Giangiacomo Feltrinelli and the origins of revolutionary terrorism in Italy

Abstract

This article examines a very significant case of the third terrorist wave, that of the Italian Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, who was the most active European editor in disseminating the ideas of the new left and the examples of armed struggle outside Europe, especially in Latin America, and at the same time was the promoter of the first Italian armed gang of those years, the Partisan Action Groups (GAP). The objectives are to identify the factors of the radicalisation process that led him to the armed struggle, to examine the real entity of the GAP and to clarify the circumstances of his death. The main source is the documentation of the Italian Ministry of the Interior, recently declassified and accessible in the Central State Archive in Rome.