Gramsci recalls the incident: "Th e insurrection exploded on 23 August 1917. For fi ve days the workers fought in the streets of the city. Th e insurgents, armed with rifl es, grenades and machine guns, managed to occupy some quarters of the city and attempted three or four times to possess the city centre where the government institutions and military commands were located. . . . Th e people erected barricades, dug trenches, surrounded some districts with barbed wire and electric current and held back for fi ve days all the attacks of the troops and the police.

Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, loc. 1673