Italian Volunteers in Serbia in 1914

UDC 930.85(4–12) ISSN 0350–7653 eISSN 2406–0801 ACADÉMIE SERBE DES SCIENCES ET DES ARTS INSTITUT DES ÉTUDES BALKANIQUES BALCANICA XLIX ANNUAIRE DE L’INSTITUT DES ÉTUDES BALKANIQUES Rédacteur en chef VOJISLAV G. PAVLOVIĆ Directeur de l’Institut des Études balkaniques Me m bre s d e l a R é d a c t ion DRAGAN BAKIĆ (Belgrade), ALBERTO BASCIANI (Rome), JEAN-PAUL BLED (Paris), LJUBOMIR MAKSIMOVIĆ (Belgrade), ZORAN MILUTINOVIĆ (London), DANICA POPOVIĆ (Belgrade), SPYRIDON SFETAS (Thessaloniki), GABRIELLA SCHUBERT (Jena), SVETLANA M. TOLSTAJA (Moscow) BELGRAD E 2018 UDC 930.85(4–12) ISSN 0350–7653 eISSN 2406–0801 SERBIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES AND ARTS INSTITUTE FOR BALKAN STUDIES BALCANICA XLIX ANNUAL OF THE INSTITUTE FOR BALKAN STUDIES Editor-in-Chief VOJISLAV G. PAVLOVIĆ Director of the Institute for Balkan Studies SASA E d itor i a l B o a rd DRAGAN BAKIĆ (Belgrade), ALBERTO BASCIANI (Rome), JEAN-PAUL BLED (Paris), LJUBOMIR MAKSIMOVIĆ (Belgrade), ZORAN MILUTINOVIĆ (London), DANICA POPOVIĆ (Belgrade), SPYRIDON SFETAS (Thessaloniki), GABRIELLA SCHUBERT (Jena), SVETLANA M. TOLSTAJA (Moscow) BELGRAD E 2018 Publisher Institute for Balkan Studies Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts Serbia, Belgrade, Knez Mihailova 35/IV www.balkaninstitut.com e-mail: balkinst@bi.sanu.ac.rs www.balcanica.rs Hx J The origin of the Institute goes back to the Institut des Études balkaniques founded in Belgrade in 1934 as the only of the kind in the Balkans. The initiative came from King Alexander I Karadjordjević, while the Institute’s scholarly profile was created by Ratko Parežanin and Svetozar Spanaćević. The Institute published Revue internationale des Études balkaniques, which assembled most prominent European experts on the Balkans in various disciplines. Its work was banned by the Nazi occupation authorities in 1941. The Institute was not re-established until 1969, under its present-day name and under the auspices of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. It assembled a team of scholars to cover the Balkans from prehistory to the modern age and in a range of different fields of study, such as archaeology, ethnography, anthropology, history, culture, art, literature, law. This multidisciplinary approach remains its long-term orientation. Hx J Accepted for publication at the 10th regular session of the SASA Department of Historical Sciences of 26 December 2018 Volume XLIX of the annual Balcanica is printed with financial support from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia CONTENTS ARTICLES Yannis Mourélos, Le Front d’Orient dans la Grande Guerre: enjeux et stratégies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Antonio D’Alessandri, Italian Volunteers in Serbia in 1914 . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Miloš Ković, The British Adriatic Squadron and the Evacuation of Serbs from the Albanian Coast 1915–1916 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Miljan Milkić, The Serbian Army in the Chalkidiki in 1916: Organization and Deployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Dušan Fundić, The Austro-Hungarian Occupation of Serbia as a “Civilizing Mission” (1915–1918) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Stratos N. Dordanas, German Propaganda in the Balkans during the First World War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Daniel Cain, Conflicts over Dobruja during the Great War . . . . . . . . . . 79 Thérèse Krempp Puppinck, De la Grèce rêvée à la Grèce vécue. L’armée d’Orient dans une interculturalité complexe . . . . . . . . 91 Vojislav G. Pavlović, Franchet d’Espèrey et la politique balkanique de la France 1918–1919 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Slobodan G. Markovich, EleftheriosVenizelos, British Public Opinion and the Climax of Anglo-Hellenism (1915–1920) . . . . . . . . . . 125 Dragan Bakić, The Great War and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia: The Legacy of an Enduring Conflict . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Iakovos D. Michailidis, A Ten Years’ War: Aspects of the Greek Historiography on the First World War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Răzvan Theodorescu, What Exactly did Romanian Post-War Nationalism Mean? