Benito Mussolini
1
Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Head of Government of Italy and
Duce of Fascism
In office
24 December 1925 – 25 July 1943
Monarch
Victor Emmanuel III
Preceded by
Himself
(as Prime Minister)
Succeeded by
Pietro Badoglio
(as Prime Minister)
27th Prime Minister of Italy
In office
31 October 1922 – 25 July 1943
Monarch
Victor Emmanuel III
Preceded by
Luigi Facta
Succeeded by
Pietro Badoglio
First Marshal of the Empire
In office
30 March 1938 – 25 July 1943
Serving with Victor Emmanuel III
[1]
Duce of the Italian Social Republic
In office
23 September 1943 – 25 April 1945
Personal details
Born
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini
29 July 1883
Predappio, Forlì, Kingdom of Italy
Died
28 April 1945 (aged 61)
Giulino di Mezzegra, Kingdom of Italy
Resting place
San Cassiano cemetery, Predappio, Forlì, Italian Republic
Nationality
Italian
Benito Mussolini
2
Political party
Republican Fascist Party
(1943–1945)
National Fascist Party
(1921–1943)
Italian Fasci of Combat
(1919–1921)
Fasci of Revolutionary Action
(1914–1919)
Autonomous Fasci of Revolutionary Action
(1914)
Italian Socialist Party
(1901–1914)
Spouse(s)
Rachele Mussolini
Relations
Ida Dalser
Margherita Sarfatti
Clara Petacci
Children
Edda Mussolini
Vittorio Mussolini
Bruno Mussolini
Romano Mussolini
Profession
Politician, journalist, novelist, teacher
Religion
(See this section for details.)
Signature
Military service
Allegiance
Service/branch
Kingdom of Italy
Regio Esercito
Years of service 1915–1917
Rank
Corporal
Unit
11th Bersaglieri Regiment
Battles/wars
World War I
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (Italian pronunciation: [beˈnito mussoˈlini]; 29 July 1883 – 28 April 1945) was an
Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party, ruling the country from 1922 to his ousting in 1943, and is
credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of fascism.
Originally a member of the Italian Socialist Party and editor of the Avanti! from 1912 to 1914, Mussolini fought in
World War I as an ardent nationalist and created the Fasci di Combattimento in 1919, catalyzing his nationalist and
socialist beliefs in the Fascist Manifesto, published in 1921. Following the March on Rome in October 1922 he
became the 27th Prime Minister of Italy and began using the title Il Duce by 1925, about which time he had
established dictatorial authority by both legal and extraordinary means, aspiring to create a totalitarian state. After
1936, his official title was Sua Eccellenza Benito Mussolini, Capo del Governo, Duce del Fascismo e Fondatore
dell'Impero ("His Excellency Benito Mussolini, Head of Government, Duce of Fascism, and Founder of the
Empire")[2] Mussolini also created and held the supreme military rank of First Marshal of the Empire along with
King Victor Emmanuel III, which gave him and the King joint supreme control over the military of Italy. Mussolini
remained in power until he was replaced in 1943; he remained the leader of the Italian Social Republic until his
death in 1945.
Mussolini was among the founders of Italian Fascism, which was essentially a collection of academic nonsense [3] to
give Mussolini and his thugs an excuse to takeover and misrule Italy.
Benito Mussolini
3
Among the domestic achievements of Mussolini from the years 1924–1939 were: his public works programs such as
the inordinatey expensive and ultimately unsuccessful attempt [4] to drain the Pontine Marshes, the improvement of
job opportunities, the public transport, and the so-called Italian economic battles. Mussolini also solved the Roman
Question by concluding the Lateran Treaty between the Kingdom of Italy and the Holy See. Mussolini and the
Fascist regime initiated an aggressive campaign to destroy the Sicilian mafia with mass arrests and mass trials [5] of
mafiosi.[6] Mussolini was unable to purge Sicily of the mafia, because the mafia utilized its strong base of supporters
to hide and protect itself as an underground movement during Fascist rule in Italy.[7]
Since 1939, Mussolini had sought to delay a major war in Europe until at least 1942 for the following reasons: The
army needed to substitute its outdated medium and large caliber guns with modern ones; Italian East Africa needed
to be pacified so that a colonial army could be drafted there; the navy needed time to complete construction or
refurbishing of six battleships; the 1942 planned world exposition in Rome had to be held in order raise foreign
currency reserves; the Italians emigrants in France had to be repatriated for "military and ethical reasons". [8]
However, Germany invaded Poland on the first day of September in 1939, starting World War II. On 10 June 1940,
Mussolini led Italy into the calamity of siding with Germany. Mussolini was aware that Italy did not have the
military capacity in 1940 to carry out a long war with France and the United Kingdom.[9] Therefore, he had waited
until the former was on the verge of imminent collapse because of the German invasion before declaring war on
France and the United Kingdom, He had mistakenly concluded that following France's collapse the war would be
short-lived. He believed that peace negotiations would take place shortly after France fell.[9] Mussolini believed that
after the imminent French surrender, Italy could gain territorial concessions from France and then he could
concentrate his forces on a major offensive in Egypt, where British and Commonwealth forces were outnumbered by
Italian forces.[10] However the UK refused to accept German proposals for a peace that would involve accepting
Germany's victories in Eastern and Western Europe, plans for a German invasion of the UK did not proceed, and the
war continued.
On 24 July 1943, soon after the start of the Allied invasion of Italy, through the Ordine del giorno Grandi Mussolini
was defeated in the vote at the Grand Council of Fascism, and the day after the King had him arrested. On 12
September 1943, Mussolini was rescued from prison in the daring Gran Sasso raid by German special forces.
Following his rescue, Mussolini headed the Italian Social Republic in parts of Italy that were not occupied by Allied
forces. In late April 1945, with total defeat looming, Mussolini attempted to escape north,[11] only to be quickly
captured and summarily executed near Lake Como by Italian partisans. His body was then taken to Milan where it
was hung upside down at a petrol station for public viewing and to provide confirmation of his demise.[12]
Early life
Birthplace of Benito Mussolini, today used as a
museum.
44°06′22″N 11°58′50″E
Mussolini was born in Dovia di Predappio, a small town in the
province of Forlì in Emilia-Romagna on 29 July 1883. In the Fascist
era, Predappio was dubbed "Duce's town", and Forlì was "Duce's city".
Pilgrims went to Predappio and Forlì, to see the birthplace of
Mussolini. His father Alessandro Mussolini was a blacksmith and a
socialist,[13] while his mother Rosa Mussolini, née Maltoni, a devoutly
Catholic schoolteacher.[14] Owing to his father's political leanings,
Mussolini was named Benito after Mexican reformist President Benito
Juárez, while his middle names Andrea and Amilcare were from Italian
socialists Andrea Costa and Amilcare Cipriani.[15] Benito was the
eldest of his parents' three children. His siblings Arnaldo and Edvige
followed.[16]
As a young boy, Mussolini would spend time helping his father in his smithy. Mussolini's early political views were
heavily influenced by his father, Alessandro Mussolini, a revolutionary socialist who idolized 19th century Italian
Benito Mussolini
4
nationalist figures with humanist tendencies such as Carlo Pisacane, Giuseppe Mazzini, and Giuseppe Garibaldi.[17]
His father's political outlook combined views of anarchist figures like Carlo Cafiero and Mikhail Bakunin, the
military authoritarianism of Garibaldi, and the nationalism of Mazzini. [18] In 1902, at the anniversary of Garibaldi's
death, Benito Mussolini made a public speech in praise of the republican nationalist. [18] The conflict between his
parents about religion meant that, unlike most Italians, Mussolini was not baptised at birth and would not be until
much later in life. As a compromise with his mother, Mussolini was sent to a boarding school run by Salesian
monks. Mussolini was rebellious and was soon expelled after a series of behaviour-related incidents, including
throwing stones at the congregation after Mass, stabbing a fellow student in the hand and throwing an inkpot at a
teacher. After joining a new school, Mussolini achieved good grades, and qualified as an elementary schoolmaster in
1901.[14]
Emigration to Switzerland and military service
In 1902, Mussolini emigrated to Switzerland, partly to avoid military
service.[13] He worked briefly as a stonemason in Geneva, Fribourg
and Bern, but was unable to find a permanent job.
During this time he studied the ideas of the philosopher Friedrich
Nietzsche, the sociologist Vilfredo Pareto, and the syndicalist Georges
Sorel. Mussolini also later credited the Marxist Charles Péguy and the
syndicalist Hubert Lagardelle as some of his influences.[19] Sorel's
emphasis on the need for overthrowing decadent liberal democracy and
capitalism by the use of violence, direct action, the general strike, and
the use of neo-Machiavellian appeals to emotion, impressed Mussolini
deeply.[13]
Mussolini's booking photograph following his
arrest by Swiss police, 1903.
Mussolini became active in the Italian socialist movement in Switzerland, working for the paper L'Avvenire del
Lavoratore, organizing meetings, giving speeches to workers and serving as secretary of the Italian workers' union in
Lausanne.[20] In 1903, he was arrested by the Bernese police because of his advocacy of a violent general strike,
spent two weeks in jail, was deported to Italy, set free there, and returned to Switzerland.[21] In 1904, after having
been arrested again in Lausanne for falsifying his papers, he returned to Italy to take advantage of an amnesty for
desertion of which he had been convicted in absentia.[20]
He subsequently volunteered for military service in the Italian Army. After serving for two years in the military
(from January 1905 until September 1906), he returned to teaching.[22]
Political journalist and socialist
In February 1909,[23] Mussolini once again left Italy, this time to take the job as the secretary of the labor party in the
Italian-speaking city of Trento, which at the time was part of Austria-Hungary. He also did office work for the local
Socialist Party, and edited its newspaper L'Avvenire del Lavoratore (The Future of the Worker). Returning to Italy,
he spent a brief time in Milan, and then in 1910 he returned to his hometown of Forli, where he edited the weekly
Lotta di classe (The Class Struggle).
During this time, he published Il Trentino veduto da un Socialista (Trentino as seen by a Socialist) in the radical
periodical La Voce.[24] He also wrote several essays about German literature, some stories, and one novel: L'amante
del Cardinale: Claudia Particella, romanzo storico (The Cardinal's Mistress). This novel he co-wrote with Santi
Corvaja, and was published as a serial book in the Trento newspaper Il Popolo. It was released in installments from
20 January to 11 May 1910[25] The novel was bitterly anticlerical, and years later was withdrawn from circulation
after Mussolini made a truce with the Vatican.[13]
Benito Mussolini
By now, he was considered to be one of Italy's most prominent Socialists. In September 1911, Mussolini participated
in a riot, led by Socialists, against the Italian war in Libya. He bitterly denounced Italy's "imperialist war" to capture
the Libyan capital city of Tripoli, an action that earned him a five-month jail term.[26] After his release he helped
expel from the ranks of the Socialist party two "revisionists" who had supported the war, Ivanoe Bonomi, and
Leonida Bissolati. As a result, he was rewarded the editorship of the Socialist Party newspaper Avanti! Under his
leadership, its circulation soon rose from 20,000 to 100,000.[27]
In 1913, he published Giovanni Hus, il veridico (Jan Hus, true prophet), an historical and political biography about
the life and mission of the Czech ecclesiastic reformer Jan Hus, and his militant followers, the Hussites. During this
socialist period of his life Mussolini sometimes used the pen name "Vero Eretico" (sincere misbeliever).
