I wonder if anyone can give an explanation for a photograph of the founding
father of Italian futurism, F T Marinetti, which I have encountered in
reproduction in several books on the subject, but which none of them go to
any lengths to explain.

The photograph shows an aging Marinetti (he'd have been 66) in Italian WW2
military uniform, standing by a roadside somewhere in the Soviet Union,
perhaps the Ukraine, in 1942, presumably having ended up there as part of
the Italian input to Operation Barbarossa. He is standing, in a somewhat
untidy uniform next to a family group of peasants, looking for all the world
as if he's waiting to catch a bus.

Possibly the easiest source for a reproduction of
the photograph is 'Futurism' by Richard Humphreys, one of the 'movements in
Modern art' series produced by London's Tate Gallery, although it has been
much reproduced elsewhere. I have found no comments other than the general
ones of it being Marinetti in 'Russia' (sic) My only other potential source
of information is the Estorick Gallery in London (which by the way, I can
heartily recommend) which specialises in futurist and early 20th century
Italian art.

What is strange about the situation is that he would have been well over the
age for military service at this time (although his having volunteered is
less surprising when one considers his commitment to the Fascist cause) but
what is odder is that he was completely out of favour with the regime by
this point in his life. Perhaps he'd been sent to the Soviet Union to be got
out of the way, or in the hopes that he'd meet with an 'accident'. As we
know, however, he survived to die in his bed four years later; an
unrepentent Fascist to the last.

I'd be grateful if anyone can shed any light on this somewhat mysterious
photograph.

My thanks in advance

Jasmin Johnson MA
Independent Scholar.