Corpo Volontari Della Libertà

(CVdL, Corps of Volunteers of Liberty), the partisan army of the Italian Resistance Movement, which fought the German occupying forces and the Italian fascists during the national liberation war of 1943–45.

In the first stage of the Resistance Movement the partisan detachments were directly led by the anitfascist parties that had created them. At the suggestion of the Communists, the Supreme Command of the CVdL was created in Milan on June 9, 1944, made up of the representatives of these parties and uniting the partisan detachments into a single army. The antifascist parties had equal representation in the command of the CVdL. How-ever, the Communist Party and the Party of Action, which controlled the greatest number of detachments, were the dominating influence. The commands of regions, military zones, provinces, and separate sectors were subject to the Supreme Command. The Supreme Command fulfilled the political directives of the Committees of National Liberation of Northern Italy and carried out the general strategic guidance of the partisan war. An agreement to merge all partisan detachments into a single army without division by party affiliation was reached on Mar. 29, 1945. General R. Cadorna was appointed commander of the CVdL. L. Longo and F. Parri became his assistants and continued to lead most of the detachments of the CVdL. The CVdL numbered 150,000 in 1945. Armed units of the CVdL led the general uprising in April 1945 and liberated most of the cities of northern Italy. The CVdL was disbanded after the liberation of northern Italy.