Papers and Articles
«Una città in fiamme». Furia iconoclasta nella Barcellona del 1909
Memoria e Ricerca, 1 (2018).
This article examines the elements of iconoclasm during the so-called Tragic Week of Barcelona. During the last week of July 1909, a violent uprising generated in the Catalan city as a consequence of a general strike. The Spanish church was the target of the mass violence: around eighty places of worship were assaulted and burnt all around the town. This paper seeks to understand the reasons for such violence.
The article is divided into two parts. The first one deals with the iconoclasm practices during the Tragic Week. It uses contemporary sources and testimonies to explore the events. The second part examines the origins of this violence dealing with the most recent Spanish historiography. Specifically, it focuses on how anticlerical discourses and actions in Spain from the late ninetieth- century onwards became part of a broad radical culture, especially in Barcelona.
Keywords: Anticlericalism; Iconoclasm; Spanish History; Anarchism; Republicanism; Political and Social Violence.
Transnational networks of solidarity
AN ITALIAN PARTISAN IN FLORENCE, 14 AUGUST 1944 (TR 2282) Senor Prigile, an Italian partisan in Florence. British troops were ordered to avoid fighting the Germans in the precincts of the city of Florence. Italian Partisans, occupying the Fortress Di Basso exchanged fire with the German snipers that remained after the German forces evacuated Florence. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/20512400
The following paper, "Transnational networks of solidarity: from the Spanish Civil War to the European Resistances" [in Italian], will be presented by Dr. Enrico Acciai in Padua (Italy) during the "Cantieri di Storia, IX" (13-15 September 2017).
This paper is part of the panel "Between intellectual Exile and political Engagement. The Italian Antifascism in a transnational perspective"
"A War Without Pensions or Medals" The experience of Italian Antifascist Veterans of Spain through captivity, Resistance and Postwar
HOW THE BRITISH HELPED ITALIAN PARTISANS IN NORTHERN ITALY (NA 25409). Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205234422
Revista Universitaria de Historia Militar, 6 (2014).
Abstract:
This article sets out to present a long-term reflection on Italian antifascism as a transnational movement starting from the experiences of former international volunteers in Spanish Civil War.The biographical approach offers the possibility to reflect about the connections between the traumas lived by the volunteers after the Spanish Civil War and their post-war antifascist experience. We try to understand how the continuous proximity to violence during the decade 1936 – 1945 influenced the difficulties in the reintegration process.
Keywords: Antifascism, International Brigades, European Civil War, Resistance, Italy
La lunga marcia nella guerra civile europea. Aureliano Santini: prospetto biografico di un garibaldino toscano
badge, Spanish, Republican (INS 7962). Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30077177
Diacronie. Studi di Storia Contemporanea, 7 (2010).
Abstract:
In October 1936 Aureliano Santini from Empoli, under the pseudonym of Silvio Morelli, arrived in Spain to enlist in the newly born International Brigades. Santini, a communist official, had spent the preceding years in the Soviet Union. In Spain he would not only fight but also contribute to Italian antifascist radio broadcasts. Santini’s experience can be considered representative of a phenomenon that involved almost five thousand Italians. Therefore, we investigate the broader reasons that led the young Italian antifascist to enlist for voluntarily service in Spain.
Keywords: Antifascism, Biography, Spanish Civil War, Exile, International Brigades