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Dino Mazzini, son of Giovanni and Maria Garosi
ASCIANO - Who was this fellow citizen of ours, who disappeared at the age of 21?
Dino was the brother of Primo Mazzini, the father of Enzo and Elsa. Born in 1921, as a child he had always dreamed of being a carabiniere and when he was just 18, he enlisted. So in 1941 Russia was sent with the Italian troops, in support of the Germans who had started the "Operation Barbarossa", decided by Hitler in the summer of 1941. At every large unit of the Italian army, the carabinieri provided a series of services without direct engagement in battle.
The carabinieri had two motorized sections: about sixty soldiers with cars and motorcycles, a post office for the management of stocks and controls. In the second half of December 1942, under the pounding fire of the Russian tanks, the Italians began a retreat from the banks of the Don to those of the Donez. Many of their trucks were hit and Dino, in the company of a fellow soldier, had to retire on foot. After great difficulties, encountered due to the snow and inadequate provisioning, when a van passing by that had only one free seat, Dino encouraged his friend to get in, telling him that he would join him by taking advantage of the next passing vehicle.
From that moment on, there was no more news of Dino; we do not know if he was killed, died of the cold or was captured by the Russians and sent to a concentration camp for prisoners. What has been described, we owe it to his fellow soldier: Noris Calligaris, a native of the province of Rovigo who, long after, managed to track down the Mazzini family. His hope was to find at home the friend he had had to part with. Not finding him, he was left only to tell what he knew about him and demonstrate his connection with Dino, showing his relatives a photo that the two had had together.
Many years later, a memorial stone was discovered in Asciano. The significance of this recognition is not linked to a particular heroic action by the carabiniere, but because nobody forgets his sacrifice at the age of 21 and that of another 100,000 men who perished in the "Russian campaign".
A war operation aimed at attacking a nation that could hinder the thirst for power and conquest of some characters, definitively condemned by history, suggests that, in addition to the manifestation of altruism, manifested by Dino in a moment of great personal difficulty, it is that of wondering if there was ever a legitimate reason that justifies an offensive war.