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Modern War Studies
La strada del Davai
"La strada del davai" (davai in russo significa: avanti, cammina) non mi ha fatto dormire per parecchie notti; non perché i fatti raccontati mi siano nuovi giacché anch'io, allora, vi fui dentro sino al collo, ma per la verità atroce che continua anche oggi nella vita dei sopravvissuti, e per la luce in cui sono messe queste testimonianze.
Parla, questo terribile documento umano, di quello che accadde sul fronte orientale a molti italiani, alpini nella Cuneense. La guerra sul fronte russo: i popoli, gli eserciti, l'individuo e la moltitudine ci vengono incontro come fosse ancora ieri e riproviamo le atrocità, gli eroismi, le spavalderie, la generosità, gli egoismi, la pazzia e l'ironia in un paradosso gigantesco. Ci viene spontaneo dire: Ma in questo tempo abbiamo vissuto? Ma queste cose sono accadute? Mario Rigoni Stern
Parla, questo terribile documento umano, di quello che accadde sul fronte orientale a molti italiani, alpini nella Cuneense. La guerra sul fronte russo: i popoli, gli eserciti, l'individuo e la moltitudine ci vengono incontro come fosse ancora ieri e riproviamo le atrocità, gli eroismi, le spavalderie, la generosità, gli egoismi, la pazzia e l'ironia in un paradosso gigantesco. Ci viene spontaneo dire: Ma in questo tempo abbiamo vissuto? Ma queste cose sono accadute? Mario Rigoni Stern
601 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1966
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108 people want to read
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December 22, 2023
World War II's war on the Eastern Front between Germany and the Soviet Union was a war of previously unimaginable destruction and violence. Thrust into this maelstrom of death were several Italian Alpine ("Alpini") divisions--troops trained for fighting in mountainous terrain. Made up of thousands of ordinary Italians, many of whom were barely educated and lacked any motivation to fight, the Alpini were placed in static defenses along the River Don instead of fighting in the Caucasus Mountains as originally planned. Poorly equipped, poorly trained and with poor morale, these troops were quickly, and in most cases, easily overrun by Soviet troops during the reduction of the Stalingrad pocket. Those who were captured were then subjected to terrible hardships as they entered Soviet captivity, resulting in the deaths of around 75% of the Italian prisoners. When the war ended and the Italian prisoners were repatriated back to Italy, they found a country which didn't seem to care about them and barely helped them at all.
The author, Nuto Revelli, served in the Alpini on the Eastern Front and was one of the fortunate few who made it back to Italy safely. Based on interviews with over 40 former Alpino soldiers, the book is broken into two parts. The first part contains the stories of those who were captured by the Soviets and went into captivity. Many of the stories tend to sound similar as the interviewees were often from similar regions in Italy and served in the same unit. Freezing cold, terrible hunger, horrible infestations of vermin and bouts of deadly diseases became the norm for those who entered Soviet captivity. However, compared to their German allies, their treatment was as a whole much less severe. The Soviets, especially the regular citizens, treated the Italians with much more kindness and certainly less of the boiling hatred reserved for the Germans. Almost every story mentions the kindness of ordinary peasants helping out with food, shelter or some other form of aid.
The second part of the book is filled with stories/interviews of Alpini who fought in Russia, but managed to escape captivity and return to Italy. Unfortunately for many of them, further hardships were in store as Italy surrendered to the Allies and Germany took over control of the country. Several of the interviewees ended up as prisoners of the Germans, while others became partisans against the Germans.
Overall, this is a very interesting book on the Italian experience in Russia, as well as having bits on the fighting with France and Greece. There's not much actual combat, and the individual stories vary in length from a few to several pages in length. While the stories are mostly filled with the horrible experiences these men went through, there are a few which go against the norm and prove that strange things really do happen in wartime.
The author, Nuto Revelli, served in the Alpini on the Eastern Front and was one of the fortunate few who made it back to Italy safely. Based on interviews with over 40 former Alpino soldiers, the book is broken into two parts. The first part contains the stories of those who were captured by the Soviets and went into captivity. Many of the stories tend to sound similar as the interviewees were often from similar regions in Italy and served in the same unit. Freezing cold, terrible hunger, horrible infestations of vermin and bouts of deadly diseases became the norm for those who entered Soviet captivity. However, compared to their German allies, their treatment was as a whole much less severe. The Soviets, especially the regular citizens, treated the Italians with much more kindness and certainly less of the boiling hatred reserved for the Germans. Almost every story mentions the kindness of ordinary peasants helping out with food, shelter or some other form of aid.