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 Vlasis Vlasidis, The Serbian Heritage of the Great War in Greece . . . . . . 189 Florin Țurcanu, Turtucaia/Toutrakan 1916 : la postérité d’une défaite dans la Roumanie de l’entre-deux-guerres . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 Elli Lemonidou, Heritage and Memory of the First World War in Greece during the Interwar Period: A Historical Perspective . . . . . . . 221 Dunja Dušanić, Du traumatisme au roman. Mémoire et représentation de la Grande Guerre dans l’œuvre de Rastko Petrović (1898–1949) 237 IN MEMORIAM Boris Milosavljević: In memoriam, Djurica Krstić (1924–2018) . . . . . . . . 247 REVIEWS Anja Nikolić: Pieter M. Judson, The Habsburg Empire: A New History . . . . . . . . 251 Dragan Bakić: Alexander Watson, Ring of Steel: Germany and Austria-Hungary at War, 1914–1918 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253 Konstantin Dragaš: Dominic Lieven, The End of Tsarist Russia . . . . . . . . . . . . 256 Boris Milosavljević: Stéphane Courtois, Lénine, l’inventeur du totalitarisme . . . . . . 258 Rastko Lompar: Catherine Merridale, Lenin on the train . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260 Aleksandra Djurić Milovanović: Paschalis M. Kitromilides, Religion and Politics in the Orthodox World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262 Dusšan Fundić: British-Serbian Relations from the 18th to 21th Centuries, ed. Slobodan G. Markovich . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265 Miloš Luković: Studia Balkanica Bohemoslovaca VII . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268 Instructions for authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273 Antonio D’Alessandri* https://doi.org/10.2298/BALC1849007K UDC 94(497.11-89)"10/12" Original scholarly work http://www.balcanica.rs University Roma Tre Department of Political Studies Italian Volunteers in Serbia in 1914 Abstract: Seven Italian volunteers decided on 29 July 1914 to join the Serbian army responding to a proclamation made by the son of Giuseppe Garibaldi, Ricciotti. They were Republicans and Anarchists, and saw their engagement as the advance party of Italian volunteers that would eventually force Italy to join the ranks of Entente in order to accomplish the last phase of the Italian Risorgimento by liberating, Trento and Venezia Giulia with the city of Trieste. Unfortunately five of them died in the fist fight they engaged in on Drina river, while the last two returned soon afterwards to Italy. Nevertheless, their memory was honoured as the first Italian participants in the Great War and as the tangible proof of the Italian engagement in favour of Serbia, and later Yugoslavia. Keywords: Great War, Serbia, Italia, volunteers, Ricciotti Garibaldi T his contribution deals with a lesser-known episode that occurred in the first months of the European war in the summer of 1914. More generally, it should be construed through the framework of the historical phenomenon of international voluntarism during the so-called “long” nineteenth century. More specifically, it is linked to the tradition of the Garibaldian movement, one of the most famous models of non-State military mobilization in Europe.1 On the 29th of July 1914, just one day after Austria had declared war on Serbia, a small group of Italian volunteers left their homes to join the Serbian Army in the fight against those they saw as the eternal enemy of the Italian nation: the Habsburg Empire. There were only seven of them. Most came from neighbouring villages around Rome; one came from an important and wealthy family of Salerno, Southern Italy, not far from Naples. They were, for the most part, republicans; more importantly, though, they were closely associated with the Garibaldian movement, led in that period by one of the sons of Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807–1882), Ricciotti (1847–1924).2 The names of these seven vol* antonio.dalessandri@uniroma3.it For the typologies and a comprehensive historical analysis of war voluntarism see Nir Arielli, From Byron to bin Laden. A History of Foreign War Volunteers (Cambridge, MA / London: Harvard University Press 2018). 