Page 264 - Conflitti Militari e Popolazioni Civili - Tomo II

766 XXXIV Congresso della CommIssIone InternazIonale dI storIa mIlItare • CIHm

Colonel Guido Romanelli found himself in this difficult situation when, on the 6th of the
same month, he got the order to reach the Missione italiana d’armistizio (Italian Armistice
7
Mission) in Vienna and there he was charged to go to Budapest to lead the Italian Military
Mission, that came back in Hungary after the break between the Entente and the Bolshevik
regime. In the beginning the mission had been sent to Hungary to command respect for the
conditions of the armistice, but after Béla Kun’s changed programs Romanelli’s charge be-
came above all knowing Hungarian political situation and events that had created it. italian
delegation could go back to Budapest due to some agreements with the new Hungarian gov-
ernment, but, even if the government gave his consensus, it wasn’t probably extended to the
discussion of the conditions of the armistice, that also have caused the present war between
Hungary and neighbouring Countries. In this way the main assignments of Colonel Ro-
manelli became the protection of Italian public and private interests, the gathering of infor-
mation, the keeping of contacts with regime’s opponents and also an important role as a
middle man by the leader of the revolution, trying to convince him to accept the proposal of
creating a democratic-bourgeois government that would have ensured a larger participation
in Hungarian political life. The Italian Military Mission returned to its assignment in Bolshe-
vik Hungary, being the only representative of winning powers, because the other foreign
delegations had left Hungary. Romanelli, despite the complex political and ideological dif-
ferences, managed to establish with Béla Kun a relationship based on mutual respect, trying
to understand revolutionary ideas, that he sometimes considered reasonable; that anyway
didn’t prevent him from working over every time that the Soviet Government hit civilians
with repressive actions and reprisals, gaining Hungarian population’s award and devotion.
His moral integrity indeed led him to considerably extend his beginning activities, defending
not only Italian interests, but also civilians’ needs. The first sensitive intervention that the
head of Italian Mission carried out by Kun was the defence of some young officers responsi-
ble for the counter-revolutionary attempt that took place on 24 June 1919. Cadets of Ludo-
vika military academy took control of Budapest’s telephonic and telegraphic station, while
three monitors with the national flag passed trough the Danube and shot on the Hotel Hun-
garia, where the Workers Soviet of the city was having a reunion: anyway, due to the fact the
population didn’t participate in the insurrection, this action didn’t succeed and turned just
into a demonstrative act, and made the troops easily repress it. The following day, as to warn
the population not to try again an insurrection, the Soviet Government announced a death
sentence for people mostly involved in the event, to be execute in Oktogon Square, in the
centre of Pest; but Colonel Romanelli quickly managed to convince Béla Kun not to do it,
cause it would have created new internal violence and reprisals of the Entente. After this
event, the intercessions of the Italian Mission became more and more frequent – also de-
manded by victims of persecution or their relatives – as to obtain the release of political
hostages, or at least an improvement in their detention conditions: in addition to that, the
persecution of the old ruling classes by the regime wasn’t systematic, because the early inten-
tion of the government was to convert these classes to the Bolshevism, so Béla Kun didn’t

7 The Italian Armistice Mission in Vienna was led by General Roberto Segre. For an important testimony of
his work see his memoirs: R. SEGRE, La missione militare italiana per l’armistizio: dicembre 1918 gennaio
1920, Bologna, Zanichelli, 1928.