«Si inscriva, assicurando». Polizia e sorveglianza del dissenso politico (Verona, 1894-1963)

This research discusses the forms of police surveillance of political dissidents in Veronese territory in modern times, studied through an analysis of the personal files of politicians kept an eye on, people born and resident in the province of Verona whose files formed the series "A8 Radiati" using as its source the "Questura di Verona", conserved in the State Archives of Verona. The series consists of 1940 files, produced and used over a period that covers the years 1894 – 1963. Each file, besides providing periodic informative reports about the person in question, sometimes contains a biography and documents of various types: birth and death certificates, legal, descriptions of identification, exhibits from searches carried out (correspondence, political press, membership cards of parties, trade unions and various associations), memorials and petitions. Normally used for the reconstruction of biographies of political militants and antifascists, the personal files of the people kept an eye on, like police sources in general, become however, sources "about" the Police. Before being used as instruments for the reconstruction of the stories of individuals or groups who have been the object of Police attention, these files provide details about the procedures, functions and ideas of the latter and they need to be interpreted – despite being police sources, just like any other source – critically. It is not simply a question of clarifying whether these police sources tell the truth or not; rather, one needs to understand the filters through which reality is established in the documents. The acts of “inscription”, of opening and periodically up-dating individual files on a good number of people and of “insuring”, that is, of the Police officers transferring the information from the centre to the periphery and vice-versa are not only widespread activities carried out over a long period of time, but also useful in helping us to understand who and how these filters are organised, so as to be able to analyse the concrete mechanisms and reasoning the Police adopt to produce their documents. The first part of the research summarises, with reference to both the local and national context, the formation of the modern police force during the 19th Century, an era marked by the spread of positivism, of debate about Cesare Lombroso’s criminal anthropology and of the construction of the concept and image of the “subversive” around the anarchist’s figure. It proceeds then, by analysing the lines of development of policies on public order and the procedure of opening files in the 19th Century through the political and social transformations of the country: from the Giolitti era to the aftermath of World War I, from the Fascist regime to the early years of the democratic republic. The second part of the research is dedicated to an analysis of a quantitative type on the files as a whole, the personal files produced by the Questura of Verona supported by a reconstruction of a number of cases through brief biographical profiles of those kept under surveillance. By constructing a database of information extracted from all the files, it was possible to carry out an analysis of private data regarding not only social status and political activity but also the motivation and circumstances leading to the construction of the profile, not to mention the length and the form adopted in keeping the person under surveillance over the years. While working on this project, I have tried to answer a number of questions. Who is put under surveillance, for example? What is his political, social or generational profile? When were more people kept an eye on, when fewer, and why? What is the average length of being placed under surveillance? Does the length vary over a period of time, or according to the person’s profile? What are the reasons and circumstances that lead to the opening of a file and who are the people involved in this process? What, on the other hand, are the reasons that lead to the closure of a case and to the end of surveillance? The answer to these questions triggered off a series of more articulated reasonings which are explained in the final part of the research. The themes treated in-depth have been: defining the word “subversive”, defining what constitutes danger (political opinions, behaviour towards the officers whose job it is to enforce the law, social status, work environment, how active the person is, his age and so on); the broadening or limiting of social groups and political currents put under surveillance according to various periods; the use of political sources in analysing the relationship between consent and dissent during the fascist regime; making the surveillance (and its meaning) public or keeping it secret; the use of violence by the police; police activity as room for mediation; conflict between the roles played by the various agents of surveillance; the relationship between political and ordinary criminality; control (and not) of mobility; the spaces in and through which surveillance is carried out; such as the “morality” of private behaviour, “repentance” or “cancellation”, that is, the elements and the dynamics that lead to the end of surveillance; the tactics and strategies of reply adopted by those who are put under surveillance. The issues raised can contribute to a more precise delineation of the basic characteristics of police surveillance of political dissidents in modern times, using the Veronese case as a starting point for useful interpretation, so as to be able to more accurately define the activity of the Police and public Authorities, as well as provide a profile of the dissident and political opponent in Italy at the time of its unification. Keeping an eye on political dissidents emerges as a long-term strategy insofar as it has accompanied the entire history of this century, ever since the unification of Italy. It is an elastic process: its use varies considerably according to the times, the conditions and governmental input; slimy because every time a person is put under the police lens, it has been demonstrated that it is difficult to get out because the evaluation of an individual’s level of danger is not based on his actions, but rather, on his profile which is subsequently prone to elaboration. Notwithstanding that political surveillance has passed through very different historical contexts and political regimes, the kind of person put under surveillance has, however remained substantially the same: anarchists, socialists and communists. Continuity, even in times of transformation and fracture, has remained the dominant factor that characterizes profile of the Police. Political surveillance is not, however, an innocuous measure, without transformation or elements of discontinuity. The intensity and form it adopts may however, vary. The history of political surveillance, of its continuity and discontinuity depends on the circumstances of the time: the person defined “subversive” varies according to the climate of the moment and accepted meanings, juridically-, politically- and even symbolically- speaking. The people, ideas and behaviours considered “subversive”, that is potentially able to turn public order and the power system of the moment upside-down, are put under surveillance and disciplined, with the aim of eliminating the danger of a radical and traumatic transformation of the political and social horizon.