2 See G. Monsagrati, “Ricciotti Garibaldi e la fedeltà alla tradizione garibaldina”, in I Garibaldi dopo Garibaldi. La tradizione famigliare e l’eredità politica, eds. Z. Ciuffoletti, A. Colombo and A. Garibaldi Jallet (Manduria/Bari/Rome: Piero Lacaita 2005), 81–124. 1 18 Balcanica XLIX (2018) unteers were Mario Corvisieri, the brothers Cesare and Ugo Colizza, Arturo Reali, Nicola Goretti, Vincenzo Bucca and Francesco Conforti. The Garibaldian movement had long-standing ties with the Balkans. Following his exploits in Italy between 1848 and 1866, and in particular the Expedition of the Thousand in the summer of 1860, Giuseppe Garibaldi emerged as a revolutionary icon. Thus, in Europe, particularly in the most radical circles, he became the focus of widespread expectation: during the following years there was no end to planned insurrections that foresaw his involvement. In relation to the last phases of the Italian Risorgimento, plans to organize a Garibaldian expedition across the Adriatic, to exhort the Balkan populations to rebellion, and then to return to the peninsula and advance to the north in order to strike at the heart of the Habsburg Empire, thereby resolving the Venetian question, and possibly the Roman one,3 were never accomplished. There were Garibaldian volunteers in the Cretan uprising in 1866/67, the revolts in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1875/76, and the Greek-Ottoman war in 1897. On those occasions the romantic, patriotic and national components of voluntary commitment in the Balkan liberation wars were also enriched by social ideas. European transnational solidarity then began to be extended from national struggles to those relating to social reform.4 Furthermore, the Garibaldian movement, now led by Ricciotti, undertook initiatives in favour of Albanian nationality, though without achieving any substantial results.5 Finally, during the Balkan wars, a group of volunteers came to Greece to fight in the war of 1912.6 It was this tradition of political commitment that animated Italian volunteers in Serbia in 1914, to which they, moreover, added the ferment of political and social regeneration that swept through Italian society at the beginning of the twentieth century. In analyzing their story, it is therefore necessary to keep this cultural background in mind. As previously noted regarding the experience of 1912, there were three members of the group that went to Greece who would go also to Serbia two years later: Francesco Conforti, Mario Corvisieri and Cesare Colizza, fought 3 A. Tamborra, “Questione veneta e progetti di azioni garibaldine dalla Dalmazia all’Europa centrale (1861–1866)”, in Conferenze e note accademiche nel I centenario dell’unione del Veneto all’Italia (Padua: Università degli studi di Padova – Accademia patavina di scienze, lettere e arti, 1967), 81–95. 4 A. Tamborra, Garibaldi e l’Europa. Impegno militare e prospettive politiche (Rome: Stato Maggiore dell’Esercito – Ufficio storico, 1983), 132. 5 F. Guida, “Ricciotti Garibaldi e il movimento nazionale albanese”, Archivio storico italiano CXXXIX (1981), 97–138. 6 F. Guida, “L’ultima spedizione garibaldina in Grecia”, in Indipendenza e unità nazionale in Italia e in Grecia (Florence: Olschki 1987), 191–220. See also N. A. Anastasopoulos, “Voluntary Action in Greece During the Balkan Wars: The Case of the Garibaldini in Ioannina in 1913”, Ricerche storiche XLVII (2017), n. 3, 61–72. A. D’Alessandri, Italian Volunteers in Serbia in 1914 19 in the Battle of Drisko against the Ottomans.7 They had republican leanings, except Colizza, who was an anarchist;8 their future companions of 1914, Nicola Goretti, Vincenzo Bucca, Ugo Colizza (Cesare’s younger brother) and Arturo Reali9 were also anarchists. These young men were of different social backgrounds, but already somewhat politicized. When the conflict between Serbia and Austria-Hungary broke out, they felt the need to engage in person. Their experience and sacrifice in Serbia have been studied by a number of scholars. Some brief references to them can be found in some of the most important Italian studies on Italian neutrality and in Eva Cecchinato’s10 excellent research on the subject of the Garibaldian movement after Italian Unification. More recently, Colonel Antonino Zarcone, head of the Historical Section of the Italian General Staff, has studied this topic,11 availing himself of a dossier held in