Russian front to Italy's south (4)
I believe the answer is:
ivan
'russian' is the definition.
(common Russian name)
'front to italy's south' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'front' could be 'van' (I've seen this before) and 'van' is found in the answer.
'italy' could be 'i' and 'i' is located in the answer.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
(Other definitions for ivan that I've seen before include "man who had a terrible reputation" , "his progress in history was terrible!" , "Russian boy's name" , "Chap" , "- - the Terrible (Czar)" .)