Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T23:46:37.179Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The 1922 Turin Massacre (Strage di Torino): Working Class Resistance and Conflicts within Fascism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 January 2016

Antonio Sonnessa
Antonio Sonnessa*
Affiliation:
History Department, Goldsmiths College, University of London, New Cross, London SE14 6NW, UK. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

This article explores the reasons why Turin's Fascists launched a violent offensive against the local labour movement two months after the Fascist seizure of power. The article demonstrates that the residual resistance of the working class to Fascism was the major reason behind the Turin massacre. However, it also investigates other decisive factors for the violence of December 1922: the conflict between the national Fascist leadership and Turin Fascism and within the Turin fascio itself. The article challenges the interpretation, best exemplified by Renzo De Felice, that the Fascist violence was spontaneous, carried out by undisciplined squadristi without the approval of Mussolini and the Fascist leadership. Rather, it argues that there existed significant levels of planning and a high degree of toleration by the Turinese and national Fascist leaderships and the local authorities. Using Turin as a case study, the article provides a clearer view of the tensions existing within the Fascist movement in the months after the seizure of power. It analyses how Turin Fascism was riddled by factional disputes and how its attempts to gain control of the major political and economic institutions of the city were frustrated by the opposition of the local authorities and industrialists, backed by Mussolini's government. The events of the months preceding and following the strage also afford insights into the conflicts within Fascism over the future role squadrism and violence was to play in the Fascist movement now Mussolini was head of government.

Type
Articles
Information
Modern Italy , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , November 2005 , pp. 187 - 205
Copyright
Copyright © Association for the study of Modern Italy 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1. Montagnana, Mario, Ricordi di un operaio torinese , Rinascita, Rome, 1949, p. 235; Canteri, Celestino, Memorie del nostro '900. Circoli comunisti, lotte e vita nella Torino capitale operaia, Jaca Book, Milan, 2004, p. 73. For a list of the injured see ‘Elenco dei feriti durante le rappresaglie fasciste nei giorni 18, 19 e 20 dicembre 1922’, in Archivio Centrale dello Stato, segretaria particolare del Duce, carteggio riservato, Partito Nazionale Fascista (henceforth ACS, SPD, CR, PNF) (1922–1943), b. 26, sf. 1, 1923, inserto A, fascicolo gran consiglio-fatti di Torino 1922; see also Carcano, Giancarlo, Strage di Torino. Una storia italiana dal 1922 al 1971, La Pietra, Milan, 1973, pp. 62–70, p. 96.Google Scholar

2. Clark, Martin, Antonio Gramsci and the Revolution that Failed , Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 1977; Gribaudi, Maurizio, Mondo operaio e mito operaio, Einaudi, Turin, 1987; Berta, Giuseppe, Conflitto industriale e struttura d'impresa alla FIAT, 1919–1979, Il Mulino, Bologna, 1998.Google Scholar

3. In this period De Vecchi was Minister for War Pensions, Commander of the PNF Militia, Regional Secretary of the Piedmont fasci and leader of the Turin fascio. De Vecchi was also one of the chief organizers of the March on Rome.Google Scholar

4. See Mana, Emma, ‘Le origini del fascismo a Torino, 1919–1926’, in Levra, Umberto and Tranfaglia, Nicola (eds), Torino fra liberalismo e fascismo , Franco Angeli, Milan, 1991, pp. 269–74; Bosworth, R. J. B., Mussolini, Arnold, London, 2002, pp. 182–3.Google Scholar

5. Mana, , ‘Le origini del fascismo a Torino’, p. 242; Lupo, Salvatore, Il fascismo. La politica in un regime totalitario, Donzelli, Rome, 2000, pp. 163–5.Google Scholar

6. See Spriano, Paolo, Storia del partito comunista: Da Bordiga a Gramsci , Vol. 1, Einaudi, Turin, 1967, pp. 260–2; Agosti, Aldo, ‘Il partito comunista a Torino dalla fondazione alle leggi eccezionali’, in Agosti, Aldo and Bravo, Gian Mario (eds), Storia del movimento operaio del Socialismo e delle lotte sociali in Piemonte, Vol. 3, Gli anni del fascismo, l'antifascismo e la resistenza, De Donato, Bari, 1979, p. 40; Terracini, Umberto, ‘Lo squadrismo torinese’, in Antonicelli, Franco (ed.), Trent'anni di storia Italiana (1915–1945), Einaudi, Turin, 1975, p. 61; see the testimonies of contemporary Communists, interviewed 50 years on from December 1922 in Carcano, , Strage, pp. 73–81, pp. 105–121.Google Scholar

