Among the numerous left-wing radical organizations that made themselves known in the second half of the 20th century, the Italian Red Brigades occupy a special place. Of the total mass of fighters for social justice who used the method of terror and violence, they were particularly cruel and indiscriminate in their choice of means, which ultimately pushed the bulk of the workers from whom they counted on support.
Students who became terrorists
As it often happened in history, a terrorist organization was born among undereducated students, this time at the University of Trento. In 1970, Renato Kurcho with his girlfriend, and later his wife, Mara Kagol created an underground youth organization, the aim of which was the armed struggle for the creation of a revolutionary state and Italy's withdrawal from the alliance with Western countries, including from the NATO bloc.
In addition to violent acts, including killings, kidnappings, blackmail and extortion, the Red Brigades in the initial period of their activity used quite legal methods of political struggle - agitation, propaganda and the creation of semi-legal circles in factories and educational institutions. However, this open activity continued only until 1974, when after the murder of two members of the right-wing socialist organization, Renato Kurcho and his supporters were forced to go underground.
Fighter Leader Arrest
From this moment on, their main tactics become political terrorism. The Red Brigades (Italy) left a truly bloody trail in history. Suffice it to say that during the first decade of their activity, members of the organization, which, according to official figures, included twenty-five thousand people, committed fourteen thousand acts of violence, of which more than a hundred were murders.
In 1974, government secret services arrested Renato Kurcho and several other leaders of the organization. This was made possible thanks to the actions of a secret agent introduced into the Red Brigades. All of them were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment, but immediately after the trial, Kurcho's wife organized an armed raid on the police car in which her husband was transported and managed to free him. Only a few months later, the convicted terrorist was again hidden behind bars.
Abductions and Extortion
But, contrary to the expectations of the authorities, having lost their leader, the militants to a large extent intensified their actions. They committed a number of abductions of politicians and employees of the justice apparatus in order to exert pressure on the government. Each time their demands were not met, they mercilessly killed their victims.
The main source of financing for the organization was the abduction of large entrepreneurs with the aim of obtaining a ransom. They also did not disdain the banal robberies of banks and wealthy houses. Italy’s law enforcement agencies have been actively fighting the terrorists, and many of them have ended up in jail.
The murder of the former prime minister
In the late seventies, the Red Brigades in Italy finally lost the support of the broad masses of the population. One of the reasons for this was the resonant murder of a prominent politician, former Prime Minister Aldo Moro, organized by the new leader of the group, Mario Moretti.
The militants kidnapped their victim, having previously killed five of his bodyguards. Then, after holding the policy for fifty-four days in the basement of one of the houses and not having achieved the fulfillment of their requirements by the authorities, they shot him and left the carcass in the trunk of an abandoned car on the street. This was one of the most high-profile crimes committed by the Red Brigades.
In Italy, a photo of an ex-prime minister shot by abductors against the background of their flag, and then dead in the trunk of a car, went around the front pages of all newspapers. It is not surprising that such gangster methods of solving social problems, members of the organization were completely compromised in the eyes of the people.
Organization activity sunset
Eighties, the "Red Brigades" managed to survive with great difficulty. A split occurred in their ranks, as a result of which two independent, independent from each other branches were created. This led to a general weakening of the organization. In addition, some of its members, convinced of the futility of further actions, immigrated to other countries, and a significant part of the militants ended up in jail.
The “Red Brigades” in Italy, the historiography of which is a whole section in the studies of sociologists and historians of our time, are generally considered to have been largely affected by the unseemly actions of most of their members who are in prison. It is known that many of them, in order to mitigate the sentence, went to cooperate with the police and provided significant assistance in catching their recent comrades-in-arms.
Successors to the killers
In the late nineties, in many countries of Western Europe there was an increase in social tension, and with it political terrorism intensified. In connection with this, the Red Brigades (Italy) received a certain impetus for revival, but not as a single structure, but in the form of several organizations, each of which had its own name and adhered to a certain tactic of action. All they had in common was that they all declared their continuity to the former terrorist group, which left a bloody mark in the country's history.