Armed Revolutionary Nuclei

The Armed Revolutionary Nuclei (Italian: Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari), abbreviated NAR, was an Italian terrorist neofascist militant organization active during the Years of Lead from 1977 to November 1981. It committed 33 murders in four years, and had planned to assassinate Francesco Cossiga, Gianfranco Fini and Adolfo Urso. The group maintained close links with the Banda della Magliana, a Rome-based criminal organization, which provided such logistical support as lodging, false papers, weapons, and bombs to the NAR. In November 1981, it was discovered that the NAR hid weapons in the basements of the Health Ministry. The first trial against them sentenced 53 persons on 2 May 1985 on charges of terrorist activities.[2][3]

For the Greek far-left paramilitary group, see Revolutionary Nuclei.

Armed Revolutionary Nuclei
Nuceli Armati Rivoluzionari
Leader(s)	Valerio Fioravanti
Dates of operation	1977 (1977)–1981 (1981)
Active regions	Italy
Ideology	Neo-fascism Third Positionism Far-right extremism[1]

Ideology

The late seventies were a time of political violence in the form of bombings, assassinations, and street warfare between rival militant factions. Young neo-fascists saw the state-sanctioned far-right political party MSI as betraying them, through inaction in the face of attacks by political opponents and the police such as the Acca Larentia killings.[4] Influenced by leftist movements, a large group of far-right youths, including Fioravanti and his close associates, moved from street-fighting to terrorism. Unlike their left-wing counterparts, they emphasised personal qualities like spontaneity and willingness to fight, even in a lost cause, over political objectives.[2] Fioravanti has said, "About defeat we never cared, we are a generation of losers, always on the side of the defeated."[5]

Members

The NAR were directed by former RAI child actor, Valerio Fioravanti, his brother Cristiano Fioravanti, Dario Pedretti, Francesca Mambro and Alessandro Alibrandi, who were previous militants of the Movimento Sociale Italiano (MSI).[6]

Other important members included: Luigi Ciavardini, Gilberto Cavallini, Stefano Soderini, Franco Anselmi, Giorgio Vale, Massimo Carminati, Claudio Bracci, Stefano Bracci, Mario Corsi a.k.a. "Marione" (Big Mario), Stefano Tiraboschi, Lino Lai, Paolo Pizzonia, Patrizio Trochei, Walter Sordi, Marco Mario Massimi, Pasquale Belsito, Fiorenzo Trincanato, Andrea Vian.

In 1980, NAR member Giorgio Vale became the leader of Terza Posizione, which was used as a front for the NAR.

Actions

1980 Bologna massacre

NAR members Valerio Fioravanti and Francesca Mambro have been sentenced as responsible for the 1980 bombing of the Bologna main train station which killed 85 people. Three days after that bombing Fioravanti and Mambro robbed an arms dealer in Rome.[7]

Weapons cache in the Health Ministry

On 25 November 1981, Italian authorities discovered a weapons cache in the basements of the Health Ministry. According to the Magliana pentito, Maurizio Abbatino, NAR member Massimo Carminati was the only one who could freely access the weapons cache. Massimo Carminati not only held close links with the Banda della Magliana, but also with SISMI secret agents, in particular General Pietro Musumeci and colonel Giuseppe Belmonte, a member of the Propaganda Due Masonic lodge.

Assassinations

On 23 June 1980, NAR members Gilberto Cavallini and Luigi Ciavardini (who was later sentenced to a 30-year prison term in 2007 for his role in the 1980 Bologna bombings)[8] assassinated magistrate Mario Amato. Amato had been made responsible for investigations into the radical right in Italy after the assassination of judge Vittorio Occorsio on 10 July 1976. The two NAR members were also responsible for the earlier slaying of Francesco Evangelista on 28 May 1980.[9]

See also

• Banda della Magliana
• Strategy of tension
• Assassination of Carmine Pecorelli
• 1980 Bologna massacre

References

1. Colombo, Andrea (2007). Storia Nera. Cairo. ISBN 88-6052-091-6.
2. Zanarini, Manuel (10 June 2008). "NAR: lo spontaneismo armato neofascista". Arianna Editrice (in Italian). Retrieved 10 October 2019.
3. "Fioravanti e lo spontaneismo armato dei NAR". Corriere della Sera (in Italian). 3 August 2009. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
4. Minnucci, Marzia (2014). "A destra del MSI: evoluzione armata della destra radicale" (PDF). LuissThesis. School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton: 3. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
5. Ferraresi, Franco (1996). Threats to Democracy: The Radical Right in Italy After the War. Princeton University Press. p. 192. doi:10.2307/2585728. ISBN 9781400815845. JSTOR j.ctt7sspj.
6. NAR: “spostati” o figli (il)legittimi del Movimento Sociale Italiano? Una replica da lontano al Fatto Quotidiano, Fascinazione, December 08, 2014 (in Italian)
7. Tassinari, 2008, p. 626
8. "Strage di Bologna, 30 anni a Ciavardini - Cassazione conferma la condanna all'ex Nar". La Repubblica (in Italian). Gruppo Editoriale L’Espresso Spa. 11 April 2007. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
9. "Arrestato l'estremista nero Ciavardini per una rapina a mano armata". La Repubblica (in Italian). Gruppo Editoriale L’Espresso Spa. October 10, 2006. Retrieved 10 October 2019.

• Tassinari, Ugo Maria (2008). Fascisteria. Sperling & Kupfer. ISBN 88-200-4449-8.

Further reading

• Combs, Cindy C.; Slann, Martin W. (2009). Encyclopedia of Terrorism, Revised Edition. Infobase Publishing. p. 21. ISBN 978-1-4381-1019-6.
• Nash, Jay Robert (1998). Terrorism in the 20th Century: A Narrative Encyclopedia From the Anarchists, through the Weathermen, to the Unabomber. M. Evans. p. 374. ISBN 978-1-4617-4769-7.