Italian Socialist Republic

The **Italian** **Socialist Republic** (In Italian: *Repubblica Socialista Italiana*) is a Syndicalist republic located in Western Europe. Since the end of the Second Weltkrieg, the RSI controls all of the Italian Peninsula, all of Istria and the Isles.

## History

### The SRI before the War

The Italian Socialist Republic is a product of the Weltkrieg: with the defeat and collapse of the Kingdom of Italy the Austrians tried to reorganise the Italian peninsula at their whim, trying to found an Italian Confederation under Habsburg "patronage", this backfired spectacularly with a nationalist revolutionary movement rising up in all of northern Italy, beating both the weak Savoyard army and the Austrian garrisons and proclaiming the Italian Republic. The new republic quickly fell to civil war between its left and right wings and against the newly established Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The civil war was inconclusive and led to a ceasefire that brought about to the so called Disunited Period, with the SRI in the north-west, the Italian Republic under a military junta in the north-east, the Kingdom of Italy exiled to the isle of Sardinia and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the Papal State in the south.

The Socialist Republic during the Disunited Period was a syndicalist state with a growing economy.
While in the workplaces and at the local level the principles of industrial democracy were applied almost religiously, at the national level the system was ultimately an elected dictatorship with a five years term that had absolute power over the country. This presidential power was only checked by the Council of Ministries, this institution could veto presidential decrees but even then only in case of particular and extreme situations, this dictatorship was only tolerated by the revolutionary forces that governed the country because of the state of "frozen war" that the country found itself in.

Every five years, the Constitution of the Italian Socialist Republic ruled that the representatives of the workers would vote for the formation of a new government based on the tendencies of the Congresso Generale dei Sindacati (General Congress of the Trade Unions). The government of 1931-1936 was supported by an Orthodox Syndicalist majority that didn't exist any more: as the situation of the Italian conflict continued to stall, Mussolini's Sindacati Nazionali dei Lavoratori radical faction became more and more popular among the younger voters fired up by nationalistic zeal and who didn't remember the horrors of the civil war. The Nationals new ascendancy would lead to the loss by a slim share of the majority needed by the US to rule the nation by itself.

After the elections the Unione Sindacale and the Fascists immediately presented a new government to the Congresso, the new Presidente del Consiglio would be Alceste De Ambris, he was chosen for his interventionist stance during the Grande Guerra (which bode well with the Nazionali) and for his important role in the revolution, the vice-president would be Mussolini himself. Thus the US-SNL government that would preside over the Secondo Risorgimento was born.

### The Second Italian Reunification War

After the death of the revered Pius XI, a period of uncertainty started in the Papal States, the passed vicar of Christ was the first Pope elected to rule over the re-established Papal States, he was extremely popular with the catholic crowds and his death was seen as the end of an era.

The cardinals who met with the aim of electing a new bishop of Rome didn't want a new occupation of the Patrimonium Sancti Petri and voted with that in mind, the new Pontefix Maximus would be Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster who took the title as Julius IV. He was famously extremely opposed to Syndicalism and to liberal ideologies and he was determined to act on that belief. On the 28th of January 1937, pope Pius XI published the Divini Redemptoris encyclical to call for the Eleventh Crusade, 572 after the last one, this time against the "devil's forces of socialism". This event would lead to the rise of catholic subversive groups in the Ligurian and Piedmontese countryside that, because of their attacks to cooperative farms and atheist politicians would become more and more of a nuisance for the central government.

As time went on tensions in the peninsula continued to rise, with rhetoric and propaganda becoming once again extremely aggressive, reminding some of the death and destruction brought on by the first civil war. The youth didn't remember any of that and started taking the streets demanding the another taking of Rome, just like the one of 1870, when the Italian Army breached Porta Pia and united Italy at last. 70 years later Italy was anything but unified and Porta Pia would be breached once more.

Marcel Deat, the French foreign minister, invited his Italian counterpart to a meeting in the city of Nice to discuss the possibility of a French intervention in the Secondo Risorgimento, this secret meeting would result on the 27th of October 1938 in the signing of the Treaty of Nice in which the French pledged to intervene in the Italian peninsula if the RSI would agree to participate in a hypothetical war against the German Empire. With the new French guarantees the Northern Republic was now ready to start a war for unification. The Rome offensive started on the 12th of December 1938 and was an immediate success, the Papal Army and the Papal Zuaves were more numerous and much more prepared than 70 years before but they were still no match for the bigger and more professional Armata Rossa.

Before the end of the year Rome was taken and the Pope once again declared himself prisoner in the Vatican, the consequences of this was the ramping up of catholic terrorist activity and the demoralisation of the Duosicilian troops which participated in the war next to their Papal allies. The Duosicilian army wasn't much more stronger than the Papal one, in fact the outflanking caused by the Rome offensive and the taking of the Latium led to an hastily devised retreat to form another defensive line close to the city of Capua, the Duosicilian then had to abandon the city of Chieti to the advancing socialist forces.

