Context The Resistance in Valsesia began on the very evening of the armistice when, headed by the first citizen, Cav. Osella, the Valsesian Committee of Resistance had been formed in Varallo (lawyer Barbano, Peter Grober, Ezio Grassi, and lawyer Balossino were also members) [... ] on September 11, the Committee appointed
Cino Moscatelli, a long-time member of the PCI's clandestine organization, and 'Ciro' (
Eraldo Gastone) to command the military organization in Valsesia; charging them with overseeing the first collection centers immediately formed in some localities in the valley: at the
Piane,
Campertogno,
Briasco, and .
Beginning After more than six months of occupation of Valsesia, in June 1944 the 63rd Battalion (a Fascist unit specializing in anti-guerrilla warfare, later renamed the “Tagliamento” Legion) was assigned to the defense of the
Gothic Line, in the belief that the partisan movement had been repressed. Fully disproving this belief, Resistance formations immediately descended into the major population centers of the valley floor, Varallo, and Borgosesia in particular, taking control of the territory from there. Despite the choice to resort to a non-democratic institutional form, the experience of the free zone brought the population considerably closer to the partisan movement.
Government The “free zone” was born in a climate of great uncertainty and fear of enemy counterattack. Given the precariousness of the situation, the proposal of a CLNAI government, put forward by the committees themselves through the April 1944 directives, was discarded. Management was therefore entrusted to civilian commissioners, figures created on that specific occasion. In several localities the
podestà themselves, if not invisible to the population or compromised with the newly fallen regime, were appointed commissioners. The civil commissioner had, among others, the delicate task of supervising all businesses and factories. A Division “art office” was also active, making insignia (edelweiss on a red and blue field, distributed during August 1944, see sect. Insignia) and armbands for the various corps, stamps, postcards, and propaganda posters. Numerous public initiatives are also recalled. By way of example, two events were held in
Varallo: on June 23, 1944, a conference with a patriotic theme was organized; on July 25, a few days after the counterattack following the Nazi-Fascist roundups of July 2-19, the band held a concert. placed alongside the Varallo Sesia
praetor a judicial commissioner, an expression of the
National Liberation Committee itself, in charge of intervening in both civil and criminal cases: He received in view every trial file from the praetor, directed cases and ratified sentences, with the power to toughen or alleviate the penalties imposed. The praetor and commissioner, however, had equal decision-making weight; in case of disagreement, the military authority had the final say. In contrast, the jurisdiction of military offenses remained with the divisional command. Spies and collaborationists were immediately sentenced to death by hanging. For juvenile offenders, parents were held responsible.
The End As Nazi-Fascist units were about to return, the partisan commands opted to move their forces toward
Alagna, in order thus to proceed with the disengagement through the side valleys, according to the tactic established during the April roundup. Given the volume of recently acquired recruits, however, more than a thousand people had to be mobilized in July, many of them unfamiliar with the mountains and without adequate footwear: the disengagement turned into a disorderly retreat, during which numerous fighters were arrested, abetted by a network of informers loyal to the regime. == Historiography ==