Benito Mussolini was born on July 29, 1883, at Varano di Costa, an ancient hamlet of Dovia, in the county of Predappio in northeast Italy. He was born on this earth on Sunday at two o’clock in the afternoon. The village was celebrating the festival of the patron saint of the old church and parish of Caminate.
The Heritage
The ancestors of the Mussolini family had a colorful history. One of them was Giovanni Mussolini, the rebellious leader of
the City of Bologna in the late 13th century.Another one, stayed at London in the 18th century and was a good music composer. As Mussolini wrote in his autobiography, “…perhaps it is from him that I inherit the love of the violin, which even today in my hands gives comfort to moments of relaxation and creates for me moments of release from the realities of my days.” Benito’s grandfather held a reputed position, a lieutenant of the National Guard of Italy. The Mussolinis had left their marks in their city. A street, a tower and a square in Bologna bore the name after Benito’s ancestors. Benito, a descendent from such a prestigious family, was brought up in a small house surrounded with many other stone houses.
He recalled his early years, which he named ‘First Steps of Life’, in his autobiography, “My childhood, now in the mists of distance, still yields those flashes of memory that come back with a familiar scene, an aroma which the nose associates with damp earth after a rain in the springtime, or the sound of footsteps in the corridor. A roll of thunder may bring back the recollection of the stone steps where a little child who seems no longer any part of one’s self used to play in the afternoon.”
Family
Benito’s father Alessandro Mussolini was a blacksmith. He was a strong and a robust man. A staunch socialist, he held daily meetings with his other socialist friends. Alessandro was a part-time socialist journalist, and would spend much of his time discussing politics. Benito’s mother, Rosa Mussolini was a primary school teacher. Owing to circumstances, the family lived room hand to mouth in two
congested rooms on the second floor of a ramshackle palazzo. His father had a mistress and he spent most of his income on her.
Benito was the youngest amongst three siblings. They hardly had anything to eat daily. Alessandro worked as a blacksmith only when he felt the need. Rosa’s income was the main source, most of the time, to run the home. Rosa was theist, a devout Catholic, and the child Benito used to go to a local church every Sunday with his mother. His father, an agnostic, was at home with his socialist circle.
First Steps of Life
From an early age, Benito was naughty, disobedient, and aggressive; as he wrote, “…a restless being”. He did not like displeasing his mother. To hide his mischiefs from her, he would prank on his grandmother and his neighbors. His mother was quiet, tender but a strong lady. Benito wrote about his mother, “My greatest love was for my mother.”
Growing up, he became close to his father, gradually. The son and the father would sit together for hours and share their views. He wrote in his autobiography, “My father took a profound interest in my development. Perhaps I was much more observed by his paternal attention than I thought.
We became much more knit together by common interests as my mind and body approached maturity…slowly but fatally I was turning my spirit and my mind to new political ideals destined to flower for a time.”
Both, the father and the son, shared violent tempers. Young Benito would do whatever he wanted, and his father would encourage him. Benito often took to fighting, and he remained prone to it his entire life. His father was a prominent Marxist socialist in his area, he regularly wrote articles for the socialist newspapers. He had prepared manifestos for many socialist institutions and made his house a local branch of the Second International of Social Democratic Parties. His position would stop other people to resist Benito’s pranks, often violent. As Benito confessed after coming to power, “I believe that in those youthful years, just as now, my day began and ended with an act of will – by will put into action.”
The lad, Benito enjoyed heavy rains while wandering in the hills. It stimulated adventurous feelings in him. With his elder brother Arnaldo, he used to try his ‘skills as a builder’ to control the current of river flowing nearby the stone wall of his house ! Little Benito would hunt for eggs or young birds in the nesting season. He was full of passion for young life; a restless and open-minded person.
Years at the Alma Mater
It might surprise us to know that the leader, who captivated many audiences with his oratory skills, had a speech difficulty when he was very young. But as he grew up, he learned to speak clearly. He first went to a school at Predappio. Marani, a friend of his father, ran the school, about two miles away from Benito’s home. For the boys at Predappio, he was a stranger coming from another village. They would flung stones at him and tease him, and Benito would answer their stones with bricks. However, he was alone and the opponents were in large numbers. It happened many a times that Benito was beaten by these mischievous boys. Recalling this event, he wrote, “…but I enjoyed it with that universality of enjoyment with which boys the world around make friendship by battle and arrive at affection through missiles.” His body bore its imprints, and he would try to hide his wounds from his mother’s eyes, while getting the evening meal from her.
When he completed his primary studies, his father sent him to a boarding school, because the teachers at the village school or his parents could not control him, as he was bully at school and moody at home.
