Lidia Leone
Lidia Leone | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 20 February 1902 Ďanmi, Xevden |
| Died | 8 March 1983 (aged 81) Narona, Nerveiík-Iárus-Daláyk, Gylias |
| Allegiance |  Lidia's Legion |
| Rank | Commander |
| Wars | |
Lidia Leone (20 February 1902 – 8 March 1983) was a Gylian military leader and politician. She commanded Lidia's Legion during the Liberation War, which brought her a reputation as an eccentric yet honourable adversary. Her campaigns were described by Trần Hà Vy as "one of the greatest guerrilla operations in history". After the war, she entered politics with the National Reconstruction Alliance and was an elected Senator until her death.
Early life
Lidia Leone was born in Ďanmi, a village in central Xevden, on 20 February 1902. She was orphaned at birth and adopted by an Italian family, who changed her name. Her original name remains unknown.
She settled with her family in Alscia after it was established, a great improvement from the miserable conditions of Xevden. She attended public primary and secondary schools.
Military career
She was conscripted into the Border Guard after finishing secondary school. The experience impressed her so much that after her year of mandatory service ended, she decided to join it formally. She graduated from military academy in 1923, and was assigned to her first infantry division.
Lidia served in the Alscian Border War from that point, and steadily rose up the ranks, ultimately attaining the rank of Major. Her Border War experience was invaluable to her military career, particularly in guerrilla warfare and command skills.
Lidia's Legion
Lidia was skeptical of the Free Territories, and reluctant to change allegiance when Alscia voted to join them. On 28 February 1939, one day before the formal ceremony of adherence, she led her unit southwards, out of Alscian territory and into the mainland fought over by multiple factions.
Having now become a separate faction in the Liberation War, her army earned the nickname "Lidia's Legion". She was not the originator of the nickname, but embraced it wholeheartedly. She did choose its distinctive symbol: a black lion rampant in a circle.
Lidia's Legion became the best-known "wildcard" faction of the war. It was largely an amalgam of various "misfits and outsiders" united only by dislike or inability to fit in with the other factions. It conducted a notably successful guerrilla campaign in 1939–1949, traveling from the east to west coast and back, mainly through the southern mainland.
Lidia held the simple rank of Commander in the Legion. She was a charismatic commander who earned the respect of her soldiers. She had a reputation for eccentricity, leading from the front — often on horseback and waving a ceremonial sword — and devising her own dress uniform, which included a white cape. She was fanatical about exercise, and believed that her duty as a commander was to set an example for her soldiers.
Lidia imposed draconian discipline on her army and implemented harsh punishments for atrocities and war crimes. This made the Legion the only combatant in the war to have never committed war crimes, a feat Lidia took great pride in.
She offered her services to the inhabitants of the villages and cities she passed through, in exchange for food and supplies. Those who encountered her remarked on her courtesy and elegant manners. She thus gained a reputation among Gylians as an unusually chivalrous and humane commander, and was viewed with some admiration as an honourable adversary.
In 1948, the entire Royal Guard defected to the Legion after the Tymzar–Nalo regime overthrew the Nerveiík Kingdom. This brought Lidia's Legion to the height of its power, in terms of strength and influence.
During the second phase of the Liberation War, the Legion played a significant role in harassing the Xevdenite forces' rear during their great offensive against the Gylians. However, as the Xevdenites were beaten back by the People's Army, Lidia became a disruptive obstacle in their planning.
Lidia made it clear simultaneously that she had no strife with the PA, and had no plans to join their side. Whenever the two sides encountered each other, they observed mutual truces and fraternisation, and the PA continued fruitless attempts to secure an alliance with the Legion, as they had managed with the Futurist Front.
Cornered in south-eastern Herlan, Lidia finally surrendered in 1956. Her insistence on a formal surrender ceremony provoked some amusement among PA soldiers. She managed to secure retirement with full military honours for members of her Legion.
Post-war
Lidia initially settled into a quiet retirement after her surrender. She wrote and published her memoirs, and wrote works on military theory. She declined an offer to serve as a consultant for the new Gylian Self-Defense Forces, reasoning that her military experience was completely inadequate for the militia-like GSDF.
She began a political career in 1962, joining Emilia Malandrino's National Reconstruction Alliance (ARENA). She was elected to the Senate that year for Ḑarna, becoming ARENA's first senator.
Although Lidia's affiliation with ARENA was initially controversial due to ARENA's post-Futurist platform, the controversy subsided after ARENA quickly morphed into a purely image-focused party. Lidia's wartime reputation helped the party grow beyond its niche as Emilia's party, and gave her a "wicked" appeal that she expertly played to during elections.
Her posters coyly reminded voters of her spotless wartime record and promoted voting for her as "harmless naughty fun". One poster simply showed her standing proudly in the Senate, with the caption, Pourquoi pas? ("Why not?").
As a Senator, Lidia was described by Ŋéida Vaşad as "controlled opposition" — ostensibly winning election in opposition to the Darnan Cyras government, but in reality providing little more than theatrics and not making substantial objections to its policies. She didn't object to the description, quipping, "One hardly votes ARENA for their brilliant political insights."
She was broadly supportive of social democratic policies, in particular universal social security, but her wartime experience made her rather conservative in preferring a paternalistic approach to social issues.
Death
Lidia died in a Narona hospital on 8 March 1983, at the age of 81.
Legacy
Lidia was famous during the war and respected even among her opponents for her humane conduct and prevention of war crimes among her ranks. She was seen as an eccentric figure, a remnant of a bygone age, a "romantic" commander whose demeanour stood in stark contrast to the mechanised brutality of modern warfare.
She came to be seen as an archetypal honourable adversary during the war. Historian Herta Schwamen writes that few managed to gain the honour of being regarded as such by the People's Army, and Lidia was first among them due to her lack of war crimes and her apolitical image, which made her a more palatable opponent to staunch anarchists.
Lidia's memoirs were a bestseller after the war, and her exploits stand with the 15th Special Operations Squad in Gylian popular culture, their tone of excitement and derring-do in contrast to the atrocities, senseless killings, and agonisingly slow advances of the conflict in general. Her later political career with ARENA gave her a "wicked" appeal that she hadn't necessarily possessed during the war, and helped reinforce public fascination with her wartime career.
Ďanmi, her native village now located upriver from Mişeyáke, was renamed "Lidia Leone" in commemoration after her death.
Private life
She was married and had two children.