Pezzica
The magnificent rebels
(1917-1921)
One hundred years after the Russian Revolution, the critical gaze of a group of women reveals the evidence of the degeneration of one of the greatest subversive experiments of the nineteenth century.
Within the rhetorical flurry that either exalts or uncritically condemns a crucial event of the twentieth century, Pezzica invites us to follow the actions and thoughts of a handful of revolutionary women whose stories have been overshadowed by History. Instead, the stories of militants like Emma Goldman, Ida Mett, Mollie Steimer, Maria Spiridonova, Maria Nikiforova, Zenl Mühsam and Fanja Baro are fundamental to rebuild the parable undertaken by the Revolution in the five years from 1917 to 1921. Despite all their differences, all of these women have enthusiastically taken part in the revolutionary beginnings, driven by the same idea: to subvert the established power, even at the cost to put their lives and their loved ones in danger. But soon, they understand the drift taken by the Bolshevism, becoming opponents, witnesses and victims of its authoritarian turn. Through their experiences, often dramatic, the author offers us the portraits of these "magnificent rebels" who were the protagonists, also in the name of women's emancipation, of another and far deeper libertarian revolution.
Lorenzo Pezzica (1965), archivist and historian, he lives and works in Milan. He collaborates with the Centro studi libertari/Archivio G. Pinelli and teaches Public History at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia.
(1917-1921)
One hundred years after the Russian Revolution, the critical gaze of a group of women reveals the evidence of the degeneration of one of the greatest subversive experiments of the nineteenth century.
Within the rhetorical flurry that either exalts or uncritically condemns a crucial event of the twentieth century, Pezzica invites us to follow the actions and thoughts of a handful of revolutionary women whose stories have been overshadowed by History. Instead, the stories of militants like Emma Goldman, Ida Mett, Mollie Steimer, Maria Spiridonova, Maria Nikiforova, Zenl Mühsam and Fanja Baro are fundamental to rebuild the parable undertaken by the Revolution in the five years from 1917 to 1921. Despite all their differences, all of these women have enthusiastically taken part in the revolutionary beginnings, driven by the same idea: to subvert the established power, even at the cost to put their lives and their loved ones in danger. But soon, they understand the drift taken by the Bolshevism, becoming opponents, witnesses and victims of its authoritarian turn. Through their experiences, often dramatic, the author offers us the portraits of these "magnificent rebels" who were the protagonists, also in the name of women's emancipation, of another and far deeper libertarian revolution.
Lorenzo Pezzica (1965), archivist and historian, he lives and works in Milan. He collaborates with the Centro studi libertari/Archivio G. Pinelli and teaches Public History at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia.