Years of Lead (Italy)

For other uses, see Years of Lead.
Years of Lead
Part of the Cold War

A bomb at Bologna railway station planted by the neo-fascist terrorist group known as the Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari in August 1980 killed 85 people; it was the deadliest attack during the Years of Lead.
Date1 March 1968 – 23 October 1988[13][14]
Location
Italy (mainly Northern Italy)
Result

Government victory

  • Most militant and terrorist groups disbanded
Belligerents

Italy Italian Government

Supported by:

Far-left terrorists:

Supported by:

Far-right terrorists:

Supported by:

Commanders and leaders
Units involved
Armed Forces: +90,000 soldiers[15][16] (1973)
NATO Gladio: 622 members		 BR: Several thousand active members
PL: 1,072 members and collaborators
O22: 25 members[17]
PAC: 60 militants[18]
AO: 200 members[19]		 Ordine Nuovo: 10,000[20]
National Vanguard: 600–2,000 members at varying times[21]
NAR: 53 members
Terza Posizione: 42[22]
Casualties and losses

 Italy: 14[23] civil servants murdered
Armed Forces:

Carabinieri:

State Police:

Penitentiary Police:

  • 4 killed

 Italy: 67 killed in total

 U.S.:

 United States: 1 killed in total

BR:

  • 12,000 far-left militants arrested
  • 600 fled the country
  • at least 2 killed
  • 1 injured[24]

PL:

  • at least 5 killed
  • 1 arrested

O22: 8 arrested[28][circular reference]
PAC:

  • 1 injured in friendly fire incident
  • 60 arrested
  • several tortured

CS:

AO:

Ordine Nuovo: At least 3 arrested
NAR: 53 arrested[9][29]
Terza Posizione: 42 indicted
Total deaths (including civilians): 428, c. 2,000 physical and psychological injuries[30]
Part of a series on the
History of Italy
Old map of Italian peninsula
Early
Ancient Rome
Romano-Barbarian Kingdoms
Odoacer's 476–493
Ostrogothic 493–553
Vandal 435–534
Lombard 568–774
Frankish (Carolingian Empire) 774–962
Germanic (Holy Roman Empire) 962–1801
Medieval
Early modern
Modern
By topic

Timeline

flag Italy portal

In Italy, the phrase Years of Lead (Italian: Anni di piombo) refers to a period of political violence and social upheaval that lasted from the late 1960s until the late 1980s, marked by a wave of both far-left and far-right incidents of political terrorism and violent clashes.

The Years of Lead are sometimes considered to have begun with the 1968 movement in Italy and the Hot Autumn strikes starting in 1969;[31] the death of the policeman Antonio Annarumma in November 1969;[32] the Piazza Fontana bombing in December of that year, which killed 17 and was perpetrated by right-wing terrorists in Milan; and the death shortly after of anarchist worker Giuseppe Pinelli while in police custody under suspicion of being responsible for the attack, which he was ultimately deemed as not having committed.[33]

A far-left group, the Red Brigades, eventually became notorious as a terrorist organization during the period; in 1978, they kidnapped and assassinated former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro. Another major crime associated with the Italian Years of Lead was the 1980 bombing of the Bologna railway station, which killed 85 people and for which several members of the far-right, neo-fascist terrorist group known as the Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari were convicted. Far-right terrorist organizations were also involved in various other bombings that resulted in the killings of multiple civilians, including the Piazza della Loggia bombing in 1974 which killed eight people and wounded 102 others. The terrorist organizations gradually disbanded, and police arrested their members throughout the 1980s. Sporadic political violence continued in Italy until the late 1980s, resurfacing to a lesser extent in the late 1990s and continuing until the mid-2000s.

