The left alternative in 20th Century
L’Istituto nazionale Ferruccio Parri partecipa e collabora alla conferenza:
THE LEFT ALTERNATIVE IN THE 20TH
CENTURY: DRAMA OF IDEAS AND PERSONAL STORIES
Mosca, 26–28 Giugno 2019
Nell’occasione, il Responsabile dell’archivio dell’Istituto nazionale – Andrea Torre – descriverà il progetto del database degli antifascisti, volontari e combattenti della guerra di Spagna
«OGGI IN SPAGNA, DOMANI IN ITALIA»
AN INTERACTIVE DATABASE OF THE ITALIAN ANTIFASCISTS
VOLUNTEERS IN THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR:
BIOGRAFICAL TRAJECTORIES THROUGH TIME AND SPACE
Abstract
80 years ago man and women from 53 nations joined the International Brigades to defend the Republica from the threat of fascism. From 19th July 1936 to 1st April 1939 the Spain was the stage where an anticipation of the World War II was performed and the tough conflict between different souls of the alternative left definitively emerged. In few months and in a small area were unleashed tensions accumulated in previous decades, which will be spread all over the world during the «short century». Biographies of Italians antifascist volunteers, fulfilled in 144 years besides oceans and borders, overstep the 20th century. Through their lives it can be read the evolution of the left alternative from the 19th to the 21th centuries throughout five continents.
Since 2012 the Italian Association of Antifascists Combatants and Volunteers in Spain (Aicvas) and the National Institute Ferruccio Parri started to plan a basic biographical database of the about 4.500 Italian volunteers. But, when the project started, it was realized that a much more complex planning was needed: a «polycentric digital tool» formed by seven different databases concerning biographies, events, institutions, places, pictures, documents, sources. During these years it has be done many efforts to link documents and archives uploaded by others Institutions (e.g. RGASPI in Moscow, Cdmh in Salamanca, Alba in New York, national archives of many countries). Besides revealing itself as a precious tool for developing macrohistorical, statistical and quantitative researches, the tool allows the users to relate to the biographical trajectories of the antifascist volunteers – communists, anarchists, socialists, republicans.
To this day the database contains file concerning 3.457 biographies,4.914 pseudonyms, 992 institutions, 85 events, 2.207 places, 2.509 pictures, 5.063 documents, 858 books, 344 archival funds preserved in 92 archives spread all over the world, 212 database or computer sources. The project is still ongoing.