"Red Brigades" and their bloody path

Among the numerous left radical organizations that have declared themselves in the second half of the 20th century, a special place is occupied by the Italian "Red Brigades". Out of the total mass of fighters for social justice who used the method of terror and violence, they were particularly cruel and illegible in the choice of means, which ultimately alienated the bulk of the workers they were counting on to support.

Students who became terrorists

As is often the case in history, the terrorist organization was born in the midst of undergraduates, this time at the University of Trento. In 1970, Renato Curcho, with his girlfriend and later wife, Mara Cagol, created an underground youth organization whose goal was an armed struggle for the creation of a revolutionary state and the withdrawal of Italy from an alliance with Western countries, including the NATO bloc.

In addition to violent actions, including killings, kidnappings, blackmail and extortion, the Red Brigades also used quite legal methods of political struggle during their initial period of activity - agitation, propaganda and the establishment 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 a right-wing socialist organization, Renato Curcio and his supporters were forced to go underground.

The arrest of the leader of the militants

From this moment, their main tactic is political terrorism. "Red Brigades" (Italy) left in history a truly bloody trail. Suffice it to say that during the first decade of their activities, members of the organization, which, according to official figures, included twenty-five thousand people, committed 14,000 acts of violence, of which more than a hundred were murders.

In 1974, the government special services arrested Renato Curcio and several other leaders of the organization. This became possible due to the actions of the 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 release him. Only a few months later the convicted terrorist was again imprisoned behind bars.

Abductions and extortion

But, contrary to the expectations of the authorities, having lost their leader, the militants have greatly intensified their actions. They carried out a number of kidnappings of political figures and employees of the justice apparatus in order to exert pressure on the government. Every time their demands were not met, they mercilessly killed their victims.

The main source of funding for the organization was the kidnapping of large entrepreneurs to obtain ransom. They also did not disdain the banal robberies of banks and rich houses. Law enforcement agencies in Italy waged an active struggle against terrorists, and many of them were in prison.

Murder of the ex-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 political figure, former Prime Minister Aldo Moro, organized by the new leader of the group, Mario Moretti.

The militants kidnapped their prey, after killing five of its 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 demands by the authorities, they shot him and the corpse was left in the trunk of a car thrown in the street. This was one of the most notorious crimes committed by the Red Brigades.

In Italy, the photo of the ex-prime minister, filmed by the kidnappers against the background of their flag, and then dead in the trunk of the car, bypassed the front pages of all newspapers. Not surprisingly, with such gangster methods of solving social problems, the members of the organization were finally compromised in the eyes of the people.

Sunset activity of the organization

Eighties "Red Brigades" managed to survive with great difficulty. In their ranks there was a split, as a result of which two independent branches independent of each other 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 number of militants were behind bars.

The "Red Brigades" in Italy, the historiography of which constitutes a whole section in the research of sociologists and historians of modern times, was widely felt to have suffered in many ways as a result of the unseemly actions of most of its members who were imprisoned. It is known that many of them, for the sake of mitigating the sentence, went to cooperate with the police and provided substantial assistance in capturing their recent comrades-in-arms.

Successors of murderers

In the late nineties, in many countries of Western Europe, there was an increase in social tensions, and with it political terrorism also intensified. The "Red Brigades" (Italy) in this connection 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 followed a certain tactic of action. The only thing they shared was that they all claimed their continuity to the previous terrorist group, which left a bloody trace in the history of the country.