The Austrians seized the opportunity given to their White Italian allies and seeing how easily the Duosicilian Kingdom was falling, they sent a joint preventive offensive over the Ticino river, which succeeded in taking the city of Novara for the Italian Republic. The reaction of the International to this act of war was one of condemnation and the French, following up their pledge to help the SRI, declared war on the Austro-Hungarians. The Italian Socialist Republic was prepared to a war with Austria and formed a new defensive line on the Sesia river which the Austrians could not breach, the situation consequently stalled with Imperialists trying to breach and the Reds waiting from reinforcements from the south and the French.

The war in the south was going extremely well for the SRI, in fact, by the time the imperialist Austrians started their offensives, everything north of Capua had been captured and Naples would fall after furious fighting only three months after the start of the war. After the capture of their capital, the Duosicilian regime started to collapse completely: small underground movement who promoted the reunification of Italy started to become more daring, they sabotaged the Duosicilian supply lines and even went as far as leading spontaneous revolts for the Socialist Republic, in the isle of Sicily the situation was even worse as brigandage was being fuelled by the war effort, by desertion and by the poverty caused by army requisition of supplies. As time went by these brigands became part of the growing underground unitarist resistance and acquired a pan-Italian and socialist character. There was no single great revolt as the cities and the country-side of Sicily fell, sporadic militias advanced with almost no resistance from the extremely weak central government. On the 18 of May of 1939 Girolamo Li Causi, the de facto leader of the revolutionaries, declared the creation of the "Autonomous Peasant's Republic of Sicily" in Palermo.The new republic organised a referendum with the approval of the continental government to determine the policy of the island towards the Italian Peninsula.

Since their inception the APRS always followed a diplomatic policy of cooperation with the SRI and with the Third International in general, the attacks on the collapsing Duosicilian government were coordinated with the Italian government and even the referendum occurred in a very pro-Italian atmosphere because of the unpopularity of the Bourbon regime. This short lived republic was characterised by intense violence towards landowners and mafiosis alike, with the new socialist government that wanted but couldn't stop the witch hunts in the streets. On the 18 of May 1940, one year after the declaration of independence, the ballots were opened and the results of the referendum expressed the overwhelming "Sì" of the islanders to the question: "Should the Autonomous Peasant's Republic of Sicily be integrated in the Italian Socialist Republic with a special autonomous status?" binding indissolubly the destiny of the Peasant's Island with that of the Worker's Peninsula.

### The SRI and the Seconda Grande Guerra

The Second Great War was, for the Italian people, just a continuation of the Secondo Rinascimento. As the first bullets started to fly on the Franco-German border, the SRI was already fighting its own national war, however the Italian Government knew that, to continue to receive the French invaluable assistance it had to follow up on the concessions made to them in the Treaty of Nice. Thus, the declaration of war against the German Empire appeared on the Italian papers just a few days after the French Social Republic announced theirs and De Ambris signed to become a member of the Marseille Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and National Defence on the 14th of May 1939. After the annexation of the south the RSI could redirect a substantial amount of troops to the northern front and with help from the French, that at the same time were fighting their first battles with the German Empire, the Socialist forces were able to recapture Novara and to continue a steady advance towards Milan. This was aided by riots and pro-unity disorders in the city.

Milan fell on the 3rd of June 1939. The advance continued until the December of 1939 when it stopped at the Piave river, by that time German reinforcements to Austria-Hungary turned the war into a stalemate which was being fought over rivers and mountains with a high number of casualties.

The Italian and French Navies accepted the unconditional surrender of the Savoyard Monarchy on 22 of May 1940 after taking the whole of Sardinia with relative ease thanks to their naval hegemony in the Mediterranean Sea, the operation consisted in an invasion from the north using Corsica as a launching point for the invasion.

The stalemate in the north-east would go on with no breakthrough by either the Austro-Germans or by the MarPac forces for more than three years, the hypothesis of a naval invasion was considered to be unfeasible due to the high number of Austro-Hungarians and Italian troops guarding the coast, however this didn't stop either faction from trying. There were more than one landing in Dalmatia and even one in Trieste, where the Italians were welcomed as liberators until the invading troops were repelled. This continued until Operation Guardiano. MarPac combined intelligence worked for months (or even years) at Operation Guardiano, this scheme, which is considered the biggest military deception operation ever carried out in history, consisted of letting the Austrians think that the planned invasion of Dubrovnik would be a diversion and that most of the invading forces would actually land in Split. When the invasion actually came on the 6th of June 1943 the Hasburg's response had been delayed of almost 5 weeks which made it easy for the Italo-French forces to break the coastal defensive lines and start capturing Illyrian cities, the operation was therefore a success for MarPac forces that were able to open a new front that the Austro-Hungarian Army wasn't able to close.

