Ghezzi Francesco Iulio

Genus. in 1893 in Milan in a working-class family; Italian. In 1909 he joined the anarchists, from 1912 he was an activist of the USI (Italian Syndical Union), in 1914 he emigrated to France, from 1916 to Switzerland, in 1920 he was a delegate of the ISS at the 2nd Congress of the Comintern. In 1920 he returned to Milan, where, while underground, he became a member of a fighting squad, organized acts of sabotage, was sentenced to death in absentia, and in June 1921 he came to the USSR, from where he left for Germany. In 1922 he was accused of terrorism by the Italian government, received political asylum and arrived in the USSR in January 1923, living in an anarchic agricultural commune in Yalta. From 1926 he lived in Moscow, from April 1928 he worked as a press operator in the Labormetiz artel, then as an equipment acceptance controller at the ZIP (Testing Instruments Plant). Legal anarchist socialist in Moscow. In January 1928, he joined the Scientific Section of the All-Russian Public Committee (VOK) to perpetuate the memory of P.A. Kropotkin; on March 25, 1928, together with other anarchists, he resigned from the VOK and signed the appeal “To the Anarchists!”, accusing the Soviet authorities of persecuting anarchists. In May 1929, he was arrested by the OGPU during the liquidation of Moscow anarchists, sentenced by the OSO KOGPU on May 31, 1929 to 3 years in prison, served in the Suzdal political isolation ward; the case attracted the attention of the international trade union and anarchist movement, and as a result of a protest campaign organized by R. Rolland, 01/03/1931 was released early, with the imprisonment replaced by exile to Kazakhstan for the remainder of the term; released on March 18, 1931, settled in the village. Odintsovo, Moscow region, returned to ZIP. One of the last legal Moscow anarcho-syndicalists. In 1937 he worked as a factory worker; arrested 05.11.1937; sentenced by the OS under the NKVD of the USSR on 04/03/1939 to 8 years in prison. In 1942 – a prisoner of the Vorkuta ITL; arrested; died in the camp on 08/03/1942 (according to other sources, on 01/13/1943 he was sentenced to death by execution); burial place - Vorkuta cemetery. Rehabilitated in the 1929 case in 1989.