While Mussolini was associated with socialism, he also was supportive of figures who opposed egalitarianism. For
instance Mussolini was influenced by Nietszche's anti-Christian ideas and negation of God's existence.[28] Mussolini
saw Nietzsche as similar to Jean-Marie Guyau, who advocated a philosophy of action. [28] Mussolini's use of
Nietzsche made him a highly unorthodox socialist, due to Nietzsche's promotion of elitism and anti-egalitarian
views. [28] Mussolini felt that socialism had faltered due to the failures of Marxist determinism and social democratic
reformism, and believed that Nietzsche's ideas would strengthen socialism. [28] While associated with socialism,
Mussolini's writings eventually indicated that he had abandoned Marxism and egalitarianism in favour of Nietzsche's
übermensch concept and anti-egalitarianism. [28]
Expulsion from the Italian Socialist Party
With the outbreak of World War I a number of socialist parties initially supported the war when it began in August
1914.[29] Once the war began, Austrian, British, French, German, and Russian socialists followed the rising
nationalist current by supporting their country's intervention in the war. [30] The outbreak of the war had resulted in a
surge of Italian nationalism and the war supported by a variety of political factions. One of the most prominent and
popular Italian nationalist supporters of the war was Gabriele d'Annunzio who promoted Italian irredentism and
helped sway the Italian public to support intervention in the war. [31] The Italian Liberal Party under the leadership of
Paolo Boselli promoted intervention in the war on the side of the Allies and utilized the Società Dante Alighieri to
promote Italian nationalism. [32] [33] Italian socialists were divided on whether to support the war or oppose it. [34]
Prior to Mussolini taking a position on the war, a number of revolutionary syndicalists had announced their support
of intervention, including Alceste De Ambris, Filippo Corridoni, and Angelo Oliviero Olivetti. [35] The Italian
Socialist Party decided to oppose the war after anti-militarist protestors had been killed, resulting in a general strike
called Red Week. [36]
Mussolini initially held official support for the party's decision and, in an August 1914 article, Mussolini wrote
"Down with the War. We remain neutral."[37] However, he saw the war as an opportunity, both for his own
ambitions as well as those of socialists and Italians.[37] He was influenced by anti-Austrian Italian nationalist
sentiments, believing that the war offered Italians in Austria-Hungary the chance to liberate themselves from rule of
the Habsburgs.[37] He eventually decided to declare support for the war by appealing to the need for socialists to
overthrow the Hohenzollern and Habsburg monarchies in Germany and Austria-Hungary whom he claimed had
consistently repressed socialism.[37] He further justified his position by denouncing the Central Powers for being
reactionary powers; for pursuing imperialist designs against Belgium and Serbia as well as historically against
Denmark, France, and against Italians, since hundreds of thousands of Italians were under Habsburg rule. [35] He
claimed that the fall of Hohenzollern and Habsburg monarchies and the repression of "reactionary" Turkey would
create conditions beneficial for the working class. [35] While he was supportive of the Entente powers, Mussolini
responded to the conservative nature of Tsarist Russia by claiming that the mobilization required for the war would
undermine Russia's reactionary authoritarianism and the war would bring Russia to social revolution. [35] He claimed
that for Italy the war would complete the process of Risorgimento by uniting the Italians in Austria-Hungary into
Italy and by allowing the common people of Italy to be participating members of the Italian nation in what would be
5
Benito Mussolini
Italy's first national war. [35] Thus he claimed that the vast social changes that the war could offer meant that it
should be supported as a revolutionary war. [35]
As Mussolini's support for the intervention solidified, he became in conflict with socialists who opposed the war. He
attacked the opponents of the war and claimed that those proletarians who supported pacifism were out of step with
the proletarians who had joined the rising interventionist vanguard that was preparing Italy for a revolutionary war.
[38]
He began to criticize the Italian Socialist Party and socialism itself for having failed to recognize the national
problems that had led to the outbreak of the war. [38] He was expelled from the party due to his support of
intervention.
The following excerpts are from a police report prepared by the Inspector-General of Public Security in Milan, G.
Gasti, that describe his background and his position on the First World War that resulted in his ouster from the
Italian Socialist Party.
The Inspector General wrote:
Regarding Mussolini
Professor Benito Mussolini, ... 38, revolutionary socialist, has a police record; elementary school teacher
qualified to teach in secondary schools; former first secretary of the Chambers in Cesena, Forli, and Ravenna;
after 1912 editor of the newspaper Avanti! to which he gave a violent suggestive and intransigent orientation.
In October 1914, finding himself in opposition to the directorate of the Italian Socialist party because he
advocated a kind of active neutrality on the part of Italy in the War of the Nations against the party's tendency
of absolute neutrality, he withdrew on the twentieth of that month from the directorate of Avanti! Then on the
fifteenth of November [1914], thereafter, he initiated publication of the newspaper Il Popolo d'Italia, in which
he supported – in sharp contrast to Avanti! and amid bitter polemics against that newspaper and its chief
backers – the thesis of Italian intervention in the war against the militarism of the Central Empires. For this
reason he was accused of moral and political unworthiness and the party thereupon decided to expel him ...
Thereafter he ... undertook a very active campaign in behalf of Italian intervention, participating in
demonstrations in the piazzas and writing quite violent articles in Popolo d'Italia ...[27]
In his summary, the Inspector also notes:
He was the ideal editor of Avanti! for the Socialists. In that line of work he was greatly esteemed and beloved.
Some of his former comrades and admirers still confess that there was no one who understood better how to
interpret the spirit of the proletariat and there was no one who did not observe his apostasy with sorrow. This
came about not for reasons of self-interest or money. He was a sincere and passionate advocate, first of
vigilant and armed neutrality, and later of war; and he did not believe that he was compromising with his
personal and political honesty by making use of every means – no matter where they came from or wherever
he might obtain them – to pay for his newspaper, his program and his line of action. This was his initial line. It
is difficult to say to what extent his socialist convictions (which he never either openly or privately abjure)
may have been sacrificed in the course of the indispensable financial deals which were necessary for the
continuation of the struggle in which he was engaged ... But assuming these modifications did take place ... he
always wanted to give the appearance of still being a socialist, and he fooled himself into thinking that this
was the case.[39]
Beginning of Fascism and service in World War I
After being ousted by the Italian Socialist Party for his support of Italian intervention, Mussolini made a radical
transformation, ending his support for class conflict and joining in support of revolutionary nationalism transcending
class lines. [38] He formed the interventionist newspaper Il Popolo d'Italia and the Fasci Rivoluzionari d'Azione
Internazionalista ("Revolutionary Fasci for International Action") in October 1914. [33] His nationalist support of
intervention enabled him to raise funds from Ansaldo (an armaments firm) and other companies to create Il Popolo
d'Italia to convince socialists and revolutionaries to support the war.[40] Further funding for Mussolini's Fascists
6
Benito Mussolini
during the war came from the French sources beginning in May 1915. [41] A major source of this funding from
France is believed to have probably been from French socialists who sent support to dissident socialists who wanted
Italian intervention on France's side. [41]
On 5 December 1914, Mussolini denounced orthodox socialism for having failed to recognize that the war had
brought about national identity and loyalty as being of greater significance than class distinction. [38] His
transformation was fully demonstrated in a speech he made in which he acknowledged the nation as an entity, a
notion that he had previously rejected prior to the war, saying:
The nation has not disappeared. We used to believe that the concept was totally without substance. Instead we
see the nation arise as a palpitating reality before us! ... Class cannot destroy the nation. Class reveals itself as
a collection of interests—but the nation is a history of sentiments, traditions, language, culture, and race. Class
can become an integral part of the nation, but the one cannot eclipse the other. [42]
The class struggle is a vain formula, without effect and consequence wherever one finds a people that has not
integrated itself into its proper linguistic and racial confines—where the national problem has not been
definitely resolved. In such circumstances the class movement finds itself impaired by an inauspicious historic
climate. [43]
Mussolini continued to promote the need of a revolutionary vanguard elite to lead society, but he no longer
advocated a proletarian vanguard but instead a vanguard led by dynamic and revolutionary people of any social
class. [43]
Though he denounced orthodox socialism and class conflict, he maintained at the time that he was a nationalist
socialist and a supporter of the legacy of nationalist socialists in Italy's history, such as Giuseppe Garibaldi, Giuseppe
Mazzini, and Carlo Pisacane. [44] As for the Italian Socialist Party and its support of orthodox socialism, he claimed
that his failure as a member of the party to revitalize and transform it to recognize the contemporary reality revealed
the hopelessness of orthodox socialism as outdated and a failure. [44] This perception of the failure of orthodox
socialism in the light of the outbreak of World War I was not solely held by Mussolini, other pro-interventionist
Italian socialists such as Filippo Corridoni and Sergio Panunzio had also denounced classical Marxism in favour of
intervention. [45]
These basic political views and principles formed the basis of Mussolini's newly formed political movement, the
Fasci Rivoluzionari d'Azione Internazionalista in 1914, who called themselves Fascisti (Fascists). [46] At this time,
the Fascists did not have an integrated set of policies and the movement was very small, ineffective in its attempts to
hold mass meetings, and was regularly harassed by government authorities and orthodox socialists. [47] Antagonism
between the interventionists, including the Fascists, versus the anti-interventionist orthodox socialists resulted in
violence between the Fascists and socialists. [48] The opposition and attacks by the anti-interventionist revolutionary
socialists against the Fascists and other interventionists were so violent that even democratic socialists who opposed
the war such as Anna Kuliscioff said that the Italian Socialist Party had gone too far in a campaign of silencing the
freedom of speech of supporters of the war. [48] These early hostilities between the Fascists and the revolutionary
socialists shaped Mussolini's conception of the nature of Fascism in its support of political violence. [48]
7
Benito Mussolini
Mussolini became an ally with the irredentist politician and journalist Cesare Battisti,
and like him he entered the Army and served in the war. "He was sent to the zone of
operations where he was seriously injured by the explosion of a grenade."[27]
The Inspector General continues:
He was promoted to the rank of corporal "for merit in war". The promotion was
recommended because of his exemplary conduct and fighting quality, his
mental calmness and lack of concern for discomfort, his zeal and regularity in
carrying out his assignments, where he was always first in every task involving
labor and fortitude.[27]
Mussolini's military experience is told in his work Diario Di Guerra. Overall, he
totalled about nine months of active, front-line trench warfare. During this time, he
Mussolini as an Italian soldier,
[49]
1917.
contracted paratyphoid fever.
His military exploits ended in 1917 when he was
wounded accidentally by the explosion of a mortar bomb in his trench. He was left
with at least 40 shards of metal in his body[49] He was discharged from the hospital in August 1917 and resumed his
editor-in-chief position at his new paper, Il Popolo d'Italia. He wrote there positive articles about Czechoslovak
Legions in Italy.
On 25 December 1915, in Trevalglio, he contracted a marriage with his fellow countrywoman Rachele Guidi, who
had already born him a daughter, Edda, at Forli in 1910. In 1915, he had a son with Ida Dalser, a woman born in
Sopramonte, a village near Trento.[14][15][50] He legally recognized this son on 11 January 1916.
