Forgotten Kingdoms: The Republic of Montefiorino January 14, 2015
Author: Beach Combing | in : Contemporary , trackback
Another for the forgotten kingdom files, this time a particularly short lived example from Italy: the rulers of the Republic of Montefiorino managed about six weeks in 1944 before history and German flame-throwers intervened.
First, some background. In the summer of 1943 Mussolini’s fascist government crumbled and Italy found itself occupied by angry Allies in the south and betrayed Germans in the north and centre. The Italians grumbled under the Allies but generally did not fight. From Rome northwards Italians of almost every political persuasion joined the partisan movement, heading for the nearest mountain valleys and fighting the Germans and the Salò Fascists. This movement began, in the autumn of 1943, and, by the summer of 1944, it had become a serious nuisance for the German command in Italy: Kesselring admitted as much in his post-war biography.
There is no question that the Italian partisans who fought to riscattare la libertà showed exemplary courage. But they were not the equal of the Germans. The same could be said of the Allied armies, of course. However, the Allies had perhaps a more realistic understanding of their own limitations and they also had heavy artillery and airforces. The Italian partisans even after being bloodied by the Germans had, at times, instead, absurd pretensions. Among these was the decision, from early 1944 to the end of the war in Italy, to create a series of free republics within German occupied territory where partisans would rule. This was buoyed along by the fact that many partisans were of communist or socialist persuasion and saw the creation of these republics as the first step towards the Soviet Union of Italy. Of course, for Kesselring and his officers to learn that entire areas of Italy had been subtracted from German control by, all too often, shoeless peasants with pistols, was just too much: in fact, it was a red rag to an extremely dangerous bull.
Montefiorino is a tiny mountain commune on the outskirts of Modena that had little obvious claim to making history. Partisan activity had begun there in early 1944 and had resulted in some horrific massacres in the locale carried out by vengeful German soldiers and their hardcore fascist allies. By the summer perhaps 5000 partisans were operating in this mountainous territory ranging from hardcore communists, to future Christian Democrats. These formations managed, in a way that will not surprise anyone with knowledge of Italy, to rub along strangely well. There were also other nationalities represented, including Russians (a large contingent of escaped POWs) and Britons in one case brought in by the British secret services to help with operations. And at one point the local German command under General Messerle offered a pact of non-aggression: translated ‘stay off the roads and stay in your bloody mountains and we’ll leave you alone’. The partisans, of course, refused.
The Republic began, 17 June 1944, with the occupation of the village of Montefiorino and, at its height, covered some 1200 mountainous kilometers and governed perhaps 50,000 people: the catalyst had been the abandonment of Montefiorino by the local fascist command. In this territory the partisans created a fledgling democracy, a hospital, a rudimentary airport (which seems never to have been used), policemen, a court, and, of course, firing squads. Some months before the creation of the Republic one fourteen year old, Rolando Rivi, had been forced to dig his own grave and had been then shot for being a fascist spy: he was, in fact, a student at a local seminary. His crime was probably that he had been praying and studying in the wood near his house: the order to execute him was given with the words, ‘one priest less‘. This continued once the partisans were on their own. About forty fascist militia were executed under the Republic and a worrying number of civilians were strung up. The Italian civil war, for so it was, burnt slow but it burnt hot: revolutionary justice was one of its least attractive features.
Of course, it all ended in tears. When the Germans lost patience they sent in two thousand men (Italian and German) and the village of Montefiorino was razed to the ground, locals being carted off to concentration camps in Italy and then Germany. The partisans did what partisans always do when the army arrives, they made a sensible retreat for the peaks. By the 1 Aug 1945, the Republic of Montefiorino was a memory.
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