Vittorio Pini

Vittorio Pini (20 August 1859, in Reggio Emilia – 8 June 1903, in the penal colony of Cayenne) was a worker, activist, and theorist of individualist and illegalist anarchism. Having arrived in France during the 1880s, he was, alongside Clément Duval, one of the first anarchists to develop illegalism there. Engaged in a series of robberies and thefts with the group he founded, the Intransigents, he led a frugal life and used the proceeds of his crimes to support anarchist groups, newspapers, and printing presses.

His arrest by the French police triggered intense debates within the anarchist movement in France, which was then divided over the legitimacy of emerging illegalism. While historical figures such as Jean Grave initially refused to support this new form of militancy, Pini theorized it during his trial, presenting individual reappropriation as legitimate for four main reasons: to resolve economic inequalities directly through force, to terrorize the bourgeoisie, to pedagogically transmit anarchist ideas on property, and finally, to prepare and incite the population to rise up for the revolution.

The group he founded later influenced several illegalist associations. He was sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment and deported to the penal colony of Cayenne, from which he attempted to escape twice before being recaptured and eventually dying there.