7. For the revisionist accounts, see above note 2. For a summary of the cultural history studies, see Abse, Tobias, ‘Recent trends in the historiography of Italian fascism’, in Flett, Keith and Renton, David (eds), The Twentieth Century: A Century of Wars and Revolution? , Rivers Oram Press, London, 2000, pp. 156–71.Google Scholar

8. See Agosti, , ‘Il partito comunista a Torino dalla fondazione alle leggi eccezionali’; Levi, Giorgina Cultura e associazioni operaie in Piemonte, 1890–1975 , Franco Angeli, Milan, 1985; Levy, Carl, Gramsci and the Anarchists, Berg, Oxford, 1999; Canteri, , Memorie del nostro '900. Google Scholar

9. Revelli, Marco, ‘Maurizio Garino. Storia di un anarchico’, in Mezzosecolo , 4, 1980/1982, pp. 58–80, esp. pp. 73–75.Google Scholar

10. See Sonnessa, Antonio, ‘Working class defence organization, anti-fascist resistance and the Arditi del Popolo in Turin, 1919–1922’, in European History Quarterly , 33, 2, 2003, pp. 183–218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

11. See Prefect of Turin's telegrams to Interior Minister, 9 September 1922, no. 801, and 18 October 1922, no. 29909, in ACS, Ministero dell'Interno, direzione generale di pubblica sicurezza (henceforth ACS, MI, DGPS), 1922, g. 1, b. 157, fasci di combattimento-Torino; Ordine Nuovo, ‘Borgo Vittoria’, 10 September 1922, p. 5; La Stampa , ‘Scontro tra comunisti e fascisti a Pozzo Strada’, 11 September 1922, p. 3.Google Scholar

12. Spriano, , Storia del partito comunista , p. 236; Carcano, , Strage, p. 29.Google Scholar

13. Ordine Nuovo , ‘La consegna dei gagliardetti alle squadre comuniste d'azione’, 19 November 1922, p. 2; see also Spriano, , Storia del partito comunista, p. 236; Carcano, , Strage, pp. 29–30.Google Scholar

14. See Levi, , Cultura e associazioni operaie in Piemonte, p. 164; Canteri, , Memorie del nostro '900, pp. 74–75.Google Scholar

15. Montagnana, , Ricordi di un operaio torinese , p. 226; Carcano, , Strage, pp. 28–29.Google Scholar

16. See the correspondence between Finzi (Under-Secretary of State for the Interior Ministry) and the Prefect of Turin, 6 December 1922, no. 63/6, and 11 December 1922, no. 2934, in ACS, MI, gabinetto Finzi, ordine pubblico (1922–1923), b. 9, f. 89, Torino-conflitti tra fascisti e comunisti.Google Scholar

17. Prefect of Turin's telegrams to Interior Minister, 1 October 1922, no. 801, 2 October 1922, no. 29165, and 3 October 1922, no. 29165, in ACS, MI, DGPS, 1922, g. 1, b. 157; La Stampa, ‘Uno studente simpatizzante fascista ucciso’, 2 October 1922, p. 3; see also Carcano, , Strage, p. 17.Google Scholar

18. Ordine Nuovo , ‘Sfilata di squadre comuniste nel centro della città, 29 October 1922, p. 1; see also Agosti, , ‘Il partito comunista a Torino dalla fondazione alle leggi eccezionali’, p. 39.Google Scholar

19. Prefect of Turin's telegram to Interior Minister, 30 November 1922, no. 801-139, in ACS, MI, DGPS, 1922, g. 1, b. 157; see also Carcano, , Strage , pp. 31–3.Google Scholar

20. Canteri, , Memorie del nostra '900 , p. 68; Agosti, , ‘Il partito comunista a Torino dalla fondazione alle leggi eccezionali’, p. 40.Google Scholar

21. Mana, , ‘Le origini del fascismo a Torino’, pp. 279–83; see also Gentile, Emilio, Storia del partito fascista 1919–1922. Movimento e milizia, Laterza, Rome-Bari, 1989, esp. pp. 222–35.Google Scholar

22. Mana, , ‘Le origini del fascismo a Torino’, p. 242; Lupo, , Il fascismo, pp. 163–5.Google Scholar

23. Lyttleton, Adrian, The Seizure of Power: Fascism in Italy, 1919–1929 , Weidenfeld and Nicholson, London, 1973, pp. 152–3.Google Scholar

