Pietro Barsanti was an Italian military soldier. Supporter of republican ideas, soldier in the Royal Italian Army with the rank of corporal, he was sentenced to death and shot for having favored an insurrectional attempt against the Savoy monarchy, and is therefore considered the first martyr of the modern Italian Republic and a symbol of republican ideals in Italy.

An institutional referendum was held by universal suffrage in the Kingdom of Italy on 2 June 1946, a key event of contemporary Italian history. Until 1946, Italy was a kingdom ruled by the House of Savoy, reigning since the unification of Italy in 1861 and previously rulers of the Kingdom of Sardinia. In 1922, the rise of Benito Mussolini and the creation of the Fascist regime in Italy, which eventually resulted in engaging the country in World War II alongside Nazi Germany, considerably weakened the role of the royal house.