From office boy to United Nations member
Documentary, photographic and reprinted material, in facsimile copy, of the book Soldati senz'armi published in Rome, 1944. For the vast majority of people from Ferrara Leonida Felletti was, and perhaps still is, one of the "famous unknown". Yet from Longastrino he went on to occupy an important position at the United Nations in New York, in 1953. Leonida Felletti began work whilst still a youngster at the Corriere Padano in Ferrara, first as a messenger, then as a reporter and editor. During this period on the newspaper he made friends with prominent writers, including the editor Nello Quilici who would later become the best man at his wedding. His acute intellectual qualities were soon noted and, in 1940, he was called to Rome to the State Agency Stefani where he worked as war correspondent. In
1944 he met Federico Comandini, intellectual of the Giustizia e Libertà movement, who published the book Soldati senz'armi. Felletti was born in Longastrino di Argenta on the 28th of December 1906 and moved to Ferrara with his family in 1909. "Longastrino is a quaint frontier village. Like most communities in the vast Po delta it stretches along one of the numerous branches of the great river. [...] On the long thin strips of land man has created fields to plough and sow, pastures for the animals, cane and reed huts and homes for shelter. Over the years the huts gave way to "walled and roofed houses" and the real village was born (from Franco Cazzola's introduction to Storia di Longastrino in età medioevale e moderna by Dante Leoni and Giovanni Montanari, Cesena, Il Ponte Vecchio, 2002). This was the place where Leonida Felletti was born over one hundred years ago. An extraordinary character who, even though disadvantaged by the modest economic conditions of his family, managed to be appointed to the coveted post of representing Italy at the United Nations, with special mandate for
work and emigration. The young Felletti began his working life in an unassuming job but, thanks to his intelligence and strong will, he continued to study. He started work at the Corriere Padano in 1926. The newspaper had a reputation as a voice of opposition and Mussolini, as well as the Cabinet Office, received personal copies sent in sealed envelopes to Villa Torlonia. Above all the Corriere differed because of the high level of cultural content and the reputation of many of its staff. Soon Felletti was promoted to working on the prestigious "page three", the culture page. It was a period of intense activity: conferences, coordinating journalists, reviews, elaborating theories, promoting and soliciting new tendencies. His career took an important step forward in 1940, when he was invited to Rome to work at the press
agency Stefani, the official Italian State organ. Stefani had the task of distributing general news and, predominantly, government press releases to the newspapers; government censorship transformed the agency into an instrument of information control. On June 10th 1940, with the declaration of war, Leonida Felletti was sent as war correspondent firstly to the French and then to the Libyan-Egyptian fronts. He witnessed the dramatic conditions of Italian troops in El Alamein and the Battle of Caporetto, and was declared a disabled veteran as a result of the fighting. The book Soldati senz'armi, written in 1944 at the end of the North African campaign, is a work of love and respect for those who lost their lives, frozen in the snow or
scorched in the desert but, above all, it is a damming indictment of the organization and logistics of war. After the war Felletti returned to Rome, where he had moved with his family in 1941. Italy was in a dramatic state of economic, political and institutional turmoil as a result of the world conflict. In 1945 he met Alcide De Gasperi, and made specific proposals concerning Italian expatriates with regard to emigration and work problems. This led to the conception of the magazine Italiani nel Mondo which Felletti, both creator and founder, was editor from the first issue of May 10th 1945 until May 1972. The aim of Italiani nel Mondo was made quite clear in the editorial of the first copy:" [...] to throw a life-line of hope to Italians all round the world who languish in prison and concentration camps. A message of hope and faith in the future". The spirit of this Italian periodical, especially with regard to the important issue of work and emigration, crossed national boundaries and became a point of inquiry and reference for the most qualified and institutionally authoritative bodies. Consequently Felletti was requested to join BIT (Bureau International du Travail – International Labour Office) in Geneva. In 1945 he created the AIM agency for the diffusion of press and radio in the Italian language abroad. After a memorable meeting with H.R.H. Umberto of Savoia, Prince of Piedmont, in 1955 he became head of the Italian Delegation at the United Nations for the aforementioned issues. In 1956 he was nominated as an expert on the UN Economic and Social Council and in 1957 was elected as a member of the UN Executive Council. In 1963 he was awarded the prestigious "Nansel Medal", the highest honour that the United Nations confers for dedication to work. In February 1937 Leonida Felletti married Bianca Maria Maj, an archaeologist from Forli, whose aristocratic family included an illustrious Roman cardinal among its ancestors. Ms. Maj held several important posts in Ferrara, at the Greek-Etruscan museum, and in Rome. From this brief account we can distinguish the multifaceted personality of our yellow citizen who, during the 1930's, ventured his hand as a novelist using the Russian pseudonym Leonida Leonidoff. His work was successfully published in important Italian newspapers and foreign magazines.