Page 267 - Conflitti Militari e Popolazioni Civili - Tomo II

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front of the Entente powers. With this new government Romanelli was definitely deprived
th
of any tasks and consequently went back to Italy, on November the 16 , 1919. His comeback
was ordered from Rome, but advised by his chiefs in Budapest. At this news Hungarian civil-
ians reacted with protests and fear for what would have come: they were in fact aware that
they were losing the only person that had dared to challenge the politicians, the religion and
hierarchies in general in order to defend their position. In this occasion the Colonel received
numerous thankful letters and telegrams from numerous and different cities in Hungary and
his pictures appeared, in sign of respect, on the shops and buildings of the capital. In Novem-
ber 1922 Hungarian Parliament, admitting his merits and generosity, gave to Colonel Ro-
manelli the tribute Diszkard (a sword of honour, at the moment kept in the Vittoriano in
Rome) and a sculpture in Ludovika Akademia’s park in Budapest (fluxed in 1952 to make
Stalin’s Bronze Monument) symbols of gratitude of Hungarian population for what he had
done in Hungary. In popular folk memory, in fact, “Romanelli non era più una persona, ma
un mito, una leggenda. Nella fastosa dimora del magnate magiaro come nell’umile casa del
povero, a Budapest come nella città o nei villaggi della pusta ungherese, finanche oltre il
confine politico, se popolato da genti magiare, il (…) nome era diventato familiare a tutti, e
tutti lo pronunziavano con la riverenza e la riconoscenza con cui si nomina un eroe naziona-
le (…)”. Forgotten during the Cold War, after Socialist Regime’s fall Romanelli’s actions
11
were revalued in 2000 by some Italian-Hungarian celebrations: after two years, the Ufficio
Storico dello Stato Maggiore dell’Esercito (Italian General Staff Historic Office) published
his memoirs – which I used for this work – under supervision of Antonello Biagini, Professor
of Eastern Europe History at “La Sapienza”, University of Rome, as to show the important
role of mediator of Italy and of his representative in Budapest in the post-war period. In the
new European context, after the break-up of Soviet Union, in fact revaluing events like the
one of the Italian Military Mission in Budapest, could help to incline towards Countries di-
vided since half of the century by ideological and political rivalry, that have common history
and continental culture in the past (obviously considering the differences), important to dis-
cover as to improve European integration, hoping it will become every day more traditional
and cultural and not only economical.

10 See a. BiaGini, Storia dell’Ungheria..., pp. 77-122. About Hungarian History between the two World Wars
see also C. a. maCaRtnEy, Hungary and Her successor. The Treaty of Trianon and its consequenses 1919-
1937, London – New York – Toronto, Oxford University Press, 1937; C. A. maCaRtnEy, October fifteenth: A
history of Hungary 1929-1945, 2 voll., Edinburgh, University press, 1957; G. JuháSz, Hungarian foreign po-
licy, 1919-1945, Budapest, Akadémiai Kiadó, 1979; h. SEton-WatSon, Le democrazie impossibili: l’Europa
orientale tra le due guerre mondiali, Soveria Mannelli, Rubbettino, 1992; G. Réti, Hungarian-Italian Re-
lations in the Shadow of Hitler’s Germany, 1933-1940, New York, Columbia University Press, 2003. For
an important witness of the period see also M. hoRthy, Memorie. Una vita per l’Ungheria, Roma, Corso,
1956.
11 “Romanelli wasn’t anymore just a person, but a myth, a legend. Both in the sumptuous house of the magyar
rich and in the house of the poor, both in Budapest and in cities and villages of Hungarian Puszta, also
beyond the political border, if populated by Hungarian people, the (…) name became familiar to everybody,
and everyone pronounced it with reverence and gratitude, like a national hero”; G. RomanElli, Nell’Unghe-
ria di Béla Kun…, p. 5.