24. Lyttleton, , The Seizure of Power , pp. 151–3; see also Lupo, , Il fascismo, p. 154–66.Google Scholar

25. For Brandimarte's involvement in the attack on the Turin Chamber of Labour in April 1921, see Mana, , ‘Le origini del fascismo a Torino’, p. 267.Google Scholar

26. Il Maglio , ‘Il fascismo e l'avanguardia della nazione che non vuole morire’, 12 August 1922, p. 1.Google Scholar

27. See the criminal proceedings at the Turin Crown Court, 13 December 1923, in Archivio di Stato di Torino, fondo corte d'assize, cartello 18; see also Carcano, , Strage , p. 13.Google Scholar

28. Mana, , ‘Le origini del fascismo a Torino’, p. 243; Lupo, , Il fascismo, pp. 154–66; see also Lyttleton, , The Seizure of Power, p. 151; Bocca, Giorgio, Palmiro Togliatti, Mondadori, Milan, 1991, pp. 81–3.Google Scholar

29. Il Maglio , ‘Comunicato del consiglio di disciplina’, 30 August 1922, p. 3; see also Gentile, , Storia del partito fascista, p. 624.Google Scholar

30. Prefect of Turin's telegrams to Interior Minister, 26 October 1922, no. 31459, and 28 October 1922, no. 31459, in ACS, MI, DGPS, 1922, g. 1, b. 157.Google Scholar

31. Ordine Nuovo , ‘La squadra campiglio sciolta’, 3 September 1922, p. 5.Google Scholar

32. Carcano, , Strage , p. 144.Google Scholar

33. Montagnana, , Ricordi di un operaio torinese , pp. 228–229.Google Scholar

34. See Prefect of Turin's telegram to Finzi, 1 November 1922, no. 2663–7, in ACS, MI, gabinetto Finzi, Ordine pubblico (1922–1923), b. 9, sf. 4, alleanza cooperativa torinese; La Stampa , ‘Distributorio dell'alleanza cooperativa devastato dai fascisti’, 2 November 1922, p. 5; Carcano, , Strage, pp. 28–29.Google Scholar

35. La Stampa , ‘Le dimissioni del consiglio d'amministrazione dell'ACT’, 7 November 1922, p. 5; Ordine Nuovo, ‘Le ripercussioni dell'azione fascista sull'ACT’, 9 November 1922, p. 2; Agosti, , ‘Il partito comunista a Torino dalla fondazione alle leggi eccezionali’, pp. 47–8.Google Scholar

36. Prefect of Turin's telegram to Interior Minister, 23 January 1923, no. 228, in ACS, MI, gabinetto Finzi, ordine pubblico (1922–1923), b. 9, sf. 4; Agosti, , ‘Il partito comunista a Torino dalla fondazione alle leggi eccezionali’, p. 48.Google Scholar

37. Agosti, , ‘Il partito comunista a Torino dalla fondazione alle leggi eccezionali’, pp. 47–8.Google Scholar

38. See Mana, Emma, ‘Dalla crisi del dopoguerra alla stabilizzazione del regime’, in Tranfaglia, Nicola (ed.), Storia di Torino, Vol. 8, Dalla grande guerra alla liberazione (1915–1945) , Einaudi, Turin, 1998, pp. 148–56.Google Scholar

39. Palma's telegram to Procuratore del Re Torino, 18 December 1922, no. 37202, in ACS, SPD, CR, PNF (1922–1943), b. 26, sf. 1, 1923, inserto A; La Stampa, ‘Fascisti aggrediti da sovversivi’, 18 December 1922, p. 3; De Felice, Renzo, ‘I fatti di Torino del dicembre 1922’, in Studi Storici , January–March 1963, pp. 51–122; Carcano, , Strage, pp. 38–52.Google Scholar

40. Carcano, , Strage , p. 49.Google Scholar

41. See Tabusso's report to Giunta–Gasti commission, 3 January 1923, in ACS, SPD, CR, PNF (1922–1943), b. 26, sf. 1, 1923, inserto A; Giunta-Gasti commission's report, 4 January 1923, pp. 1–2, p. 6, in ACS, SPD, CR, PNF (1922–1943), b. 26, sf. 1, 1923, inserto A.Google Scholar

