10 Facts About Ilio Barontini

Ilio Barontini was an Italian Communist politician and guerrilla fighter.

Ilio Barontini notably fought in the Spanish Civil War and in the Italian resistance.

Ilio Barontini was born on 28 September 1890 into a peasant family in Cecina, in the province of Livorno in Tuscany.

Ilio Barontini joined the Italian Socialist Party at a young age and was a metalworker, first at Breda in Milan and then for the Italian state railways in Livorno.

Ilio Barontini volunteered in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War.

Ilio Barontini took part in the defense of Madrid and, in January 1937, replaced Antonio Roasio as political commissar of the Garibaldi Battalion, a unit consisting of Italian volunteers.

Since battalion commander Randolfo Pacciardi was absent for medical reasons, in March 1937 Ilio Barontini was de facto in command of the unit during the battle of Guadalajara, where Republicans won.

Once released Ilio Barontini worked with the FTP-MOI in Marseille area, which he organized among Italian emigrants, and the GAP and the Garibaldi Brigades in Italy.

Ilio Barontini sat in the National Council, a provisional legislative body created in the months immediately following the end of the war.

Ilio Barontini died on 22 January 1951 in a road accident in Scandicci near Florence, while returning from a party meeting.