At nine, he enrolled at the Salesian Boarding School at Faenza, a town noted for its pottery of the 15th century. At the school, run by the Salesiani priests, lessons of discipline were imposed upon him. In other words, his freedom of ‘whatever he desired he did’ was lost. He was restless and developed a strong dislike for religion. He often ran into hot waters because of disputes many with his schoolmates. At Salesian, Benito did not obey the strict orders,and turned out more troublesome than ever.
His violent acts came out with double force, which resulted in hurting a fellow student with a penknife. One of the Salesians tried to beat him for his act but Benito attacked in return. For his indisciplined acts, he was expelled from the boarding school.
Then his father sent him to Giosuè Carducci School at Forlimpopoli conducted by Valfredo Carducci, brother of great Italian writer Giosuè Carducci. This school put an emphasis on studies and not on discipline, so Benito felt at ease there.
There was a long academic pursuit ahead of Benito to become a master. In his words, ‘…to have teacher’s diploma meant six years of books and pencils, ink and paper.” Benito was restless, but an intelligent student. He took an intense interest in psychology, especially mob-psychology. The interest remained forever. He enjoyed the company of his maters, who were understanding and on the whole, generous. In those days, people who wanted to become active in politics began their career as a teacher. Benito chose the same path, passing his final examinations without difficulty.
Initially he played an easy-going lad, but soon his eccentricities jumped out when one of his schoolmates challenged his powers. Benito could not stand that and had a violent fight with that fellow.
The seeds of his political thoughts and oration skills were sown during his years at this school, where his conversation with other students on subjects like politics and religion took place. His leadership qualities came to the forefront, as he often led groups of students at the school.
In Search of Terra Firma
Benito Mussolini, an 18-year-old young lad with a diploma in teaching, was now in search of a job. Getting a teacher’s job was a tough task without a recommendation letter. Benito was, fortunately selected a teacher at Gualtieri. He worked there for one year. Soon he realized that he was not made for such a job, so he resigned. He did not go back to his family at Predappio, finding it a narrow world for his development. He had become conscious about his future and wanted to flee somewhere else. He wrote about his condition at that time, “Money I had not – merely a little. Courage was my asset. I would be an exile… I crossed the frontier, I entered Switzerland.”
Switzerland, the land with icecaps glittered in the sunshine. Benito found himself in the heaven. The short, pale, young man with a powerful jaw and dark, piercing eyes; was wandering in search of his identity. As a socialist, he was highly influenced by Karl Marx and always kept a nickel medallion of Marx in his pocket. With this only inspiration, Mussolini could beat the tough times in the next few months.
His stay in Switzerland was a welter of hardships. He had to live from day to day, jumping from job to job. He did translations for different magazines and newspapers, from Italian to French. He worked in many places, usually as a mason, satisfying his childhood dream of constructing something worth. Mussolini felt himself much matured but poorer too, as he described, “I knew hunger – stark hunger – in those days. But I never bent myself to ask for loans…never tried to inspire the pity of those around me nor of my own political companions. I reduced my needs to a minimum and that minimum, and sometimes less, I received from home.”
Deported from Switzerland
Simultaneously, he kept reading whatever came in his way. He studied social sciences, widely and voraciously, learned the theories of Immanuel Kant, Peter Kropotkin, Benedict de Spinoza, Friedrich Nietzsche, G W F Hegel, Karl Kautsky, and Georges Sorel. His mind began diverting while attending lectures on political economy by a renowned speaker Parto. He found pleasure in learning the fundamental economic philosophy of the future. By participating in political gatherings in Lausanne, he got confidence. He described in his diary : “I entered into this new era as a man and politician. My confident soul began to be my support.”
He picked up few ideas from great philosophers and threw away the rest, forming his own revolutionary philosophy. The uncommon personality and oratory skills of Mussolini made him famous as a public speaker and political journalist. He advocated the trade unions and encouraged them to adopt strikes and other violent ways for having their demands met. Due to his fiery speeches and rebellious thoughts, he was arrested and imprisoned, more than once. Swiss newspapers noticed him too.
Mussolini delivered some fiery speeches, whipping on various political and social issues prevailing then that made him undesirable in the eyes of the Swiss authorities. They found him dangerous and exiled him from two cantons, Lausanne and Geneva. Staying in Switzerland became impossible for him.
He was not ready to return home. So he traveled through neighbor countries, Germany, Austria and France. He earned some money as a fortuneteller. But his main goal was to study the current political situations in these nations.
Back Home
In 1904, when he returned to Italy, there were greetings, and questions from the media persons about his revolutionary meetings, arrests; escapades from Switzerland, detection by the Swiss police and finally, his exile from Switzerland. After his return to Italy, the Roman media also started mentioning his name. By this time, Mussolini had become famous for his advocacy for abolition of capitalism, atheism and corruption at all the levels in politics. He became controversial because of his view that if necessary, one should not hesitate to implement this by means of violent revolution too.