the Italian Military Archives. As a result of such work, the story has become more widely known. The group left Italy in late July and reached Greece and Salonika by sea; then they arrived in battleground along the Drina river valley – up to a point, they retraced a part of the journey that some of them had made two years earlier. For them the dream of Garibaldian intervention in the Balkans was still very much alive. For most of them the Balkans was the symbol of national battles for liberty, a sort of traditional space where the secular struggle between the liberty of nations and the imperial despotic power – and also between national rights and dynastic power – was fought. Italian neutrality seemed a cowardly choice to many Italian democrats. For all of these reasons, the seven men decided to leave for Serbia. They were men of action and strongly believed in the key role of the Italian nation in the Balkans and remained deeply convinced of the possibilities of a war made up of volunteers. In the hectic days of July 1914 and, in particular, in the hours that followed the Serbian reply to the ultimatum of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, several Italian politicians, particularly Republicans and Anarchists, approached Ricciotti Garibaldi with the need to organize a group of volunteers to assist the Serbian people. The general then made some initial contacts with the Serbian 7 C. Marabini, Dietro la chimera garibaldina… Diario di un volontario alla guerra greco-turca del 1912 (Rome: Sacchi & Ribaldi, 1914), 6–7, 16. 8 R. Sassaroli, “Oro di Serbia e anarchici italiani”, Camicia rossa XXXIV (2014), 14–15. 9 Some biographical information in A. Mannucci, Volontarismo garibaldino in Serbia nel 1914 (Rome: Associazione nazionale veterani e reduci garibaldini, 1960). 10 E. Cecchinato, Camicie rosse. I garibaldini dall’Unità alla Grande Guerra (Rome–Bari: Laterza, 2007), 284, 355. 11 A. Zarcone, I Precursori. Volontariato democratico italiano nella guerra contro l’Austria: repubblicani, radicali, socialisti riformisti, anarchici e massoni (Rome: Annales, 2014). 20 Balcanica XLIX (2018) Legation in Rome to find out whether Italian volunteers would be welcome to join the Serbian Army.12 Therefore, on the day of Austria’s declaration of war on Serbia, the 28th of July, General Ricciotti Garibaldi launched a proclamation to the youth of Italy, encouraging them to support the Serbian people. In the proclamation, Ricciotti defined the actions of the Habsburg Monarchy as potentially dangerous for the unity and freedom of Italy. Therefore, Ricciotti stated, “I invite, in the name of Garibaldi, the Italian youth to join existing bodies and to create new organizations in order to defend in case of an offensive, Trento and Trieste, with the slogan: Every nation master in its own house. Long live the Serbian people!”13 The evocation of the irredentist Association of Trento and Trieste was not accidental and had some foundation. Indeed, at the beginning of August, in Florence, a committee was set up with the purpose of finding volunteers to be sent to Serbia. The promoters of those initiatives were once again local Republican circles. According to the information of the local governmental authority, this committee was soon dissolved. It is interesting to note that this project received a small financial contribution from the Trento and Trieste Association.14 Even in Milan the authorities received reports of secret meetings for the enlistment of young volunteers to be sent by sea to Serbia’s aid.15 The purpose of this activity was to undermine relations between Italy and Austria, ant to put an end to the state of neutrality, and force Italy to enter the war against Austria. For these reasons, the Italian Ministry of the Interior soon ordered the local authorities of the main cities along the Adriatic coast – Venice, Ancona, Bari, Lecce and Brindisi – to monitor the ports to prevent any kind of movement towards the Balkans and Serbia.16 However, this invitation was not met with enthusiasm by most of the young Italian democrats. Many of them decided to wait and see how the political situation would develop. Even the initiative by Ricciotti Garibaldi in favour of Serbia was itself weak and poorly organized. It was just a proclamation that 12 C. Premuti, Come Roma preparò la guerra (Rome: Società tipografica italiana, 1923), 79. centrale dello Stato, Rome (hereafter ACS), Ministero dell’Interno, Direzione generale Pubblica sicurezza, Divisione Affari generali e riservati, A5G (Prima guerra mondiale), b. 14, fasc. 20, s.f. 9, ins. 24: the prefect of Rome to the Ministry of the Interior, Direzione generale della P.S., Rome, 7 August 1914. 