Creation of Fascism
By the time Mussolini returned from Allied service in World War I, he had decided that socialism as a doctrine had
largely been a failure. In 1917, Mussolini got his start in politics with the help of a £100 weekly wage from MI5, the
British Security Service; this help was authorised by Sir Samuel Hoare.[51] In early 1918, Mussolini called for the
emergence of a man "ruthless and energetic enough to make a clean sweep" to revive the Italian nation.[52] Much
later in life Mussolini said he felt by 1919 "Socialism as a doctrine was already dead; it continued to exist only as a
grudge".[53] On 23 March 1919, Mussolini reformed the Milan fascio as the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento (Italian
Combat Squad), consisting of 200 members.[54]
An important factor in fascism gaining support in its earliest stages was
the fact that it claimed to oppose discrimination based on social class
and was strongly opposed to all forms of class war.[55][56] Fascism
instead supported nationalist sentiments such as a strong unity,
regardless of class, in the hopes of raising Italy up to the levels of its
great Roman past. The ideological basis for fascism came from a
number of sources. Mussolini utilized works of Plato, Georges Sorel,
Nietzsche, and the socialist and economic ideas of Vilfredo Pareto, to
create fascism. Mussolini admired The Republic, which he often read
Fascist Manifesto published on "Il Popolo
d'Italia" on June 6, 1919.
for inspiration.[57] The Republic held a number of ideas that fascism
promoted such as rule by an elite promoting the state as the ultimate
end, opposition to democracy, protecting the class system and promoting class collaboration, rejection of
egalitarianism, promoting the militarization of a nation by creating a class of warriors, demanding that citizens
perform civic duties in the interest of the state, and utilizing state intervention in education to promote the creation of
warriors and future rulers of the state.[58] The Republic differed from fascism in that it did not promote aggressive
war but only defensive war. Also unlike fascism, it promoted very communist-like views on property. Plato was an
idealist, focused on achieving justice and morality, while Mussolini and fascism were realist, focused on achieving
8
Benito Mussolini
political goals.[59]
The basic underlying idea behind Mussolini’s foreign policy was that of spazio vitale (vital space), a concept in
Fascism that was analogous to lebensraum in German National Socialism.[60] The concept of spazio vitale was first
announced in 1919 when the entire Mediterranean was claimed as Italy’s exclusive sphere of influence, which was
justified under the grounds that Italy was suffering from overpopulation, and so needed to colonize other areas of the
Mediterranean inhabited by what were alleged to be less developed peoples. [61] Borrowing the idea first developed
by Enrico Corradini before 1914 of the natural conflict between "plutocratic" nations like Britain and "proletarian"
nations like Italy, Mussolini claimed that Italy's principle problem was that it was "plutocratic" countries like Britain
that were blocking Italy from achieving the necessary spazio vitale that would let the Italian economy grow. [62]
Mussolini equated a nation’s potential for economic growth with territorial size, thus in his view the problem of
poverty in Italy could only be solved by winning the necessary spazio vitale. [63] Though biological racism was less
prominent in Fascism than National Socialism, right from the start there was a strong racist undercurrent to the
spazio vitale concept, in which Mussolini asserted there was a “natural law” for stronger peoples to subject and
dominate “inferior” peoples such as the “barbaric” Slavic peoples of Yugoslavia as Mussolini claimed in a September
1920 speech. [64] In the same way, Mussolini argued that Italy was right to follow an imperalist policy in Africa
because all black people were "inferior" to whites. [64] Mussolini claimed that the world was divided into a hierarchy
of races (stirpe), through this was justified more on cultural than on biological grounds, and that history was nothing
more than a Darwinian struggle for power and territory between various "racial masses".[64] The very fact that Italy
was suffering from overpopulation was seen as proving the cultural and spiritual vitality of the Italians, who were
thus justified in seeking to colonize lands that Mussolini argued on a historical basis belonged to Italy anyway,
which was the heir to the Roman Empire. [64] In Mussolini's thinking, demography was destiny; nations with rising
populations were nations destined to conquer, and nations with falling populations were decaying powers that
deserved to die. [64] Hence, the importance of natalism to Mussolini, since only by increasing the Italian birth rate
could Italy's future as a great power that would win its spazio vitale be assured. [64] For Mussolini, the Italian
population had to reach 60 million in order to enable Italy to fight a major war, and hence his relentless demands for
Italian women to have more children to reach the magic number of 60 million. [64]
Mussolini and the fascists managed to be simultaneously revolutionary and traditionalist;[65][66] because this was
vastly different to anything else in the political climate of the time, it is sometimes described as "The Third Way".[67]
The Fascisti, led by one of Mussolini's close confidants, Dino Grandi, formed armed squads of war veterans called
Blackshirts (or squadristi) with the goal of restoring order to the streets of Italy with a strong hand. The blackshirts
clashed with communists, socialists, and anarchists at parades and demonstrations; all of these factions were also
involved in clashes against each other. The government rarely interfered with the blackshirts' actions, owing in part
to a looming threat and widespread fear of a communist revolution. The Fascisti grew so rapidly that within two
years, it transformed itself into the National Fascist Party at a congress in Rome. Also in 1921, Mussolini was
elected to the Chamber of Deputies for the first time.[15] In the meantime, from about 1911 until 1938, Mussolini had
various affairs with the Jewish author and academic Margherita Sarfatti, called the "Jewish Mother of Fascism" at
the time.[68]
March on Rome and early years in power
Further information: March on Rome
The March on Rome was a coup d'état by which Mussolini's National Fascist Party came to power in Italy and
ousted Prime Minister Luigi Facta. The "march" took place in 1922 between 27–29 October. On 28 October King
Victor Emmanuel III who according to the Statuto Albertino had both the executive and the Supreme military power,
refused Facta's request to declare martial law, which led to Facta's resignation. The King then handed over power to
Mussolini by inviting him to form a new government. Mussolini was supported by the military, the business class,
and the liberal right-wing.
9
Benito Mussolini
As Prime Minister, the first years of Mussolini's rule were
characterized by a right-wing coalition government composed of
Fascists, nationalists, liberals, and two Catholic clerics from the
Popular Party. The Fascists made up a small minority in his
original governments. Mussolini's domestic goal was the eventual
establishment of a totalitarian state with himself as supreme leader
(Il Duce) a message that was articulated by the Fascist newspaper
Il Popolo, which was now edited by Mussolini's brother, Arnaldo.
To that end, Mussolini obtained from the legislature dictatorial
powers for one year (legal under the Italian constitution of the
time). He favored the complete restoration of state authority, with
the integration of the Fasci di Combattimento into the armed
forces (the foundation in January 1923 of the Milizia Volontaria
per la Sicurezza Nazionale) and the progressive identification of
the party with the state. In political and social economy, he passed
legislation that favored the wealthy industrial and agrarian classes
(privatisations, liberalisations of rent laws and dismantlement of
the unions).[15]
In 1923, Mussolini sent Italian forces to invade Corfu during the
"Corfu Incident." In the end, the League of Nations proved
powerless and Greece was forced to comply with Italian demands.
Writing of Mussolini's foreign policy, the American historian
Gerhard Weinberg stated:
10
Italia Irredenta: regions considered Italian because of
ethnic, geographic and/or historical reasons, claimed
by the Fascists in the 1930s: green: Nice, Ticino, and
Dalmatia; red: Malta; violet: Corsica; Savoy and Corfu
were later claimed.
"If the new regime Benito Mussolini installed in 1922
on the ruins of the old glorified war as a sign of
vitality and repudiated pacifism as a form of decay,
the lesson drawn from the terrible battles against
Austria on the Isonzo river-in which the Italians
fought far better than popular imagination often
allows-was that the tremendous material and technical
Mussolini and Fascist Blackshirts during the
preparations needed for modern war were simply
March on Rome in 1922.
beyond the contemporary capacity of the country.
This was almost certainly a correct perception, but, given the ideology of Fascism with its emphasis on
the moral benefits of war, it did not lead to the conclusion that an Italy without a big stick had best speak
very, very softly. On the contrary, the new regime drew the opposite conclusion. Noisy eloquence and
rabid journalism might be substitued for serious preparations for war, a procedure that was harmless
enough if no one took any of it seriously, but a certain road to disaster once some outside and Mussolini
inside the country came to believe that the "eight million bayonets" of the Duce's imagination actually
existed."[69]
Benito Mussolini
11
Acerbo Law
In June 1923, the government passed the Acerbo Law, which transformed Italy into a single national constituency. It
also granted a two-thirds majority of the seats in Parliament to the party or group of parties which had obtained at
least 25% of the votes. This law was applied in the elections of 6 April 1924. The "national alliance", consisting of
Fascists, most of the old Liberals and others, won 64% of the vote largely by means of violence and voter
intimidation. These tactics were especially prevalent in the south.
Squadristi violence
The assassination of the socialist deputy Giacomo Matteotti, who had
requested the annulment of the elections because of the irregularities
committed,[70] provoked a momentary crisis of the Mussolini government.
The murderer, a squadrista named Amerigo Dumini, reported to Mussolini
soon after the murder. Mussolini ordered a cover-up, but witnesses saw the
car used to transport Matteotti's body parked outside Matteotti's residence,
which linked Dumini to the murder. The Matteotti crisis provoked cries for
justice against the murder of an outspoken critic of Fascist violence.
Mussolini later confessed that a few resolute men could have altered public
opinion and started a coup that would have swept fascism away. Dumini was
imprisoned for two years. On his release Dumini allegedly told other people
that Mussolini was responsible, for which he served further prison time. For
the next 15 years, Dumini received an income from Mussolini, the Fascist
Party, and other sources.
Socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti was
murdered a few days after he openly
The opposition parties responded weakly or were generally unresponsive.
denounced
Fascist violence during the
Many of the socialists, liberals, and moderates boycotted Parliament in the
1924 elections.
Aventine Secession, hoping to force Victor Emmanuel to dismiss Mussolini.
Despite the leadership of communists such as Antonio Gramsci, socialists
such as Pietro Nenni, and liberals such as Piero Gobetti and Giovanni Amendola, a mass antifascist movement never
crystallized. The king, fearful of violence from the Fascist squadristi, kept Mussolini in office. Because of the
boycott of Parliament, Mussolini could pass any legislation unopposed. The political violence of the squadristi had
worked, for there was no popular demonstration against the murder of Matteotti. Within his own party, Mussolini
faced doubts and dissension during these critical weeks.
On 31 December 1924, MVSN consuls met with Mussolini and gave him an ultimatum—crush the opposition or
they would do so without him. Fearing a revolt by his own militants, Mussolini decided to drop all trappings of
democracy.[71] On 3 January 1925, Mussolini made a truculent speech before the Chamber in which he took
responsibility for squadristi violence (though he did not mention the assassination of Matteotti).
He promised a crackdown on dissenters. Before his speech, MVSN detachments beat up the opposition and
prevented opposition newspapers from publishing. Mussolini correctly predicted that as soon as public opinion saw
him firmly in control the "fence-sitters", the silent majority, and the "place-hunters" would all place themselves
behind him.
Benito Mussolini
Building a dictatorship
Assassination attempts
Mussolini's influence in propaganda was such that he had surprisingly little opposition to suppress. Nonetheless, he
was "slightly wounded in the nose" when he was shot on 7 April 1926 by Violet Gibson, an Irish woman and
daughter of Baron Ashbourne, who was subsequently deported after her arrest.[72] On 31 October 1926, 15-year-old
Anteo Zamboni attempted to shoot Mussolini in Bologna. Zamboni was lynched on the spot.[73][74] Mussolini also
survived a failed assassination attempt in Rome by anarchist Gino Lucetti,[75] and a planned attempt by the Italian
anarchist Michele Schirru,[76] which ended with Schirru's capture and execution.[77]
Police state
At various times after 1922, Mussolini personally took over the ministries of
the interior, foreign affairs, colonies, corporations, defense, and public works.
Sometimes he held as many as seven departments simultaneously, as well as
the premiership. He was also head of the all-powerful Fascist Party and the
armed local fascist militia, the MVSN or "Blackshirts", who terrorised
incipient resistances in the cities and provinces. He would later form the
OVRA, an institutionalised secret police that carried official state support. In
this way he succeeded in keeping power in his own hands and preventing the
emergence of any rival.
Between 1925 and 1927, Mussolini progressively dismantled virtually all
constitutional and conventional restraints on his power, thereby building a
police state. A law passed on Christmas Eve 1925 changed Mussolini's formal
title from "president of the Council of Ministers" to "head of the
government". He was no longer responsible to Parliament and could only be
A young Mussolini in his early years in
removed by the king. While the Italian constitution stated that ministers were
power.
only responsible to the sovereign, in practice it had become all but impossible
to govern against the express will of Parliament. The Christmas Eve law
ended this practice, and also made Mussolini the only person competent to determine the body's agenda. Local
autonomy was abolished, and podestàs appointed by the Italian Senate replaced elected mayors and councils.
All other parties were outlawed following Zamboni's assassination attempt in 1926, though in practice Italy had been
a one-party state since Mussolini's 1925 speech. In the same year, an electoral law abolished parliamentary elections.
Instead, the Grand Council of Fascism selected a single list of candidates to be approved by plebiscite. The Grand
Council had been created five years earlier as a party body but was "constitutionalised" and became the highest
constitutional authority in the state. On paper, the Grand Council had the power to recommend Mussolini's removal
from office, and was thus theoretically the only check on his power. Only Mussolini could summon the Grand
Council and determine its agenda. To gain control of the South, especially Sicily, he appointed Cesare Mori as a
Prefect of the city of Palermo, with the charge of eradicating the Mafia at any price. In the telegram, Mussolini wrote
to Mori:
"Your Excellency has carte blanche; the authority of the State must absolutely, I repeat absolutely, be
re-established in Sicily. If the laws still in force hinder you, this will be no problem, as we will draw up new
laws."[78]
He did not hesitate laying siege to towns, using torture, and holding women and children as hostages to oblige
suspects to give themselves up. These harsh methods earned him the nickname of "Iron Prefect". In 1927 Mori's
inquiries brought evidence of collusion between the Mafia and the Fascist establishment, and he was dismissed for
12
Benito Mussolini
length of service in 1929, at which time the number of murders in the Palermo Province had decreased from some
200 to 23. Mussolini nominated Mori as a senator, and fascist propaganda claimed that the Mafia had been
defeated.[79]
Economic policy
Mussolini launched several public construction programs and
government initiatives throughout Italy to combat economic setbacks
or unemployment levels. His earliest, and one of the best known, was
the "Battle for Wheat", by which 5,000 new farms were established
and five new agricultural towns (among them Littoria and Sabaudia)
on land reclaimed by draining the Pontine Marshes. In Sardinia, a
model agricultural town was founded and named Mussolinia, but has
long since been renamed Arborea. This town was the first of what
Mussolini hoped would have been thousands of new agricultural
The inauguration of Littoria in 1932.
settlements across the country. The Battle for Wheat diverted valuable
resources to wheat production away from other more economically
viable crops. Landowners grew wheat on unsuitable soil using all the advances of modern science, and although the
wheat harvest increased, prices rose, consumption fell and high tariffs were imposed.[80] The tariffs promoted
widespread inefficiencies and the government subsidies given to farmers pushed the country further into debt.
Mussolini also initiated the "Battle for Land", a policy based on land reclamation outlined in 1928. The initiative had
a mixed success; while projects such as the draining of the Pontine Marsh in 1935 for agriculture were good for
propaganda purposes, provided work for the unemployed and allowed for great land owners to control subsidies,
other areas in the Battle for Land were not very successful. This program was inconsistent with the Battle for Wheat
(small plots of land were inappropriately allocated for large-scale wheat production), and the Pontine Marsh was lost
during World War II. Fewer than 10,000 peasants resettled on the redistributed land, and peasant poverty remained
high. The Battle for Land initiative was abandoned in 1940. He also combated an economic recession by introducing
the "Gold for the Fatherland" initiative, by encouraging the public to voluntarily donate gold jewellery such as
necklaces and wedding rings to government officials in exchange for steel wristbands bearing the words "Gold for
the Fatherland". Even Rachele Mussolini donated her own wedding ring. The collected gold was then melted down
and turned into gold bars, which were then distributed to the national banks.
Mussolini pushed for government control of business: by 1935, Mussolini claimed that three-quarters of Italian
businesses were under state control. That same year, he issued several edicts to further control the economy,
including forcing all banks, businesses, and private citizens to give up all their foreign-issued stocks and bonds to the
Bank of Italy. In 1938, he also instituted wage and price controls.[81] He also attempted to turn Italy into a
self-sufficient autarky, instituting high barriers on trade with most countries except Germany.
In 1943 he proposed the theory of economic socialization.
13
Benito Mussolini
14
Government
Mussolini's foremost priority was the subjugation of the minds of the Italian people
and the use of propaganda to do so. Press, radio, education, films—all were carefully
supervised to create the impression that fascism was the doctrine of the twentieth
century, replacing liberalism and democracy. A lavish cult of personality centered on
Mussolini was promoted by the regime.
After taking power, Mussolini
was often seen in military
uniform.
The principles of this doctrine were laid down in the article on
fascism, attributed to Mussolini but written jointly with Giovanni
Gentile, that appeared in 1932 in the Enciclopedia Italiana. In
1929, a concordat with the Vatican was signed, the Lateran
treaties, by which the Italian state was at last recognised by the
Roman Catholic Church, and the independence of Vatican City
was recognised by the Italian state.
The 1929 treaty included a legal provision whereby the Italian
government would protect the honor and dignity of the Pope by
Standard of Benito Mussolini.
prosecuting offenders. [82] In 1927, Mussolini was re-baptised by a
Roman Catholic priest in an attempt to assuage certain Catholic opposition, who were still critical. After 1929,
Mussolini, with his anti-Communist doctrines, convinced many Catholics to actively support him. In the encyclical
Non abbiamo bisogno, Pope Pius XI attacked the Fascist regime for its policy against the Catholic Action and certain
tendencies to overrule Catholic education morals.
The law codes of the parliamentary system were rewritten under Mussolini. All teachers in schools and universities
had to swear an oath to defend the fascist regime. Newspaper editors were all personally chosen by Mussolini and no
one who did not possess a certificate of approval from the fascist party could practice journalism. These certificates
were issued in secret; Mussolini thus skillfully created the illusion of a "free press". The trade unions were also
deprived of any independence and were integrated into what was called the "corporative" system. The aim (never
completely achieved), inspired by medieval guilds, was to place all Italians in various professional organizations or
"corporations", all of which were under clandestine governmental control.
Large sums of money were spent on highly visible public works, and on international prestige projects such as the
Blue Riband ocean liner SS Rex and aeronautical achievements such as the world's fastest seaplane the Macchi
M.C.72 and the transatlantic flying boat cruise of Italo Balbo, who was greeted with much fanfare in the United
States when he landed in Chicago.
Benito Mussolini
Role of education and youth organizations
Nationalists in the years after the war thought of themselves as
combating the both liberal and domineering institutions created by
cabinets such as those of Giovanni Giolitti, including traditional
schooling. Futurism, a revolutionary cultural movement which would
serve as a catalyst for Fascism, argued for "a school for physical
courage and patriotism", as expressed by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
in 1919. Marinetti expressed his disdain for "the by now prehistoric
and troglodyte Ancient Greek and Latin courses", arguing for their
replacement with exercise modelled on those of the Arditi soldiers
Benito Mussolini and Fascist Blackshirt youth in
("[learning] to advance on hands and knees in front of razing machine
1935.
gun fire; to wait open-eyed for a crossbeam to move sideways over
their heads etc."). It was in those years that the first Fascist youth wings were formed Avanguardia Giovanile
Fascista (Fascist Youth Vanguards) in 1919, and Gruppi Universitari Fascisti (Fascist University Groups), in 1922.
After the March on Rome that brought Benito Mussolini to power, the Fascists started considering ways to
ideologize the Italian society, with an accent on schools. Mussolini assigned former ardito and deputy-secretary for
Education Renato Ricci the task of "reorganizing the youth from a moral and physical point of view". Ricci sought
inspiration with Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting, meeting with him in England, as well as with
Bauhaus artists in Germany. The Opera Nazionale Balilla was created through Mussolini's decree of 3 April 1926,
and was led by Ricci for the following eleven years. It included children between the ages of 8 and 18, grouped as
the Balilla and the Avanguardisti.
According to Mussolini: "Fascist education is moral, physical, social, and military: it aims to create a complete and
harmoniously developed human, a fascist one according to our views". Mussolini structured this process taking in
view the emotional side of childhood: "Childhood and adolescence alike ... cannot be fed solely by concerts,
theories, and abstract teaching. The truth we aim to teach them should appeal foremost to their fantasy, to their
hearts, and only then to their minds".
The "educational value set through action and example" was to replace the established approaches. Fascism opposed
its version of idealism to prevalent rationalism, and used the Opera Nazionale Balilla to circumvent educational
tradition by imposing the collective and hierarchy, as well as Mussolini's own personality cult.
Foreign policy
In foreign policy, Mussolini soon shifted from the anti-imperialism of his lead-up to power to an extreme form of
aggressive nationalism. He dreamt of making Italy a nation that was "great, respected, and feared" throughout
Europe, and indeed the world. An early example was his bombardment of Corfu in 1923. Soon after he succeeded in
setting up a puppet regime in Albania and in ruthlessly consolidating Italian power in Libya, which had been loosely
a colony since 1912. It was his dream to make the Mediterranean mare nostrum ("our sea" in Latin), and he
established a large naval base on the Greek island of Leros to enforce a strategic hold on the eastern Mediterranean.
His first steps into foreign policy seemed to portray him as a "statesman", for he participated in the Locarno Treaties
of 1925 and the attempted Four Power Pact of 1933 was Mussolini's brainchild. Following the Stresa Front against
Germany in 1935, Mussolini's policy took a dramatic turning point and revealed itself once again to be that of an
aggressive nature. This domino effect of war began with the Second Italo-Abyssinian War. He also disagreed with
Hitler's treaties with the Soviet Union.
15
Benito Mussolini
16
Conquest of Ethiopia
In an effort to create an Italian Empire – or as supporters called it, the
New Roman Empire[83] – Italy set its sights on Ethiopia with an
invasion that was carried out rapidly. Italy's forces were far superior to
the Abyssinian forces, especially in regards to air power, and they were
soon victorious. Emperor Haile Selassie was forced to flee the country,
with Italy entering the capital Addis Ababa to proclaim an empire by
May 1936, making Ethiopia part of Italian East Africa.[84]
Although all of the major European powers of the time had also
colonised parts of Africa and committed atrocities in their colonies, the
Il Duce standing on top of a tank.
Scramble for Africa had finished by the beginning of the twentieth
century. The international mood was now against colonialist expansion
and Italy's actions were condemned. Retroactively, Italy was criticised for its use of mustard gas and phosgene
against its enemies and also for its zero tolerance approach to enemy guerrillas, allegedly authorised by
Mussolini.[84]
When Rodolfo Graziani the viceroy of Ethiopia was nearly assassinated at an
official ceremony, with the guerrilla bomb exploding among the people there, a
very stronghanded reaction followed against the guerrillas, including those who
were prisoners according to the International Red Cross.[84] The IRC also alleged
that Italy bombed their tents in areas of guerrillas military encampment; though
Italy denied it had intended to, insisting that the rebels were targeted.[84] It was
not until the East African Campaign's conclusion in 1941 that Italy lost its East
African territories, after taking on a fourteen nation allied force.
Spanish Civil War
Italian military help to Nationalists against the anti-clerical and anti-Catholic
atrocities committed by the Republican side worked well in Italian propaganda
Spanish Republican poster against
"the Italian invader".
targeting Catholics. On 27 July 1936 the first squadron of Italian airplanes sent
by Benito Mussolini arrived in Spain.[85] This active intervention in 1936–1939
on the side of Franco in the Spanish Civil War ended any possibility of reconciliation with France and Britain. As a
result, his relationship with Adolf Hitler became closer, and he chose to accept the German annexation of Austria in
1938 and the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia in 1939. At the Munich Conference in September 1938, he posed as
a moderate working for European peace, helping Nazi Germany seize control of the Sudetenland. His "axis" with
Germany was confirmed when he made the "Pact of Steel" with Hitler in May 1939, as the previous "Rome-Berlin
Axis" of 1936 had been unofficial. Members of TIGR, a Slovene anti-fascist group, plotted to kill Mussolini in
Kobarid in 1938, but their attempt was unsuccessful.
Benito Mussolini
17
Axis
Rome-Berlin relations
The relationship between Mussolini and Adolf Hitler was a contentious
one early on. While Hitler cited Mussolini as an influence and
expressed privately great admiration for him,[86] Mussolini had little
regard for Hitler, especially after the Nazis had assassinated his friend
and ally, Engelbert Dollfuss the Austrofascist dictator of Austria in
1934.
With the assassination of Dollfuss, Mussolini attempted to distance
himself from Hitler by rejecting much of the racialism (particularly
Nordicism and Germanicism) and anti-Semitism espoused by the
German radical. Mussolini during this period rejected biological
racism, at least in the Nazi sense, and instead emphasized "Italianizing"
the parts of the Italian Empire he had desired to build.[87] He declared
that the ideas of Eugenics and the racially charged concept of an Aryan
nation were not possible.[87]
Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler in Munich,
June 1940.
Mussolini was particularly sensitive to German accusations that the
Italians were a mongrelized race. He retaliated by mockingly referring
to the Germans' own lack of racial purity on several occasions. When
discussing the Nazi decree that the German people must carry a
passport with either Aryan or Jewish racial affiliation marked on it, in
the summer of 1934, Mussolini wondered how they would designate
membership in the "Germanic race":
Mussolini in the company of Charles Edward,
Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, presiding over
sporting events in honour of German veterans in
Rome, 19 March 1938.
