger P08 ...
pistol.
On 16 November, in Turin,
Carlo Casalegno
Carlo Casalegno (Turin, 15 February 1916 – Turin, 29 November 1977) was an Italian journalist and writer. He was killed by a group of four terrorists belonging to the Red Brigades; he was the first journalist ever to be killed during the Years ...
, deputy director of the newspaper ''
La Stampa
''La Stampa'' (meaning ''The Press'' in English) is an Italian daily newspaper published in Turin, Italy. It is distributed in Italy and other European nations. It is one of the oldest newspapers in Italy.
History and profile
The paper was fou ...
'', was seriously wounded in an ambush of the Red Brigades. He died thirteen days later, on November 29.
1978
On 4 January, in
Cassino
Cassino () is a ''comune'' in the province of Frosinone, Southern Italy, at the southern end of the region of Lazio, the last city of the Latin Valley.
Cassino is located at the foot of Monte Cairo near the confluence of the Gari and Liri rive ...
, Fiat boss security services
Carmine De Rosa
Carmine ()also called cochineal (when it is extracted from the cochineal insect), cochineal extract, crimson lake, or carmine lake is a pigment of a bright- red color obtained from the aluminium complex derived from carminic acid. Specific code n ...
was killed by leftists.
On 7 January, in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
young militants of
Italian Social Movement
The Italian Social Movement ( it, Movimento Sociale Italiano, MSI) was a neo-fascist political party in Italy. A far-right party, it presented itself until the 1990s as the defender of Italian fascism's legacy, and later moved towards national ...
Stefano Recchioni
Stefano is the Italian form of the masculine given name Στέφανος (Stefanos, Stephen). The name is of Greek origin, Στέφανος, meaning a person who made a significant achievement and has been crowned. In Orthodox Christianity the ach ...
) was killed by the police during a violent demonstration. Some militants left the MSI and founded the ''
Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari
The Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari ( en, Armed Revolutionary Nuclei), abbreviated NAR, was an Italian terrorist neo-fascist militant organization active during the Years of Lead from 1977 to November 1981. It committed 33 murders in four years, an ...
'', which had ties with the Roman criminal organization ''
Banda della Magliana
The Banda della Magliana (, ''Magliana Gang'') is an Italian criminal organization based in Rome. It was founded in 1975. Given by the media, the name refers to the original neighborhood, the Magliana, of some of its members.
The ''Banda della ...
''.
On 20 January, in
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
, policeman
Fausto Dionisi
Fausto is a given name and surname. It is used as a title for:
__NOTOC__ Music
* ''Fausto'' (opera), an opera by Louise Bertin
Films
* ''Fausto'' (1993 film), a French film directed by Rémy Duchemin
* ''Fausto'' (2018 film), a Canadian film d ...
was killed by ''Prima Linea''.
On 7 February, in
Prato
Prato ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, Italy, the capital of the Province of Prato. The city lies in the north east of Tuscany, at the foot of Monte Retaia, elevation , the last peak in the Calvana chain. With more than 200,000 i ...
(a town near Florence), notary
Gianfranco Spighi
Gianfranco is a compound Italian language, Italian given name, consisting of Gian- and Franco. ''Gian-'' comes from Giovanni and is used in compound names. It is closest to John or French Jean. Gianni means "God is gracious" and Franco means "Free ...
was killed by leftists.
On 14 February, in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
, Judge
Riccardo Palma Riccardo is a male given name, Italian language, Italian version of Ricardo or Richard. It also may be a surname. It means "Powerful Leader".
It may refer to:
People A–L
*Riccardo Antoniazzi (1853–1912), Italian violin maker
*Riccardo Bacche ...
was killed by the Red Brigades.
On 10 March, in
Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
, Marshal
Rosario Berardi
Rosario () is the largest city in the central Argentine province of Santa Fe. The city is located northwest of Buenos Aires, on the west bank of the Paraná River. Rosario is the third-most populous city in the country, and is also the most po ...
was killed by the Red Brigades.
On 11 April, in
Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
, policeman Lorenzo Cutugno was killed by the Red Brigades.
On 20 April, in
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
, policeman
Francesco Di Cataldo
The murder of Francesco Di Cataldo was committed in Milan, Italy, on 20 April 1978 by the Red Brigades.