The second part of the book is filled with stories/interviews of Alpini who fought in Russia, but managed to escape captivity and return to Italy. Unfortunately for many of them, further hardships were in store as Italy surrendered to the Allies and Germany took over control of the country. Several of the interviewees ended up as prisoners of the Germans, while others became partisans against the Germans.
Overall, this is a very interesting book on the Italian experience in Russia, as well as having bits on the fighting with France and Greece. There's not much actual combat, and the individual stories vary in length from a few to several pages in length. While the stories are mostly filled with the horrible experiences these men went through, there are a few which go against the norm and prove that strange things really do happen in wartime.
August 23, 2017
Probabilmente la ritirata di Russia è stata la più immensa ragedia che la nazione italiana abbia dovuto affrontare dal compimento dell'unità ad oggi, e per questo mi sembra olto triste che non solo non ci si senta obbligati a perpetuarne il ricordo ma che, addirittura, il ricordo stesso vada sbiadendo nei libri di storia.
Pure scrittori anche di alto livello che abbia partecipato alle battaglie, dalla mortale marcia di centinaia di chilometri atraverso la steppa innevata agli orrori della prigionia in Siberia alla umiliazione di chi si salvò per finire nelle mani dei fascisti e dei tedeschi, non sono mancati. Da Giulio Bedeschi a Mario Rigoni Stern, memorie che oltre che perpetuare il ricordo ci consegnano un indiscutibile valore aggiunto letterario, non sono infrequenti.
Ma allore perchè questa raccolta di testimonianze di Nuto evelli è cosi importante e così necessaria? Perchè un tributo al sangue della Cuneense, la terza delle divisioni alpine, non era ancora stato dato; ma anche e soprattutto perchè Revelli, che romanziere non è ma giornalista, esclde totalmente dalla sua opera il taglio romanzato, l'atmosfera epica si sentono ad esempio tra le pagine di "Centomila gavette di ghiaccio"; e questo ci permette di capire come il soldato semplice, il povero contadino strappato alla sua famiglia e gettato al fronte percepiva la sua situazione.
Ed è una situazione di caos assoluto, in cui manca totalmente la percezione di essere parte di una tragedia assai più grande, in cui non si riesce a dare in nessun modo un filo logico agli eventi (come per esempio accade in Bedeschi). Non c'è strategia, non c'è tattica, non c'è ideale nella guerra di Revelli. La morte più orrenda è affidata semplicemente al caso, alle scelte istintive di uomini ridotti allo stato di bestie alla ricerca della sopravvivenza: che spesso si ottiene proprio con l'aiuto di quel popolo russo che il fascismo voleva farci odiare, che non odiavmo e dal quale non venivamo odiati.
Questa non è una elegia nè un romanzo celebrativo, e quindi non c'è un filo conduttore: ogni testimonianza segue alla precedente ripetendo ogni volta da capo il viaggio infernale, in modo quasi angoscioso per il lettore; arrivando ogni volta come una cantilena al termine del racconto del vecchio soldato di turno, spesso invalido e frustrato, amareggiato dall'odio verso il fascismo (ma anche verso la democrazia cristiana che ha tradito le sue sofferenze), sempre con la stessa frase: "Mai più la guerra".
Pure scrittori anche di alto livello che abbia partecipato alle battaglie, dalla mortale marcia di centinaia di chilometri atraverso la steppa innevata agli orrori della prigionia in Siberia alla umiliazione di chi si salvò per finire nelle mani dei fascisti e dei tedeschi, non sono mancati. Da Giulio Bedeschi a Mario Rigoni Stern, memorie che oltre che perpetuare il ricordo ci consegnano un indiscutibile valore aggiunto letterario, non sono infrequenti.
Ma allore perchè questa raccolta di testimonianze di Nuto evelli è cosi importante e così necessaria? Perchè un tributo al sangue della Cuneense, la terza delle divisioni alpine, non era ancora stato dato; ma anche e soprattutto perchè Revelli, che romanziere non è ma giornalista, esclde totalmente dalla sua opera il taglio romanzato, l'atmosfera epica si sentono ad esempio tra le pagine di "Centomila gavette di ghiaccio"; e questo ci permette di capire come il soldato semplice, il povero contadino strappato alla sua famiglia e gettato al fronte percepiva la sua situazione.