The success of the Dalmatian invasion and the subsequent opening of the Balkan front was the beginning of the end for the war in Europe, in fact, in 1944 the already weak Austro-Hungarian Army collapsed due to the pressure of the three fronts it had to face: the Hungarian one against Russia, and the two Italian ones. The Armata Rossa was then able to overrun Istria and Croatia and to meet with the Russian Army in West Hungary and Serbia while it reached a stalemate with the German Army on the Slovene front. On the 30 of March 1946 Berlin surrendered bringing to an end the war in Europe. The SRI participated at the Congress of the Victors as one of the greater beneficiary of the Seconda Grande Guerra, formally annexing all of their claimed territory up to the Istrian peninsula, the SNL demanded the annexation of the Dalmatian coast as rightful Italian territory but French protests led to a compromise in which the SRI sponsored the creation of the Federal State of Dalmatia as part of the Illyrian Federal Socialist Republic with special rights and protections for Italian speaking Dalmatian citizens.

### Post-War Politics

As the war ended, festivities began: after hearing through their radios that the Germans had surrendered unconditionally, supporters of the socialist New Order went out on the streets in a show of unity with even anti-socialists and catholics as everyone was overjoyed at the the prospect of seeing their husband, brother or father (or even their volunteer wife, sister or mother) again.

While the Syndicalist-Fascist government was united during public appearances because of the war, in the backstage, each of the two souls that composed the cabinet was pressing for more influence for themselves. The Syndicalists wanted their absolute majority back but were hindered by the upstart Fascists, now more popular than ever who also aimed at broadening their base. In doing that they were really effective, this was highlighted by the fervent passion of their supporters who could be seen occasionally beating up their opponents in factories and calling them "traitors of the homeland". Mussolini's charisma was working well in securing him support from the general population until those same skills made him the figurehead of a government that would soon become unpopular: as the southern territories fell to the Republic disorders and violence between right wing integralists and left wing unitarists followed. Thus, the ex-bourbon territories (with the exception of the now more orderly Sicily), were put under martial law. Unfortunately, the heavy hand that the "northern" government used resulted in the shattering of the dream of a more equal Italian union in the mind of many southern peasants.

In a Meridione disillusioned by the iron fist strategy employed by the Northerners after the disorders and chaos that followed the fall of the Bourbon Regime, Mussolini's faction became wildly unpopular. This led to the shaping of an autonomist movement that was supported and encouraged by the extremely powerful mafia born out of the Bourbon approach to the Questione Meridionale: one of collaboration with the criminals within the scope of suppressing any peasant movement in its infancy. In the north the population was wary of the war that was fought over the rivers as it became, in the eyes of the common people, too bloody and similar to the Grande Guerra that had been lost 20 years before, creating more animosity towards the government as more and more younglings died on the Slovenian Alps. Estimates say that almost one million Italians died during the Second Great War, most of the dead were northerners while the south of Italy saw the most material losses, both because of the war and of the hundreds of terrorist attacks from catholic terrorists aimed at the southern infrastructures that succeeded in significantly slowing the process of unification and of syndicalisation of the economy of the South.

During the elections of 1945 the South was still under martial law and only Sicily was able to elect its own representatives, in fact, the southerners would have to wait until 1947 for the martial law to be lifted. With almost half of the newly relocated (to Rome) Congress completely empty, De Ambris had to enact a decree to suspend until the next elections the Congress quorum of 50% to stop the opposition from simply not showing up when a controversial motion or bill was being passed. The new government was thus elected by an Unione Sindicalista majority with a re-confirmed De Ambris as President and the leader of the Anarchist fraction of the Unione Sindacalista, Armando Borghi, as vice-president. The government immediately followed up on their promises of democratising the country by reining in the power of the President and of the Council of Ministers and giving back real legislative power to the Congress, for the fist time since the revolution the CGS wasn't a toy parliament. Many both in the government and in the opposition believed that the reforms weren't enough and began pressuring De Ambris for a new constitution, seeing how this was unavoidable in the revolutionary climate of the Post-War and not wanting the public to see him agreeing only after the thing was a done deal, he immediately took credit for the idea and began to organise the election of a Constitutional Assembly composed of 500 members with the aim of putting together a new constitution, the resulting document was agreed upon by all but 10 members of the SNL who abstained and came into effect on the 1 of January 1948.

## Politics

### General Congress of the Syndicates

The GCS is the unicameral parliament of the Italian Socialist Republic, it holds legislative power under the Constitution of the Republic of 1947 and its deputies have last been elected in 1945, with every legislative period lasting five years. Thus the next election will be in 1950.