The victim
Di Cataldo, born in Barletta on 20 September 1926, was a major marshal of the Corpo degli agenti di custodia (corps of custody a ...
was killed by the Red Brigades.
On 10 October, in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
, judge
Girolamo Tartaglione Girolamo is an Italian variant of the name Hieronymus. Its English equivalent is Jerome.
It may refer to:
* Girolamo Cardano (1501–1576), Italian Renaissance mathematician, physician, astrologer and gambler
* Girolamo Cassar (c. 1520 – afte ...
was killed by the Red Brigades.
On 11 October, in
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
, university teacher
Alfredo Paolella
Alfredo (, ) is a cognate of the Anglo-Saxon name Alfred and a common Italian, Galician, Portuguese and Spanish language personal name.
People with the given name include:
*Alfredo (born 1946), Brazilian footballer born as Alfredo Mostarda Filh ...
was killed by ''Prima Linea''.
On 8 November, in
Patrica
Patrica is a hill-top ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Frosinone in the Italian region Lazio.
Territory
The town is located about southeast of Rome and about southwest of Frosinone. It is at 450 m MSL on a hill that rises, close to ...
(a town near Frosinone), judge Fedele Calvosa was killed by the ''Unità Comuniste Combattenti''.
Kidnapping and assassination of Aldo Moro
On March 16, 1978,
Aldo Moro
Aldo Romeo Luigi Moro (; 23 September 1916 – 9 May 1978) was an Italian statesman and a prominent member of the Christian Democracy (DC). He served as prime minister of Italy from December 1963 to June 1968 and then from November 1974 to July 1 ...
was kidnapped by the
Red Brigades
The Red Brigades ( it, Brigate Rosse , often abbreviated BR) was a far-left Marxist–Leninist armed organization operating as a terrorist and guerrilla group based in Italy responsible for numerous violent incidents, including the abduction ...
(then led by
Mario Moretti
Mario Moretti (born 16 January 1946) is an Italian terrorist and convicted murderer. A leading member of the Red Brigades in the late 1970s, he was one of the kidnappers of Aldo Moro, the president of Italy's largest political party ''Democrazi ...
) and five of his security detail were killed. Aldo Moro was a left-leaning
Christian Democrat
Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism.
It was conceived as a combination of modern democratic ...
who served several times as prime minister; before his murder, he had been trying to include the
Italian Communist Party
The Italian Communist Party ( it, Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) was a communist political party in Italy.
The PCI was founded as ''Communist Party of Italy'' on 21 January 1921 in Livorno by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party (PSI). ...
(PCI), headed by
Enrico Berlinguer
Enrico Berlinguer (; 25 May 1922 – 11 June 1984) was an Italian politician, considered the most popular leader of the Italian Communist Party (PCI), which he led as the national secretary from 1972 until his death during a tense period in Ital ...
, in the government through a deal called the '' Historic Compromise''. PCI was, at the time, the largest communist party in western Europe; was mainly because of its non-extremist and pragmatic stance, its growing independence from Moscow and its
eurocommunist
Eurocommunism, also referred to as democratic communism or neocommunism, was a trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties which said they had developed a theory and practice of social transformation more rele ...
doctrine. The PCI was especially strong in areas such as
Emilia Romagna
Emilia-Romagna (, , both also ; ; egl, Emégglia-Rumâgna or ''Emîlia-Rumâgna''; rgn, Emélia-Rumâgna) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy, situated in the north of the country, comprising the historical regions ...
, where it had stable government positions and mature practical experience, which may have contributed to a more pragmatic approach to politics. The Red Brigades were fiercely opposed by the Communist Party and
trade union
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...
s: some left-wing politicians used the expression "comrades who do wrong" (''Compagni che sbagliano''). , one of RB's members who participated at the kidnapping, declared that the decision to kidnap Moro "was taken a week before, a day was decided, it could have been March 15 or 17".
On May 9, 1978, after a summary "trial of the people", Moro was murdered by Mario Moretti with, it was also determined, the participation of . The corpse was found that same day in the trunk of a red Renault 4 in via Michelangelo Caetani, in downtown Rome. A consequence there was the fact that the PCI did not gain executive power.
