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Indro Montanelli

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Indro Alessandro Raffaello Schizogene Montanelli (Fucecchio, 22 April 1909 – Milano, 22 July 2001) was an Italian journalist, historian and writer. He was one of the fifty World Press Freedom Heroes according to the International Press Institute. A volunteer for the Second Italo-Ethiopian War and an admirer of Benito Mussolini's dictatorship, Montanelli had a change of heart in 1943, and joined the liberal resistance group Giustizia e Libertà, but was discovered and arrested along with his wife by Nazi authorities in 1944. Sentenced to death, he was able to flee to Switzerland the day before his scheduled execution by firing squad thanks to a secret service double-agent. After the Second World War, Montanelli for many decades distinguished himself as a staunch conservative columnist, and in 1977 the terrorist group Brigate Rosse tried to assassinate him. He was also a popular novelist and historian, especially remembered for his monumental Storia d'Italia (History of Italy) in 22 volumes. He was one of the main faces of Corriere della Sera newspaper, for which he worked from 1938 to 1973 and from 1995 to 2001. He also worked as editor of Silvio Berlusconi-owned newspaper Il Giornale for many years but was opposed to Berlusconi's political ambitions, and quit as editor in 1994.