But which race? Does there exist a German race? Has it ever existed? Will it ever exist? Reality, myth, or hoax of the theorists?
“
Ah well, we respond, a Germanic race does not exist. Various movements. Curiosity. Stupor. We repeat. Does not exist. We don't say so.
Scientists say so. Hitler says so.
”
[88]
—Benito Mussolini, 1934.
When German-Jewish journalist Emil Ludwig asked about his views on race, Mussolini exclaimed:
Race! It is a feeling, not a reality: ninety-five percent, at least, is a feeling. Nothing will ever make me believe that biologically pure races can
be shown to exist today. Amusingly enough, not one of those who have proclaimed the "nobility" of the Teutonic race was himself a Teuton.
Gobineau was a Frenchman, (Houston Stewart) Chamberlain, an Englishman; Woltmann, a Jew; Lapouge, another Frenchman.
“
”
[89]
—Benito Mussolini, 1933.
In a speech given in Bari, he reiterated his attitude toward German racism:
Benito Mussolini
18
Thirty centuries of history allow us to look with supreme pity on certain doctrines which are preached beyond the Alps by the descendants of
those who were illiterate when Rome had Caesar, Virgil and Augustus.
“
”
[90][91]
—Benito Mussolini, 1934.
Mussolini's rejection of both racialism and the importance of race in 1934 during the height of his antagonism
towards Hitler contradicted his own earlier statements about race, such as in 1928 in which he emphasized the
importance of race:
[When the] city dies, the nation — deprived of the young life-blood of new generations — is now made up of people who are old and
degenerate and cannot defend itself against a younger people which launches an attack on the now unguarded frontiers [...] This will happen,
and not just to cities and nations, but on an infinitely greater scale: the whole White race, the Western race can be submerged by other
coloured races which are multiplying at a rate unknown in our race.
“
”
[92]
—Benito Mussolini, 1928.
Though Italian Fascism variated its official positions on race from the 1920s to 1934, ideologically Italian fascism
did not originally discriminate against the Italian Jewish community: Mussolini recognised that a small contingent
had lived there "since the days of the Kings of Rome" and should "remain undisturbed".[93] There were even some
Jews in the National Fascist Party, such as Ettore Ovazza who in 1935 founded the Jewish Fascist paper La Nostra
Bandiera ("Our Flag").[94]
By 1938, the enormous influence Hitler now had over Mussolini became clear with the introduction of the Manifesto
of Race. The Manifesto, which was closely modeled on the Nazi Nuremberg laws,[71] stripped Jews of their Italian
citizenship and with it any position in the government or professions. The German influence on Italian policy upset
the established balance in Fascist Italy and proved highly unpopular to most Italians, to the extent that Pope Pius XII
sent a letter to Mussolini protesting against the new laws.
It has been widely speculated that Mussolini's reasoning to adopt the Manifesto of Race in 1938 was merely tactical,
in order to strengthen Italy's relations with Germany. In December 1943, Mussolini made a confession to Bruno
Spampanato that seems to indicate that he regretted the Manifesto of Race, as Mussolini put it:
The Racial Manifesto could have been avoided. It dealt with the scientific abstruseness of a few teachers and journalists, a conscientious
German essay translated into bad Italian. It is far from what I have said, written and signed on the subject. I suggest that you consult the old
issues of Il Popolo d'Italia. For this reason I am far from accepting (Alfred) Rosenberg's myth.
“
”
[95]
—Benito Mussolini, 1943.
Mussolini also reached out to the Muslims in his empire and in the predominantly Arab countries of the Middle East.
In 1937, the Muslims of Libya presented Mussolini with the "Sword of Islam" while Fascist propaganda pronounced
him as the "Protector of Islam."[96]
Benito Mussolini
Munich Conference, war looming
By the late 1930s, Mussolini's obsession with
demography led him to conclude that Britain and
France were finished as powers, and that it was
Germany and Italy who were destined to rule Europe if
for no other reason than their demographic strength.[97]
Mussolini stated his belief that declining birth rates in
France were "absolutely horrifying" and that the British
Empire was doomed because one-quarter of the British
population was over 50. [98] As such, Mussolini
believed that an alliance with Germany was preferable
to an alignment with Britain and France as it was better
From left to right, Chamberlain, Daladier, Hitler, Mussolini and
to be allied with the strong instead of the weak. [99] The
Italian Foreign Minister Count Ciano as they prepare to sign the
only things that held Mussolini back from full
Munich Agreement.
alignment with Berlin were his awareness of Italian
economic and military weaknesses, which required
further time to rearm and his desire to use the Easter Accords of April 1938 as a way of splitting Britain from France.
[100]
A military alliance with Germany as opposed to the already existing looser political alliance with the Reich
under the Anti-Comintern Pact (which had no military commitments) would end any chance of Britain implementing
the Easter Accords. [101] The Easter Accords in turn was intended by Mussolini to allow Italy to take on France alone
by sufficiently improving Anglo-Italian relations that London would presumably remain neutral in the event of a
Franco-Italian war. [101] In turn, the Easter Accords were intended by Britain to win Italy away from Germany.
Mussolini had imperial designs on Tunisia, and had some support in that country.[102] In January 1939, the British
Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain visited Rome, during which visit, Mussolini learned that through Britain very
much wanted better relations with Italy, and was prepared to make concessions, that Britain would not sever all ties
with France for the sake of an improved Anglo-Italian relationship. [103] With that, Mussolini grew more interested
in the German offer of a military alliance, which first been made in May 1938. [103] The new course was not without
its critics. On 21 March 1939, during a meeting of the Fascist Grand Council, Italo Balbo accused Mussolini of
"licking Hitler's boots", blasted the Duce's pro-German foreign policy as leading Italy to disaster, and noted that the
"opening to Britain" still existed and it was not inevitable that Italy had to ally with Germany. [104] Through many
gerarchi like Balbo were not keen on closer relations with Berlin, Mussolini's control of the foreign-policy
machinery meant this dissidence counted for little. [104] In April 1939, Mussolini ordered the Italy invaded Albania.
Italy defeated Albania within just five days forcing king Zog to flee, setting up a period of Albania under Italy. Until
May 1939, the Axis had not been entirely official, but during that month the Pact of Steel treaty was signed outlining
the "friendship and alliance" between Germany and Italy, signed by each of its foreign ministers.[105] The Pact of
Steel was an offensive and defensive military alliance, through Mussolini had signed the treaty only after receiving a
promise from the Germans that there would be no war for the next three years. Italy's king Victor Emanuel III was
also wary of the pact, favouring the more traditional Italian allies like France, and fearful of the implications of an
offensive military alliance, which in effect meant surrendering control over questions of war and peace to Hitler.[106]
Hitler was intent on invading Poland, though Galeazzo Ciano warned this would likely lead to war with the Allies.
Hitler dismissed Ciano's comment, predicting that instead that Britain and the other Western countries would back
down, and he suggested that Italy should invade Yugoslavia.[107] The offer was tempting to Mussolini, but at that
stage world war would be a disaster for Italy as the armaments situation from building the Italian Empire thus far
was lean. Most significantly, Victor Emmanuel had demanded neutrality in the dispute.[107] Thus when World War II
in Europe began on 1 September 1939 with the German invasion of Poland eliciting the response of the United
Kingdom and France declaring war on Germany, Italy did not become involved in the conflict.[107]
19
Benito Mussolini
20
War declared
As World War II began, Ciano and Viscount Halifax were holding secret phone conversations. The British wanted
Italy on their side against Germany as it had been in World War I.[107] French government opinion was more geared
towards action against Italy; they were eager to attack Italy in Libya. In September 1939, France swung to the
opposite extreme, offering to discuss issues with Italy, but as the French were unwilling to discuss Corsica, Nice and
Savoy, Mussolini did not answer.[107] Historian Alexander Gibson stated that Allies were certain that Italy would
join the war on the Axis side, and tried to provoke Italy into fighting while she was still unprepared.[108]
So long as the Duce lives, one can rest assured that Italy will seize every opportunity to achieve its imperialistic aims.
“
”
[107]
—Adolf Hitler, late November 1939
Convinced that the war would soon be over, with a German victory looking likely at that point, Mussolini decided to
enter the war on the Axis side. Accordingly, Italy declared war on Britain and France on 10 June 1940.[109]
Mussolini regarded the war against Britain and France as a life-or-death struggle between opposing ideologies Fascism and "the Masonic, democratic, capitalist world"[108] - describing the war as "the struggle of the fertile and
young people against the sterile people moving to the sunset; it is the struggle between two centuries and two
ideas",[110] and as a "logical development of our Revolution".[108]
Italy joined the Germans in the Battle of France, fighting the fortified Alpine Line at the border. Just eleven days
later, France surrendered to the Axis powers. Included in Italian-controlled France was most of Nice and other
southeastern counties.[109] Meanwhile in Africa, Mussolini's Italian East Africa forces attacked the British in their
Sudan, Kenya and British Somaliland colonies, in what would become known as the East African Campaign.[111]
British Somaliland was conquered and became part of Italian East Africa on 3 August 1940, and there were Italian
advances in Sudan and Kenya.[112]
Just over a month later, the Italian Tenth Army commanded by General Rodolfo Graziani crossed from Italian Libya
into Egypt where British forces were located; this would become the Western Desert Campaign. Advances were
successful, but the Italians stopped at Sidi Barrani waiting for logistic supplies to catch up. During 25 October 1940,
Mussolini sent the Italian Air Corps to Belgium, where the air force took part in the Battle of Britain for around two
months.[113] In October, Mussolini also sent Italian forces into Greece starting the Greco-Italian War. After initial
success, this backfired as the Greek counterattack proved relentless, resulting in Italy losing one-quarter of Albania.
Germany soon committed forces to the Balkans to fight the gathering Allies.
Events in Africa had changed by early 1941 as Operation Compass had forced the Italians back into Libya, causing
high losses in the Italian Army.[114] Also in the East African Campaign, an attack was mounted against Italian forces.
Despite putting up a resistance, they were overwhelmed at the Battle of Keren, and the Italian defense started to
crumble with a final defeat in the Battle of Gondar. When addressing the Italian public on the events, he was
completely open about the situation saying, "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."[115]
Part of his comment was in relation to earlier success the Italians had in Africa, before being defeated by an Allied
force later. In danger of losing the control of all Italian possessions in North Africa, Germany finally sent the Afrika
Korps to support Italy. Meanwhile Operation Marita took place in Yugoslavia to end the Greco-Italian War, resulting
in an Axis victory and the Occupation of Greece by Italy and Germany.[116]
With the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, Mussolini declared war on the Soviet Union in June 1941 and sent an
army to fight there. Mussolini first learned of Barbarossa after it began on 22 June 1941, and was not asked by Hitler
to involve himself. [117] Mussolini took the initiative in ordering an Italian Army Corps to head to the Eastern Front,
where he hoped that Italy might score an easy victory to restore the Fascist regime’s lustre which had been damaged
by defeats in Greece and North Africa; Mussolini told the Council of Ministers of 5 July that his only worry was that
Benito Mussolini
Germany might defeat the Soviet Union before the Italians arrived. [118] At a meeting with Hitler in August,
Mussolini offered and Hitler accepted the commitment of further Italian troops to the Soviet Union. [119] The heavy
losses suffered by the Italians on the Eastern Front, where service was extremely unpopular owing to the widespread
view that this was not Italy's fight did much to damage Mussolini's prestige with the Italian people. [119] After the
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he declared war on the United States on 11 December 1941. An interesting
evidence regarding Mussolini's response to the attack on Pearl Harbor comes from the diary of his Foreign Minister
Ciano:
"A night telephone call from Ribbentrop. He is overjoyed about the Japanese attack on America. He is so
happy about it that I am happy with him, though I am not too sure about the final advantages of what has
happened. One thing is now certain, that America will enter the conflict and that the conflict will be so long
that she will be able to realize all her potential forces. This morning I told this to the King who had been
pleased about the event. He ended by admitting that, in the long run, I may be right. Mussolini was happy, too.
