Italy suffered a severe economic crisis at the end of the war, with high unemployment and political instability.

This period was known as Red Biennium, and was characterized by mass strikes, worker manifestations as well as self-management experiments through land and factories occupations.

[5] The agitations also extended to the agricultural areas of the Padan plain and were accompanied by peasant strikes, rural unrests and armed conflicts between left-wing and right-wing militias.

[9] After the founding of the Communist Party of Italy, the Red Guards became closer to it and were considered to be the military wing of the PCdI.

[3] The revolutionary period was followed by the violent reaction of the Fascist blackshirts militia, organized within the Italian Fasces of Combat, and eventually by the March on Rome in October 1922, which brought Benito Mussolini to power.