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University of Padova

To keep shading light into the series of brutalities and the fear of the 70s in Padova it is necessary to move to its University. It is the academic environment of the 60s and the developing ideas within the students in Social Sciences in the 70s to feed the violence and the tensions.

Officially founded in 1222, the historical building of the University of Padova shows the importance of its prestigious academic past.

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The innovation in this institution makes it the ideal place for the development of new and revolutionary ideas

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In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance the University of Padova was already well renowned for its international students, making it a varied environment. This allowed the development of networks between different nobles from different countries.

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Moreover, this institution distinguishes itself for being the first university in the world where a woman graduated in 1678.

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There is no surprise that this place was the center of meeting and clash of different ideas.

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In the 70s, however, aggressions and kidnapping of lecturers in the university were common. Various professors described the threats and the constant sense of insecurity and fear that contradistinguished those years. Imagine just sitting in a lecture hall when a group of masked people enters and unleashes chaos in the room.

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This environment helped meeting of young people and the thriving of exchange of extremist ideas to the point that Padova itself was defined «laboratory city of opposite extremists».

Students desired to distinguish themselves from the previous generations to build a different future. However, they seemed to have confused and often contrasting ideas of the way they wanted to realise that.

Sources describe students as wanting to fight for themselves and for a happier and more free society. Politics seemed to be the way to do so.

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«Our liberation is a liberation from everything. From school, family, church. Our world will be better compared to yours» a lecturer mentions a student told him once. It appears as if they truly believe they could change the world they were living in.

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The beliefs of students from the University of Padova can be explained by the social situation in which some of them lived, trying to free themselves from the humble conditions of their parents. They believed in politics as a way of conducting this change, but not in the parties participating in it. As some recall, their ideal was that political parties had to be eliminated to create that change.

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Therefore, for us to mention the building of the University in the 70s is to mention a whole revolution that was born and fed within the walls of this institution and that gave life to a series of terroristic actions that threatened the city over the 70s.

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