Editing Emilio Lussu (section)

==Biography==
===The soldier===
[[File:Emilio Lussu WWI.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Lussu during [[World War I]]]]
Lussu was born in [[Armungia]], [[province of Cagliari]] ([[Sardinia]]) and graduated with a degree in law in 1914. Lussu married [[Joyce Lussu|Joyce Salvadori]], a notable poet, and member of the noble Paleotti family of the [[Marche]], who were counts of [[Fermo]]. Prior to the entry of Italy into [[World War I]], Lussu joined the army and was involved in several skirmishes. As a complementary officer of the [[Sassari Mechanized Brigade|''Sassari'' Infantry Brigade]] in 1916 he was stationed on the [[Sette Comuni|Asiago Plateau]]. The brigade had arrived on the plateau in May 1916 to help in the Italian effort to stop the Austrian [[Battle of Asiago|Spring offensive]]. In the month of June 1916 the brigade conquered [[Monte Fior]], [[Melette|Monte Castelgomberto]], [[Melette|Monte Spil]], [[Melette|Monte Miela]] and [[Monte Zebio]]. After the war Lussu published the novel "[[One Year on the High Plateau]]" (''Un anno sull'altipiano'') about his experiences of [[trench warfare]] on the Asiago Plateau. The 1970 movie ''[[Many Wars Ago]]'' ("Uomini contro") by [[Francesco Rosi]] is based on this book.

===Politics and exile===

After the war Lussu, together with [[Camillo Bellieni]], founded the ''Partidu Sardu''-''Partito Sardo d'Azione'' ([[Sardinian Action Party]]), that blended social-democratic values and [[Sardinian nationalism]]. The party took a formal position in 1921, opposing the increasing power of the [[Fascism|Fascist]] movement. Lussu was elected to the Italian parliament in 1921 and, in 1924 was among the [[Aventine Secession (20th century)|Aventine secessionists]] who withdrew from the Italian Parliament after the murder of [[Giacomo Matteotti]].

Lussu's anti-Fascist position was, at the time, one of the most radical in Italy. Lussu was physically attacked and injured by unknown aggressors several times. In 1926, during one of these attacks (notably, the same day that [[Benito Mussolini]] suffered an attack in [[Bologna]]), Lussu shot one of the ''[[Blackshirts|squadristi (italian blackshirts)]]'', in self-defense. He was arrested and tried, being found non-guilty due to the right to self defense, only to be later sentenced (due to fascist political interference) to 5 years of confinement on the island of [[Lipari]], within the [[Aeolian Islands]] near the northern coast of [[Sicily]].

In 1929 Lussu escaped from his confinement and reached Paris. There, together with [[Gaetano Salvemini]], [[Carlo Rosselli]], [[Riccardo Bauer]], [[Ernesto Rossi (politician)|Ernesto Rossi]] and other anti-fascist refugees he founded ''[[Giustizia e Libertà]]'' (Justice and Freedom), an anti-Fascist movement that proposed revolutionary methods to upset the [[Fascist Italy|Italian Fascist Regime]]. While in exile, he came to be known as "Mister Mills".

In 1938, Lussu's novel "[[One Year on the High Plateau]]" (''Un anno sull'altipiano'') was published in Paris. This thinly fictional account tells of the lives of soldiers during World War I and the trench warfare they encountered. [[One Year on the High Plateau]] underlines, with chill rationalism, how the irrationalities of warfare affected the common man. Gifted with a keen sense of observation and sharp logic, Lussu demonstrates how distant the real life of soldiers is from everyday activities. In a notable passage, he describes the silent terror in the moments preceding an attack, as he is forced to abandon the "safe" protective [[trench]] for an external unknown, risky, undefined world: "All the machine-guns are waiting for us".

===Return to Italy===

Lussu took part in the [[Spanish Civil War|civil war]] in Spain. Between 1941 and 1942 he was the protagonist of the most important "episode" of the collaboration between British [[Special Operations Executive]] and Italian antifascism in exile. He tried to get the clearance for an antifascist uprising in his home island of [[Sardinia]], which the SOE supported at some stage but did not receive approval from the [[Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office|Foreign Office]].<ref>Mireno Berrettini, La Gran Bretagna e l'Antifascismo italiano. Diplomazia clandestina, Intelligence, Operazioni Speciali (1940–1943), Firenze, 2010</ref> He returned to Italy after the [[armistice]] of 1943 when joined the [[Italian resistance movement|Italian Resistance]] and became the secretary of the [[Sardinian Action Party]] for southern Italy. He became the leader of the left wing of the party and later joined forces with the [[Italian Socialist Party]] (PSI). After World War II he served as the [[Ministry for Post-War Assistance|Minister for Post-War Assistance]] in the government of [[Ferruccio Parri]] and later as a minister without portfolio in [[Alcide De Gasperi]]'s government.

In 1964 Lussu separated from the PSI, creating the [[Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity]] (PSIUP). Ideological differences with the political line of ''Partito Sardo d'Azione'' deepened and Lussu left Sardinia.

Emilio Lussu died in Rome in 1975.