The Italian War on the Eastern Front, 1941-1943: Operations, Myths and Memories

by Bastian Matteo Scianna

Overview

The Italian Army’s participation in Hitler’s war against the Soviet Union has remained unrecognized and understudied. Bastian Matteo Scianna offers a wide-ranging, in-depth corrective. Mining Italian, German and Russian sources, he examines the history of the Italian campaign in the East between 1941 and 1943, as well as how the campaign was remembered and memorialized in the domestic and international arena during the Cold War. Linking operational military history with memory studies, this book revises our understanding of the Italian Army in the Second World War.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783030265243
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan
Publication date:	09/09/2019
Series:	Italian and Italian American Studies
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Bastian Matteo Scianna is Assistant Professor at the University of Potsdam, Germany.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction.- 2. Historiography: Past Problems and Recent Trends.- 3. The Italian Army before the Second World War (1861–1940).- 4. The guerra fascista – 10 June 1940–25 July 1943.- 5. The Italian Operations on the Eastern Front (1941).- 6. The Italian Operations on the Eastern Front (1942).- 7. The Battle on the Don, 11 December 1942–31 December 1943.- 8. The Italian Combat Performance: ‘Chicken led by Donkeys?’.- 9. Narratives about Victimhood: Evil Germans, Good Italian Occupiers, and  Evil Soviets?.- 10. Shaping the Myths: Memoirs, the Army, and the Alpini.- 11. Contested Memories during the Cold War.- 12. Conclusion.

Editorial Reviews

Bastian Matteo Scianna’s book is a welcoming addition … . The author’s mission throughout his volume is clear … . The Italian War on the Eastern Front, 1941-1943, Operations, Myths and Memories is a mandatory book that should be on the shelves of those who want to nuance the history of not only the Eastern Front, but the Italian army in the Second World War, going beyond the prejudices of the Operetta Army trope.” (Emanuele Sica, War in History, Vol. 28 (4), 2021)

“... Gemeinsam mit der Gegenüberstellung von Memoirenliteratur, theoretischer Wissenschaftsdiskurse und innenpolitischer Narrative entsteht ein pluralistischer, die wichtigsten und divergenten Blickwinkel umfassender Methodenzugang, der geeignet ist, tradierte Mythen nachhaltig zu dekonstruieren. Scianna hat zweifelsohne einen bedeutenden Beitrag zur Versachlichung der Frage nach dem Wirken italienischer Soldaten an der Front zur Sowjetunion 1941-1943 geleistet, der als eine Landmarke für die nachfolgende Forschung dient.” (Richard Germann, in: Connections, 24. April 2021)

From the Publisher