14 ACS, A5G, b. 14, fasc. 20, s.f. 9, ins. 8: reports of the prefect of Florence to the Ministry of the Interior, Direzione generale della P.S., Florence, 8 and 10 August 1914. 15 ACS, A5G, b. 103, fasc. 225, s.f. 1: telegram of the prefect of Milan to the Ministry of the Interior, Cabinet of the Ministry, Milan, 28 July 1914. 16 ACS, A5G, b. 14, fasc. 20, s.f. 9, ins. 12: telegram from the Ministry of the Interior to the prefects of Venice, Ancona, Bari, Lecce, 4 August 1914. 13 Archivio A. D’Alessandri, Italian Volunteers in Serbia in 1914 21 had little prospect of being put into action.17 In general, Brunello Vigezzi wrote: “Garibaldian followers do not enjoy much sympathy in the revolutionary ranks; [...]. Distrust is felt instantly and Ricciotti’s proclamation is not welcomed with enthusiasm.”18 In the Italian republican movement, however, the Serbian cause was viewed with some sympathy, but it was quite impossible to make any serious plans to come to its aid at the time. Only those seven men responded to Ricciotti’s first proclamation and decided to depart for Serbia; they were convinced that they would soon be followed by hundreds of other volunteers. However, within a few days the war escalated and came to involve not only Serbia but also four great powers, Germany, Russia, France and Great Britain. On the 6th of August, Ricciotti Garibaldi issued another call upon Italian volunteers inviting them to avoid any kind of action in Serbia and ordering those few still remaining there to return to Italy. This call was decided together with the Serbian diplomatic mission in Rome: “Serbia has no need for men and the epicentre of the battle fought today has shifted to other borders. The remaining volunteers should therefore return to their homeland.”19 After the spread of the conflict, Ricciotti Garibaldi, his sons and close collaborators began putting together a voluntary Garibaldian legion to fight in France; the plan was completed in the following months and a large group of volunteers left for France, where two of Ricciotti’s sons, Bruno and Costante, lost their lives on the Argonne front.20 What about the seven brave volunteers in Serbia? Disobeying Garibaldi’s call to return to Italy, they decided to continue their mission. As Francesco Conforti recounts, they were remarkably well received by the Serbian Legation in Athens and were given a letter of recommendation for a Serbian General Staff colonel residing in Salonika, who was tasked with being of assistance to them.21 In Salonika, the group was informed by the Italian consul that “a dozen Italians passing by stated that they were going to fight for Serbia, and that they would 17 ACS, A5G, b. 14, fasc. 20, s.f. 9, ins. 24: prefect of Rome to the Ministry of the Interior, Direzione generale della P.S., Rome, 7 August 1914. 18 B. Vigezzi, L’Italia di fronte alla Prima guerra mondiale, vol. I: L’Italia neutrale (Milan/Naples: Ricciardi, 1966), 166. 19 “Niente volontari in Serbia”, Il Messaggero, 6 August 1914. 20 See H. Heyriès, Les garibaldiens de 14. Splendeurs et misères des Chemises Rouges en France de la Grande Guerre à la Seconde Guerre mondiale (Nice: Serre, 2005). See also Camillo Marabini, La rossa avanguardia dell’Argonna (Rome: Anonima Tipo-Editoriale Libraria, 1935). 21 Francesco Conforti to his brother Antonio, Athens, 3 August 1914, in F. Belmonte, Un eroico cavaliere dell’ideale. Francesco Conforti (Salerno: Linotyp. M. Pepe, 1964), 34. In this volume several letters and documents in the possession of the Conforti family have been published. 