Moro's assassination was followed by a large clampdown on the social movement, including the arrest of many members of ''
Autonomia Operaia
Autonomia Operaia (Italian: ''Workers' Autonomy'') was an Italian leftist movement particularly active from 1976 to 1978. It took an important role in the autonomist movement in the 1970s, alongside earlier organisations such as ''Potere Operaio'', ...
'', including,
Oreste Scalzone
Oreste Scalzone (born 26 January 1947) is an Italian Marxist intellectual and one of the founders of the communist organization Potere Operaio.
Scalzone was born in Terni, Umbria. In 1968 he came to know Franco Piperno, and on 1 March that year ...
and political philosopher
Antonio Negri
Antonio "Toni" Negri (born 1 August 1933) is an Italian Spinozistic- Marxist sociologist and political philosopher, best known for his co-authorship of ''Empire'' and secondarily for his work on Spinoza.
Born in Padua, he became a political ...
(arrested on 7 April 1979).
1979
Active armed organization grew from 2 in 1969 to 91 in 1977 and 269 in 1979. In that year there were 659 attacks.
Most yearly assassinations
On 19 January,
Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
policeman Giuseppe Lorusso was killed by the ''Prima Linea'' organization.
On 24 January, worker and trade unionist
Guido Rossa
Guido Rossa (1 December 1934 – 24 January 1979) was an Italian worker and syndicalist who was born in Cesiomaggiore, Veneto and lived for several years in Turin. His first job was at the age of 14 as a worker in a ball bearing factory, then at ...
was killed in Genoa by the Red Brigades.
On 29 January, Judge Emilio Alesandrini was killed in Milan by ''Prima Linea''.
On 9 March, university student
Emanuele Iurilli
Emanuele is the Italian form of Manuel. People with the name include:
* Carlo Emanuele Buscaglia (1915–1944), Italian aviator
* Emanuele Basile (1949–1980), captain of Carabinieri
* Emanuele Belardi (born 1977), Italian football player
* Em ...
was killed in Turin by ''Prima Linea''.
On 20 March, investigative journalist
Mino Pecorelli
Carmine "Mino" Pecorelli (; 14 September 1928 – 20 March 1979) was an Italian journalist, shot dead in Rome a year after former prime minister Aldo Moro's 1978 kidnapping and subsequent killing. He was described as a "maverick journalist wit ...
was gunned down in his car in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
. Prime Minister
Giulio Andreotti
Giulio Andreotti ( , ; 14 January 1919 – 6 May 2013) was an Italian politician and statesman who served as the 41st prime minister of Italy in seven governments (1972–1973, 1976–1979, and 1989–1992) and leader of the Christian Democra ...
and Mafia boss
Gaetano Badalamenti
Gaetano Badalamenti (; 14 September 1923 – 29 April 2004) was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. ''Don Tano'' Badalamenti was the capofamiglia of his hometown Cinisi, Sicily, and headed the Sicilian Mafia Commission in the 1970s. In 19 ...
were sentenced in 2002 to 24 years in prison for the murder, though the sentences were overturned the following year.
On 3 May, in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
Piero Ollanu Piero is an Italian given name. Notable people with the name include:
* Piero Angela (1928–2022), Italian television host
*Piero Barucci (born 1933), Italian academic and politician
* Piero del Pollaiuolo (c. 1443–1496), Italian painter
* Piero ...
were killed by the Red Brigades.
On 13 July, in
Druento
Druento is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Turin in the Italian region Piedmont, located about northwest of Turin.
Druento is located in a hilly-plain territory, between the Givoletto mountains and the Turin plain. Attract ...
(a town near Turin), policeman
Bartolomeo Mana Bartolomeo or Bartolommeo is a masculine Italian given name, the Italian equivalent of Bartholomew. Its diminutive form is Baccio. Notable people with the name include:
* Abramo Bartolommeo Massalongo (1824–1860), Italian paleobotanist and lic ...
was killed by ''Prima Linea''.
On 13 July, in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
, Lieutenant Colonel of Carabinieri Antonio Varisco was killed by the Red Brigades.
On 18 July, barman Carmine Civitate was killed in Turin, by ''Prima Linea''.
On 21 September, Carlo Ghiglieno was killed in Turin by a group of ''Prima Linea''.
