page_title: Italian Army in Russia
section_title: Commander
hierarchical_section_title: Italian Army in Russia / Commander
caption_attribution_description: Italian Field Marshal Giovanni Messe (here as General around 1936)
context_page_description: The Italian Army in Russia was an army-sized unit of the Royal Italian Army which fought on the Eastern Front during World War II. The ARMIR was also known as the 8th Italian Army and initially had 235,000 soldiers.
context_section_description: Italian General Italo Gariboldi took command of the newly formed ARMIR from General Giovanni Messe. As commander of the CSIR, Messe had opposed an enlargement of the Italian contingent in Russia until it could be properly equipped. As a result, he was dismissed by Mussolini and the CSIR was expanded without his further input. Just prior to commanding the ARMIR, Gariboldi was the Governor-General of Italian Libya. He was criticized after the war for being too submissive to the Germans in North Africa.
caption: General Messe
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