Tra politica e campo di battaglia. Genesi e forme dell’Armistizio di Villa Giusti (1-3 novembre 1918) nelle carte di Pietro Gazzera

This article analyses the events that led to the signing of the armistice between the Italian and Austro-Hungarian delegations at Villa Giusti, in Padua, on 3 November 1918. It examines the facts through the lens of an unpublished report written by one of the members of the Italian delegation, the then Colonel Pietro Gazzera, preserved at the Gazzera Foundation archives in Turin. Drawing on it, the article better defi nes the events that took place at Villa Giusti. Above all, it places these events within the broader panorama of the political-diplomatic relations between the Italian representatives at the Supreme Inter-Allied War Council in Versailles and the Allies of the Entente, and the primacy of politics over military matters, demonstrating how the will of Italian and Allied politicians aff ected the events of those turbulent days both on the front and during the talks between Italians and Austro-Hungarian at Villa Giusti. On this basis, the author rejects the accusations – evoked still today by parts of the German historiography – of Italian subterfuge and deception for achieving the destruction of the Austro-Hungarian armies, and a prompt dissolution of Vienna’s remaining political capacity, easing the complete disintegration of the Habsburg empire.