The paper analyzes briefly the genesis of three Italian terrorist groups (called the Proletarian Armed Nuclei; the First Line, and the Revolutionary Action). It shows that individual dynamics of emerging of clandestine terrorist groups could and should be explained within a theoretically informed framework. The paper discuss the views of scholars Sidney Tarrow and Domenica della Porta. Two arguments seem to be of special importance in this context: the first argument points to the growing competivity among non-institutionalized radical groups as a factor contributing strongly to amounting experiments with armed subversive violence; the second focuses on the critical choices represented by creation of clandestine structures specialized in armed violence. The paper examines the autodestructive consequences of fusion of political and military aspects of an anti-regime struggle. Finally, it argues that stigmatisation of radical anti-regime groups as terrorists in spe should be avoided. Instead of that, an effective system of sanctions and incentives reducing the probability of critical choices made by radical actors has to be introduced and cultivated.