OVRA
The OVRA, unofficially known as the Organization for Vigilance and Repression of Anti-Fascism (), was the secret police of the Kingdom of Italy during the reign of King Victor Emmanuel III. It was founded in 1927 under the regime of Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. The OVRA was the Italian precursor of Nazi Germany's secret police. Mussolini's secret police were assigned to stop any anti-fascist activity or sentiment. Approximately 50,000 OVRA agents infiltrated most aspects of domestic life in Italy. The OVRA, headed by Arturo Bocchini, never appeared in any official document, so the official name of the organization still remains unclear. Origin In the aftermath of the attempted assassination of Mussolini by the young Anteo Zamboni, in Bologna on 31 October 1926, a swath of repressive legislation was swiftly enacted by the Italian government. All political parties, associations, and organizations opposed to Fascist Italy were dissolved, and everybody who was pr ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Guido Leto
Guido Leto (Palermo, 1895 – 1956) was an Italian police official, head of the OVRA, the secret police of the Fascist regime, from 1938 to 1945. Throughout his career as a policeman he served under the Kingdom of Italy, the Italian Social Republic, and the Italian Republic. Biography After graduating in law, Leto started his career as a civil servant in 1919, and from 1922 he worked for the Ministry of the Interior. From 1926 he began working with the chief of the police, Francesco Crispo Moncada. Immediately after Violet Gibson's attempted assassination of Benito Mussolini, he was tasked with gathering information in Dublin in order to find out if there had been international instigators behind the attack; after returning to Italy, Leto reported that Gibson was indeed suffering from mental problems and had acted on her own initiative. After failing to prevent the assassination attempt on Mussolini by Gino Lucetti, Crispo Moncada was replaced as chief of the police by the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Arturo Bocchini
Arturo Bocchini (; 12 February 1880 – 20 November 1940) was an Italian civil servant, who was appointed List of Chiefs of the Polizia di Stato, Chief of the Police under the Italian Fascism, Fascist regime of Benito Mussolini. ''Polizia di Stato'' Bocchini held the office from September 1926 until his death in November 1940, becoming a key figure in the Italian regime. He was the head of both the regular police (Polizia di Stato, State Police) and the secret police (OVRA) which was a pervasive national security agency that operated at all levels of Italian society. Bocchini only reported directly to the Duce and operated autonomously without interference from the National Fascist Party and the state prefects. His power within the government led to him being called the "Vice Duce". Early life [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Fascist Italy
Fascist Italy () is a term which is used in historiography to describe the Kingdom of Italy between 1922 and 1943, when Benito Mussolini and the National Fascist Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictatorship. The Italian Fascists imposed totalitarian rule and crushed political opposition, while simultaneously promoting Modernization theory, economic modernization, traditional social values and a rapprochement with the Roman Catholic Church. According to historian Stanley G. Payne, "[the] Fascist government passed through several relatively distinct phases". The first phase (1922–1925) was nominally a continuation of the parliamentary system, albeit with a "legally-organized executive dictatorship". In foreign policy, Mussolini ordered the pacification of Libya against rebels in the Italian colonies of Italian Tripolitania, Tripolitania and Italian Cyrenaica, Cyrenaica (eventually unified in Italian Libya), inflicted the Corfu incident, bombing ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Camillo Caccia Dominioni
Camillo Caccia-Dominioni (7 February 1877 – 12 November 1946) was an Italian cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as prefect of the Pontifical Household from 1921 to 1935, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1935. Biography Born in Milan, Camillo Caccia-Dominioni studied at the seminary in that same city before attending the Pontifical Gregorian University (from where he obtained his doctorate in canon law) and the Pontifical Academy of Ecclesiastical Nobles (from where he graduated in 1898) in Rome. He was ordained to the priesthood by Cardinal Andrea Ferrari on 23 September 1899. Caccia-Dominioni did pastoral work in Rome until 1921, and finished his studies in 1902. In 1903, he was appointed Coadjutor-Canon of St. Peter's Basilica. Named Protonotary Apostolic on 27 June 1921, Caccia-Dominioni was raised to the rank of Monsignor on 24 September 1914. He was appointed Prefect of the Pontifical Household, the papal majordomo, by Pope Benedict XV on 16 June ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Kingdom Of Italy
The Kingdom of Italy (, ) was a unitary state that existed from 17 March 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinia was proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed King of Italy, until 10 June 1946, when the monarchy was abolished, following civil discontent that led to an 1946 Italian institutional referendum, institutional referendum on 2 June 1946. This resulted in a modern Italian Republic. The kingdom was established through the unification of several states over a decades-long process, called the . That process was influenced by the House of Savoy, Savoy-led Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia, which was one of Italy's legal Succession of states, predecessor states. In 1866, Italy Third Italian War of Independence, declared war on Austrian Empire, Austria in Italo-Prussian Alliance, alliance with Kingdom of Prussia, Prussia and, upon its victory, received the region of Veneto. Italian troops Capture of Rome, entered Rome in 1870, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Secret Police