For a few months after his arrival, he kept away from the public life. Furthermore, the compulsory service in the national army was waiting for him. He joined the Bersaglieri regiment at Verona, a historic city. Mussolini remarked, “I like the life of Soldier.” His revolutionary thoughts, and radical activism made his superiors praise him. Soon his destiny decreed that he was not made to be a soldier. He received a telegram from his father, breaking the sad news of his mother’s death. Mussolini was shocked and in great grief, returned home. But it was too late. The permission was granted after her mother’s funeral was over. For many days, he felt lost. He had to return to Verona anyhow. After finishing his last months of compulsory military service, he went to Opeglia, with uncertainty regarding future.
One More Deportation
He accepted to become a schoolmaster, once again, in the middle school in north of Udine in the Venetian Alps. But teaching job did not suit his revolutionary nature. During this period he lived a life, as he confessed, of ‘moral deterioration.’ He felt that both his power and intellect were being wasted. Soon tired of this job and monotonous life, he went to Austria with Cesare Battisti, then chief editor of the Popolo, who later joined Mussolini in power and proved himself a patriot.
Mussolini had an itch for journalism. He wrote an article on the controversial issue of Italy-Austria border. This resulted in his exile from the Austria by the Imperial and Royal Government of Vienna. But expulsion was not a new thing for Mussolini, he returned to Forli.
Deported from Switzerland
Simultaneously, he kept reading whatever came in his way. He studied social sciences, widely and voraciously, learned the theories of Immanuel Kant, Peter Kropotkin, Benedict de Spinoza, Friedrich Nietzsche, G W F Hegel, Karl Kautsky, and Georges Sorel. His mind began diverting while attending lectures on political economy by a renowned speaker Parto. He found pleasure in learning the fundamental economic philosophy of the future. By participating in political gatherings in Lausanne, he got confidence. He described in his diary : “I entered into this new era as a man and politician. My confident soul began to be my support.”
Rachele Guidi
Mussolini once again turned towards trade-union work, journalism and politics, this time very aggressively. Around this period, this active young man, aged 26, came into contact with Rachele Guidi, a 16-year-old girl. She was younger to the two daughters of his father’s widowed mistress. Mussolini fell in love with her; Rachele expressed the same feelings in return. Mussolini had a quiet, small, damp apartment at Forli. Rachele wished to stay with him to share his loneliness. Mussolini and Rachele’s love blossomed day-by-day and finally they got married. Rachele proved to be a wise and excellent wife, who followed the husband with patience and devotion in every walk of life. She bore Mussolini five children.
To run the family, Mussolini desperately needed money. He wrote articles for some small socialist papers. He wrote a few novels, which shattered the minds of Italian people as well as the markets. One of these novels has been subsequently translated in English as The Cardinal’s Mistress. Many people appreciated his writings; few criticized too. But he did not write more novels, and stuck to various newspapers only.
Comrade Mussolini
People, some from the circle of the king of Italy, began to acknowledge his talents. On their recommendation, King Victor Immanuel III invited him to give a speech at the royal palace. Mussolini accepted the invitation and when he stepped down the palace after giving his speech, he was not alone, a world of fame was ready to welcome him. Mussolini, to Italians was now a guiding light.
By 1912, he had become a mouthpiece of revolutionary socialist faction and led many revolutionary campaigns. State authorities found him threatening and he was handcuffd.
Mussolini came out of jail as one of the most dangerous of young comrades of Italy. He founded a socialist newspaper, La Lotta di Classe (The Class Struggle). It was a successful venture. Socialist newspaper, Avanti (Forward) published from Milan, offered Mussolini editorship. He was only 29, when he gained such reputed post. He became an active member of the Socialist Party of Italy.
Meanwhile, he lost his father, who was also imprisoned, for his socialist agitations. Mussolini wrote on this incident, “My father’s death marked the end of family unity for us – the family.”
A Leading Journalist
Mussolini had occupied several provincial posts as an editor as well as trade and labor union leader until he became a Socialist Party Congress leader. The circulation of Avanti doubled in a matter of months under his editorship. During his editorial tenure for three years, he drew a new branch of journalism, pugent and polemical. He hammered the conservative thoughts of people, injecting a new dose of excitement in socialism. Consequently, the circulation of Avanti crossed 1,00,000. This success made Mussolini’s place firm and dominant in the Socialist Party.
Turned an Anti-Socialist
On the Italian Socialist platform, Mussolini was emerging as a sharp and ironic leader. In July 1914, World War I began. Mussolini, as an anti-militarist and anti-imperialist, wrote an editorial in which he thunderously opposed Italy’s intervention in the war, fully agreeing with the other socialists’ views.
