Why I Wrote... The Red Boot
By Raffaele Gaggioli.
I’ve always been passionate about alternate history, even though this genre isn’t very common in Italian literature. For this reason, as soon as I had the chance, I started visiting forums and buying alternate history books in English.
One problem I encountered with this approach was that I rarely found discussions, books, or other material concerning Italian history. In most cases, authors focused on creating alternate history scenarios for the United States or England, that is, their home countries.
Italy was rarely considered, and in most cases, the various alternate history scenarios centered on the period of the Fascist dictatorship. Occasionally, some authors chose instead to write alternative histories in which the communists took control of Italy. However, the authors also seemed convinced that the only two possible scenarios were a Stalinist dictatorship under the leadership of Palmiro Togliatti or a perfect libertarian utopia under the leadership of Enrico Berlinguer.
This last part particularly bothered me, given that for decades the Italian Communist Party had been one of the main political forces on the peninsula. Many leaders and other political figures had succeeded one another at its helm or had otherwise played an important role within the party and in Italian politics.
In short, it seemed reductive to me to reduce this political force to just two opposing poles, ignoring its numerous contradictions and internal ideological currents.
I’ve always thought that these historical figures, along with Italy’s chaotic post-World War II history, would be interesting to use in a work of alternate history centered on my country. That's when I realized I could simply write an alternate history book on that topic, instead of just complaining to myself.
First of all, I wanted to use the book to highlight the various unusual characteristics of the Italian Communist Party and how these might have influenced its potential governance of the Italian peninsula. The PCI and its various allies (such as the Socialist Party) were in fact deeply divided internally, not only between pro- and anti-Soviet factions, but also based on their economic and social ideas.
Secondly, part of me wanted to show how major events in post-World War II Italian history might have unfolded differently in this timeline.
Obviously, the first challenge was to find a realistic point of divergence that could have allowed the PCI and its allies to win, or at least to perform better in, the 1948 elections. At first I had thought of focusing solely on the 1948 elections but I realized that a stronger point of divergence was needed to justify a Communist takeover.
First of all, I decided to eliminate Alcide De Gasperi. In our timeline, his work was crucial in easing the tensions caused by the Civil War after 1945 and was able to keep the domestic situation calm after the assassination attempt on Togliatti. Meanwhile his deputy, Mario Scelba, was well known for his hostility and paranoia toward anyone suspected of sympathizing with communism.
Scelba is a little-known figure outside of Italy, even though the law against the glorification of fascism in Italy bears his name. He was also, by any measure, utterly obsessed with the idea that there was some communist conspiracy against him. As the Minister of the Interior, he encouraged De Gasperi to take a hard line against the PCI and its allies, but fortunately, he was always ignored in real life.
In this alternate timeline, Scelba is in charge of Italy, and there is no one who can effectively curb his paranoia. The results are disastrous
Then, for good measure, I decided to add another point of divergence. I had World War II end in a slightly different way compared to our timeline. I arranged for France to succeed in conquering the Aosta Valley (in real life, the attempted invasion was nipped in the bud by the other Allied forces), while Istria remained in Italian hands.
Yes, I imagined that this would somehow have changed the outcome of the 1948 Italian elections. After all, the loss of Istria, along with the massacres of Italian civilians in the region at the hands of Tito’s partisans, significantly damaged the Communists’ popularity in northern Italy prior to 1948 in our timeline. At the same time, I think that the loss of the Aosta Valley would have had the opposite effect on the Christian Democrats and other Italian right-wing parties in this alternate timeline.
In short, I wanted to use these two territories to show how, in the alternate timeline, mainland Italy would have embraced Moscow’s communism rather than Washington’s capitalism.
Then there was the matter of choosing the various leaders of socialist-communist Italy. I won’t lie, I chose these leaders based both on plausibility and on how entertaining it would be to put certain historical figures at the helm of mainland Italy. Fortunately, Italian history is full of colorful figures that I was free to use.
I tried to portray them as accurately as possible, avoiding both demonizing them and, worse still, glorifying them while ignoring their real-life flaws. By this I mean that yes, Scelba and de Lorenzo were in real life exactly as I portrayed them in my book.
Am I proud of the final result? Yes, I’d say so. After all, it was the first time I’d written something like this, and, on top of that, in a language other than the one I speak in everyday life. I think I used historical figures and events that have rarely, if ever, been used before in other works of alternate history related to Italian history.
Perhaps I should have paid a little more attention to the world outside the Italian peninsula. I regret a bit that I used other countries as mere narrative devices, especially China. All in all, though, I’m happy with the final result, and I hope readers will feel the same way.
The Red Boot is on sale at Amazon and all Books2Read retailers now.
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