For a long time he has favored a definite clarification of relations between America and the Axis".[120]
Dismissed and arrested
By early 1942, Italy's position in the war became more and more untenable. After the
defeat at El Alamein at the end of 1942, the Axis troops had to retreat to where they
were finally defeated in the Tunisia Campaign in the spring of 1943. Also at the
Eastern Front were major setbacks and the war had come to the nation's very doorstep
with the Allied invasion of Sicily.[121] The Italian home front was also in bad shape as
the Allied bombings were taking their toll. Factories all over Italy were brought to a
virtual standstill due to a lack of raw materials, as well as coal and oil. Additionally,
there was a chronic shortage of food, and what food was available was being sold at
nearly confiscatory prices. Mussolini's once-ubiquitous propaganda machine lost its
grip on the people; a large number of Italians turned to Vatican Radio or Radio
London for more accurate news coverage. Discontent came to a head in March 1943
with a wave of labor strikes in the industrial north—the first large-scale strikes since
Marshal Pietro Badoglio
1925.[122] Also in March, some of the major factories in Milan and Turin stopped
succeeded Mussolini as Prime
Minister.
production to secure evacuation allowances for workers' families. The physical
German presence in Italy had sharply turned public opinion against Mussolini; for
example, when the Allies invaded Sicily, the majority of the public there welcomed them as liberators.[123]
Earlier in April 1943, Mussolini had begged Hitler to make a separate peace with Stalin and send German troops to
the west to guard against an expected Allied invasion of Italy. Mussolini feared that with the losses in Tunisia and
North Africa, the next logical step for Dwight Eisenhower's armies would be to come across the Mediterranean and
attack the Italian peninsula. Within a few days of the Allied landings on Sicily in July 1943, it was obvious
Mussolini's army was on the brink of collapse. This led Hitler to summon Mussolini to a meeting in northern Italy on
19 July 1943. By this time, Mussolini was so shaken from stress that he could no longer stand Hitler's boasting. His
mood darkened further when that same day, the Allies bombed Rome—the first time that city had ever been the
target of enemy bombing.[124]
Some prominent members of the Italian Fascist government had turned against Mussolini by this point. Among them
were his confidant Dino Grandi and Mussolini's son-in-law Galeazzo Ciano. With several of his colleagues close to
revolt, Mussolini was forced to summon the Grand Council of Fascism on 24 July 1943: the first time that body had
met since the start of the war. When he announced that the Germans were thinking of evacuating the south, Grandi
launched a blistering attack on him.[121] Grandi moved a resolution asking the king to resume his full constitutional
powers, in effect, a vote of no confidence in Mussolini. This motion carried by a 19–7 margin. Despite this sharp
rebuke, Mussolini showed up for work the next day as usual. He allegedly viewed the Grand Council as merely an
21
Benito Mussolini
advisory body and did not think the vote would have any substantive effect.[122] That afternoon, he was summoned
to the royal palace by King Victor Emmanuel III, who had been planning to oust Mussolini earlier. When Mussolini
tried to tell the king about the meeting, Victor Emmanuel cut him off and told him that he was being replaced by
Marshal Pietro Badoglio.[122] After Mussolini left the palace, he was arrested by Carabinieri on the king's orders.[125]
By this time, discontent with Mussolini was such that when the news
of his ouster was announced on the radio, there was no resistance.[122]
In an effort to conceal his location from the Germans, Mussolini was
moved around the country before being sent to Campo Imperatore, a
mountain resort in Abruzzo where he was completely isolated.[121]
Given the large Nazi presence in Italy, Badoglio announced that "the
war continues at the side of our Germanic ally" in the hopes that chaos
and Nazi retaliation against civilians could be avoided.[121] Even as
Mussolini rescued by German troops from his
Badoglio was keeping up the appearance of loyalty to the Axis, he
prison in Campo Imperatore on 12 September
dissolved the Fascist Party two days after taking over. Also, his
1943.
government was negotiating an Armistice with the Allies, which was
signed on 3 September 1943. Its announcement five days later threw Italy into chaos, a civil war of sorts. Badoglio
and the king fled Rome, leaving the Italian Army without orders. Immediately after the Italian surrender was
announced, German troops started taking over the Italian Peninsula by force as part of Operation Achse and
occupied Rome on 10 September.[126] After a period of anarchy, Italy finally declared war on Nazi Germany on 13
October 1943 from Malta; thousands of troops were supplied to fight against the Germans, others refused to switch
sides and had joined the Germans. The Badoglio government held a social truce with the leftist partisans for the sake
of Italy and to rid the land of the Nazis.[127]
Italian Social Republic
Only two months after Mussolini had been dismissed and arrested, he was rescued from his prison at the Hotel
Campo Imperatore in the Gran Sasso raid by a special Fallschirmjäger unit on 12 September 1943; present was Otto
Skorzeny.[125] The rescue saved Mussolini from being turned over to the Allies, as per the armistice.[127] Hitler had
made plans to arrest the king, Crown Prince Umberto, Badoglio, and the rest of the government and restore
Mussolini to power in Rome, but the government's escape south likely foiled those plans.[124]
Three days following his rescue in the Gran Sasso raid, Mussolini was
taken to Germany for a meeting with Hitler in Rastenberg at his East
Prussian headquarters. Despite public professions of support, Hitler
was clearly shocked by Mussolini's disheveled and haggard appearance
as well as his unwillingness to go after the men in Rome who
overthrew him. At this time, Mussolini was in very poor health which
was the result of severe stress because of Italy's bleak war situation and
he wanted to retire from politics altogether. Hitler firmly told him that
A rain-soaked Benito Mussolini reviewing
unless he agreed to return to Italy and set up a new fascist state, the
adolescent soldiers in northern Italy, late 1944
Germans would destroy Milan, Genoa and Turin. Feeling that he had to
do what he could to blunt the edges of Nazi repression, Mussolini agreed to set up a new regime, the Italian Social
Republic,[121] informally known as the Salò Republic because of its administration from the town of Salò where he
settled in just 11 days after his rescue by the Germans. Mussolini's new regime faced numerous territorial losses: in
addition to losing the Italian lands held by the Allies and Badoglio's government, the provinces of Bolzano, Belluno
and Trento were placed under German administration in the Operational Zone of the Alpine Foothills, while the
provinces of Udine, Gorizia, Trieste, Pola (now Pula), Fiume (now Rijeka) and Ljubljana (Lubiana) were
incorporated into the German Operational Zone of the Adriatic Littoral.[128] In addition, the German army occupied
22
Benito Mussolini
23
the Dalmatian provinces of Split (Spalato) and Kotor (Cattaro), which were subsequently annexed by the Croatian
fascist regime. Italy's gains in Greece and Albania were also lost to Germany, with the exception of the Italian
Aegean Islands, which remained nominally under RSI rule.[129] Mussolini opposed any territorial reductions of the
Italian state and told his associates "I am not here to renounce even a square meter of state territory. We will go back
to war for this. And we will rebel against anyone for this. Where the Italian flag flew, the Italian flag will return. And
where it has not been lowered, now that I am here, no one will have it lowered. I have said these things to the
Führer".[130]
For two years, Mussolini lived in Gargnano on Lake Garda in Lombardy during this period. Although he insisted in
public that he was in full control, he himself knew that he was little more than a puppet ruler under the protection of
his German liberators—for all intents and purposes, the Gauleiter of Lombardy.[124] After yielding to pressures from
Hitler and the remaining loyal fascists who formed the government of the Republic of Salo, Mussolini helped
orchestrate a series of executions of some of the fascist leaders who had betrayed him at the last meeting of the
Fascist Grand Council. One of those executed included his son-in-law, Galeazzo Ciano. As Head of State and
Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Italian Social Republic, Mussolini used much of his time to write his memoirs.
Along with his autobiographical writings of 1928, these writings would be combined and published by Da Capo
Press as My Rise and Fall. In an interview in January 1945, a few months before he was captured and executed by
Italian anti-fascist partisans, he stated flatly: "Seven years ago, I was an interesting person. Now, I am little more
than a corpse." He continued:
Yes, madam, I am finished. My star has fallen. I have no fight left in me. I work and I try, yet know that all is but a farce ... I await the end of
the tragedy and – strangely detached from everything – I do not feel any more an actor. I feel I am the last of spectators.
“
”
[131]
—Benito Mussolini, interviewed in early 1945 by Madeleine Mollier.
Death
Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci were stopped by communist
partisans Valerio and Bellini and identified by the Political Commissar
of the partisans' 52nd Garibaldi Brigade, Urbano Lazzaro, on 27 April
1945, near the village of Dongo (Lake Como), as they headed for
Switzerland to board a plane to escape to Spain. During this time
Claretta's brother posed as a Spanish consul.[132] Mussolini had been
traveling with retreating German forces and was apprehended while
attempting to escape recognition by wearing a German military
uniform. After several unsuccessful attempts to take them to Como
they were brought to Mezzegra. They spent their last night in the house
of the De Maria family.
Cross marking the place in Mezzegra where
Mussolini was shot.
The next day, Mussolini and Petacci were both summarily executed, along with most of the members of their
15-man train, primarily ministers and officials of the Italian Social Republic. The shootings took place in the small
village of Giulino di Mezzegra. According to the official version of events, the shootings were conducted by
Colonnello Valerio, whose real name was Walter Audisio. Audisio was the communist partisan commander who was
reportedly given the order to kill Mussolini by the National Liberation Committee. When
Benito Mussolini
24
Audisio entered the room where Mussolini and the other fascists were
being held, he reportedly announced, "I have come to rescue you!... Do
you have any weapons?" He then had them loaded into transports and
driven a short distance. Audisio ordered, "Get down"; Petacci hugged
Mussolini and refused to move away from him when they were taken
to an empty space. Shots were fired and Petacci fell down. Just then
Mussolini opened his jacket and screamed, "Shoot me in the chest!"
Audisio complied and shot him in the chest. Mussolini fell but did not
die and was breathing heavily. Audisio went near and he shot one more
bullet in his chest. Mussolini's face looked as if he had significant pain.
Audisio said to his driver, "Look at his face, the emotions on his face
don't suit him." The other members of Mussolini's entourage were also
executed before a firing squad later that same day towards nightfall.
Mussolini's body
On 29 April 1945, the bodies of Mussolini, Petacci, and the other
executed Fascists were loaded into a moving van and trucked south to
Milan. There, at 3:00 am, they were dumped on the ground in the old
Piazzale Loreto. The piazza had been renamed "Piazza Quindici
Martiri" in honor of 15 anti-Fascists recently executed there.[133]
Benito Mussolini's body (left) beside that of his
mistress, Clara Petacci (right), in a morgue in
Milan.
After being shot, kicked, and spat upon, the bodies were hung upside
down on meathooks from the roof of an Esso gas station.[134] The
bodies were then stoned by civilians from below. This was done both
to discourage any Fascists from continuing the fight and as an act of
revenge for the hanging of many partisans in the same place by Axis
authorities. The corpse of the deposed leader became subject to ridicule
The dead body of Mussolini (second from left)
and abuse. Fascist loyalist Achille Starace was captured and sentenced
next to Petacci (middle) and other executed
to death and then taken to the Piazzale Loreto and shown the body of
fascists in Piazzale Loreto, Milan, 1945
Mussolini. Starace, who once said of Mussolini "He is a god,"[135]
saluted what was left of his leader just before he was shot. The body of Starace was subsequently strung up next to
the body of Mussolini.
After his death and the display of his corpse in Milan, Mussolini was buried in an unmarked grave in the Musocco
cemetery, to the north of the city. On Easter Sunday 1946 his body was located and dug up by Domenico Leccisi and
two other neo-Fascists. Making off with their hero, they left a message on the open grave: "Finally, O Duce, you are
with us. We will cover you with roses, but the smell of your virtue will overpower the smell of those roses."
Benito Mussolini
Tomb of Mussolini in the family crypt in the cemetery
of Predappio.
