ENRICO SERRA
Nitti e la Russia
N. 1/1985
Summary
– Nitti was the first European statesman who realized that the reconstruction of Europe on the morrow of World War I could not take place without the reconciliation between the losers and the winners. Laid aside the United States’ isolationism, he fought for the immediate reinstatement not only of Germany but also of Russia, he held as an allied country fallen a prey to civil war. After ordering the withdrawal of the Italian troops abroad and cancelled an Italian expedition to Caucasus, he opposed the economic blockade against Russia. If he advocated the re-establishment of commercial relations with the latter, it was not because he expected large deliveries of wheat and raw materials, but because he conceived them as an indispensable premise to the restoration of normal political relations. He was indeed prophetic when he admonished the Chamber of Deputies that "If we do not do it, if Russia turns to Germany, and these two powers make common cause, a most serious and dangerous situation will arise ". As it did happen.The fact that Nitti did not succeed in carrying through his proposal of immediate recognition of U.S.S.R. was due not only to French opposition but also, and principally, to the " question of Fiume " that compelled him not to run the risk of breaking with the ex-allies.
Nitti’s programme was much more ambitious than the recognition itself. He intended to obtain on one side the inclusion of Russia in the League of Nations, strengthening the latter after the defection of the United States, and which wou1d have had moderating effects on the Bolshevik revolution itself. And, on the other side, to associate Italy with Germany in the enormous task of the reconstruction and the modernization of Russia.