Italian Civil War

Cesare Maria De Vecchi

Italo Balbo (defected)

Popular Front:

Antonio Gramsci (PCI)

Elda Norchi (PFL)

Palmiro Togliatti (PCI)

The Italian Civil War began with the assassination of Benito Mussolini at the hands of Violet Gibson in Rome on April 7th, 1926. With no clear successor to il Duce, the country fell into Civil War. Many other members of the National Fascist Party were executed by vigilante groups in the major cities of Italy.  The NFP increased the intensity of its terror campaign and attempted to repress dissent at every turn, and thousands of dissidents were executed, sent to into exile in the South, or jailed in northern cities.

By the end of 1926, it was clear that military action was necessary, and a United Front was formed in Napoli in November 1926. The Popular Front was comprised primarily of the Partito Communista Italiano  (PCI) under the leadership of Antonio Gramsci, the Partito Futurluce (PFL) under the leadership of Elda Norchi, and Partito Socialista Italiano (PSI) under the leadership of Filippo Turati. The Popular Front initially adopted a guerilla strategy as foreign brigades and advisors from the Soviet Union and anti-fascist volunteers from many countries entered the country through Sicily. The Popular Front was allied with Revolutionary Organization of the Julian March T.I.G.R., though never formed a political union the anti-fascist Italo-Slovene group.

The NFP had notable but covert foreign assistance from England and Germany. Cesare Maria de Vecchi, Emilio de Bono, and Italo Balbo all were stationed as colonial administrators in Africa and as such survived the initial bloodshed. Returning to Italy from the colonies, these three vied for power throughout the war and established a new de facto capital in Torino. Despite this, the Fascist regime was immediately pushed onto its back foot with the loss of Mussolini. By the end of 1927 fighting had reached its organized peak and the Popular Front was firmly in control of the peninsula south of Rome. From this point on the front was slower-moving, especially as the NFP was dealing with resistance in the center of the peninsula as well as in the northeastern Julian March region.

Fighting continued throughout 1928 and 1929. Former blackshirt Italo Balbo defected from NFP after the NFP began to form ideological and political ties with the growing German Nazi Party and anti-semitism, to which he was opposed.

## End and Results

In late 1929 peace talks were begun under the administration of the League of Nations. Within a year a peace agreement was signed and three new states on the Italian peninsula were recognized.

Repubblica Nazionale Sociale Italiana in the northwest, with its capital in Torino, is a unitary state under the control of the NFP. After the Second World War, in which the RNSI sided with the Axis, the government was liberalized and opened to multiparty elections and some of the fascist leadership tried and imprisoned.

Repubblica de Triveneto, in the northeast, with its capital in Trieste, is a European oriented liberal democracy.

Repubblica Popolare Italiana, in the center and south, with its capital in Napoli, is an independent socialist republic. RPI is not aligned with NATO or the Cominter and has had very close ties with Yugoslavia since the end of the Second World War, including the joint Adriatic Space Exploration and Research Center.