Thévenot grenade

The Thévenot grenade was an offensive weapon whose role in the book extends beyond its military design: it became a Fascist ballot symbol and was later identified in an initial report as the likely device used against a socialist procession in Milan. Its progression from weapon to emblem and back to apparent instrument of violence reflects how the movement made armed action part of its political language.

Design and operation

The text contrasts the Thévenot grenade with the SIPE fragmentation grenade. The SIPE was defensive, intended to stop an attack; the Thévenot was designed for offensive use. Its limited impact range was shorter than the distance a capable thrower could reach, allowing it to be thrown across open ground while the user remained beyond the stated range of its effects. It was activated by removing its safety pin, with impact on the ground or a target triggering the explosion. The account also stresses its psychological force: the detonation could stun and frighten.

The grenade’s military identity was specific. It was manufactured in France and issued to the Arditi by the Italian army. In the book’s description, the distinction between it and the defensive SIPE is not merely technical: the two devices embody different intended positions in combat, one to halt an assault, the other to initiate one.

An electoral emblem

When the Fascists entered the 1919 election with their own ticket, the Thévenot grenade was made the list’s electoral symbol. The manifesto promoted the so-called Thévenot Bloc grenade and directed voters to mark their ballot for it. The symbol appeared alongside a platform that retained measures associated with the San Sepolcro program, including abolition of the Senate, tax reform, confiscation of ecclesiastical assets, and provision for wounded men, disabled people, and veterans.

The choice joined electoral participation to the image of an explosive weapon. The grenade was not presented merely as equipment with a battlefield function; it became an emblem through which the campaign advertised a politics that included an armed nation. The juxtaposition gave the ballot a visible martial charge even as the Fascists sought votes.

The Milan attack

On the evening of November 17, 1919, Albino Volpi stood on the Bridge of the Sirenette carrying two Thévenot bombs and a dagger. He had watched a large socialist procession celebrating its electoral victory as it moved along Via San Damiano toward Avanti! headquarters. The account places Volpi alone on the bridge, having reached it through the garden of Palazzo Visconti.

When the procession paused beneath the windows of Avanti! to hear a speech by Giacinto Menotti Serrati, then began moving again, an initial report described a stranger on the bridge throwing an object toward its front. It exploded on striking the ground, and fragments injured demonstrators. The report said the assailant disappeared into the darkness and that a Thévenot petard appeared to have been used. The narrative’s preceding account of Volpi handling two cylinders connects him closely to the scene, while the report itself preserves the initial attribution as an appearance rather than a confirmed identification.

Political meaning

The grenade’s recurring function in the narrative is a compressed image of Fascist politics: a weapon issued for combat becomes a campaign insignia, while the same type is associated with violence directed at a public procession. That movement between battlefield, ballot, and street makes the object more than a technical detail. It shows how the boundary between political persuasion and armed intimidation is blurred in the account, and how a symbol of force could be carried into the electoral arena before reappearing in an episode of physical attack.