But after reading Karl Marx’s aphorism that social revolution follows the path of war, he changed his mind about intervention of Italy in the war. With that inspiration, he began to drag with him a fraction of Socialists in favor of war. Rebels from many schools joined him. He began writing articles in favor of war in the same spirit, with which he had previously condemned it. He made speeches, raising violent feelings in the hearts of people. The Socialist Senedrium was against it. Seeing where Mussolini was going, they took the Avanti out of his control, forcing him to resign from the editorship. The next immediate step was Mussolini’s expulsion from the Socialist Party.
After expulsion, Mussolini felt relaxed as he wrote, “I felt lighter, fresher. I was free ! I was better prepared to fight my battles than when I was bound by the dogmas of any political organization. But I understood that I could not use, with efficient strength my convictions without that modern weapon, capable of all possibilities, ready to arm and to help, good for offence and defense – the newspaper.”
Birth of Fascism
In November 1914, Mussolini found his ‘weapon’. A publisher, who favored Italy’s war against Austria, financed him. Mussolini started his own newspaper, Il Popolo d’ Italia (The People of Italy) that became a cradle of a new doctrine – Fascism. It’s birth-cry could be heard from Mussolini’s words, stated in his editorial: “From today onward we are all Italians and nothing but Italians. Now, that steel has met steel, one single cry comes from our hearts – Viva l’ Italia ! (Long live Italy !)”
Mussolini was now in mood of war. Il Popolo d’ Italia became the mouth organ of Mussolini’s new philosophy, Fascism. “Now or never”, the war cry of Ceasre Battisti, who was executed by Austrians earlier, was echoing in the heart of Mussolini. He had made up his mind, and went on the battlefield with bersaglieri, a corps of sharpshooters. He returned home wounded. He was a changed personality, a convinced anti-Socialist.
Demanding Dictatorship
Italy had won against Austria and Hungary, but the post-war situation was worst for Italians. Mussolini described it as “the darkest and most painful periods of Italian life. Dark thunderclouds hung above our unity. The progress of Italy’s unification was threatened. I watched the gathering storm”.
Mussolini felt the authorities had failed to handle the situation, so in February 1918, he advocated the emergence of a dictatorship. He declared that “a man who is ruthless and energetic enough to make a clean sweep” was needed to confront the economic and political anarchy then gripping his nation. Only three months later, he held a Fascist meeting at Bologna, where in a widely reported speech he implied the possibilities of him becoming ‘a dictator’.
Founding a New Party
In 1919, he channelized his revolutionary views in public and formed a nucleus of his new party in Milan. At his office at Piazza San Sepolcro, around 200 assorted republicans, anarchists, discontented socialists, restless rebels and discharged soldiers met under the chair of Mussolini to discuss the foundation of a new force in Italian politics. Out of it, a new force was created, Mussolini named it Fasci di Combattimento (Bundles of Fight). Its symbol was devised after the ancient Roman authorities – groups of fighters bound together.
On October 9, 1919, Mussolini made a sharp speech at Florence, appealing to the subversive forces of the Nation. Mussolini’s magic worked. His meetings were marvelous. His impressive physique, oratory skills, highly dramatized gestures mesmerized Italians. Though his opinions were contradictory, facts were often wrong, criticism of his opponents was frequently misdirected; his vigorous, repetitive emphasis upon creating a ‘completely new Italy’ touched hearts.
He held public meetings in various towns and cities, igniting masses with flames of rebel. Perhaps, his studies in psychology of human masses during his youth days worked well. At rallies, supporters wearing black shirts, to show their protest towards political systems, would surround him. Mussolini had made a successful first move. The people totally under his control followed him blindly. It was said that if you were the last one to hear Mussolini, it would be your ideas that were heard across Italy.
Black Shirts had become the symbol of the Fascist movement. By late 1921, the Black Shirt squads attacked various towns of Italy and captured a major part of the country. The fascist ‘army’ was a mere puppet of Mussolini. The Italian government, dominated by middle-class liberals, failed to oppose the Fascists. The scene was in favor of Mussolini, as his Fascist movement was supported from everywhere. With his ideas of staunch nationalism and anti-socialism, Mussolini made a move towards seizing the nation’s supreme position.
The Last Move : March to Rome
Fascism had become an organized political movement. Mussolini’s party failed in capturing power in the 1919 elections. Mussolini, 35-year-old now, could not digest his defeat. His Fascist squads, militias, swept through the countryside of the Po Valley and the Puglian plains; they caught socialists, humiliated them. Many of them were either beaten or killed. The squads burned the Socialist Party and union offices and terrorized the local population. They moved to Milan, inspired and controlled by Mussolini, and organized similar raids there also.
At last, in the 1921 Parliament elections, Mussolini could enter as a right-wing member. Now, he had official political power. The Fascist squads were still on their raids. The Liberal government seldom interfered. Mussolini was waiting for the right opportunity that came in summer of 1922 with the declaration of a national strike by the unions. Mussolini roared, ‘Either the government prevents the strike or the Fascist would do it’. Actually, Mussolini wanted support from Industrialists, so he supported strikebreaking. Mussolini and his Fascists declared that unless they heard no response, the Fascist militia would invade Rome in four days. At the gathering of around 40,000 Fascists in Naples on October 24, 1922, Mussolini challenged, “Either the government will be given to us, or we will seize it by marching on Rome.” The Fascists took up his cry for power. It echoed in the air in unison, “Roma ! Roma ! Roma !”
The Premier
The Black Shirt commandos, later known as Quadrumviri, armed for a march to Rome, were led by four leading party members other than Mussolini.
There was still hope for political compromise. At last, Mussolini won. The King sent a telegram, inviting him to take charge of the government.
In the following event on October 31, 1922, Mussolini, aged 39, became the youngest Prime Minister in Italian history. What he uttered in the Fascist meet at the Circolo Sciesa of Milan, had finally come true, “sad sunset of Liberalism, and to the Fascist – dawn of a new Italy.”
His Regime
The coming two decades, Mussolini dictated Italy with his revolutionary methods and power of Black Shirts. He presented to the king a list of ministers, but most of them were not even members of his party. He was very shrewd and calculative. He wanted to show that he was a representative of people. In Parliamentary elections held in 1924, he swept the opposition, enabling the majority of Fascists in the Parliament House. It was undoubtedly a fraud, as he had paid and threatened people to vote for his party.
After the elections, Mussolini took total control of Italy. People, especially from middle classes, hailed him a genius and their supreme authority. There were few reasons behind accepting his powers. Italians were tired of strikes, riots, the terrorizing techniques of Fascists and surrendered to Mussolini’s dictatorship. Their only hope was to get a stable national economy and to restore the dignity of Italy.
Mussolini enjoyed his time in office till World War II took its toll on Europe. He busied himself in controlling government, making new laws suppressing the freedom of an individual, strengthening nationalism, organizing a network of spies and secret policemen to watch over the public, and the ‘disloyal’. The Socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti, who tried to criticize fascism in parliament, was kidnapped and murdered by Mussolini’s Blackshirt commandos. In Italy, he was the whole and sole power. But the same time, he implemented many reforms that made Italy an advanced and stabilized nation.
Another Drive !
In the free time, Mussolini would go for car racing. He loved all sports; he would drive a motorcar at full speed, with confidence. He was an amazing airplane pilot. With the same speed, he drove Italy towards a stable nation.
Dream of an Empire
Had Mussolini’s ambitions knew some bounds, he would have been a hero until his death. His arrogance and restlessness led him to war against Ethiopia in October 1935.
In a brutal campaign, Italy dropped tons of gas bombs upon the Ethiopian citizens. Other European nations expressed their horror and awe, but sat helpless. On the night of May 9, 1936, Mussolini addressed an enormous crowd of about 400,000 people at Piazza Venezia in Rome saying, “…in the 14th year of the Fascist era, Italy had established its new empire”.
Rome-Berlin Axis
Mussolini’s lust for foreign conquest grew. This time it was Austria. The neighbor country Germany was under the regime of another dictator Adolf Hitler. He supported Mussolini. Soon, a brutal alliance between Mussolini and Hitler, a Rome-Berlin Axis was founded. In 1938, following Germany, Italian government passed the brutal anti-Semitic laws formed against Jews. According to it, the discrimination was realized against Jews in Italy that made the way for deportation of 20 per cent Italian Jews to German death camps during World War II.
Mussolini was marching blindly with Hitler. Germany became the most powerful nation in Europe and France seemed on the verge of collapse in the European war. Mussolini, who had first agreed that Italy must not go to war, felt he could not delay. On June 10, 1940, he declared that he would march with Germany. As a result, Italy was surrounded with the flames of World War II. During the War, Italy-German Allies faced the Western Allies that included Britain, France, United States and other nations. Japan played the most important role in the War, from the side of Italy-German alliance.
Imprisonment
When the war reached its middle stage, Italy was in a moribund state. The military, economy, patience of people neared an end. Mussolini’s quote, ‘I will fight to the last Italian’ hinted that he was ready to watch his entire country being totally destroyed rather than see his Fascism fail. His war policy had displeased the Italians. They were in a rebellious mood against their dictator.
In July 1943, the Western allies successfully invaded Sicily. This was the beginning of Mussolini’s downfall. On July 24, the Fascist Grand Council, the supreme constitutional authority of the state, was held under the Chair of the King. It unanimously passed a resolution to dismiss Mussolini from his office. But neglecting this resolution, Mussolini appeared in his office the next morning. The same afternoon, the royal commandos arrested him by orders of the king, on the steps of the Villa Savoia. Mussolini’s world had changed drastically.
Escaping from Italy
The dictator was imprisoned on the island of Ponza, from where he shifted to the island of Sardinia. In a dramatic event on September 12, 1943, he was rescued by crash-landing gliders from Germany, on the slopes behind the hotel, Gran Sasso d’ Italia in the mountains of Abruzzi.
The last two years of life were painful for Mussolini. He could never return to his motherland. At Hitler’s suggestion, he formed a new Fascist government in the north and executed the rebel members of the Fascist Grand Council. The irony is, one of them was his son-in-law, Ciano Mussolini, who dared to vote against him. Mussolini’s Repubblica Sociale Italiana, now, was nothing but a mere puppet of Hitler.
Fall of the First Fascist
During 1944-45, the Western allies defeated the alliance of Japan and Germany. The World War ended with the Japanese surrender. As the German powers in Italy collapsed by mid-1945, the Italian Communists, who had captured powers in Italy, began an operation to execute Mussolini. Though Mussolini was not allowed to fly out of the country, he tried to cross the frontier as a German soldier in a caravan of trucks, retreating towards Innsbruck in Austria. Unfortunately, he was recognized at Giulino di Mezzegra near Lake Como, Dongo, while trying to take refuge in Switzerland and shot dead on April 28, 1945, with his mistress Clara Petacci, who remained faithful to him till end.
“If I advance, follow me; if I retreat, kill me; if I die, avenge me” – his words addressing Fascist officials, after an assassination attempt on April 6, 1926; came true.
Italians did not regret this brutal end of their 61-year-old dictator. Bodies of Mussolini, his mistress and his few faithful Fascists were hung, head downward, in the Piazza Loreto in the City of Milan, from where Mussolini had begun his march for power. The Duce was survived by his wife, Rachele; and two sons, Vittorio and Romano; and his daughter Edda, the widow of Ciano Mussolini.
Fascism came to an abrupt end with the end of Mussolini.[/b >br />
In the posthumous event, democracy was once again restored after 20 years’ dictatorship in Italy. Mussolini’s fellows, the members of neo-Fascist Party, could win only two per cent votes in the 1948 parliamentary elections. This was a good-bye signal to Fascism. But, Mussolini, like Roosevelt, would be remembered as an image of energy, which can not be bottled, and if bottled, acts like effervescence that can drown anything – even the world.
Blood alone moves the wheels of history.
Benito Mussolini, the Prime Minister of Italy in the 20th century, turned a dictator. He began in fields like labor, teaching, writingand journalism. The son of a blacksmith and a socialist after struggling for two decades to gain power ended up with Fascism. It was a doctrine rooted in staunch nationalism, instead of individualism. He rose to power rapidly. Supported by his Fascist fellows, alias 'Blackshirts Commandos', he ruled in Italy for two decades, providing stability and improving Italian economy. It was said that 'he made the trains run on time'.
The Il Duce (The Leader), as he declared himself, was comparatively less brutal than other European dictators. His inconsistency of thoughts, ambitions to build an Empire and vain efforts to change the history through blood revolution led him to militarization and wars. It not only ruined Italy but Mussolini too.He met an awful death. He was killed and hung by his own people. 'The Era of Fascism', as he called, ended with him. He led an enigmatic life, as some analyze him as a social genius while others criticized him a deranged dictator.
July 29, 1883
Birth of Benito Mussolini at Predappio in Forli, Italy.
1892
Enrolled at Salesian Boarding School, Faenza.
1895
Shifted to the Royal Normal School (Giosuè Carducci School) at Forlimpopolo.
1901
Received a Diploma in Teaching
1902
Went to Switzerland.
1904–1908
Expelled from Switzerland.
Returned to Italy. Joined the compulsory military service.
1909
Fell in love with Rachele Guidi, a 16-year-old girl and married her.
1911
Was invited to king’s palace to give a speech.
1912
Began his socialist newspaper, La Lotta di Classe (The Class Struggle).
Was appointed an editor of Avanti (Forward), the official socialist newspaper.
Became a member of the Socialist Party of Italy. July – October, 1914
Supported World War I inspired by Karl Marx.
Resigned from the editorship of Avanti.
Expelled from the Socialist Party.
November 1914
Started a newspaper Popolo d’ Italia (The People of Italy).
