Enzo Bettiza


Vincenzo Bettiza was a Dalmatian Italian novelist, journalist, and politician.

Biography

Bettiza was born in Dalmatia, then part of Kingdom of Yugoslavia, in a rich Dalmatian Italian-Croatian family. His mother stemmed from a family of the Croatian island of Brač. His family owned the most important enterprise in Dalmatia, the Gilardi e Bettiza cement factory, in the city of Split. In 1941, Axis powers Italy and Germany invaded Yugoslavia. During Italian occupation, Bettiza's father helped many Croatian people during the war and took many of them out of Fascist prison. Enzo's cousin Pietro threw a bomb on the Italian army band, since they played Fascist marches, while Enzo himself boycotted Fascist gatherings and organizations.
In 1944, the city was again rejoined to Croatia in new Yugoslavia. Many Italian families left already after the fall of Mussolini, after they realized that things were going badly in the country. Some Italian and mixed remained, part of them used the opportunity to opt for Italian citizenship. New authorities were interested in dealing with those who were collaborating with the occupiers, and all others whom they considered as the "enemy of people", either Croats, Italians or others. Their assets were nationalized. After the end of World War II, at the age of 18, Bettiza moved to Gorizia. Later he moved to Trieste, and then to Milan. There he always declared to be living as "an exile".
Bettiza has been director of several Italian newspaper and author of numerous books. As a journalist he devoted his attention to Eastern European countries and nationalities, and Southeastern Europe, Yugoslavian area in particular. In the period 1957-1965 he was foreign correspondent for the newspaper La Stampa, first from Vienna and then from Moscow. Later he moved to Corriere della Sera, for which he worked for ten years. In 1974, together with Indro Montanelli, founded the Milanese newspaper il Giornale nuovo, for which he was co-director until 1983.
Starting from 1976, he was member of the Italian Senate and the European Parliament. He lived in Rome with his family and was married a few times. His last wife, Laura Laurenzi, is an Italian writer. Bettiza's major novel, I fantasmi di Mosca is credited as the most extended published novel written in Italian language. He died on 29 July 2017 at the age of 90.

Selected bibliography

  • Mito e realtà di Trieste
  • Il mistero di Lenin
  • Saggi, viaggi, personaggi
  • Non una vita
  • L'eclisse del comunismo
  • Quale PCI? Anatomia di una crisi
  • La campagna elettorale
  • Il fantasma di Trieste
  • L'anno della tigre
  • I fantasmi di Mosca
  • Esilio
  • L'ombra rossa
  • Via Solferino
  • Mostri sacri
  • Corone e Maschere
  • La cavalcata del Secolo
  • Viaggio nell'ignoto
  • Sogni di Atlante
  • ''Il libro perduto''

Awards and medals

He was awarded with the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic on 28 May 2003.
Croatian President Stipe Mesić awarded him with the Order of Danica Hrvatska with the face of Marko Marulić, after the proposal of journalists from Split.