image:Putin-Stasi-Ausweis.png, 300px, Vladimir Putin's secret police identity card, issued by the East German Stasi while he was working as a Soviet KGB liaison officer from 1985 to 1989. Both organizations used similar forms of repression. Secret police (or political police) are police, Intelligence agency, intelligence, or Security agency, security agencies that engage in covert operations against a government's political, ideological, or social opponents and dissidents. Secret police organizations are characteristic of Authoritarianism, authoritarian and Totalitarianism, totalitarian regimes. They protect the political power of a dictator or regime and often operate outside the law to repress dissidents and weaken political opposition, frequently using violence. They may enjoy legal sanction to hold and charge suspects without ever identifying their organization. History Africa Egypt Egypt is home to Africa and the Middle East's first internal security service: The Stat ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Anteo Zamboni
Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini survived several assassination attempts while head of government of Italy in the 1920s and 1930s. Tito Zaniboni The former Socialist deputy Tito Zaniboni was arrested for attempting to assassinate Mussolini on November 4, 1925. In a hotel with a view unto Palazzo Chigi, where Mussolini had planned to give a balcony speech, Zaniboni set up a rifle with telescopic sights. Shortly before his target appeared, however, Zaniboni was arrested. A friend and double agent had informed the police. Historians believe that the plot itself was engineered by the Mussolini administration as a pretext to consolidate power, which is what followed. Mussolini's laws enacted in late 1925 enabled the suppression of any oppositional political organization. The Italian army officer Luigi Capello was arrested in conjunction with the Zaniboni plot and received a 30-year prison sentence. The author and labor organizer Carlo Tresca wrote a play and political s ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Anti-fascist
Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were opposed by many countries forming the Allies of World War II and dozens of resistance movements worldwide. Anti-fascism has been an element of movements across the political spectrum and holding many different political positions such as anarchism, communism, pacifism, republicanism, social democracy, socialism and syndicalism as well as centrist, conservative, Liberalism, liberal and nationalist viewpoints. Fascism, a far-right ultra-nationalistic ideology best known for its use by the Italian Fascists and the German Nazism, Nazis, became prominent beginning in the 1910s. Organization against fascism began around 1920. Fascism became the state ideology of Italy in 1922 and of Germany in 1933, spurring a large increase in anti-fascist action ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as Prime Minister of Italy, Prime Minister, became the dictator of Fascist Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until Fall of the Fascist regime in Italy, his overthrow in 1943. He was also of Italian fascism from the establishment of the Italian Fasces of Combat in 1919, until Death of Benito Mussolini, his summary execution in 1945. He founded and led the National Fascist Party (PNF). As a dictator and founder of fascism, Mussolini inspired the List of fascist movements, international spread of fascism during the interwar period. Mussolini was originally a socialist politician and journalist at the Avanti! (newspaper), ''Avanti!'' newspaper. In 1912, he became a member of the National Directorate of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), but was expelled for advocating military intervention in World War I. In 1914, Mussolini founded a newspaper, ''Il P ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Italian Fascism
Italian fascism (), also called classical fascism and Fascism, is the original fascist ideology, which Giovanni Gentile and Benito Mussolini developed in Italy. The ideology of Italian fascism is associated with a series of political parties led by Mussolini: the National Fascist Party (PNF), which governed the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, and the Republican Fascist Party (PFR), which governed the Italian Social Republic from 1943 to 1945. Italian fascism also is associated with the post–war Italian Social Movement (MSI) and later Italian Neo-fascism, neo-fascist political organisations. Italian fascism originated from ideological combinations of ultranationalism and Italian nationalism, national syndicalism and revolutionary nationalism, and from the militarism of Italian irredentism to regain "lost overseas territories of Italy" deemed necessary to restore Italian nationalist pride.Aristotle A. Kallis. ''Fascist ideology: territory and expansionism in Italy and Ger ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Secret Police
image:Putin-Stasi-Ausweis.png, 300px, Vladimir Putin's secret police identity card, issued by the East German Stasi while he was working as a Soviet KGB liaison officer from 1985 to 1989. Both organizations used similar forms of repression. Secret police (or political police) are police, Intelligence agency, intelligence, or Security agency, security agencies that engage in covert operations against a government's political, ideological, or social opponents and dissidents. Secret police organizations are characteristic of Authoritarianism, authoritarian and Totalitarianism, totalitarian regimes. They protect the political power of a dictator or regime and often operate outside the law to repress dissidents and weaken political opposition, frequently using violence. They may enjoy legal sanction to hold and charge suspects without ever identifying their organization. History Africa Egypt Egypt is home to Africa and the Middle East's first internal security service: The Stat ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Armistice Of Cassibile
The Armistice of Cassibile ( Italian: ''Armistizio di Cassibile'') was an armistice that was signed on 3 September 1943 by Italy and the Allies, marking the end of hostilities between Italy and the Allies during World War II. It was made public five days later. It was signed on September 3rd by Major-General Walter Bedell Smith for the Allies and Brigade-General Giuseppe Castellano for Italy. The armistice's signing took place at a summit in an Allied military camp at Cassibile, Sicily, which had recently been occupied by the Allies. The armistice was approved by both Victor Emmanuel III and Marshal Pietro Badoglio, who was serving as Prime Minister of Italy at the time. The signing of the armistice was kept secret on that day, and was announced to the media on September 8th. Nazi Germany responded by attacking Italian forces in Italy, southern France and the Balkans, and freeing Benito Mussolini on 12 September. The Italian forces were forcefully disbanded in the north an ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |