Curzio Malaparte
Ed. Adelphi
pp. 270
Several years ago, in a book stall in Milan, I bought an old book, with a faded back, the title said: Technique of the coup, author: Curzio Malaparte.
Several years ago I had heard about Malaparte from a friend. I did not remember the topic of the debate at the time, but I thought I would go deeper, so I bought the book and read it immediately.
But who was Curzio Malaparte?
Curzio Malaparte (1898-1957) was actually called Kurt Erich Suckert. He was born in Prato from an Italian mother and a Saxon father. He was a writer, essayist, journalist and military!
At the outbreak of the First World War, Curzio was only sixteen years old but decided to leave for the war and made him enlist in the Legion Garibaldina.
In 1915 he enlisted in the Royal Army as an infantryman where he was appointed second lieutenant and participated in various war exploits in Italy and France where he was decorated with a bronze medal for military valor.
Immediately after the war he published his first book: Long live Caporetto! in which he strongly criticized the conduct of the war by the General Staff.
In the public 1931 Technique of the coup. In the introduction I am struck by a sentence:
"That always defends itself to defend freedom".
Malaparte goes on to say: "I hate this my book. I hate it with all my heart. He gave me the glory, that poor thing that is glory, but also how many miseries. For this book I have known prison and confinement, the betrayal of friends, the bad faith of adversaries, the selfishness and wickedness of men. From this book was born the stupid legend that makes me a cynical and cruel being, a kind of Machiavelli in the role of Cardinal de Retz: when I am a writer, an artist, a free man who suffers more from the evils of others than own."
I wanted to bring back this which is the introduction of the book because I was very impressed.
How can an author in fact hate his own book?
This can be understood if we consider the consequences that the publication of the book had on his life. Because of the book, or rather of the ideas that are clearly reported in it and its considerations on the powerful men of the time, Curzio Malaparte was persecuted for life.
Technique of the coup appeared in Paris in the 1931 and immediately had an extraordinary success. According to the author, the political history of the period (1920 - 1930) is not what is commonly thought, what happened on the European political scene, for him, did not depend on the application of the Treaty of Versailles or the economic consequences of the war just ended , nor by the will of the European governments to keep the peace so dearly reconquered. Malaparte says that on the political level there was a struggle between two major factions. On the one hand defenders of the principle of freedom and democracy (in favor of the parliamentary state, liberals and democrats), on the other his enemies, fascists and communists.
"The left catilists aim at conquering the state to establish the dictatorship of the proletarian class ..."
"Right-wing catilists fear the danger of disorder: they accuse the government of weakness, incapacity and irresponsibility ..."
I seem to recognize even today in some of our politicians the application of the same thesis!
Who was Bela Kun? And Kapp, Pilsudzki and Primo De Rivera? Trotzki and Bauer?
History is really rich in people who have made history, but time passes and often people are forgotten.
History is our past, our present, our future! Knowing it and remembering it is our task, it is our duty ...
Technique of the coup it is a book that can not miss in the library of a scholar.
Happy reading.
Alessandro Rugolo