On 11 December, five teachers and five students of the "Valletta" Institute in Turin were shot in the legs by ''Prima Linea''.
1980
More assassinations
On 8 January,
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
policemen
Antonio Cestari
Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular mal ...
,
Rocco Santoro
Rocco or Rocko is both a given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include:
First name
* Rocco Baldelli (born 1981), American Major League Baseball player and manager of the Minnesota Twins
* Rocco Botte (born 1983), American actor a ...
, and Michele Tatulli were killed by the Red Brigades.
On 25 January,
Genoa
Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...
policemen
Emanuele Tuttobene
Emanuele is the Italian form of Manuel. People with the name include:
* Carlo Emanuele Buscaglia (1915–1944), Italian aviator
* Emanuele Basile (1949–1980), captain of Carabinieri
* Emanuele Belardi (born 1977), Italian football player
* Em ...
and
Antonio Casu
Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular mal ...
were killed by the Red Brigades.
On 29 January, petrochemical plant manager
Silvio Gori
Silvio () is an Italian male name, the male equivalent of Silvia. Sílvio is a variant of the name in Portuguese. It is derived from the Latin "Silvius", meaning "spirit of the wood," and may refer to:
People
* Silvio Berlusconi (born 1936), Ital ...
was killed by the Red Brigades.
On 5 February, in
Monza
Monza (, ; lmo, label=Lombard language, Lombard, Monça, locally ; lat, Modoetia) is a city and ''comune'' on the River Lambro, a tributary of the Po River, Po in the Lombardy region of Italy, about north-northeast of Milan. It is the capit ...
, Paolo Paoletti was killed by ''Prima Linea''.
On 7 February, Prima Linea militant
William Vaccher
William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...
was killed on suspicion of treason.
On 12 February, in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
Azione Cattolica
The Azione Cattolica Italiana, or Azione Cattolica (Catholic Action) for short, is a widespread Roman Catholic lay association in Italy.
History
In Italy in 1905, Azione Cattolica was established as a non-political lay organization under the dir ...
, was killed by the Red Brigades.
On 10 March, in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
, cook
Luigi Allegretti
is a fictional character featured in video games and related media released by Nintendo. Created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, Luigi is portrayed as the younger fraternal twin brother and sidekick of Mario, Nintendo's masc ...
was killed by ''Compagni armati per il Comunismo''.
On 16 March, in
Salerno
Salerno (, , ; nap, label= Salernitano, Saliernë, ) is an ancient city and ''comune'' in Campania (southwestern Italy) and is the capital of the namesake province, being the second largest city in the region by number of inhabitants, after ...
, Judge
Nicola Giacumbi
Nicola may refer to:
People
* Nicola (name), including a list of people with the given name or, less commonly, the surname
**Nicola (artist) or Nicoleta Alexandru, singer who represented Romania at the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest
* Nicola people, ...
was killed by the Red Brigades.
On 18 March, in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
, Judge Girolamo Minervini was killed by the Red Brigades.
On 19 March, in
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
, Judge Guido Galli was killed by a group of ''Prima Linea''.
On 10 April, in
Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
,
Giuseppe Pisciuneri
Giuseppe is the Italian form of the given name Joseph,
from Latin Iōsēphus from Ancient Greek Ἰωσήφ (Iōsḗph), from Hebrew יוסף.
It is the most common name in Italy and is unique (97%) to it.
The feminine form of the name is Giusep ...
a Mondialpol guard, was killed by '' Ronde Proletarie''.
On 28 May, in
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
, journalist
Walter Tobagi
Walter Tobagi (18 March 1947 – 28 May 1980) was an Italian journalist and writer. He was killed in a terrorist attack by the Brigade XXVIII March, a left-wing terrorist group.
Biography Youth
Walter Tobagi was born on 18 March 1947 in San B ...
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
, Judge
Mario Amato Mario Amato (24 November 1937, in Palermo – 23 June 1980, in Rome) was an Italian magistrate, assassinated in 1980 by NAR (''Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari'') members and .
On 31 December, in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
, General of Carabinieri Enrico Galvaligi was killed by the Red Brigades.
Bologna massacre
On 2 August, a bomb killed 85 people and wounded more than 200 in
Bologna
Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...