42. Francesco Giunta was the ex-D'Annunzian legionnaire and Fascist Deputy in Trieste. Giovanni Gasti was a long-time police official. See Gentile, , Storia del partito fascista , p. 40, p. 46, pp. 132–4; Lupo, , Il fascismo, pp. 123–4.Google Scholar

43. See the defence testimonies of the Fascist leaders in the Giunta–Gasti commission report, 4 January 1923, pp. 1–2, in ACS, SPD, CR, PNF (1922–1943), b. 26, sf. 1, 1923, inserto A.Google Scholar

44. Carcano, , Strage , p. 38, 105.Google Scholar

45. The anarchists Garino and one of the victims of the strage, Pietro Ferrero, were union leaders in the Socialist and then Communist-dominated Turin section of the national metallurgical trade union, FIOM. Both Garino and Ferrero were also part of the Ordine Nuovo group. See Levy, , Gramsci and the Anarchists , pp. 34–45, pp. 138–40.Google Scholar

46. See Palomba's (Vice-prefect of Turin) telegram to Interior Minister, 19 December 1922, no. 4521, and Giunta–Gasti commission report, 4 January 1923, p. 6, in ACS, SPD, CR, PNF (1922–1943), b. 26, sf. 1, 1923, inserto A. Google Scholar

47. See Sonnessa, Antonio, The Resistance of the Turin Working Class to the Rise of Fascism: Political and Community Responses, (1921–1925), PhD thesis, Goldsmiths College, University of London, 2002, pp. 50–1, pp. 87–92.Google Scholar

48. Giunta–Gasti commission report, 4 January 1923, p. 11, in ACS, SPD, CR, PNF (1922–1943), b. 26, sf. 1, 1923, inserto A.Google Scholar

49. See Tabusso's diary entries, 18 December 1922, 4.30 p.m. and 19 December 1922, 8. 45 a.m., in ACS, SPD, CR, PNF (1922–1943), b. 26, sf. 1, 1923, inserto A. Google Scholar

50. Prefect of Turin's telegram to Interior Minister, 26 December 1922, no. 3001, in ACS, MI, DGPS, g. 1, 1922, b. 157.Google Scholar

51. La Stampa , ‘La camera del lavoro in fiamme’, 19 December 1922, p. 6.Google Scholar

52. Palomba's telegram to Finzi, 19 December 1922, no. 801–5, and 19 December 1922, 801–9, in ACS, MI, gabinetto Finzi, ordine pubblico, b. 9, f. 89; see also Carcano, , Strage , pp. 53–8.Google Scholar

53. See Prefect of Turin's telegrams to Interior Minister, 20 December 1922, nos 801–170 and 801–172, in ACS, MI, DGPS, g.1, 1922, b. 157.Google Scholar

54. Giunta–Gasti commission report, 4 January 1923, p. 12, in ACS, SPD, CR, PNF (1922–1943), b. 26, sf. 1, 1923, inserto A.Google Scholar

55. See Collamarini's phonogram to Tabusso, 18 December 1922, 5 p.m. and Capozza's report to the Giunta–Gasti commission, 2 January 1922, in ACS, SPD, CR, PNF (1922–1943), b. 26, sf. 1, 1923, inserto A; see also Carcano, , Strage , pp. 53–8.Google Scholar

56. See Tabusso's diary entries, 18 December 1922, 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. and telegram to Interior Minister, 12 December 1922, no. 4490, in ACS, SPD, CR, PNF (1922–1943), b. 26, sf. 1, 1923, inserto A (my italics).Google Scholar

57. See Tabusso's diary entry, 18 December 1922, 4.45 p.m. in ACS, SPD, CR, PNF (1922–1943), b. 26, sf. 1, 1923, inserto A; see also Carcano, , Strage , pp. 57–8, p. 60.Google Scholar

58. Montagnana, , Ricordi di un operaio torinese , pp. 230–41; see also the interviews with Pastore, Angelo and Viglongo, Andrea, in Carcano, Strage, pp. 89–91.Google Scholar

59. See Tabusso's diary entry, 18 December 1922, 4.30 p.m., in ACS, SPD, CR, PNF (1922–1943), b. 26, sf. 1, 1923, inserto A.Google Scholar

60. De Felice, , ‘I fatti di Torino del dicembre 1922’, pp. 62–3.Google Scholar

61. De Felice, , ‘I fatti di Torino del dicembre 1922’. See also Mario Segre's article in L'Unità, 5 August 1924, which claims the story of the baker's daughter was a complete fairy tale.Google Scholar

