fbpx

Lot 20703 – The Italian Expeditionary Corps in Murmansk and Siberia: over 90 documents and photographs

1/2
Lot 20703 – The Italian Expeditionary Corps in Murmansk and Siberia: over 90 documents and photographs
Italy » Missions, Post Offices and Postal History Abroad » Russian Revolution and Civil War » Siberia
Prix réalisé
Invendu
Estimation
2’000 EUR
Date de vente
mar. 14 juin 2022 at 11:30 (Europe/Zurich)
Description

The Italian Expeditionary Corps in Murmansk and Siberia – Documents: An extraordinary assembly comprising over 90 documents and photographs related to the Italian contingents, including a « historical » diary (« Diario Storico ») handwritten in a small pocket notebook from an Italian officer, dated from his arrival to Krasnoyarsk on 29 May to 19 June 1919, relating numerous interesting events and war actions: on the 29th they are eventually under the orders of the Commander of the Czechoslovakian contingent and « I have under my orders a Czech platoon », on 1st May, commanding two platoons, he fights the enemies who escape by horse, thus enabling them to take a small town, on 12 June, fighting with the Czechs against the bolsheviks, they lose four men, and it continues relating more war actions in the following days « we find the smoking ruins of ‘Oriesknaya’ burnt yesterday evening by the Cossacks », in a different town he finds that « in every house the husband is missing because he left with the Red Guards », he also proposes medals for some men under his command for their courage, the diary also including a hand drawn map on 31 May with a locality called ‘Sosnoska’ (Sosnovka?) and also displaying a river and the line where the Russians were entrenched facing the location of his two platoons, the diary ending on 19 June, so we presume that this officer had fallen in action; additionally letters from this same officer giving more details about war events « an action together with the Czechoslovakian troops against certain Red Guards who were disturbing the Trans Siberian » or complaining how the mail took five months to arrive from Italy to Siberia; other items in the lot include hand drawn or printed maps of Siberia, « Il 7 Dei Diavoli Neri » illustrated monochromatic newspapers printed by the troops in Tientsin before being sent to Siberia, other letters with interesting details from soldiers in Murmansk, very rare telegrams from Murmansk or informing about the departure for Russia, also with one very rare example addressed to the Commander of the Italian Expeditionary Corps in Murmansk, bilingual newspapers including Cyrillic script, service sheet of a soldier in Siberia, telegram/letters informing families about the repatriation, WWI POW postcards from Italians in Russia, « Bollettino della Legione Trentina », correspondence of Engineer Giotti connected with the Italian Mission in the Caucasus, and finally the very interesting and unique group of photographs (ex Faccio) featuring some visually impressive examples of the Expeditionary Corps in China and Siberia (Krasnoyarsk), town and landscape views or the consequences of an attack to the Trans Siberian train transporting Italian troops. Viewing recommended for this unique and important lot.

Please note that we are still working on adding images for the lots. If the lot you are interested in does not have images available yet, we invite you to check again in a few days.

If you still cannot find the images you are looking for in a few days, please send us a message. Important: don’t forget to mention the lot number(s).

Thank you for your understanding.