Milan riots of 1853: history and remembrance

The article recounts the revolt that took place in Milan on 6 February 1853 and investigates its presence in the official memory of the city. The main figures in the rebellion were from Milan's working class: while the movement was fomented by Mazzini, it was carried out independently by badly organized groups of workers; unlike the 'Cinque Giornate' of 1848, the upper classes were not involved. Barricades were erected and Austrian soldiers were killed, but order was promptly restored by the Austrians. The occupying forces arrested hundreds of people, executed sixteen working-class men and ordered the seizure of the goods of exiles who had left Lombardy after 1848. The article looks at how the events of 1853 were treated by historiography and local commemoration from unification to the present day. It discusses the meaning of the inclusion of that failed, impracticable uprising - a divisive one, involving as it did only figures from the lower classes - in the official justification of the city's heroism, sanctioned in 1948 when Milan was awarded the gold medal for military valour.

L’articolo rievoca i disordini avvenuti a Milano il 6 febbraio 1853, indagandone la presenza nella memoria ufficiale cittadina. La rivolta ebbe come protagonisti i ceti popolari milanesi; il moto fu fomentato da Mazzini, ma condotto in autonomia da gruppi male organizzati di popolani; i ceti superiori non furono coinvolti, diversamente che nelle Cinque giornate del 1848. Ci furono barricate e uccisioni di soldati austriaci, ma l’ordine fu prontamente ristabilito dagli austriaci, che arrestarono centinaia di persone, giustiziarono sedici popolani e disposero il sequestro dei beni degli esuli, che avevano lasciato la Lombardia dal 1849. L’articolo ripercorre la fortuna del 1853 nella storiografia e nelle commemorazioni cittadine dall’unità ai giorni nostri, interrogandosi sul senso dell’inclusione di quella rivolta velleitaria e fallimentare, divisiva perché aveva coinvolto solo elementi del popolo minuto, tra le motivazioni ufficiali dell’eroismo della città, sancite nel 1948 dal conferimento della medaglia d’oro al valore militare a Milano.