Mazzini

mazziniMAZZINI, GIUSEPPE
(Genova 1805 – Pisa 1872). Politico italiano. Figlio di un medico, Giacomo, attivo giacobino in età napoleonica, e di Maria Drago, dotata di un sentimento religioso inclinante al giansenismo, fu avviato allo studio della medicina, che abbandonò, attratto dalla lotta politica.

LA GIOVANE ITALIA E LA GIOVANE EUROPA. I falliti moti del 1820-1821 e lo studio dei maggiori autori romantici (primo fra tutti Ugo Foscolo) lo spinsero, insieme ad alcuni coetanei, a una riflessione originale sulle cause che impedivano l’unificazione del paese. Affiliato alla carboneria dal 1827, si laureò in giurisprudenza ed elaborò i suoi primi saggi letterari, impregnati di un forte sentimento romantico. Arrestato su indicazione di un delatore, finì carcerato nel forte di Savona fino al gennaio 1831; rilasciato, si recò prima in Svizzera, poi a Marsiglia. All’estero lo raggiunse la notizia dell’insurrezione nei ducati e nelle legazioni emiliano-romagnole (1831), che lo spinse a scrivere a Carlo Alberto, cui si rivolse in nome della libertà e del sentimento nazionale. A Marsiglia, inoltre, fondò la Giovane Italia (e l’omonimo periodico), associazione a carattere repubblicano, nazionale unitario e democratico, che si differenziava dalle sette carbonare per la chiarezza del disegno politico, noto a tutti gli aderenti, il ripudio dei rituali clandestini, la volontà di formare con l’apostolato un’opinione pubblica di sentimenti italiani. In Francia Mazzini subì l’influenza del sansimonismo, che segnò il suo pensiero sociale: di qui il rifiuto della lotta di classe, la persuasione che le società andassero articolandosi secondo diverse funzioni produttive non antagoniste ma complementari e l’intuizione, poi sviluppata originalmente, della forma associativa intesa come potente mezzo di progresso e di emancipazione. La Giovane Italia conobbe un immediato successo, presto vanificato dalla dura repressione operata dalla polizia del regno sardo. Arresti e fucilazioni spinsero Mazzini a trasferirsi a Ginevra. Fallito sul nascere il progetto di una spedizione armata in Savoia (1834), durante un nuovo soggiorno in Svizzera Mazzini fondò la Giovane Europa (aprile 1934), un’associazione rivoluzionaria d’ispirazione repubblicana, sorta grazie al coinvolgimento di esuli italiani, tedeschi e polacchi. Il nuovo sodalizio si proponeva di attivare un programma di azione comune ai vari gruppi democratici europei, nella prospettiva di una carta continentale ridisegnata sulla base del principio di nazionalità. L’anno successivo (1835), in Fede e avvenire, Mazzini teorizzava la fine del primato rivoluzionario della Francia che, con il 1789, aveva concluso il lungo ciclo delle lotte per l’affermazione dei diritti individuali, e il passaggio dell’iniziativa emancipatrice ai nuovi popoli oppressi, in particolare all’italiano. Costretto a fuggire anche dalla Svizzera, superata la tempesta del dubbio, innescata dal tributo di sangue pagato dai cospiratori alla causa dell’indipendenza nazionale, Mazzini, agli inizi del 1837, giungeva a Londra. Gli studi letterari, i rapporti stretti con gli autori più celebrati del romanticismo europeo (Thomas Carlyle, Hugues Lamennais, George Sand), l’organizzazione di giornali operai e di scuole per i figli degli emigrati italiani furono momenti significativi della sua opera di sensibilizzazione e di apostolato condotta in seno all’opinione pubblica britannica. Egli continuò, tuttavia, a lavorare per una soluzione rivoluzionaria della questione italiana. Fallito il moto dei fratelli Bandiera (1844), peraltro non direttamente riconducibile al suo progetto insurrezionale, Mazzini contrastò duramente la pubblicistica d’ispirazione riformistica e neoguelfa (Balbo, Gioberti), benché le speranze suscitate da Pio IX lo inducessero nel 1847 a un atteggiamento meno intransigente. Scoppiata la rivoluzione a Parigi (febbraio 1848), si spostò in Francia, dove fondò l’Associazione nazionale italiana; passò poi a Milano insorta contro l’Austria, per battersi contro la fusione con il Piemonte e in favore dell’unità repubblicana e democratica. Riparato a Lugano in seguito alla repressione dell’insurrezione milanese, tramontata la guerra di popolo con la repressione del moto in Val d’Intelvi (ottobre 1848), giunse nuovamente a Marsiglia; di qui, sbarcato a Livorno, raggiunse Firenze, dove un governo democratico, retto da Montanelli, Guerrazzi e Mazzoni, aveva rovesciato il granduca. Nel frattempo, fuggito Pio IX a Gaeta, l’Assemblea costituente dello stato provvisorio romano, sotto la spinta dei mazziniani, aveva dato vita a una repubblica (9 febbraio 1849).