  1. ^ Willan, Philip (March 26, 2001). "Terrorists 'helped by CIA' to stop rise of left in Italy". The Guardian.
  2. ^ Document unitaire RAF – BR – PCC (1987) Archived March 22, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ Christopher, Andrew; Mitrokhin, Vasili (2000). The Sword and the Shield: the Mitrokhin archive and the secret history of the KGB. Basic Books.
  4. ^ "Gaddafi: A vicious, sinister despot driven out on tidal wave of hatred". The Guardian. 23 August 2011.
  5. ^ It was dismantled and became inactive.
  6. ^ "Italian minister falls victim to corruption". The Independent. February 11, 1993. Archived from the original on 2022-05-07.
  7. ^ Willan, Puppetmasters, p. 161
  8. ^ Vulliamy, Ed (1990-12-05). "Secret agents, freemasons, fascists ... and a top-level campaign of political 'destabilisation'". The Guardian. Retrieved 2021-06-10.
  9. ^ a b "NAR: lo spontaneismo armato neofascista". Ariannaeditrice.it.
  10. ^ "Terrorists 'helped by CIA' to stop rise of left in Italy". The Guardian. 26 March 2001.
  11. ^ "Strage di Piazza Fontana spunta un agente Usa". 11 February 1998.
  12. ^ "Il Terrorismo, le stragi ed il contesto storico-politico" (PDF). 2006-08-19. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 August 2006.
  13. ^ "The Battle of Valle Giulia 50 Years After – 1 March 1968".
  14. ^ Cite error: The named reference Zavoli was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  15. ^ F. Stefani, The history of the doctrine and the regulations of the Italian Army, Historical Office of the Army General Staff
  16. ^ A. Viotti, S. Ales, Structure, uniforms and badges of the Italian Army 1946–1970, Historical Office of the General Staff of the Army
  17. ^ "October 22 Circle | Mapping Militant Organizations". web.stanford.edu.
  18. ^ "Le torture contro i P.A.C. : Italia, febbraio 1979". February 3, 2009.
  19. ^ a b Gun Cuninghame, Patrick. "Autonomia In The Seventies: The Refusal Of Work, The Party And Politics", Cultural Studies Review. [University 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.
  20. ^ "New Order | Mapping Militant Organizations". stanford.edu.
  21. ^ "National Vanguard | Mapping Militant Organizations". web.stanford.edu.
  22. ^ Adinolfi, Gabriele; Fiore, Roberto (2000). Noi Terza posizione (in Italian). Settimo Sigillo.
  23. ^ a b Sergio Zavoli, The Night of the Republic, Rome, New Eri, 1992.
  24. ^ a b c "Salerno non dimentica l'attentato delle Brigate Rosse | Dentro Salerno | L'informazione di Salerno e provincia è on line". www.dentrosalerno.it. Archived from the original on 2021-05-26. Retrieved 2018-02-16.
  25. ^ The Peteano massacre: "Great example of dedication to duty", on ilgazzettino.it .
  26. ^ Indro Montanelli and Mario Cervi, Italy of the years of mud, Milan, Rizzoli, 1993.
  27. ^ Armando Spataro, (in French) "La culpabilité de Battisti repose sur des preuves" Archived September 30, 2007, at the Wayback Machine. in L'Express, 15/3/2004
  28. ^ it:Gruppo XXII Ottobre#Dissoluzione del gruppo
  29. ^ "Fioravanti e lo spontaneismo armato dei Nar – Corriere della Sera". www.corriere.it.
  30. ^ "Anni di piombo, le vittime dimenticate dallo Stato". Lettera43 (in Italian). March 16, 2014.
  31. ^ Compare: Hof, Tobias (2013). "The success of Italian anti-terrorism policy". In Hanhimäki, Jussi M.; Blumenau, Bernhard (eds.). An International History of Terrorism: Western and Non-Western Experiences. Political Violence. London: Routledge. p. 100. ISBN 978-1136202797. Retrieved 1 May 2023. On 12 December 1969, a bomb exploded in the Banca Nazionale dell'Agricultura at the Piazza Fontana in Milan. [...] The bombing is [...] commonly regarded as the beginning of the Italian anni di piombo (years of lead) which lasted for almost twenty years.
  32. ^ Montanelli, Indro; Cervi, Mario (28 June 2013) [1991]. L'Italia degli anni di piombo – 1965–1978. Storia d'Italia (in Italian). Bur. ISBN 978-8858642955. Retrieved 1 May 2023. Rimase ucciso, al volante dellu su jeep, un poliziotto ventiduenne, Antonio Annarumma [...].
  33. ^ Montanelli, Indro; Mario Cervi (1991). L'Italia degli anni di piombo. Milan, Lombardy, Italy: Rizzoli Editore.


Cite error: There are <ref group=N> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=N}} template (see the help page).
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).