Raffaele Schiavina

Raffaele Schiavina (8 April 1894 – 23 November 1987) was an Italian anarchist newspaper editor and writer also known by the pseudonyms Max Sartin, and Bruno. From 1928 to 1970 he edited and wrote for the US-based Italian-language anarchist newspaper L’Adunata dei Refrattari.

Raffaele Schiavina
Police photo of Schiavina following his deportation from the US to Italy in 1919
Born(1894-04-08)8 April 1894
San Carlo, Ferrara, Italy
Died23 November 1987(1987-11-23) (aged 93)
Salt Lake City, Utah, US
Other names
  • Max Sartin
  • Bruno
  • Melchior Steele
Occupations
  • Newspaper editor
  • Writer
Movement
PartnerFlorence Rossi

Biography

Schiavina was born in the village of San Carlo in Ferrara, Italy to Angelo and Albina Lodi.[1][2] Having finished school, in 1912 he left Italy for the United States, settling in Brockton, Massachusetts. In 1914 he read Peter Kropotkin's Memoirs of a Revolutionist, subscribed to the Galleanista newspaper Cronaca Sovversiva, and soon converted to anarchism and became a close follower and friend of insurrectionary anarchist Luigi Galleani.[3][4] In 1916 he became an administrator for Cronaca Sovversiva.[1]

In 1917 Schiavina was arrested for refusing to register for conscription, spending 12 months in prison before being deported back to Italy in June 1919 along with Galleani.[2][3] On arrival in Italy he was imprisoned for desertion before being released in September 1919 as part of a government amnesty. At the beginning of 1920 he moved to Turin where they resumed publishing Cronaca Sovversiva.[1] In Fabriano in August 1921 Schiavina was arrested and accused of being a member of the militant antifascist group Arditi del Popolo, remaining in prison until acquitted in October 1922.[1]

At the start of 1923, with Mussolini having come to power, Schiavina fled Italy to Paris where he worked as a weaver alongside writing for the newspapers La Difesa per Sacco e Vanzetti and Il Monito. He was active in the French anti-fascist movement and the campaign to free Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, authoring the 1927 book Sacco e Vanzetti.[3][5][6]

In March 1928 he was smuggled into the United States under the pseudonym Max Sartin.[1][5][4] He soon took over the editorship of the New York City based newspaper L’Adunata dei Refrattari, remaining editor until 1970.[3] In 1931 he began a relationship with Florina Rossi, staying together for the rest of his life.[7] Schiavina wrote under various pseudonyms, and regularly used L’Adunata to fiercely criticise fellow anarchist Carlo Tresca, continuing even after Tresca's death.[8] Schiavina died in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1987.[1] Schiavina spent 59 years living under the false identity Max Sartin, fearing that the authorities would identify and deport him.[5][4]

References
  1. "SCHIAVINA, Raffaele". Biblioteca Franco Serantini. Dizionario Biografico Online Degli Anarchici Italiani (in Italian). Archived from the original on 8 May 2022. Retrieved 7 May 2022.
  2. Brodie, Morris (2020). Transatlantic Anarchism During the Spanish Civil War and Revolution, 1936–1939: Fury Over Spain. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. p. 242. ISBN 978-0-429-32876-3. OCLC 1135094599. Archived from the original on 2022-07-10. Retrieved 2022-05-08.
  3. Schiavina, Raffaele. "Autobiographical Notes by Raffaele Schiavina aka Max Sartin". Kate Sharpley Library. Paul Sharkey (translator). Archived from the original on 2 February 2022. Retrieved 7 May 2022. translated into English from Schiavina, Raffaele (August 1999). "Max Sartin, breve autobiografia" (PDF). Bollettino Archivio G. Pinelli (in Italian). Centro Studi Libertari: 43–45. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-04-19. Retrieved 2022-05-08.
  4. Berman, Paul (17 May 1988). "The Torch & The Axe: The Unknown Aftermath of the Sacco-Vanzetti Affair". The Village Voice. Archived from the original on 8 May 2022. Retrieved 8 May 2022.
  5. Avrich, Paul (1991). Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. pp. 213–217. ISBN 0-691-04789-8. OCLC 21971831. Archived from the original on 2022-05-08. Retrieved 2022-05-08.
  6. Schiavina, Raffaele (1927). Sacco e Vanzetti: Cause e fini di un delitto di Stato (in French). Paris: Jean Bucco.
  7. Avrich, Paul (1995). "Florence Rossi". Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America. Internet Archive. Princeton University Press. pp. 136–137. ISBN 978-0-691-03412-6.
  8. Pernicone, Nunzio (2015). Carlo Tresca: Portrait of a Rebel. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 201, 236. ISBN 978-1-349-52834-9. OCLC 951524617. Archived from the original on 2022-07-10. Retrieved 2022-05-08.
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