Abstract

For many years, antifascist historiography barely recognized the Italian Social Republic (RSI) as an interesting case of study, despite the fact that the RSI saw the last stages of Italian fascism's decline, characterized by repressive policies and violent practices against opposition forces within Italy. From the mid-1980s onward, historiography's opinion of this underestimated political role of the RSI began to change as a consequence of important cultural events promoted by the Micheletti Foundation in Brescia. However, the effects of this important historiographical shift became clear only fifteen years later, thanks to works by Ganapini and Gagliani. Their studies provide a more complex idea of republican fascism and allow analysis of the multilateral relationships among several fascist institutions, the German authorities of the occupation, and the Italian population itself in the wartime period of 1943-45.