Emilio Lussu

A lawyer, writer, political leader and legendary fighter, Emilio Lussu was a major figure in Sardinian and Italian culture. He was born in Armungia in 1890 to a family of small landowners. He participated in the First World War as an officer of the “Sassari” Brigade, distinguishing himself for his extraordinary courage, humanity and great charism. He was one of the founders of the Sardinian Action Party. From 1921 to 1924 he was a member of parliament and openly sided against fascism. He was confined to Lipari in November 1927. During the confinement, he met Fausto Nitti and Carlo Rosselli, with whom he organized an adventurous escape in 1929 that led him to exile in Paris. The major literary works date back to these years: “The Chain” (1929) and “March on Rome and its surroundings” (1933), compelling autobiographical testimony relating to the events of the decade 1919-1929. In 1936, during his convalescence following a delicate lung surgery, he wrote “Theory on Insurrection”, a treatise on the partisan war. In 1936-37 he composed the most famous work, “A Year on the Plateau”, a profound and ironic diary of the second year of the trenches in the Great War. After the conflict ended, in 1945, he was minister of the Parri government and of the first De Gasperi government. In 1946 he was a deputy of the constituent assembly and, leaving the Sardinian Action Party, merged, with the left-wing current of his party, into the Italian Socialist Party. He died in Rome on March 5, 1975.

Update

25/6/2026 - 13:14