Italian Social Republic

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War flag of the Italian Social Republic. The state flag was the Italian tricolour without emblem.

The Italian Social Republic (Repubblica Sociale Italiana, RSI) was the provisional state, led by Benito Mussolini, that exercised its sovereignty in northern Italy. It was informally known as Salò Republic (Repubblica di Salò), after the location of its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Salò, a small town on Lake Garda.

[edit] The context of RSI's creation

After the Allied landings in Sicily, the Grand Fascist Council, with initiative from Dino Grandi and the support of King Vittorio Emanuele III, overthrew and arrested Mussolini on July 24, 1943. The new government began peace negotiations with the Allied powers.

Nazi Germany quickly intervened, concerned that Italian forces would otherwise join the Allied troops. Germany seized control of northern Italy, and Mussolini was rescued by Otto Skorzeny in the Unternehmen Eiche, being brought to the German-occupied area to establish a new regime.

[edit] History

Mussolini declared on September 23, 1943 that the coup d'état had been defeated, and that his government was continuing as a republic, with himself as leader. The new authorities mounted a repression campaign against any opposition, notably by prosecuting in the Verona trial all present and absent Fascist leaders who had backed Grandi. Mussolini established his capital, and began to try and assemble the organs of State. Soon after its establishment, the Republic was forced to cede Trieste, Istria and South Tyrol to Germany. During the existence of the Italian Social Republic, Mussolini, whose government had banned trade unions and strikes, began to make increasingly populist appeals to the working class. He claimed to regret many of the decisions he made in supporting the interests of big business, and promised a new beginning if the Italian people would be willing to grant him a second chance.

While Mussolini contended that he was in control of the Republic, in practice it was a largely irrelevant and ineffective puppet of the German forces, mainly used for repression purposes against the Partisans and the Jews. Revenge was taken against Badoglio's supporters, too, and other Fascists accused of betrayal, like Mussolini's own son-in-law Galeazzo Ciano, executed on March 11, 1944, with the dictator's consent. Ezra Pound, the expatriate American poet, played a significant role in the cultural and propaganda activities of the new republic. The Republic came to an end around April 25, 1945 (Liberation day) when a general partisan uprising and the (Western) Allied spring offensive managed largely to oust the Germans from Italy. The Italian Social Republic had existed for slightly more than one and a half years.

[edit] List of RSI Ministers

• Head of State and Minister of Foreign Affairs - Benito Mussolini
• Minister of Defence - Rodolfo Graziani
• Ministers of the Interior - Guido Buffarini Guidi from 1943-1945, Paolo Zerbino for 1945
• Ministers of Justice - Antonino Tringali-Casanova for 1943, Pietro Pisenti from 1943-1945
• Minister of Finance - Domenico Pellegrini from 1943-1945
• Ministers of Industrial Production - Silvio Gai for 1943, Angelo Tarchi from 1943-1945
• Minister of Public Works - Ruggero Romano from 1943-1945
• Minister of Communications - Augusto Liverani from 1943-1945
• Minister of Labour - Giuseppe Spinelli for 1945
• Minister of National Education - Carlo Alberto Biggini from 1943-1945
• Minister of Popular Culture - Fernando Mezzasoma from 1943-1945
• Minister of Agriculture - Edoardo Moroni from 1943-1945
• Leader of the Republican Fascist Party - Alessandro Pavolini from 1943-1945

[edit] See also

• Blackshirts (MVSN)
• Black Brigades
• Decima Flottiglia MAS
• Italian resistance movement
• Birth of the Italian Republic

[edit] Miscellaneous

• Pier Paolo Pasolini's 1976 film Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma was set in the Republic of Salò, and partly meant as an allegory of it.

[edit] External links

• Axis History Factbook - Italy
• Comando Supremo
• Historical flags of Italy
• War flag of Italian Social Republic