Founded a new group Fasci d’ Azione Rivoluzionaria.
February 1918
Advocated the emergence of a dictatorship.
March 1919
Founded a new political party Fasci di Combattimento (Bundles of Fascists).
October 31, 1922
Became the youngest Premier of Italy.
1932
Encyclopedia Italiana included Fascism.
1935
Italy invaded Ethiopia.
1936
Italy and Germany became allies. The Berlin-Rome Axis born.
1940
Japan signed a pact with Germany and Italy.
1941
Germany and Italy declared war against the United States Allies. Beginning of World War II.
1942
The Allies invaded Italy.
1944-45
Foundation of United Nations.
End of World War II.
July 1943
The Western Allies successfully invaded Sicily, Italy.
July 24, 1943
Mussolini was dismissed from office by the Fascist Grand Council.
Was arrested at Villa Savoia.
September 12, 1943
Escaped with the help of German commandos of Hitler.
April 28, 1945
Arrested and executed by Italian Communists near Dongo, Italy.
Excerpts from the Fiery Speech, delivered by Prime Minister Benito Mussolini in Rome, Italy, on February 23, 1941.
• “Blackshirts of Rome! I come among you to look you firmly in the eyes, feel your temperature and break the silence, which is dear to me, especially in wartime.
• “…We are not like the English. We boast that we are not like them. We haven’t elevated lying into a government art nor into a narcotic for the people the way the London government has done. We call bread – bread and wine – wine, and when the enemy wins a battle it is useless and ridiculous to seek, as the English do in their incomparable hypocrisy, to deny or diminish it.”
• “The Italian prisoners who fell into the hands of the Greeks are a few thousand, most of them wounded. The Greek successes do not go out of the tactical field and only megalomania has magnified them. The Greek losses are very high and shortly it will be spring, and as befits such a season our season-beautiful things will grow. I say beautiful things will be seen in every one of the four cardinal points.”
• “This happens in all wars, in all times…Our capacity to recuperate in moral and material fields is really formidable and constitutes one of the peculiar characteristics of our race.”
• “Great Britain cannot win the war. I can prove this logically and in this case belief is corroborated by fact. This proof begins with the dogmatic premise that although anything may happen Italy will march with Germany, side by side, to the end.”
• “Churchill has not the least idea of the spiritual forces of the Italian people or of what Fascism can do. We can understand Churchill’s ordering the shelling of industrial plants at Genoa to disrupt work, but to shell the city in order to break down its morale is a childish illusion. It means that the British do not at all know the race temperament of the Ligurian people in general and the Genoese in particular. It means that they are ignorant of the civilian virtues and proud patriotism of the people who gave the fatherland Columbus, Garibaldi and Mazzini.”
• “Great Britain is alone. This isolation pushes her toward the United States, from which she urgently and desperately seeks aid. The industrial power of the United States certainly is great, but for aid to be useful supplies must safely reach England and also be of such quantity as not only to replace the destruction already inflicted and that which will come to the industrial plants of Britain, but also to bring about superiority over Germany. This is impossible because Germany now works with the men, machines and raw materials of the entire European Continent.”
• “Let me say now that what is occurring in the United States is one of the most colossal mystifications in all history. Illusion and lying are the basis of American
interventionism-illusion that the United States is still a democracy, when instead it is a political and financial oligarchy dominated by Jews, through a personal form of dictatorship. The lie is that the Axis powers, after they finish Great Britain, want to attack America.”
• “…Though we certainly are totalitarian and will always be so, we have our feet on hard ground. Americans who will read what I say should be calm and not believe in the existence of a big bad wolf who wants to devour them.”
• “Rome comrades ! Through you I want to speak to the Italian people, to the authentic, real, great Italian people, who fight with the courage of lions on land, sea and air fronts; people who early in the morning are up to go to work in fields, factories and offices; people who do not permit themselves luxuries, not even innocent ones.”
• “They absolutely must not be confused or contaminated by the minority or well-known poltroons, anti-social individuals and complainers, who grumble about rations and regret their suspended comforts, or by snakes, the remains of the Masonic lodges, whom we will crush without difficulties when and how we want.”
• “The Italian people, the Fascist people deserve and will have victory. The hardships, suffering and sacrifices that are faced with exemplary courage and dignity by the Italian people will have their day of compensation when all the enemy forces are crushed on the battlefields by the heroism of our soldiers and a triple, immense cry will cross the mountains and oceans like lightning and light new hopes and give new certainties to spirit multitudes: Victory, Italy, peace with justice among peoples!”
“Blood alone moves the wheels of history.”
“Peace is absurd: Fascism does not believe in it.”
“History takes one by the throat and forces a decision.”