. Known as the
Bologna massacre
The Bologna massacre ( it, strage di Bologna) was a terrorist bombing of the Bologna Centrale railway station in Bologna, Italy, on the morning of 2 August 1980, which killed 85 people and wounded over 200. Several members of the neo-fascist t ...
, the blast destroyed a large portion of the city's railway station. This was found to be a neo-fascist bombing, mainly organized by the ''
Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari
The Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari ( en, Armed Revolutionary Nuclei), abbreviated NAR, was an Italian terrorist neo-fascist militant organization active during the Years of Lead from 1977 to November 1981. It committed 33 murders in four years, an ...
'':
Francesca Mambro
Francesca Mambro (born 25 April 1959) is an Italian activist and former terrorist, who was a leading member of the far-right Italian Armed Revolutionary Nuclei (NAR). She was arrested in Rome in March 1982 for complicity in the Bologna bombing o ...
and
Valerio Fioravanti
Giuseppe Valerio "Giusva" Fioravanti (born 28 March 1958) is an Italian former terrorist and actor, journalist and human rights activist, who, with Francesca Mambro, was a leading figure in a far-right terrorist group ''Nuclei Armati Rivoluziona ...
were sentenced to life imprisonment. In April 2007 the Supreme Court confirmed the conviction of Luigi Ciavardini, a NAR member associated closely with close ties to ''
Terza Posizione
Terza Posizione ( en, Third Position) was a short-lived neo-fascist political movement founded in Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus ( legendary)
, image_map ...
''. Ciavardini received a 30-year prison sentence for his role in the attack.
1981
On 5 July,
Giuseppe Taliercio
Giuseppe is the Italian form of the given name Joseph,
from Latin Iōsēphus from Ancient Greek Ἰωσήφ (Iōsḗph), from Hebrew יוסף.
It is the most common name in Italy and is unique (97%) to it.
The feminine form of the name is Giusep ...
, director of the Porto Marghera's Montedison petrochemical establishment, was killed by the Red Brigades after 47 days of kidnapping.
On 3 August,
Roberto Peci
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...
, an electrician, was killed by the Red Brigades after being kidnapped and held for 54 days. The killing was a vendetta against his brother
Patrizio
Patrizio is an Italian male personal name. It is the Italian form of Patrick.
* Patrizio Bertelli (born 1946), Italian businessman
* Patrizio Bianchi (born 1952), Italian economist and politician
* Patrizio Buanne
Patrizio Franco Buanne (b ...
, a member of RB who became
pentito
''Pentito'' (; lit. "repentant"; plural: ''pentiti'') is used colloquially to designate collaborators of justice in Italian criminal procedure terminology who were formerly part of criminal organizations and decided to collaborate with a public ...
the year before.
On 17 December,
James L. Dozier
James Lee Dozier (born April 10, 1931) is a retired United States Army officer. In December 1981, he was kidnapped by the Italian Red Brigades Marxist guerilla group. He was rescued by NOCS, an Italian special force, with assistance from the In ...
, an American general and the deputy commander of NATO's South European forces based in Verona, was kidnapped by Red Brigades. He was freed in
Padua
Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...
on 28 January 1982 by the ''
Nucleo Operativo Centrale di Sicurezza
The ''Nucleo Operativo Centrale di Sicurezza'' (NOCS) ( en, Central Security Task Group) is the police tactical unit of the Polizia di Stato, one of Italy's national police forces. It operates under the command of the ''Direzione Centrale della P ...
'' (NOCS), an Italian police anti-terrorist task force.
1982
On 26 August, a group of Red Brigades terrorists attacked a military troop convoy, in
Salerno
Salerno (, , ; nap, label= Salernitano, Saliernë, ) is an ancient city and ''comune'' in Campania (southwestern Italy) and is the capital of the namesake province, being the second largest city in the region by number of inhabitants, after ...
. In the attack, Corporal Antonio Palumbo and policemen
Antonio Bandiera
Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular mal ...
and
Mario De Marco
Mario de Marco (born 18 October 1965) is a Maltese politician and academic currently serving as a Member of Parliament. He is the son of former president Guido de Marco and is a former deputy leader for parliamentary affairs of the Nationalist ...
were killed. The terrorists escaped.