LA SCONFITTA DEL PROGRAMMA REPUBBLICANO E DEMOCRATICO. Mazzini cercò invano di favorire la fusione fra i due centri rivoluzionari, primo nucleo di una possibile repubblica italiana, che sarebbe dovuta scaturire da una costituente eletta a suffragio universale; si trasferì quindi a Roma, dove, il 29 marzo, insieme con Aurelio Saffi e Carlo Armellini fu eletto triumviro dall’assemblea. L’esperimento democratico fallì dopo pochi mesi a causa dell’intervento delle truppe francesi, austriache, spagnole e napoletane. Braccato dalle polizie europee, Mazzini fu costretto di nuovo all’esilio in Francia, poi in Svizzera, infine in Gran Bretagna. A Londra cercò di raccogliere intorno a un Comitato democratico europeo (1850) gli emigrati politici fuggiti dal continente dopo i fallimenti del 1848; tentò di ricostituire la tela della cospirazione, distrutta per l’ennesima volta dalle autorità austriache (fatti di Milano del febbraio 1853), affidandosi alla nuova struttura del Partito d’azione. Nel 1857 tornò a Genova per organizzare un moto, mentre il disegno d’insurrezione nel Mezzogiorno, perseguito da Carlo Pisacane, naufragava a Sapri. Condannato a morte due volte in contumacia dai piemontesi (1833 e 1857), da Londra Mazzini avversò la soluzione diplomatica della questione italiana prospettata da Cavour; nel 1859, tuttavia, spinse i suoi a mettere da parte la pregiudiziale istituzionale e a combattere sotto le insegne sabaude. Giunto a Napoli nel 1860 sull’onda del successo della spedizione dei Mille, insistette inutilmente affinché Garibaldi trattasse alla pari con Vittorio Emanuele l’annessione del Mezzogiorno. Ritiratosi a Lugano, poi a Londra, non riconobbe la soluzione monarchica del processo unitario, diffidò dei tentativi garibaldini su Roma (1862 e 1867) e si dedicò nuovamente alla cospirazione. La Falange sacra (1864) e l’Alleanza repubblicana universale (1866) furono le ultime associazioni cui diede vita. Arrestato a Palermo nel 1870 mentre si apprestava a guidare un moto nell’isola, rinchiuso a Gaeta, fu poi amnistiato e tornò in esilio. Fondò quindi “La Roma del popolo” (1871), dalle cui pagine si scagliò contro la Comune di Parigi e l’Internazionale. Ostile a Marx e avverso al concetto di lotta di classe, banditore di una religiosità laica contro il materialismo ateo, favorevole a una forte educazione morale dell’operaio, legato a un ideale di lavoro autonomo e di cogestione già predicato nei Doveri dell’uomo (1860), nel novembre 1871, a Roma, ispirava il Patto di fratellanza fra le società operaie, che segnava l’atto di nascita del movimento operaio democratico in Italia. Morì il 10 marzo 1872 a Pisa, sotto il falso nome di dottor Brown.

R. Balzani

http://www.britannica.com/biography/Giuseppe-Mazzini

Giuseppe Mazzini
Italian revolutionary
Written by: Edgar Crawshaw Holt
Giuseppe Mazzini, (born June 22, 1805, Genoa [Italy]—died March 10, 1872, Pisa, Italy), Genoese propagandist and revolutionary, founder of the secret revolutionary society Young Italy (1832), and a champion of the movement for Italian unity known as the Risorgimento. An uncompromising republican, he refused to participate in the parliamentary government that was established under the monarchy of the House of Savoy when Italy became unified and independent (1861).
Education and exile.

Giuseppe Mazzini was a doctor’s son; his birthplace, formerly a republic, was annexed to the Kingdom of Piedmont in 1814. As a child, he gave promise of high intellectual ability, fully confirmed when he entered the University of Genoa at 14. Two years later, strongly influenced by seeing a patriot fleeing from Italy after an unsuccessful insurrection, he began to think “that we Italians could and therefore ought to struggle for the liberty of our country.”

