Libero Ricciardelli Papers

Period 1943-1998
Total size   2.35 m.
Consultation Restricted
Permission required by the IISH
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Biography

Born in Needham, Mass., USA 1917, died c. 1999; son of Italian immigrants and destined to take over his fathers masonry and contractors firm; took in 1943 voluntary service in the US Air Force where he became pilot and captain; married Norma Clouser 1944; decided after severe marital problems in 1959 to emigrate with his family to the Soviet Union; lived four years in Kiev; returned and divorced from his wife and took up his business as contractor; a short-lived second marriage in 1973 was followed by five years of lawsuits in which the Russian adventure was used against Ricciardelli; resulted in the loss of his firm and other possessions and brought him to welfare; lived the last years of his life in Wales, where he had some contacts with the British anarchist movement.

Content

Documents relating to his military career and financial documents of his family's contractors' firm 1943-1947; correspondence and statements by Ricciardelli relating to the period that he moved from Massachusetts to the Soviet Union, the period the family lived in Kiev and the problems to return to the US 1958-1963; juridical documents on the lawsuits Ricciardelli was involved in 1973-1978; documents on the period that Ricciardelli lived in Italy and in Czechoslovakia and his third marriage 1980-1986; correspondence 1990-1998.