On 21 October, a group of Red Brigades terrorists attacked a bank in
Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
, killing two guards,
Antonio Pedio
Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan language, Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 40 ...
and
Sebastiano d'Alleo Sebastiano is both a masculine Italian given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include:
* Sebastiano Antonio Tanara (1650–1724), Italian cardinal
* Sebastiano Baggio (1913–1993), Italian clergyman
* Sebastiano Bianchi (16th centu ...
.
1984
On 15 February,
Leamon Hunt
Leamon R. Hunt was a United States diplomat who became the first Director General of the international peacekeeping force, Multinational Force and Observers (MFO). He was assassinated by members of the Red Brigades in 1984. Hunt was the first Ame ...
, American diplomat and Director General of the international peacekeeping force,
Multinational Force and Observers
The Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) is an international peacekeeping force overseeing the terms of the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. The MFO generally operates in and around the Sinai peninsula, ensuring free navigation through ...
(MFO), was killed by the Red Brigades.
Christmas massacre
On 23 December, a bomb in a train between Florence and Rome killed 16 and wounded more than 200. In 1992, Mafia's members
Giuseppe Calò
Giuseppe "Pippo" Calò (born 30 September 1931) is an Italian mobster and member of the Sicilian Mafia in Porta Nuova. He was referred to as the "''cassiere di Cosa Nostra''" (Mafia's Cashier) because he was heavily involved in the financial si ...
and
Guido Cercola
Guido is a given name Latinised from the Old High German name Wido. It originated in Medieval Italy. Guido later became a male first name in Austria, Germany, the Low Countries, Scandinavia, Spain, Portugal, Latin America and Switzerland. The mea ...
were sentenced to life imprisonment, Franco Di Agostino (another member of the
Sicilian Mafia
The Sicilian Mafia, also simply known as the Mafia and frequently referred to as Cosa nostra (, ; "our thing") by its members, is an Italian Mafia-terrorist-type organized crime syndicate and criminal society originating in the region of Sicily a ...
) got 24 years, and German engineer
Friedrich Schaudinn Friedrich may refer to:
Names
*Friedrich (surname), people with the surname ''Friedrich''
*Friedrich (given name), people with the given name ''Friedrich''
Other
*Friedrich (board game), a board game about Frederick the Great and the Seven Years' ...
22 for the bombing. Camorra's member Giuseppe Misso was sentenced to 3 years; other members of Camorra, Alfonso Galeota and
Giulio Pirozzi Giulio () is an Italian given name. Notable people with the name include:
* Giulio Alberoni (1664–1752), Italian cardinal and statesman
* Giulio Alenio (1582–1649), Italian Jesuit missionary and scholar
* Giulio Alfieri (1924–2002), Italian ...
were sentenced to 18 months, and their role in the massacre was deemed marginal. On February 18, 1994, the Florence court absolved MSI member of Parliament Massimo Abbatangelo from the massacre charge, but ruled him guilty of giving the explosive to Misso in the spring of 1984. Abbatangelo was sentenced to 6 years. Victims' relatives asked for a tougher sentence, but lost the appeal and had to pay for judiciary expenses.
1985
On 9 January, in
Torvaianica
Torvaianica or Torvajanica is a ''frazione'' of the comune of Pomezia, in the Metropolitan City of Rome, central Italy. Counting some 12,700 inhabitants, it extends for some on central Lazio's littoral.
Overview
According to Vergil's ''Aeneid'' ...
(a town near Rome), policeman
Ottavio Conte Ottavio is the Italian form of Octavius (praenomen), Octavius. Its feminine given name version is Ottavia. Ottavio may refer to:
Given name
* Ottavio Cinquanta, the President of the International Skating Union
* Ottavio Leoni, Italian painter
* Ott ...
was killed by the Red Brigades.
On 27 March, in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
, economist
Ezio Tarantelli Ezio is an Italian masculine name, originating from the Latin name ''Aetius''.
It may refer to:
* Flavius Aetius (c. 396–454), Roman general, after whom Metastasio's libretto and all the operas below are named.
** Ezio (libretto), opera libretto ...
was killed by the Red Brigades.
1986
On 10 February 1986, Lando Conti, former Mayor of Florence, was killed by the Red Brigades.
