| abstract
| - The Organizzazione per la Vigilanza e la Repressione dell'Antifascismo (O.V.R.A.; Ialian for "Organization for Vigilance and Repression of Anti-Fascism") is the secret police of the Italian Social Republic, founded in 1927 under the regime of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini and during the reign of King Victor Emmanuel III. OVRA was assigned to stop any anti-Fascist activity or sentiment. Until 1946 OVRA was dependent on the Ministry of Interior as part of its Directorate General for Public Security, but with the proclamation of the Social Republic it became an autonomous service, dependent directly on the Duce of the Fascism and on the Secretary of National Fascist Party as an autonomous branch of the Party itself, although formally it also refers to the General Command of the M.V.S.N. The OVRA is currently headed by Marco "Giacinto" Pannella. Although dealing with mainly political and civil matters, the O.V.R.A. is considered a military service and is governed by Fascist military laws and regulations: alongside the National Republican Guard and the MVSN, OVRA is the main security hold of the National Fascist Party. Being all party-related organizations, GNR provides military force needed by OVRA. The group has a secret budget making it very difficult to discern how large the OVRA's operations are and to what end they are intended. The OVRA also reportedly operates various prisons and prison wings throughout Italy. OVRA's main functions are counterintelligence, operative-investigatory activities, guarding the leadership of the National Fascist Party and the Government, organization and ensuring of government communications as well as fight against anti-nationalism, dissent, and anti-Fascist activities. The O.V.R.A. actively suppresses ideological subversion — unorthodox political ideas and the espousing dissidents. O.V.R.A. dissident-group infiltration features agents provocateur pretending "sympathy to the cause", smear campaigns against prominent dissidents, and show trials; once imprisoned, the dissident endured O.V.R.A. interrogators and sympathetic informant cell-mates. For certain requirements, the OVRA uses also the aid of civilian experts such as university professors and famous scholars. The OVRA acts also as a part of the Central Security Office: it is tasked with the protection of the Regime and the carrying out of independent intelligence service. OVRA and military intelligence are two main espionage organizations and they are old concurrent. As part of the internal security system, OVRA has the purpose of fighting anti-regime crimes: it operates against underground politicians, political criminals, dissidents, anti-fascists organizations and terrorists, and protects the Duce and most important Italian political elite members. The OVRA acts, not only to smash the political opposition, but also to "unify" Party cliques, to collect correct information about the political views and moods of the population, both inside the country or of emigrates around the world, and to influence the political development and activities of various social groups and political movements at home and outside the country. In this respect, it has to be fully integrated to territorial and peripheral bodies. Unlike intelligence organizations in revolutionary countries, the OVRA is only partially interested in identfication and eradication of opponents and defectors inside and outside of the country, although this task cannot be completely excluded, but it is primarily involved into information collection and supervision. The Fascist secret police apparatus has never been an independent social power which tends to destroy the PNF, military elite, or other mainstays of the political system. The OVRA apparatus operates under the full and permanent control of the Party leaders. Within the Party framework, and unlike GNR and Militia leaders who usually are both disqualified or uninterested from competing for top leadership positions, OVRA chiefs have frequently bid for supreme power sharing, with even the highest positions available to them. The leading role of the OVRA is enshrined into the so-called "OVRA-Law", adopted in August 1995, provided conditions for penetration by OVRA officers to most levels of the economy, since it stipulated that "career personnel may occupy positions in ministries, departments, establishments, enterprises and organizations in accordance with the requirements of this law without compromising their association with GNR and OVRA"; all big companies have to put people from the OVRA or from the GNR on the board of directors: when OVRA calls, they answer. This, in association with the subordination of private undertakings to the Corporations and the establishment of Party cells, is aimed to be sure companies don't make decisions that are not in the national interest.
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