25
On the loose for months—and a cause of great anxiety to the new
Italian democracy—the Duce's body was finally "recaptured" in
August, hidden in a small trunk at the Certosa di Pavia, just
outside Milan. Two Fransciscan brothers were subsequently
charged with concealing the corpse, though it was discovered on
further investigation that it had been constantly on the move.
Unsure what to do, the authorities held the remains in a kind of
political limbo for 10 years, before agreeing to allow them to be
re-interred at Predappio in Romagna, his birthplace, after a
campaign headed by Leccisi and the Movimento Sociale Italiano.
Leccisi, a fascist deputy, went on to write his autobiography, With
Mussolini Before and After Piazzale Loreto. Adone Zoli, the prime
minister of the day, contacted Donna Rachele, the former dictator's widow, to tell her he was returning the remains,
as he needed the support of the far-right in parliament, including Leccisi himself. In Predappio the dictator was
buried in a crypt (the only posthumous honour granted to Mussolini). His tomb is flanked by marble fasces, and a
large idealised marble bust of himself sits above the tomb.[136]
Personal life
Mussolini was first married to Ida Dalser in Trento in 1914. The couple had a son one year later and named him
Benito Albino Mussolini. In December 1915, Mussolini married Rachele Guidi, his mistress since 1910, and with his
following political ascendency the information about his first marriage was suppressed and both his first wife and
son were later persecuted.[50] With Rachele, Mussolini had two daughters, Edda (1910–1995) and Anna Maria (born
3 September 1929, Forlì, Villa Carpena – died 25 April 1968, Rome), married in Ravenna on 11 June 1960 to Nando
Pucci Negri; three sons Vittorio (1916–1997), Bruno (1918–1941), and Romano (1927–2006). Mussolini had a
number of mistresses, among them Margherita Sarfatti and his final companion, Clara Petacci. Furthermore,
Mussolini had innumerable brief sexual encounters with female supporters as reported by his biographer Nicholas
Farrell.[137]
Religious beliefs
Atheism and anti-clericalism
Mussolini was raised by a devoutly Catholic mother[138] and an anti-clerical father.[139] His mother Rosa had him
baptized into the Roman Catholic Church, and took her children to services every Sunday. His father never
attended.[138] Mussolini regarded his time at a religious boarding school as punishment, compared the experience to
hell, and "once refused to go to morning mass and had to be dragged there by force".[140]
Mussolini would become anti-clerical like his father. As a young man, he "proclaimed himself to be an atheist and
several times tried to shock an audience by calling on God to strike him dead."[139] He denounced socialists who
were tolerant of religion, or who had their children baptized. He believed that science had proven there was no God,
and that the historical Jesus was ignorant and mad. He considered religion a disease of the psyche, and accused
Christianity of promoting resignation and cowardice.[139]
Mussolini was an admirer of Friedrich Nietzsche. According to Denis Mack Smith, "In Nietzsche he found
justification for his crusade against the Christian virtues of humility, resignation, charity, and goodness."[141] He
valued Nietzsche's concept of the superman, "The supreme egoist who defied both God and the masses, who
despised egalitarianism and democracy, who believed in the weakest going to the wall and pushing them if they did
not go fast enough."[141]
Benito Mussolini
Mussolini made vitriolic attacks against Christianity and the Catholic Church, "which he accompanied with
provocative and blasphemous remarks about the consecrated host and about a love affair between Christ and Mary
Magdalen."[142] He believed that socialists who were Christian or who accepted religious marriage should be
expelled from the party. He denounced the Catholic Church for "its authoritarianism and refusal to allow freedom of
thought ..." Mussolini's newspaper, La Lotta di Classe, reportedly had an anti-Christian editorial stance.[142]
Lateran Pact
Despite making such attacks, Mussolini would try to win popular support by appeasing the Catholic majority in Italy.
In 1924, Mussolini saw that three of his children were given communion. In 1925, he had a priest perform a religious
marriage ceremony for himself and his wife Rachele, whom he had married in a civil ceremony 10 years earlier.[143]
On 11 February 1929, he signed a concordat and treaty with the Roman Catholic Church.[144] Under the Lateran
Pact, Vatican City was granted independent statehood and placed under Church law—rather than Italian law—and
the Catholic religion was recognized as Italy's state religion.[145] The Church also regained authority over marriage,
Catholicism could be taught in all secondary schools, birth control and freemasonry were banned, and the clergy
received subsidies from the state, and was exempted from taxation.[146][147] Pope Pius XI praised Mussolini, and the
official Catholic newspaper pronounced "Italy has been given back to God and God to Italy."[145]
After this conciliation, he claimed the Church was subordinate to the State, and "referred to Catholicism as, in origin,
a minor sect that had spread beyond Palestine only because grafted onto the organization of the Roman empire."[144]
After the concordat, "he confiscated more issues of Catholic newspapers in the next three months than in the
previous seven years."[144] Mussolini reportedly came close to being excommunicated from the Catholic Church
around this time.[144]
Mussolini publicly reconciled with the Pope Pius XI in 1932, but "took care to exclude from the newspapers any
photography of himself kneeling or showing deference to the Pope."[144] He wanted to persuade Catholics that
"[f]ascism was Catholic and he himself a believer who spent some of each day in prayer ..."[144] The Pope began
referring to Mussolini as "a man sent by Providence."[142][144] Despite Mussolini's efforts to appear pious, by order
of his party, pronouns referring to him "had to be capitalized like those referring to God ..."[144]
In 1938 Mussolini began reasserting his anti-clericalism. He would sometimes refer to himself as an "outright
disbeliever," and once told his cabinet that "Islam was perhaps a more effective religion than Christianity" and that
the "papacy was a malignant tumor in the body of Italy and must 'be rooted out once and for all', because there was
no room in Rome for both the Pope and himself."[148] He would publicly back down from these anti-clerical
statements, but continued making similar statements in private.
After his fall from power in 1943, Mussolini began speaking "more about God and the obligations of conscience",
although "he still had little use for the priests and sacraments of the Church,".[149] He also began drawing parallels
between himself and Jesus Christ.[149] Mussolini's widow, Rachele, stated that her husband had remained "basically
irreligious until the later years of his life.[150] Mussolini was given a Catholic funeral in 1957.[151]
Legacy
Mussolini was survived by his wife, Rachele Mussolini, two sons, Vittorio and Romano Mussolini, and his daughters
Edda, the widow of Count Ciano, and Anna Maria. A third son, Bruno, was killed in an air accident while flying a
P108 bomber on a test mission, on 7 August 1941.[152] His oldest son, Benito Albino Mussolini, from his marriage
with Ida Dalser, was ordered to stop declaring that Mussolini was his father and in 1935 forcibly committed to an
asylum in Milan, where he was murdered on 26 August 1942 after repeated coma-inducing injections.[50] Actress
Sophia Loren's sister, Anna Maria Scicolone, was formerly married to Romano Mussolini, Mussolini's son.
Mussolini's granddaughter Alessandra Mussolini was a member of the European Parliament for the far right party
Alternativa Sociale and currently serves in the Chamber of Deputies as a member of the ruling People of Freedom.
Other relatives of Edda (Castrianni) moved to England after World War II.
26
Benito Mussolini
27
Mussolini's National Fascist Party was banned in the postwar Constitution of Italy, but a number of successor
neo-fascist parties emerged to carry on its legacy. Historically, the strongest neo-fascist party was MSI (Movimento
Sociale Italiano), which was declared dissolved in 1995 and replaced by the National Alliance, which distanced
itself from Fascism (its leader Gianfranco Fini once declared that Fascism was "an absolute evil"). These parties
were united under Silvio Berlusconi's House of Freedoms coalition and in 2009 a broad based group of right-wing
parties, including Gianfranco Fini's National Alliance and Alessandra Mussolini's Azione Sociale, were merged to
create The People of Freedom party led by Prime Minister Berlusconi.
In popular culture
Charlie Chaplin's 1940 film The Great Dictator satirizes Mussolini as "Benzino
Napaloni", portrayed by Jack Oakie. In the Three Stooges' I'll Never Heil Again,
Cy Schindell plays "Chizzolini", from the then topical insult of "chiseler", a
person who allegedly chisels little bits of valuta off of his friends and
acquaintances until there is nothing left of them.
More serious biographical depictions include a look at the last few days of
Mussolini's life in Carlo Lizzani's movie Mussolini: Ultimo atto (Mussolini: The
last act, 1974) starring Rod Steiger and George C. Scott's portrayal in the 1985
television mini-series Mussolini: The Untold Story.
Another 1985 movie was Mussolini and I, in which Bob Hoskins plays the
dictator (with Susan Sarandon as his daughter Edda and Anthony Hopkins as
Count Ciano). Actor Antonio Banderas also played the title role in Benito in
1993, which covered his life from his school teacher days to the beginning of
World War I, before his rise as dictator. Mussolini is also depicted in the films
Tea with Mussolini, Lion of the Desert (also with Steiger) and the award-winning
Italian film Vincere.
American wartime comic showing
Mussolini, Hitler and Hirohito beaten
by superheroes
A comic strip ran in the British comic The Beano entitled Musso the Wop. This strip which ran from 1940 to 1943
featured Mussolini as an arrogant buffoon.[153]
References
[1] Quartermaine, L. (2000). Mussolini's Last Republic: Propaganda and Politics in the Italian Social Republic (http:/ / books. google. fi/
books?id=Vwx6hN8zyIsC& printsec=frontcover& dq="italian+ social+ republic"& hl=en& sa=X& ei=5iLjT7L0Ic7ItAa_qL3FBg&
redir_esc=y#v=onepage& q="italian social republic"& f=false). p. 21
[2] Image Description: Propaganda poster of Benito Mussolini, with caption "His Excellency Benito Mussolini, Head of Government, Leader of
Fascism, and Founder of the Empire ...".
[3] http:/ / www. worldfuturefund. org/ wffmaster/ Reading/ Germany/ mussolini. htm
[4] https:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ wiki/ Pontine_marshes#Bonifica_integrale
[5] http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ wiki/ Sicilian_mafia#Fascist_suppression
[6] John Dickie. Cosa Nostra: A History Of The Sicilian Mafia. Hampshire, England, UK; New York, New York, USA: PALGRAVE
MACMILLAN, 2004. Pp. 150{{subst:endash}}159.
[7] Martin Blinkhorn. Mussolini And Fascist Italy. Third edition. New York, New York, USA: Routledge, 2006. Pp. 53.
[8] These are the main points of a memo written on 4th May 1939 by Mussolini for Ciano in order to prepare the Ciano - Von Ribbentrop 6-7th
May meeting in Milan, where the "Pact of Steel" was decided. De Felice, Renzo (1991) (in Italian). Mussolini. Il Duce: lo Stato Totalitario,
1936-1940. Torino: Einaudi. pp. 617-618. ISBN 88-06-13997-5.
[9] MacGregor Knox. Mussolini unleashed, 1939-1941: Politics and Strategy in Fascist Italy's Last War. Edition of 1999. Cambridge, England,
UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Pp. 122{{subst:endash}}123.
[10] MacGregor Knox. Mussolini unleashed, 1939-1941: Politics and Strategy in Fascist Italy's Last War. Edition of 1999. Cambridge, England,
UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Pp. 122{{subst:endash}}127.
[11] Viganò, Marino (2001), "Un'analisi accurata della presunta fuga in Svizzera" (in Italian), Nuova Storia Contemporanea 3
Benito Mussolini
[12] "1945: Italian partisans kill Mussolini" (http:/ / news. bbc. co. uk/ onthisday/ hi/ dates/ stories/ april/ 28/ newsid_3564000/ 3564529. stm). .
Retrieved 17 October 2011.
[13] Mediterranean Fascism 1919–1945 Edited by Charles F. Delzel, Harper Rowe 1970, page 3
[14] "Benito Mussolini" (http:/ / www. grolier. com/ wwii/ wwii_mussolini. html). Grolier.com. 8 January 2008. .
[15] Living History 2; Chapter 2: Italy under Fascism. ISBN 1-84536-028-1
[16] "Alessandro Mussolini" (http:/ / www. geneall. net/ I/ per_page. php?id=283037). GeneAll.net. 8 January 2008. .
