Nuorese Cultural DistrictAttilio Deffenu (b. 28 December 1890, Nuoro–d. 16 June 1918, Fossalta di Piave) was an Italian intellectual, journalist and proponent of revolutionary unionism and Sardinian autonomy.
Attilio Deffenu
Description
Son of a shopkeeper and president of the Nuoro Workers’ Association, he began to develop socialist sympathies from an early age.
After completing his compulsory education, he enrolled at the Liceo Azuni in Sassari.
He continued his education in Pisa, where he took is degree in Law with a thesis titled La teoria marxista della concentrazione capitalista (the Marxist theory of capitalist concentration), already revealing what would become the cornerstones of his political thought.
This is where he became active among the ranks of reformist socialism, which he continued back on the island, returning to his hometown, where he became a contributor to La Via, the newspaper of the Socialist Party, and various other papers.
In 1914, he moved to Milan, where he became the go-to lawyer for the Italian Labour Union and this is where his personal project for the magazine Sardegna finally saw the light, with contributions from members of the Sardinian intelligentsia of the time, such as Francesco Cucca, and illustrators like Mario Delitala and Mario Mossa De Murtas.
When World War I broke out, he joined the committee of the League of Revolutionary Interventionist Action, writing its propaganda manifesto.
In the summer of 1918, his yearned for participation in the war leading the Red Devils of the Sassari Brigade ended in tragedy, with his immediate death in combat, in Croce, near Fossalta di Piave.