Renato Ricci was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 fascist politician active during the government of Benito Mussolini

Benito Mussolini

Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....

.

Ricci first came to prominence as a legionary of Gabriele d'Annunzio

Gabriele D'Annunzio

Gabriele D'Annunzio or d'Annunzio was an Italian poet, journalist, novelist, and dramatist...

 from 1919 to 1920. He was arrested for his activities and imprisoned in Sarzana

Sarzana

Sarzana is a town and comune in the Province of La Spezia, of Liguria, Italy, 15 km east of Spezia, on the railway to Pisa, at the point where the railway to Parma diverges to the north...

 leading in 1920 to a failed attempt to 'liberate' him by fascist activists which, despite being a failure proved a propaganda success. As ras of the fascio squad in his native town Ricci initially demonstrated the left-wing origins of fascism by supporting a 40 day strike by quarry workers in 1924.

After the spell as a squad leader in Carrara Ricci's profile rose and he eventually became head of the Opera Nazionale Balilla

Opera Nazionale Balilla

thumb|240px|A young balilla in [[Piazza Venezia]].Opera Nazionale Balilla was an Italian Fascist youth organization functioning, as an addition to school education, between 1926 and 1937 .It was named after Balilla, the moniker of Giovan Battista Perasso,...

youth movement. He became a member of government and served as Mussolini's Minister of Corporations. Politically he became known as one of the main Nazi

Nazism

Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

 sympathisers in the fascist government. Indeed along with others of a similar persuasion such as Giovanni Preziosi

Giovanni Preziosi

Giovanni Preziosi was an Italian fascist politician noted for his anti-Semitism.- Early career :...

 and Roberto Farinacci

Roberto Farinacci

Roberto Farinacci was a leading Italian Fascist politician, and important member of the National Fascist Party before and during World War II, and one of its ardent anti-Semitic proponents.-Early life:...

, he had fled to Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 before Gran Sasso raid and met up with Il Duce there after Otto Skorzeny

Otto Skorzeny

Otto Skorzeny was an SS-Obersturmbannführer in the German Waffen-SS during World War II. After fighting on the Eastern Front, he was chosen as the field commander to carry out the rescue mission that freed the deposed Italian dictator Benito Mussolini from captivity...

's capture of the fascist leader.

He served as leader of the Italian National Republican Guard

Italian National Republican Guard

The Italian National Republican Guard was a paramilitary force of the Italian Social Republic created by decree on December 8, 1943, replacing the Carabinieri and the National Security Volunteer Militia . General Renato Ricci appointed as its commandant...

 during the Italian Social Republic

Italian Social Republic

The Italian Social Republic was a puppet state of Nazi Germany led by the "Duce of the Nation" and "Minister of Foreign Affairs" Benito Mussolini and his Republican Fascist Party. The RSI exercised nominal sovereignty in northern Italy but was largely dependent on the Wehrmacht to maintain control...

 before it was incorporated into the regular army in 1944. Following the collapse of the Republic of Salo an Italian resistance movement

Italian resistance movement

The Italian resistance is the umbrella term for the various partisan forces formed by pro-Allied Italians during World War II...

 tribunal discharged Ricci after deciding that his force was simply an internal police.

Sources

• Neville, P. (2004) Mussolini, London: Routledge.
• Nolte, E.
  Ernst Nolte
  Ernst Nolte is a German historian and philosopher. Nolte’s major interest is the comparative studies of Fascism and Communism. He is Professor Emeritus of Modern History at the Free University of Berlin, where he taught from 1973 to 1991. He was previously a Professor at the University of Marburg...
  
  (1969) Three Faces of Fascism, New York: Mentor.