Italian Air Force
, colours =
, colours_label =
, march = (Ordinance March of the Air Force) by Alberto Di Miniello
, mascot =
, anniversaries = 28 March ...
, was assassinated by the Red Brigades in Rome.
1988
On 16 April 1988, Senator Roberto Ruffilli was assassinated in an attack by a group of the Red Brigades in
Forlì
Forlì ( , ; rgn, Furlè ; la, Forum Livii) is a ''comune'' (municipality) and city in Emilia-Romagna, Northern Italy, and is the capital of the province of Forlì-Cesena. It is the central city of Romagna.
The city is situated along the Via E ...
. It was the last murder committed by the Red Brigades: on 23 October a group of ''irriducibili'' (hardliners) declared, in a document, that war against the State was over.
Events after 1988
Resurgence in the 1990s and 2000s
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, a resurgence of Red Brigades terrorism led to further assassinations.
On 20 May 1999,
Massimo D'Antona
Massimo, also Massimino, and Massimine () is a masculine Italian given name. Notable people with the name include:
Given name:
* Massimo Agostinelli (Max Agos) (born 1987), Swiss based Italian American artist, entrepreneur and activist
* Massimo A ...
, consultant to the Ministry of Labour, was assassinated in an attack by a group of terrorists of the Red Brigades in Rome.
On 19 March 2002,
Marco Biagi Marco Biagi can refer to:
* Marco Biagi (jurist) (1950–2002), Italian jurist
* Marco Biagi (politician)
Marco Biagi (born 31 July 1982) is a Scottish National Party (SNP) politician. He served as the Minister for Local Government and Commun ...
, consultant to the Ministry of Labour, was assassinated in an attack by a group of terrorists of the Red Brigades in Bologna.
On 2 March 2003,
Emanuele Petri
Emanuele is the Italian form of Manuel. People with the name include:
* Carlo Emanuele Buscaglia (1915–1944), Italian aviator
* Emanuele Basile (1949–1980), captain of Carabinieri
* Emanuele Belardi (born 1977), Italian football player
* Em ...
, a policeman, was assassinated by a group of Red Brigades terrorists near
Castiglion Fiorentino
Castiglion Fiorentino () is a small, walled city in eastern Tuscany, Italy, in the province of Arezzo, between the cities of Arezzo and Cortona. It is known for its annual festivals and its Etruscan archeological site.
History
Due to the overall ...
.
In 2005, some suspected terrorists, known as the New Red Brigades (''Nuove Brigate Rosse'') were arrested. On June 13, the court of Milan condemned 14 terrorists. The leader was sentenced to 15 years in jail. Three suspected terrorists were found not guilty.
2021 arrests
In 2021, France arrested seven of the dozens of fugitive leftist militants which had been given French protection for decades. Among the arrested were Giorgio Pietrostefani, a founding member of the
Lotta Continua
Lotta Continua (LC; en, Continuous Struggle) was a far-left paramilitary organization in Italy. It was founded in autumn 1969 by a split in the student-worker movement of Turin, which had started militant activity at the universities and factor ...
group who was convicted of the murder of Milan police commissioner
Luigi Calabresi
Luigi Calabresi (14 November 1937 – 17 May 1972) was an Italian Police officer in Milan assassinated by far-left terrorists. This was one of the most important murders during the historical period of social turmoil and political violence in It ...
. Others were Marina Petrella, Roberta Cappelli and Sergio Tornaghi who had received life sentences for murders and kidnappings.
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
French president
François Mitterrand
François Marie Adrien Maurice Mitterrand (26 October 19168 January 1996) was President of France, serving under that position from 1981 to 1995, the longest time in office in the history of France. As First Secretary of the Socialist Party, he ...
, stated that Italian far-left terrorists who fled to France and who were convicted of violent acts in Italy, excluding "active, actual, bloody terrorism" during the "Years of Lead", would receive asylum and would not be subject to
extradition
Extradition is an action wherein one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, over to the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdict ...
to Italy. They would be integrated into French society.
The act was announced on 21 April 1985, at the 65th Congress of the Human Rights League (''Ligue des droits de l'homme'', LDH), stating of Italian criminals who had given up their violent pasts and had fled to France would be protected from extradition to Italy:
According to Reuters, the Italian guerillas numbered in the dozens. The French decision had a long term negative effect on French-Italian relations.
