Abstract
Carlo Silvestri had been an important figure during the 1924–1925 Matteotti investigation. He was an editor at Corriere della Sera, but a few days after the Matteotti murder he transferred to the Popolo, the Catholic newspaper directed by Giuseppe Donati. During the first investigation, the Donati-Silvestri duo led the entire press campaign for the popular anti-Mussolini newspaper. Silvestri had also been an important witness for the prosecution. He had informed investigators and the opposition press of the contents of Aldo Finzi’s memoir and the admissions Finzi made to him after his resignation. Silvestri’s depositions to prosecutors on September 29–30, 1924, implicitly indicated Mussolini as the instigator of the crime.
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Notes
- 1.
Silvestri, Matteotti Mussolini e il dramma italiano, XVII.
- 2.
Ibid., XV.
- 3.
Scritti e discorsi di Mussolini, vol. IV, Il 1924 (Milan: Hoepli, 1934), 159–160.
- 4.
The original of the letter dated 21 March 1947, is in ACS, Carte Susmel, b. 8, fasc. Silvestri C.
- 5.
Silvestri, Matteotti, Mussolini e il dramma italiano, 58–59.
- 6.
ASMAE, Archivio di Gabinetto, GM, 42, hearing scheduled 11 June 1924.
- 7.
See Dannunziana, in newspaper Avanti!, 9–10 March 1924.
- 8.
For a critical biography see G. Gabrielli, Carlo Silvestri socialista, antifascista, mussoliniano (Milan: Angeli, 1992).
- 9.
ACS, CPC, b. 4809.
- 10.
ACS, A5G II G.M., Internati, b. 308, fasc. Silvestri c; the letter is dated 3 gennaio 1941. The italics are my own.
- 11.
ACS, SPD CR RSI, b. 7, fasc. Silvestri C.
- 12.
ACS, Carte Susmel, b. 8, fasc. Silvestri C; the passage is included in the brief curriculum of Silvestri that precedes his papers, edited by Susmel.
- 13.
ACS, Carte Susmel, b. 8, fasc. Silvestri C.; manuscript of the fifth meeting of December 10, 1943, dedicated completely to reconstructing the events of the Matteotti murder.
- 14.
Silvestri, Matteotti Mussolini e il dramma italiano, 84.
- 15.
Ibid., 93.
- 16.
Ibid., 155.
- 17.
ACS, Polizia politica, Fascicoli personali, Serie A, b. 92.
- 18.
See G. F. Fusco, Con Mussolini, anche il re dietro il delitto Matteotti, in newspaper Stampa Sera, 2 January 1978.
- 19.
See Matteo Matteotti, Quei vent’anni (Milan: Rusconi, 1985), 237–244.
- 20.
See Matteo Pizzigallo, La “politica estera” dell’Agip (1933–1940) (Milan: Giuffrè, 1992), especially pp. 73–93.
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Canali, M. (2024). Mussolini’s Great Defender: Carlo Silvestri. In: The Matteotti Murder and Mussolini. Italian and Italian American Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41471-8_9
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