On graduating in law in 1827, he practiced as a “poor man’s lawyer,” wrote articles for progressive reviews, and hoped to become a dramatist or historical novelist. But his life was already shaping itself differently. His love of freedom led him to join the Carbonari, a secret society pledged to overthrow absolute rule in Italy. In 1830 he was betrayed to the police, arrested, and interned at Savona, where for three months he reviewed his political beliefs and conceived the outlines of a new patriotic movement to replace the decaying Carbonari.

When released early in 1831, he was ordered either to leave Piedmont or to live in some small town. He chose exile and went to Marseille, where his slight figure, handsome olive features, black hair and beard, and black velvet suit were soon familiar to the other Italian exiles, who accepted him as their leader. His first public gesture was an “open letter” to Charles Albert, the king of Piedmont, urging him to give Piedmont constitutional government, to lead a national movement, and to expel the Austrians from Lombardy-Venetia and their other Italian strongholds. The letter was circulated in Italy, but Charles Albert’s only reaction was to threaten Mazzini with arrest if he returned to Piedmont. As a lifelong republican, Mazzini was afterward censured for this friendly approach to an autocratic sovereign; he explained that he had meant to expose Charles Albert as one who would never fight for Italian freedom.
Foundation of Young Italy.

At Marseille Mazzini spent two of his most rewarding years. He founded his patriotic movement for young men and called it Giovine Italia (Young Italy). It was designed as a national association for liberating the separate Italian states from foreign rule and fusing them into a free and independent unitary republic. Its methods were education and insurrection, and it had a moral basis derived from Mazzini’s own belief in God (though he was not a Christian) and in permanent laws of progress, duty, and sacrifice. It was the first Italian democratic movement embracing all classes, for Mazzini believed that only a popular initiative could free Italy. “Neither pope nor king,” he declared. “Only God and the people will open the way of the future to us.”

The new movement captured the imagination of Italian youth. Branches were secretly formed in Genoa and other cities; by 1833 there were 60,000 members. Mazzini edited the propagandist journal Giovine Italia, which was smuggled into Italy with other revolutionary pamphlets. He also became the lover of a fellow exile, the beautiful Modenese widow Giuditta Sidoli.

Young Italy’s attempted insurrections were failures. A projected rising in Piedmont in 1833 was discovered before it had begun; 12 conspirators were executed, one committed suicide, and Mazzini was tried in absence and condemned to death. He said prophetically, “Ideas ripen quickly when nourished by the blood of martyrs.” A few months later, when he had moved to Switzerland to escape from the French police, he tried to rally 1,000 volunteers to invade Savoy (then part of the kingdom of Piedmont). Only 200 could be mustered, and the force was disbanded.

These failures destroyed Young Italy as an organization, though its spirit lived on. Mazzini turned to wider revolutionary plans, based on his faith in the brotherhood of man and his hopes for a world republican federation. He founded Young Europe and helped to establish Young Germany, Young Switzerland, and Young Poland, but his three years in Switzerland were unhappy and frustrated. Giuditta Sidoli had gone back to Italy to rejoin her children; he suffered an emotional crisis through doubts and disillusionment. In 1837 he went with a few Italian friends to live in London.
Stay in England.

England was now his real home. He lived in modest London lodgings, surrounded by books, papers, and the tame birds in which he delighted; he studied at the British Museum and wrote for English periodicals. Though he had little money, he started a school for Italian boys in London and a newspaper, Apostolato popolare (“Apostleship of the People”), in which he published part of his essay “On the Duties of Man.” In 1840, with the help of Giuseppe Lamberti in Paris, he revived Young Italy, primarily as a means of building up a national consciousness among Italians everywhere. He wrote innumerable letters to his new agents in Europe and North and South America; he also became acquainted with Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle and other notable people.

In 1844 he was in touch with the Bandiera brothers, who made an ill-fated attempt to start a revolt in Calabria. After their execution, he told two friends who were members of Parliament of his fears that the British government was opening his letters and had passed on information about the Bandieras’ plans to the Neapolitan authorities. The matter was raised in Parliament, and the government was compelled to admit that it opened private letters. There was much public indignation and widespread sympathy with Mazzini. The affair made him better known in England and brought him into contact with a notable liberal family, the Ashursts. Many English liberals supported him when he founded the People’s International League in 1847.