French justice minister Eric Dupond-Moretti said he was
Brazil
Some Italian citizens accused of terrorist acts have found refuge in
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
Armed Proletarians for Communism
Armed (May, 1941–1964) was an American Thoroughbred gelding race horse who was the American Horse of the Year in 1947 and Champion Older Male Horse in both 1946 and 1947. He was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in ...
, a far-left militant and terrorist organization.
Nicaragua
Some Italian far-left activists found political asylum in
Nicaragua
Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the cou ...
, including
Alessio Casimirri
Alessio Casimirri (born 2 August 1951) is an Italian terrorist, former member of the Red Brigades (BR), currently fugitive.
Casimirri was born in Rome. His mother was a Vatican City citizen, and his father had worked for the Vatican newspaper ' ...
, who took part in the
kidnapping of Aldo Moro
The kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro ( it, Rapimento di Aldo Moro), also referred to in Italy as Moro Case ( it, Caso Moro), was a seminal event in Italian political history.
On the morning of 16 March 1978, the day on which the new cabine ...
.
Impact on emigration from Italy
The Years of Lead were believed to have increased the rate of immigration to the United States from Italy. However, as the Years of Lead came to an end in the 1980s and political stability increased in Italy, the rate of immigration to the United States decreased. In the years 1992–2002, Italian immigration ranged near 2,500 people annually.
See also
*
Armed, far-right organizations in Italy
In Italy, after the Second World War, many armed, paramilitary, far-right organizations were active, as well as far-left ones.
Background
The attempt to endorse the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI) by the Tambroni Cabinet, in 1960, l ...
Definitions of terrorism
There is no universal agreement on the legal definition of terrorism, although there exists a consensus academic definition created by scholars.
Various legal systems and government agencies use different definitions of terrorism, and governm ...
*
Guido Rossa
Guido Rossa (1 December 1934 – 24 January 1979) was an Italian worker and syndicalist who was born in Cesiomaggiore, Veneto and lived for several years in Turin. His first job was at the age of 14 as a worker in a ball bearing factory, then at ...
*
History of the Italian Republic
The history of the Italian Republic concerns the events relating to the history of Italy that have occurred since 1946, when Italy became a republic. The Italian republican history is generally divided into two phases, the so-called First and Se ...
*
Movement of 1977
The movement of 1977 was a spontaneous political movement that arose in Italy in 1977. It grew primarily out of the extra-parliamentary left; in form and substance, it was completely unlike previous student movements such as the protests of 1968. ...
* ''
La notte della Repubblica
''La notte della Repubblica'' (''The Night of the Republic'') is a TV programme presented by Sergio Zavoli, broadcast by the Italian public TV channel Rai 2
Rai 2 is an Italian free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned ...
'' (TV programme)
*
Operation Gladio
Operation Gladio is the codename for clandestine "stay-behind" operations of armed resistance that were organized by the Western Union (alliance), Western Union (WU), and subsequently by NATO and the CIA, in collaboration with several European Int ...
*
Political violence in Turkey (1976–80)
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...
*
The Troubles
The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an "i ...
(Ireland)
*
Poliziotteschi
Poliziotteschi (; singular ''poliziottesco'') constitute a subgenre of crime film, crime and action films that emerged in Italy in the late 1960s and reached the height of their popularity in the 1970s. They are also known as ''polizieschi all'i ...
Notes
References
Bibliography
* Coco, Vittorio. "Conspiracy Theories in Republican Italy: The Pellegrino Report to the Parliamentary Commission on Terrorism." ''Journal of Modern Italian Studies'' 20.3 (2015): 361–376.
* Diazzi, Alessandra, and Alvise Sforza Tarabochia, eds. ''The Years of Alienation in Italy: Factory and Asylum Between the Economic Miracle and the Years of Lead'' (2019)
* Drake, Richard. "Italy in the 1960s: A Legacy of Terrorism and Liberation." ''South central review'' 16 (1999): 62–76 online *
* King, Amy. "Antagonistic martyrdom: memory of the 1973 Rogo di Primavalle." ''Modern Italy'' 25.1 (2020): 33–48.