Ed è una situazione di caos assoluto, in cui manca totalmente la percezione di essere parte di una tragedia assai più grande, in cui non si riesce a dare in nessun modo un filo logico agli eventi (come per esempio accade in Bedeschi). Non c'è strategia, non c'è tattica, non c'è ideale nella guerra di Revelli. La morte più orrenda è affidata semplicemente al caso, alle scelte istintive di uomini ridotti allo stato di bestie alla ricerca della sopravvivenza: che spesso si ottiene proprio con l'aiuto di quel popolo russo che il fascismo voleva farci odiare, che non odiavmo e dal quale non venivamo odiati.
Questa non è una elegia nè un romanzo celebrativo, e quindi non c'è un filo conduttore: ogni testimonianza segue alla precedente ripetendo ogni volta da capo il viaggio infernale, in modo quasi angoscioso per il lettore; arrivando ogni volta come una cantilena al termine del racconto del vecchio soldato di turno, spesso invalido e frustrato, amareggiato dall'odio verso il fascismo (ma anche verso la democrazia cristiana che ha tradito le sue sofferenze), sempre con la stessa frase: "Mai più la guerra".
July 26, 2016
Interesting premise, but after awhile the stories started getting repetitive. The author does warn you that the interview pool was somewhat limited to certain units, hence many of the interviews have similar details in their stories. Part 1 (stories from those captured by the Russians) could have been cut down by 1/3. Part 2 (stories from those that escaped the encirclement) was too short, but that might have been because so few units successfully escaped the trap, and so not many people able to describe how they broke out.
Some interesting details, like how Hitler only wanted Italy's help in Russia if the units offered were fully motorized, otherwise he would have preferred they beef up their crumbling North Africa front. Mussolini fudged and provided "motor-transportable" units. Once they disembarked the troop trains, they actually had to march for close to a week before they reached the front lines because they lacked even basic truck transport.
Some interesting details, like how Hitler only wanted Italy's help in Russia if the units offered were fully motorized, otherwise he would have preferred they beef up their crumbling North Africa front. Mussolini fudged and provided "motor-transportable" units. Once they disembarked the troop trains, they actually had to march for close to a week before they reached the front lines because they lacked even basic truck transport.
March 30, 2018
The Wikipedia page for the Battle of Nikolayevka is a terse description of Soviet operation Little Saturn, designed to force the river Don and encircle the Italian 8th Army. In the sidebar of the Wikipedia page there is a map of the Italian retreat. Beneath the map it says "Result: Axis breakout". The last paragraph of the section titled "The breakout" tells us that the Italians suffered heavy losses in the breakout: the Cuneense division had been destroyed; one tenth of the Division Julia survived and one third of the Division Tridentina survived.
These Italian forces were deployed just to the north of Stalingrad. The Battle of Stalingrad is well known. I knew nothing of the Italian presence until reading this book, and I've read quite a bit about the Eastern Front.
The Cuneense division was made up of soldiers from the area around the town of Cuneo, in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy. Nuto Revelli served in the division and interviewed some of the survivors of the battle. For the most part, these are not stories of combat, but of flight, capture, the camps, and repatriation. This book was originally published in 1966. In 2013 an English translation was published.
This isn't a scholarly description of the events. But it's not exactly an oral history, either. Revelli has homogenized the tales of his subjects, rendering all their stories in the same way. The language is immediate: told in the first person, present tense, typically in short sentences. The majority of these men were uneducated, leaving school in the third, fourth, or fifth grade. They're farmers, bakers, and masons.
Their stories always start out with their service experience prior to Russia. Typically, these men served on the Western Front (a short skirmish with France in 1940; essentially fighting their neighbors) followed by a stint in Greece and Yugoslavia. Then the trip to Russia, their capture and imprisonment, and repatriation.
The stories are tough to read: starvation, thirst, sickness, frostbite, fear, deprivation. Each man's story is his own, not interspersed with the others. But occasionally we learn that this man encountered that man; these three all saw this specific event. The stories interlock and through repetition we get a tapestry of truth and misery.
The book is broken into two parts. The first part were soldiers who were captured. The second part is shorter, what happened to soldiers who managed to escape the pocket. The final of these stories I found exhausting.
The Afterword is the author's own story, written later.
These Italian forces were deployed just to the north of Stalingrad. The Battle of Stalingrad is well known. I knew nothing of the Italian presence until reading this book, and I've read quite a bit about the Eastern Front.
The Cuneense division was made up of soldiers from the area around the town of Cuneo, in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy. Nuto Revelli served in the division and interviewed some of the survivors of the battle. For the most part, these are not stories of combat, but of flight, capture, the camps, and repatriation. This book was originally published in 1966. In 2013 an English translation was published.