62. De Felice, , ‘I fatti di Torino del dicembre 1922’, p. 62.Google Scholar

63. See De Vecchi's telegram to Tabusso, 18 December 1922, in the Giunta–Gasti commission report, 4 January 1923, pp. 16–7, in ACS, SPD, CR, PNF (1922–1943), b. 26, sf. 1, 1923, inserto A. See also Mana, , ‘Le origini del fascismo a Torino’, p. 280.Google Scholar

64. La Stampa , ‘Mussolini parla agli operai a Milano’, 6 December 1922, p. 5; see also Canteri, , Memorie del nostra '900, p. 68.Google Scholar

65. Smith, Denis Mack, Mussolini , Paladin, London, 1985, p. 73.Google Scholar

66. Bosworth, , Mussolini , p. 181.Google Scholar

67. Bosworth, , Mussolini , pp. 181–3; Smith, Mack, Mussolini, p. 73; Lupo, , Il fascismo, pp. 123–5.Google Scholar

68. Taddei replaced Edoardo Verdinois as the Prefect of Turin following the Turin uprising of August 1917. By September 1922 Taddei had left Turin to take up the position of Interior Minister in the Facta government, which governed prior to the King's invitation to Mussolini to form a government in late October 1922.Google Scholar

69. Lupo, , Il fascismo , pp. 163–5.Google Scholar

70. See Battista Santhià's interview in Carcano, , Strage , pp. 106–7.Google Scholar

71. Palomba's telegram to Interior Minister, 19 December 1922, no. 4521, in ACS, SPD, CR, PNF (1922–1943), b. 26, sf. 1, 1923, inserto A; Mana, , ‘Le origini del fascismo a Torino’, p. 280; Carcano, , Strage, p. 55.Google Scholar

72. For Matteotti see De Felice, Renzo, Mussolini il fascista. La conquista del potere 1921–1925 , Einaudi, Turin, 1966, pp. 619–730; for the Rosselli brothers see De Felice, Renzo, Mussolini il duce II. Lo stato totalitario 1936–1940, Einaudi, Turin, 1981, pp. 156–68.Google Scholar

73. Lyttleton, , The Seizure of Power , p. 213.Google Scholar

74. Sonnessa, , The Resistance of the Turin Working Class to the Rise of Fascism, esp. pp. 30–57.Google Scholar

75. See the report of Major Giretti of the Stupinigi carabinieri in ACS, SPD, CR, PNF (1922–1943), b. 26, sf. 1, 1923, inserto A. Google Scholar

76. See Castronovo, Valerio, Giovanni Agnelli. La FIAT dal 1899 al 1945, Einaudi, Turin, 1977, pp. 239–50; Adler, Franklin H., Italian Industrialists from Liberalism to Fascism: The Political Development of the Industrial Bourgeoisie, 1906–1934, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1995, pp. 267–83.Google Scholar

77. Castronovo, Giovanni Agnelli, pp. 239–50; Adler, , Italian Industrialists from Liberalism to Fascism, pp. 267–83.Google Scholar

78. See Mario Gioda's letter to the national Fascist Secretary, Pasella, Umberto, 9 April 1920, in ACS, mostra della rivoluzione fascista, b. 41, f. 113, carteggio del comitato centrale dei fasci-Torino; see also Castronovo, , Giovanni Agnelli, pp. 228–9; Adler, Italian Industrialists from Liberalism to Fascism, p. 257.Google Scholar

79. Terracini, , ‘Lo squadrismo torinese’, pp. 58–9.Google Scholar

80. Mantelli, Brunello, ‘L'antifascismo a Torino’, in Tranfaglia, Nicola (ed.), Storia di Torino , pp. 270–1; Mana, , ‘Dalla crisi del dopoguerra alla stabilizzazione del regime’, pp. 145–6.Google Scholar

81. For Bachi's letter, see ACS, SPD, CR, PNF (1922–1943), b. 26, sf. 1, 1923, inserto A.Google Scholar

82. Giunta–Gasti commission report, 4 January 1923, pp. 10–1, in ACS, SPD, CR, PNF (1922–1943), b. 26, sf. 1, 1923, inserto A.Google Scholar

83. For the personal motives behind the deaths of Pochettino, Quintaglié and Mazzola, see the Giunta–Gasti commission report, 4 January 1923, p. 7, in ACS, SPD, CR, PNF (1922–1943), b. 26, sf. 1, 1923, inserto A; see also Carcano, , Strage , pp. 61–2, pp. 92–6.Google Scholar

