The Red Brigades (Brigate Rosse, BR) were a far-left Marxist–Leninist militant group active in Italy from 1970 to the late 1980s. Their goal was to overthrow the Italian state and remove it from NATO through armed revolution. The group carried out bombings, assassinations, and kidnappings, most notoriously the 1978 abduction and murder of former Prime Minister Aldo Moro. Inspired by Latin American guerrilla movements and WWII-era Italian partisans, the BR operated during Italy’s turbulent Years of Lead, a period marked by political violence and extremism.