22 Balcanica XLIX (2018) soon be followed by a few hundred of their countrymen”.22 It is interesting to note that the Italian consul spoke of some ten men; from Athens, Conforti reported that there were in the Greek capital twelve Italian volunteers (whom he had met on board the steamship that had brought them to Greece) and that they all were about to join the Serbian army.23 However, the presence of only seven Italian volunteers on the Serbian front is documented with certainty. It is not known if there were others and, if there were, their identity remains unknown.24 It may be assumed that they were Italians from Venezia Giulia, Dalmatia or other regions of the Habsburg Empire, as Conforti reported in another letter to his brother a few weeks later, in which he explained that a “Garibaldian company would be formed, entirely made up of Italian and Dalmatian students: all intelligent and well-meaning people who speak Italian”.25 From Salonika, they reached Skopje, then Niš and Kragujevac where they were finally enlisted in the Serbian Army. Conforti was convinced, although he had no news of the war in Europe, that in the following weeks the group would reach other Italians on the Adriatic to fight together against Austria.26 Their last letter, from Užice, is dated 17 August. Cesare Colizza wrote to a friend in Italy that they were heading for the Bosnian border. The unit was made up of volunteers: those seven Italians, but also students from Montenegro and Bosnia, as well as other Italian irredentists who had deserted from the Austro-Hungarian Army. Colizza and Corvisieri, the most experienced men, veterans of the Greek campaign, were in command of this group, attached to a larger komitadji unit.27 These were groups of volunteers, trained mainly by Serbs, not subject to conscription or from territories of the Habsburg Empire, who wanted to fight alongside Serbia. They were soon joined by other South-Slav volunteers (Bosnians, Montenegrins, Croats, etc.).28 Cesare Colizza wrote in the letter of August 17: “We wear a bizarre uniform, somewhere between military and hunting outfit in style, and opanak […] on our feet. In order not to renounce our Garibaldian identity, we wear a band of red silk around one arm to distinguish ourselves 22 ACS, Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri, Guerra europea, b. 26, fasc. 17.1.11: telegram from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Ministry of the Interior, Rome, 17 August 1914. 23 Francesco Conforti to his brother Antonio, Athens, 3 August 1914, in Belmonte, Un eroico cavaliere, 34. is also worth noting that Premuti, Come Roma, 79, reports of an eighth volunteer who left for Serbia, Enzo Polli of Vicenza; no news was ever obtained concerning his fate. 25 Francesco Conforti to his brother Antonio, Užice, 11 August 1914, in Belmonte, Un eroico cavaliere, 41. 26 Belmonte, Un eroico cavaliere, 41–42. 27 See Marabini, La rossa avanguardia, 233. 28 A. Mitrović, Serbia’s Great War 1914–1918 (London: Hurst, 2007), 81. 24 It A. D’Alessandri, Italian Volunteers in Serbia in 1914 23 from the others.”29 Unfortunately, just three days later, on 20 July, five of them died in battle on the boundary between Serbia and Bosnia, near Višegrad, in a place called Babina Glava (or Babina Gora, Borna Gora, as it is named in some sources).30 Two of them (Ugo Colizza and Arturo Reali) survived and returned to Italy in the following months.31 The seven Italian volunteers in Serbia soon became a symbol for the democratic interventionist movement. They were considered the very first Italians to fall in the Great War and, more importantly, a sort of desperate patrol of the Italian interventionist movement. Therefore, their sacrifice soon became the focus of political propaganda aimed at supporting the campaign for Italian intervention in the First World War against the Central Powers. The first large commemoration ceremony for the five men fallen in Serbia took place in Rome on the 14th of September 1914. According to information held by the prefecture, the event would be a pretext to attempt demonstrations in favour of France. Moreover, “the republicans, in particular, have it in mind to give greater impulse to the agitation against the neutrality of Italy in the current conflict [for] the purpose [of ] creating complications”.32 Of great interest is an anonymous report held by the police authorities that provides an account of the ceremony. The event was held at the Casa del Popolo (in Via Capo d’Africa near the Colosseum) and had a predominantly republican overtone, including the participation of representatives of reformist socialism and anarchism. The speakers who took the floor rallied against the monarchy because of its alliance with the Central empires, praising the war from which the social republic responsible for the redemption of the peoples should emerge. None of them, after a few words dedicated to the memory of the five fallen men, held back from denouncing the Savoy dynasty, the government and their political opponents, arguing that the republicans wanted war because that would mean the collapse of the House of Savoy.33 An account of the meeting was also published in the 29 Published in Mannucci, Volontarismo garibaldino, 28. 