Fiorenzo Bava-Beccaris
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Fiorenzo Bava-Beccaris (March 1831 - April 8, 1924) was an Italian general, especially remembered for his harsh repression of riots in Milan in 1898, known as the Bava-Beccaris massacre.
[edit] Biography
Fiorenzo Bava-Beccaris was born in Fossano, and took part to Crimean War and the Italian Wars of Independence.
In May 1898, when serious riots broke out in Milan, the Italian government under Antonio di Rudinì declared a state of siege and General Bava-Beccaris, as extraordinary commissar of the city, ordered his soldiers to fire cannons and muskets against the unarmed crowd, (which included women and old people), who had erected several barricades during a strike. In recognition of this deed, he received the Great Cross of the Order of Savoy from King Humbert I in June, [[1898]. He was later elected to the Italian Senate. During 1914 he warmly supported the interventionist party in Italy who wished to participate in World War I, (as they did on May 25, 1915). In 1922 he recommended King Victor Emanuel III grant power to Mussolini and the P.N.F. (Partito Nazional Fascista, the National Fascist Party).
Bava-Beccaris retired on 1902. He died in Rome in 1924.