This isn't a scholarly description of the events. But it's not exactly an oral history, either. Revelli has homogenized the tales of his subjects, rendering all their stories in the same way. The language is immediate: told in the first person, present tense, typically in short sentences. The majority of these men were uneducated, leaving school in the third, fourth, or fifth grade. They're farmers, bakers, and masons.
Their stories always start out with their service experience prior to Russia. Typically, these men served on the Western Front (a short skirmish with France in 1940; essentially fighting their neighbors) followed by a stint in Greece and Yugoslavia. Then the trip to Russia, their capture and imprisonment, and repatriation.
The stories are tough to read: starvation, thirst, sickness, frostbite, fear, deprivation. Each man's story is his own, not interspersed with the others. But occasionally we learn that this man encountered that man; these three all saw this specific event. The stories interlock and through repetition we get a tapestry of truth and misery.
The book is broken into two parts. The first part were soldiers who were captured. The second part is shorter, what happened to soldiers who managed to escape the pocket. The final of these stories I found exhausting.
The Afterword is the author's own story, written later.
May 5, 2022
La ritirata dal Don, il sacrificio di decine di migliaia di aplini e la prigionia. Vittime del fascismo e di Mussolini ancor prima del freddo e della fame patiti tra i campi siberiani o, nel caso di pochi fortunati, lungo la via del ritorno.
Raramente ho fatto così tanta fatica a leggere un libro. I racconti dei sopravvissuti sono strazianti, talmente forti da lacerare l'anima, eppure necessari per comprendere che la democrazia non è figlia del caso.
Raramente ho fatto così tanta fatica a leggere un libro. I racconti dei sopravvissuti sono strazianti, talmente forti da lacerare l'anima, eppure necessari per comprendere che la democrazia non è figlia del caso.
September 9, 2022
Libro di testimonianze raccolte dall'autore su una delle pagine più tristi dell'esercito italiano. Libro che tutti dovrebbero leggere almeno una volta nella vita per farsi un idea di quello che è stata la ritirata di Russia.
May 31, 2017
A good book about the Italian experience during WW 2 on the Eastern Front. Sad series of events for them.
May 31, 2023
Lots of personal stories from Italian soldiers who survived the brutal Eastern Front. Almost all the stories relate to the 1942-43 disaster on the Don. The Italians were protecting the northern flank of the Germans locked in Stalingrad, and without the neccessary air support or armor, were crushed in the Russian counter-offensive.
Many of the soldiers discuss their POW experiences. Others, were more fortunate and escaped the encirclement. An incident in WW II that is rarely discussed or written about in Anglo-Saxon countries.
Many of the soldiers discuss their POW experiences. Others, were more fortunate and escaped the encirclement. An incident in WW II that is rarely discussed or written about in Anglo-Saxon countries.
March 19, 2014
Serie di racconti di chi c'è stato: nella prima parte di coloro che son stati presi pprigionieri dai russi; nella seconda parte quelli che uscirono dalla sacca
Avendo lettto sia "Centomila gavette di ghiaccio" sia "Il sergente nella neve" pensavo di conoscere abbastanzabene l'argoemnto. Invece ho trovato interessantissimo questo libro
Avendo lettto sia "Centomila gavette di ghiaccio" sia "Il sergente nella neve" pensavo di conoscere abbastanzabene l'argoemnto. Invece ho trovato interessantissimo questo libro
February 7, 2014
Ormai la ritirata di russia è la mia ossessione.
Un libro per ossessionati, da non consigliare se non agli ossessionati.
Per gli ossessionati 5 stelle sono d'obbligo
Un libro per ossessionati, da non consigliare se non agli ossessionati.
Per gli ossessionati 5 stelle sono d'obbligo
September 27, 2012
Good book. It moves you, it makes you angry, it astonishes you.
August 4, 2017
Davai in russo significa "Avanti, cammina" ed era il grido che tormentava i prigionieri sfiniti nelle marce forzate verso i punti di raccolta. Nuto Revelli raccoglie in questo libro le testimonianze di alpini rimasti prigionieri in Russia in seguito ai drammatici avvenimenti della campagna sul Don del '43: racconti di alpini della Cuneense, della Tridentina, della Julia rilasciati dopo la fine della seconda guerra mondiale che a distanza di anni rievocano con una intensità straordinaria i momenti durissimi della prigionia nei campi dove migliaia di persone trovarono la morte per le condizioni disumane. Fa rabbia, fa piangere, fa male, tutto tranne che lasciare indifferenti.
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