30 On the name of the place of the battle where the five Italian volunteers fell, see O. Bruni, “I garibaldini di Babina Glava”, Camicia rossa XIV (1938), n. 3–4 (March–April), 51–52; see also U. Onorati and E. Scialis, Eroi in Camicia rossa combattenti nel 1914 per la libertà dei popoli (Marino/Rome: A.N.P.I. – Sezione “Aurelio Del Gobbo”, 2017), 29–30. 31 See Mannucci, Volontarismo garibaldino; A. Bandini Buti, Una epopea sconosciuta (Milan: Ceschina, 1967), 163–165; Zarcone, I Precursori, 43–50; Onorati and Scialis, Eroi in Camicia rossa. 32 ACS, A5G, b. 118, fasc. 242, s.f. 1: phonogram of the Prefecture of Rome to the Ministry of the Interior, Rome, 13 September 1914. 33 ACS, A5G, b. 118, fasc. 242, s.f. 1: anonymous report dated 15 September 1914, Rome. 24 Balcanica XLIX (2018) Roman newspaper Il Messaggero, including the names of various persons who had participated and the groups present.34 The majority of those present belonged, as mentioned, to republican circles. This is understandable in the light of the political creed of the volunteers who had left for Serbia that summer, but also because the republicans were the first to take a stand to prevent a war alongside Austria and to call for the alignment of the country with republican France. As Alessandra Staderini wrote, “for the republican component, the war could finally reconsider, outside and against the mediation of parliamentary democracy, a non-Savoy tradition, with an impassioned content that harked back to the legacy of Mazzinianism”.35 The sacrifice of the five Italian volunteers, therefore, lent itself perfectly to the reaffirmation of these political objectives. Talk of the affair recommenced on 10 September 1917, when a public ceremony was held, in Rome organized by interventionist parties in honour of the war disabled, in which a Serbian military delegation handed over honours to the families of the fallen and the two survivors, Ugo Colizza and Arturo Reali.36 After the end of the Great War they remained part of the Garibaldian legacy, which was subsequently manipulated by the Fascist regime. Mussolini wished to be seen as a sort of continuation of the Italian Risorgimento and, more specifically, of the Garibaldian tradition. In 1925, for example, he referred to the 1914 volunteers in France as the forerunners of Italian intervention and the Fascist revolution.37 The link of continuity between the Garibaldian movement and Fascism was also established by one of Ricciotti’s sons, Ezio, who had claimed the Argonne “as the resumption of the battles of the Risorgimento, destined to continue in the First World War and then to lead to the advent of fascism”.38 It is also interesting to remember when the story of the seven Italians became a focus of attention again. After the Agreement between Italy and Yugoslavia, signed by Galeazzo Ciano and Milan Stojadinović in 1937, the sacrifice of those five men in 1914 was perceived as a possible symbol of friendship between the two countries and a sign of the renewed peace in the Adriatic.39 On the occasion of Stojadinović’s visit to Italy in December of 1937, in the columns of the newspaper Il Telegrafo of Livorno, the journalist Giovanni Ansaldo once again 34 “Per gl’Italiani caduti in Serbia. Una solenne commemorazione alla Casa del Popolo”, Il Messaggero, 15 September 1914. See also L’Illustrazione italiana, 20 September 1914. 35 A. Staderini, Combattenti senza divisa. Roma nella grande guerra (Bologna: Il Mulino, 1995), 56. 36 See Il Messaggero, 9 and 10 September 1917; Il Giornale d’Italia, 9 and 10 September 1917. 37 Referred in the article “Babina Glava”, Camicia rossa XIII (1937), n. 12 (December), 228. 