In that year he wrote an “open letter” to the new pope, Pius IX, who had introduced liberal reforms in the Papal States. He urged the pope to unify Italy, but Pius made no comment. Mazzini returned to Italy for the first time in the revolutionary year of 1848, when the Milanese drove out their Austrian masters and Piedmont began a war to expel the Austrians from Italy. Milan welcomed him, but he was soon unpopular because he wanted Lombardy to become a republic and he thought that union with the kingdom of Piedmont, as proposed by the Milanese provisional government, was the wrong kind of pattern for the future Italy. When the Piedmontese armies withdrew and the Austrians reentered Milan, he served briefly with an irregular force under Giuseppe Garibaldi before returning to England.
Triumvir of republican Rome.

Mazzini was again in Italy in 1849, first in Tuscany and then in Rome, where a revolution had driven out the pope and a republic had been proclaimed. He had long believed that the imperial and papal Romes would be followed by a third Rome—a Rome of the people; now his dream had come true. He was acclaimed as a great patriot, was elected a triumvir of the republic, and became the effective head of the government, showing great administrative talent in ecclesiastical and social reforms. His rule was short-lived. The pope appealed to Catholic countries for help, and a French army landed in Italy; after heroic resistance, the republic was crushed, and Mazzini left Rome.

Back in London, he founded another society—the Friends of Italy—in 1851 and was soon involved in new revolutionary activities. In 1853 he backed the Milanese workers in their unsuccessful rising against the Austrians. In 1853–54 he sent Felice Orsini on two unproductive missions to raise a revolt in Carrara. In 1856 he went secretly to Genoa to plan a number of simultaneous insurrections. The only one that was seriously attempted was Carlo Pisacane’s disastrous landing in Calabria in 1857. Even the apparently futile conspiracies of this period had the useful effect, however, of keeping Italian problems before the governments of Europe. For these plots Mazzini was reviled in Piedmont, where the new moderate party was working for orderly progress without revolution. Count Cavour, the prime minister, called him “chief of the assassins,” but this charge was unfair; Mazzini’s plots were for insurrection, not assassination, and he expressly disclaimed the “theory of the dagger.”

In 1858 Mazzini founded another journal in London: this was Pensiero ed azione (“Thought and Action”), a title reflecting his view that thought is only of value when it results in action. He did not participate in the Franco-Piedmontese war against Austria in 1859, by which Cavour with the help of Napoleon III vainly sought to free Italy from the Alps to the Adriatic; nor did he belong to the “party of action,” which sponsored Giuseppe Garibaldi’s expedition to Sicily in 1860. Yet this expedition has been called “Mazzini’s gift to the ‘party of action,’ ” for it followed plans devised by him in earlier years. Mazzini went to Naples during Garibaldi’s brief dictatorship of southern Italy but was back in London when the new united Kingdom of Italy (excluding Venice and Rome) was proclaimed in 1861.

Impractical schemes for seizing Venice and Rome occupied Mazzini’s mind in the 1860s. This was the decade of the Socialist First International; he had early contact with its members but soon withdrew, since the moral and religious basis of his own political thought prevented him from accepting either Karl Marx’s communism or Mikhail Bakunin’s anarchism. Messina repeatedly elected him as its parliamentary deputy, but the elections were quashed by the Italian government. In 1870 he misguidedly agreed to lead a republican rising in Sicily. He was arrested on his way there and interned at Gaeta but was released and pardoned after the occupation of Rome by Italian troops.
Accomplishments and reputation.

Mazzini’s life was ending in disappointment, even though both Venice (acquired in 1866) and Rome were now part of the new kingdom. Italy had been united by fusion, as he had always advocated against strong opposition, rather than by federation, but it was a monarchy and not the republic he had wanted. “I thought I was awakening the soul of Italy, and I see only the corpse before me,” he said.

In his last years he founded another paper, Roma del popolo (“Rome of the People”), which he edited from Lugano, and made plans for an Italian workingmen’s congress. He died from pleurisy at Pisa in 1872. He had never married.

Mazzini’s reputation has fluctuated greatly. In his earlier years, he was an almost legendary hero in his own country, but he was later denounced by many of his compatriots as an enemy of the state. For two generations after his death, most historians considered that his useful work ended in 1849 and that he should then have withdrawn from conspiracy.

A different view, however, prevails among modern historians. Many believe that all his plots were valuable, since they held out a permanent threat of violent revolution if Italy were not freed and united. By spurring on the Piedmontese government, and later the Italian government, to work for the national cause, he is now considered to have played an indispensable part in the making of modern Italy.
Edgar Crawshaw Holt