Anti-fascist Propaganda among Italian Prisoners of War in the USSR, 1941-6

Drawing from documents of the Komintern and of NKVD, the paper examines the objectives and the practical organization of Soviet political work among Italian prisoners, the structure of “antifascist groups” and the organization of antifascist schools. The paper attempts to evaluate the success of antifascist work conducted in the Soviet camps, both in the long and short term. The paper analyses significant changes both in the attitude of Soviet Administration of camps towards Italian POWs and the contents of political work with them after the Italian armistice of 8th of September 1943. The research concentrates also on the role of political instructors – both Russian and Italian political refugees – and their relationship with the functionaries of the Komintern and the NKVD. As a matter of fact, one of the purposes of the research is to illustrate mixed reactions of prisoners of war towards communist propaganda, as well as their attitudes towards the antifascist initiatives and projects in general.