38 M. di Napoli, “Ezio Garibaldi e la ‘Camicia rossa’ negli anni del fascismo”, in I Garibaldi dopo Garibaldi, 179. 39 “Per gli eroi garibaldini di Babina Glava”, Camicia rossa XIV (1938), n. 2 (February), 47. A. D’Alessandri, Italian Volunteers in Serbia in 1914 25 recalled the episode and wrote, addressing the head of the Yugoslav government: “you implement the collaboration between Italy and Yugoslavia, which is based mainly on the reality of political facts and economic interests. And this is very fair. But you know that populations respond especially to ideal bonds, created by blood and tightened by sacrifice. And this is why today, Your Excellency, we did not want to greet you with the names and with the memory of the five of Babina Glava, fallen for you and for us.”40 Nonetheless, the memory of those men was expunged in the following years; only recently can we perceive a certain interest in this story. In conclusion, what is the meaning of this small episode of the First Word War in South-Eastern Europe? In the case of the Italian volunteers in Serbia in 1914, it must be said that their aim should have been the revival of the Italian Risorgimento through the liberation of the lands still under Habsburg rule in North-Eastern Italy, Trentino and Venezia Giulia with the city of Trieste. In the first months of war, beside the formation of a group of volunteers for Serbia, someone in certain republican circles also envisioned an expedition to Dalmatia. The aim was always the same: provoke Austria and push Italy into the war;41 Italian neutrality was seen as an act of cowardice. More broadly, the republicans saw the war as a unique opportunity to make the democratic tradition of the nineteenth century triumph over monarchic and moderates forces. They could not believe that at last, a war against the eternal enemy had not been set in motion. For many of them that moment was probably the beginning of a broader revolution and it was mandatory to engage somehow in the fight. As George Mosse has pointed out, the volunteers of 1914 were placed in the tradition of the romantic voluntarism of the nineteenth century. As in the previous century, they were not mercenaries, they mostly came from the middle class, they were quite well educated and they fought for an ideal, for the liberty of nations, also conceived as liberty for themselves. Patriotism, the search for a purpose in life and the love of adventure were just a few of the many motivations behind their engagement as volunteers in a war.42 The seven Italian volunteers in Serbia at first, and then the Garibaldian Legion in France were symbols of an entire generation rooted in the romantic tradition of war and the politics of the Risorgimento as well as the struggle 40 G. Ansaldo, “I cinque di Babina Glava (lettera aperta a S. E. Stojadinovic)”, Il Telegrafo, 5 December 1937. 41 ACS, A5G, b. 12, fasc. 20, s.f. 1, ins. 7: report of the prefect of Rome to the Ministry of the Interior, Rome, 30 September, 1914; ACS, A5G, b. 103, fasc. 225, s.f. 1: report of the prefect of Milan to the Ministry of the Interior, Milan, 7 December 1914. 42 G. L. Mosse, Fallen Soldiers: Reshaping the Memory of the World Wars (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990). 26 Balcanica XLIX (2018) of nations against the despotism typical of nineteenth century. They could not imagine that the war which had just broken out in the summer of 1914 was a completely different one. They imagined a brief war that would mark the final accomplishment of the struggles of the previous century. They soon became aware that this was an illusion. Bibliography and sources Archivio centrale dello Stato, Rome — Ministero dell’Interno, Direzione generale Pubblica sicurezza, Divisione Affari generali e riservati — Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri, Guerra europea Camicia rossa, 1937 and 1938 Il Giornale d’Italia, 1917 Il Messaggero, 1914 and 1917 L’Illustrazione italiana, 1914 Anastasopoulos, N. A. “Voluntary Action in Greece during the Balkan Wars: The Case of the Garibaldini in Ioannina in 1913”. Ricerche storiche XLVII (2017), 61–72. Ansaldo, G. “I cinque di Babina Glava (lettera aperta a S. E. Stojadinovic)”. Il Telegrafo, 5 December 1937. Arielli, Nir. From Byron to bin Laden. A History of Foreign War Volunteers. 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