Emilio Lussu
Ed. Mondadori
pp. 258
Who is Emilio Lussu?
Perhaps someone can answer: a writer; perhaps the best informed will answer: a writer, the author of "A year on the plateau".
But then? What else?
I will begin by saying that Emilio Lussu was born in 1890 in Armungia, a small town in the province of Cagliari of about five hundred inhabitants.
Emilio was primarily a soldier, infantry officer in the Sassari Brigade, to be precise in the 151 ° Infantry Regiment.
He took part in the First World War as a Complement Officer, was decorated several times for military valor and reached the rank of Captain.
Emilio Lussu was a politician, founder of the Sardinian Action Party, immediately after the Great War.
He was immediately anti-fascist and suffered several attacks. In the 1926 he was the object of a squad attack during which he killed a fascist. He was arrested and tried but found innocent.
With the suppression of all parties (1926) he was imprisoned and confined to Lipari, from where he fled to the 1929 along with some fellow prisoners. He reached Tunis and then Paris. In the same year he was among the founders of the anti-fascist movement "Giustizia e libertà".
In the 1936 he took part in the Spanish civil war, with the anti-Franco front. He probably contracted tuberculosis in those years and went to Switzerland for treatment. From that period is his best known book: "A year on the plateau", but also a manual on the "Insurrection Theory".
After the Second World War he was a minister with several governments, in the socialist wing.
Emilio Lussu was also a writer.
Here, in short, the biography of a man, unfortunately forgotten!
After these few biographical lines of the author I will elaborate a little on his most famous book: a year on the plateau. Published for the first time in France, in Paris, in the 1938. In Italy it is published in the 1945.
The book is nothing more than a series of personal memories of the author relating to the First World War. In the book some names have been changed, the author says in the introduction "... my comrades in arms, even through some transformed names, will easily recognize men and facts". Emilio Lussu, as we know, served in the 151st Regiment of the Sassari Brigade, but in the book he speaks of the 399th and 400th Regiment and never mentions the name of his Brigade to which he belongs, this does not mean that the book speaks of this which happened in the years of the great war on the Asiago plateau.
The story of trench life and war operations is compelling. One senses the suffering of men. The desire to end the war is palpable.
In the words of the author the career soldiers and the whole hierarchy, up to the Duke of Aosta, Commander of the Army, certainly do not look good. The characters that meet in the book are described as incapable, often drinkers (to forget their situation?), Certainly not loved by their soldiers who on some occasions try to get rid of them, sometimes pathetic.
"I defend myself by drinking. Otherwise, I would already be in the asylum."
A Lieutenant Colonel tells young Lussu ... "It is not the artillery that keeps us standing, we infantry. In fact, the opposite [..] Abolish the artillery, on both sides, the war continues. try to abolish wine and liqueurs [..] none of us will move anymore. The soul of the fighter of this war is alcohol ... ".
It is different for the young officers, generally loved by their soldiers, often complicit. Emilio Lussu was one of the young, loved by soldiers, followed and respected by all. Hunger, fear and death in the trenches unite everyone!
War in the trenches is bloody but assaults on the enemy are the most terrible there is. The dead almost do not count. Young soldiers alternate with veterans and, if they are lucky, replace them.
The trench warfare is also an opportunity to experiment with new equipment and armaments. Experiments that lead to the death of other soldiers.
A book that cannot be missed in the personal library.
A book to think about, a book that you can't miss!
Alessandro Rugolo