“Neutrals of every continent who are spectators at the bloody clashes between the armed masses must have sufficient shame to keep quiet and not express libelous provocative opinions.”
• “Those who may be tempted to imagine something different forget that the alliance between Italy and Germany is not only between two States or two armies or two diplomacies but between two peoples and two revolutions and destined to give its imprint upon the century.”
• “When it is desired to be called a dictator in the pure classical meaning of the word, Sulla is cited. Sulla appears to us a modest amateur compared with Delano Roosevelt.”
• “The Liberal State is a mask behind which there is no face, it is a scaffolding behind which there is no building.”
• “War alone brings up to their highest tension all human energies and imposes the stamp of nobility upon the peoples who have the courage to make it.”
• “It is humiliating to remain with our hands folded while others write history. It matters little who wins. To make a people great it is necessary to send them to battle even if you have to kick them in the pants. That is what I shall do.”
• “Political doctrines pass, but humanity remains, and it may rather be expected that this will be a century of authority… a century of Fascism.”
• “For if a doctrine must be a living thing, this is proved by the fact that Fascism has created a living faith; and that this faith is very powerful in the minds of men is demonstrated by those who have suffered and died for it.”
• “…The 19th century was the century of Socialism, of liberalism, and of Democracy, it does not necessarily follow that the twentieth century must also be a century of socialism, Liberalism and Democracy. ”
• “In politics I never have gained a penny. I detest those who live like parasites sucking away at the edges of social struggles. I hate men who grow rich in politics.”
• “I do not believe in the supposed influence of books…For myself, I have used only one big book. For myself I have only one great teacher. The book is life lived. The teacher is day-by-day experience.”
• “My Fascist friends live always in my thought. I believe the younger ones have special place there…a young orchard has many years of productiveness for the future.”
• “The sanctity of an ism is not in the ism, it has no sanctity beyond its power to do, to work, to succeed in practice. It may have succeeded yesterday and fail tomorrow. Failed yesterday and succeed tomorrow. The machine first of all must run!”
• “If every age has its own characteristic doctrine, there are a thousand signs which point to fascism as the characteristic doctrine of our time.”
• “I have never flattered the crowd nor wheedled anyone; I spoke always of the costs of victories – sacrifice and sweat and blood.”
Fascism also took its toll on Education, compelling all the students to join the government youth organizations, where it was compulsory to indoctrinate them with the ‘greatness’ of the Il Duce and the bravery he showed on the battlefield. The entire education system was closely supervised by the Fascist government. The teachers and lecturers had to put on particular uniform. Not only this, new educational courses, glorifying Fascism, were introduced in schools and colleges. Students were encouraged to rebel against teachers who were less enthusiastic and ‘disloyal’ to the party !
In the corporate sector, Mussolini government tried to promote co-operation between employers and employees to abolish the class warfare.
Mussolini tried to realize his dream of the Corporate State. The labor unions were totally captured by the Fascist leaders, who had the sole right to negotiate for the workers, on issues like salary and working conditions. The employers’ associations were converted into corporations, and by 1934, Mussolini organized such 22 corporations, each dealing with a particular industry.
Mussolini’s Fascist regime has been criticized much but it had a brighter side. He was successful in various fields like, industry, religion, agriculture, and advancement of the state and public works programs.
In the corporate sector, the working classes benefited with free Sundays, annual holidays without cutting salary, cheap tours and sports and entertainment facilities.
Mussolini was an agnostic but he never suppressed the religious feelings of the people. He was very shrewd. Faith and religious values are the weaknesses of the masses, always. Mussolini knew it very well and left it outside the control of the government. In fact, he married in a church and baptized his children too. He allowed people to hang crosses in public buildings, but made swearing in public a crime. An education of religion was made compulsory. He signed the Lateran Treaty in 1929, according to which, the Pope was given 750 million lire as a compensation for the land occupied from him at the time of Italian unification in 1870. He did not challenge the supremacy of the Catholic Church; instead he made the Vatican City an independent State, with its own army, judicial courts, postal department and police force.
The industries were subsidized. The production of iron and steel doubled by 1930 and artificial silk production became tenfold. Production of hydroelectric power also doubled by 1937. Mussolini also implemented the land reclamation program.
In the field of agriculture, Mussolini encouraged farmers to concentrate on getting self-sufficiency in wheat production. This led to a 75 per cent cut in the wheat imports by 1935. Mussolini reduced unemployment through new plans regarding public works programs. He restructured Italy; erecting bridges, railway stations, sports stadiums, schools, colleges and new towns in state-of-the-art architectural designs.
Summarizing, one can say that Fascism did not value an individual. The value of an individual or masses was considered from one’s contribution to the State. With few successes and more anarchy, Mussolini’s Fascist dictatorship ended abruptly.