84. Berruti, Carlo, ex-anarchist, a Turin Communist councillor and secretary of the railway workers' union; Matteo Chiolero, a tram porter at the Societa Belga-Torinese and a Communist sympathizer; Andrea Chiomo, manual worker, Communist; Pietro Ferrero, anarchist, secretary of the Turin section of FIOM; Erminio Andreoni, a worker at the Fotocelere factory, Communist; Matteo Tarizzo, ex-FIAT mechanic, then owner of a small workshop, Communist; Giovanni Massaro, railworker; Evasio Becchio, ex-soldier, Communist worker.Google Scholar

85. For accounts of the murders during the strage, see ACS, SPD, CR, PNF (1922–1943), b. 26, sf. 1, 1923, inserto A; La Stampa, 19, 20, 21, 22 December 1922; see also Carcano, , Strage , pp. 53–72, pp. 82–97.Google Scholar

86. See Gioda's letter to Mussolini, 27 December 1922, and Gorgolini, Gobbi and Cherasco's letter to the Giunta–Gasti commission, 3 January 1923, in ACS, SPD, CR, PNF (1922–1943), b. 26, sf. 1, 1923, inserto A.Google Scholar

87. Giunta–Gasti commission's report, 4 January 1923, pp. 16–17, in ACS, SPD, CR, PNF (1922–1943), b. 26, sf. 1, 1923, inserto A.Google Scholar

88. Mana, , ‘Le origini del fascismo a Torino’, pp. 281–2.Google Scholar

89. Giunta's telegram to Finzi, 4 January 1922, no. 381, in ACS, MI, gabinetto Finzi, ordine pubblico (1922–1923), b. 9, f. 89; see also Mana, , ‘Le origini del fascismo a Torino’, pp. 281–2.Google Scholar

90. La Stampa , ‘Il nuovo prefetto di Torino’, 27 December 1922, p. 1.Google Scholar

91. Bosworth, , Mussolini , pp. 181–3.Google Scholar

92. Mana, , ‘Le origini del fascismo a Torino’, pp. 282–4.Google Scholar

93. Mana, , ‘Dalla crisi del dopoguerra alla stabilizzazione del regime’, p. 149.Google Scholar

94. See ‘Risultato elezioni commissioni interne, anno 1923’, in ACS, FIOM, (1901–1926), b. 13, f. 125, commissioni interne 1923–1925; see also Agosti, , ‘Il partito comunista a Torino dalla fondazione alle leggi eccezionali’, pp. 40–9; Sonnessa, , The Resistance of the Turin Working Class to the Rise of Fascism, pp. 323–6.Google Scholar

95. Mana, , ‘Le origini del fascismo a Torino’, pp. 285–287; for the Fascist–Nationalist merger see De Grand, Alexander, The Italian Nationalist Association and the Rise of Fascism in Italy, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, NE, 1978, pp. 149–60.Google Scholar

96. La Stampa , ‘Piero Belli espulso da Torino, 27 October 1922, p. 3; see De Vecchi's version of the Fascist Grand Council meeting of 13 January 1923, published as ‘Una sconcertante storia del fascismo’, in the Milanese weekly periodical, Il Tempo, 1959–1960, quoted in Carcano, , Strage , pp. 138–40.Google Scholar

97. Bosworth, , Mussolini , pp. 181–3; Lupo, , Il fascismo, pp. 163–5.Google Scholar

98. Lupo, , Il fascismo , pp. 203–4; see also Santhià's testimony in Carcano, Strage, p. 106.Google Scholar

99. For the Provincial Federation's report see Agosti, , ‘Il partito comunista a Torino dalla fondazione alle leggi eccezionali’, pp. 40–1.Google Scholar

100. For the amnesty, see La Stampa, 'L'amnistia’, 24 December 1922, p. 1; Carcano, , Strage, p. 121–6.Google Scholar

101. Palma's report to the Giunta–Gasti commission, 3 January 1923, in ACS, SPD, CR, PNF (1922–1943), b. 26, sf. 1, 1923, inserto A; see also Carcano, , Strage , pp.121–8.Google Scholar

102. Carcano, , Strage , pp. 201–31. Brandimarte was tried twice after the fall of Fascism, in Florence in 1950 and Bologna in 1952. He was acquitted on both occasions.Google Scholar

103. Bollettino del Soccorso Rosso Internazionale. Comitato provinciale di Torino , ‘L'attività del SRI nella provincia di Torino’, April/May 1925, p. 2.Google Scholar