[17] Gregor 1979, p. 29
[18] Gregor 1979, p. 31
[19] Mediterranean Fascism by Charles F. Delzel page 96
[20] Mauro Cerutti: Benito Mussolini in .php German (http:/ / www. hls-dhs-dss. ch/ textes/ d/ D27903), .php French (http:/ / www. hls-dhs-dss.
ch/ textes/ f/ F27903) and .php Italian (http:/ / www. hls-dhs-dss. ch/ textes/ i/ I27903) in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
[21] Haugen, Brenda (2007). Benito Mussolini (http:/ / books. google. com/ ?id=rleP5CVe070C& pg=PA24). Compass Point Books.
ISBN 978-0-7565-1892-9. .
[22] "Mussolini: il duce" (http:/ / library. thinkquest. org/ 19592/ Persons/ mussolin. htm). ThinkQuest.org. 24 October 2009. .
[23] Georg Scheuer: Mussolinis langer Schatten. Marsch auf Rom im Nadelstreif. Köln 1996, S. 21.
[24] "The Life of Benito Mussolini" by Margherita G. Sarfatti, p. 156
[25] taken from WorldCat's entry for this book's title.
[26] Mediterranean Fascism 1919–1945 Edited by Charles F. Delzel, Harper Rowe 1970, bottom of page 3
[27] Mediterranean Fascism 1919–1945 Edited by Charles F. Delzel, Harper Rowe 1970, page 4
[28] Golomb 2002, p. 249
[29] Tucker 2005, p. 1001
[30] Tucker 2005, p. 884
[31] Tucker 2005, p. 335
[32] Tucker 2005, p. 219
[33] Tucker 2005, p. 826
[34] Tucker 2005, p. 209
[35] Gregor 1979, p. 189
[36] Tucker 2005, p. 596
[37] Emile Ludwig. Nine Etched in Life. Ayer Company Publishers, 1934 (original), 1969. p. 321.
[38] Gregor 1979, p. 191
[39] Mediterranean Fascism 1919–1945 Edited by Charles F. Delzel, Harper Rowe 1970, page 6.
[40] Dennis Mack Smith. 1997. Modern Italy; A Political History. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. p. 284.
[41] Gregor 1979, p. 200
[42] Gregor 1979, pp. 191-192
[43] Gregor 1979, p. 192
[44] Gregor 1979, p. 193
[45] Gregor 1979, p. 195
[46] Gregor 1979, pp. 193, 195
[47] Gregor 1979, pp. 195-196
[48] Gregor 1979, p. 196
[49] Mussolini: A Study In Power, Ivone Kirkpatrick, Hawthorne Books, 1964. ISBN 0-8371-8400-2
[50] Owen, Richard (13 January 2005). "Power-mad Mussolini sacrificed wife and son" (http:/ / www. timesonline. co. uk/ tol/ news/ world/
article411675. ece). The Times (UK). . Retrieved 14 May 2009.
[51] Kington, Tom (13 October 2009). "Recruited by MI5: the name's Mussolini. Benito Mussolini – Documents reveal Italian dictator got start
in politics in 1917 with help of £100 weekly wage from MI5" (http:/ / www. guardian. co. uk/ world/ 2009/ oct/ 13/
benito-mussolini-recruited-mi5-italy). Guardian (UK). . Retrieved 14 October 2009.
[52] "The Rise of Benito Mussolini" (http:/ / history. sandiego. edu/ gen/ ww2timeline/ Prelude05. html). 8 January 2008. .
[53] "We're all fascists now" (http:/ / www. salon. com/ news/ feature/ 2008/ 01/ 11/ goldberg/ print. html). Salon.com. 8 January 2008. .
[54] "The Rise of Benito Mussolini" (http:/ / history. sandiego. edu/ gen/ ww2timeline/ Prelude05. html). .
[55] Giovanni Gentile; Benito Mussolini (1932). "La Dottrina del fascismo [The Doctrine of Fascism]" (http:/ / litgloss. buffalo. edu/ mussolini/
text. shtml) (in Italian). Lit Gloss, University of Buffalo. Section I.8.. . Retrieved 21 March 2011. "So fascism is against socialism, which
stiffens the historical movement in the class struggle and ignores the unity of the state that the classes merged into one economic and moral
reality, and similarly, it is against the class unionism. (Google Translate from: Perciò il fascismo è contro il socialismo che irrigidisce il
movimento storico nella lotta di classe e ignora l'unità statale che le classi fonde in una sola realtà economica e morale; e analogamente, è
contro il sindacalismo classista.)"
[56] Vox Day (28 June 2004). "Flunking Fascism 101" (http:/ / voxday. net/ archive/ 2004/ 062804. html). VoxDay.net. . Retrieved 21 March
2011.
[57] Moseley 2004, p. 39
[58] Sharma, Urmila. Western Political Thought. Atlantic Publishers and Distributors (P) Ltd, 1998. p. 66.
28
Benito Mussolini
[59] Sharma, Urmila. Western Political Thought. Atlantic Publishers and Distributors (P) Ltd, 1998. pp. 66–67.
[60] Kallis 2002, pp. 48-51
[61] Kallis 2002, pp. 50-51
[62] Kallis 2002, pp. 48-50
[63] Kallis 2002, p. 50
[64] Kallis 2002, p. 52
[65] Roland Sarti (8 January 2008). "Fascist Modernization in Italy: Traditional or Revolutionary". The American Historical Review 75 (4):
1029–1045. doi:10.2307/1852268. JSTOR 1852268.
[66] "Mussolini's Italy" (http:/ / www. appstate. edu/ ~brantzrw/ history3134/ mussolini. html). Appstate.edu. 8 January 2008. .
[67] Macdonald, Hamish (1999). Mussolini and Italian Fascism (http:/ / books. google. com/ ?id=221W9vKkWrcC& pg=PT17& lpg=PT17&
dq="third+ way"+ mussolini). Nelson Thornes. ISBN 0-7487-3386-8. .
[68] "Ha'aretz Newspaper, Israel, 'The Jewish Mother of Fascism" (http:/ / web. archive. org/ web/ 20080617050824/ http:/ / www. haaretz. com/
hasen/ pages/ ShArt. jhtml?itemNo=735492). Haaretz. Israel. Archived from the original (http:/ / www. haaretz. com/ hasen/ pages/ ShArt.
jhtml?itemNo=735492) on 17 June 2008. . Retrieved 13 March 2009.
[69] Weinberg 2005, p. 18
[70] Speech of the 30th of May 1924 (http:/ / it. wikisource. org/ wiki/
Italia_-_30_maggio_1924,_Discorso_alla_Camera_dei_Deputati_di_denuncia_di_brogli_elettorali) the last speech of Matteotti, from
it.wikisource
[71] Paxton, Robert (2004). The Anatomy of Fascism. New York City: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 1-4000-4094-9.
[72] The Times, Thursday, 8 April 1926; p. 12; Issue 44240; column A
[73] Cannistraro, Philip (March 1996). "Mussolini, Sacco-Vanzetti, and the Anarchists: The Transatlantic Context". The Journal of Modern
History (The University of Chicago Press) 68 (1): 55. doi:10.1086/245285. JSTOR 2124332.
[74] "Father inspired Zamboni. But Parent of Mussolini's Assailant Long Ago Gave Up Anarchism. Blood Shed in Riots throughout Italy" (http:/
/ www. proquest. com). The New York Times. 3 November 1926. . Retrieved 6 September 2008.
[75] "The attempted assassination of Mussolini in Rome" (http:/ / libcom. org/ history/ 1926-attempted-assassination-mussolini). Libcom.org. 10
September 2006. . Retrieved 13 March 2009.
[76] Andrew (3 March 2005). "Remembering the Anarchist Resistance to fascism" (http:/ / www. anarkismo. net/ newswire. php?story_id=87).
Anarkismo.net. . Retrieved 6 November 2010.
[77] Melchior Seele (11 September 2006). "1931: The murder of Michael Schirru" (http:/ / www. libcom. org/ history/ articles/
murder-michael-schirru). Libcom.org. . Retrieved 13 March 2009.
[78] Arrigo Petacco, L'uomo della provvidenza: Mussolini, ascesa e caduta di un mito, Milano, Mondadori, 2004, p. 190
[79] Göran Hägg: Mussolini, en studie i makt
[80] Clark, Martin, Modern Italy, Pearson Longman, 2008, p.322
[81] The Vampire Economy: Italy, Germany, and the US (http:/ / www. mises. org/ story/ 1935), Jeffrey Herbener, Mises Institute, 13 October
2005
[82] Comic escapes prosecution for insulting pope (Oddly Enough) Reuters (http:/ / www. reuters. com/ article/ oddlyEnoughNews/
idUSN1944220320080919), (Friday 19 September 2008 1:15 pm EDT) By Phil Stewart
[83] "A Brief History of Italy: From the Etruscans to today" (http:/ / www. lifeinitaly. com/ history/ ). LifeinItaly.com. 8 January 2008. .
[84] "Ethiopia 1935–36" (http:/ / www. icrc. org/ Web/ eng/ siteeng0. nsf/ htmlall/ 5RUHGM?OpenDocument& View=defaultBody&
style=custo_print). icrc.org. 8 January 2008. .
[85] Speech delivered by Premier Benito Mussolini. Rome, Italy, 23 February 1941
[86] "If the Duce were to die, it would be a great misfortune for Italy. As I walked with him in the gardens of the Villa Borghese, I could easily
compare his profile with that of the Roman busts, and I realised he was one of the Caesars. There's no doubt at all that Mussolini is the heir of
the great men of that period." Hitler's Table Talk (http:/ / www. archive. org/ stream/ HitlersTableTalk#page/ n15/ mode/ 2up/ search/ caesars)
[87] Cannistraro, P. V. (April 1972). "Mussolini's Cultural Revolution: Fascist or Nationalist?" (http:/ / jch. sagepub. com/ cgi/ reprint/ 7/ 3/ 115).
Journal of Contemporary History (SAGE Journals Online) 7 (3): 115–139. doi:10.1177/002200947200700308. . Retrieved 23 March
2011.(subscription required)
[88] Gillette, Aaron (2002). Racial Theories in Fascist Italy (http:/ / books. google. com/ ?id=6Y8XRZAdv9IC& pg=PA45& lpg=PA42&
dq=mussolini+ thoughts+ on+ race). Routledge. p. 45. ISBN 0-415-25292-X. .
[89] Gillette, Aaron (2002). Racial Theories in Fascist Italy (http:/ / books. google. com/ ?id=6Y8XRZAdv9IC& pg=PA44& lpg=PA44&
dq=mussolini+ thoughts+ on+ race). Routledge. p. 44. ISBN 0-415-25292-X. .
[90] Institute of Jewish Affairs (2007). Hitler's ten-year war on the Jews (http:/ / books. google. com/ ?id=vCA4AAAAIAAJ& q="Thirty+
centuries+ of+ history+ allow+ us+ to+ look+ with+ supreme+ pity"). Kessinger Publishing. p. 283. ISBN 1-4325-9942-9. .
[91] Video clip from the speech (http:/ / www. youtube. com/ watch?v=ifFPsaPeocI)
[92] Griffen, Roger (ed.). Fascism. Oxford University Press, 1995. Pp. 59.
[93] Hollander, Ethan J (1997) (PDF). Italian Fascism and the Jews (http:/ / weber. ucsd. edu/ ~ejhollan/ Haaretz - Ital fascism - English. PDF).
University of California. ISBN 0-8039-4648-1. .
[94] Peter Egill Brownfeld (Fall 2003). "The Italian Holocaust: The Story of an Assimilated Jewish Community" (http:/ / www. acjna. org/ acjna/
articles_detail. aspx?id=300). The American Council for Judaism. . Retrieved 23 March 2011. "Ovazza started a Jewish fascist newspaper, "La
29
Benito Mussolini
Nostra Bandiera" (Our Flag) in an effort to show that the Jews were among the regime's most loyal followers."
[95] Gillette, Aaron (2002). Racial Theories in Fascist Italy (http:/ / books. google. com/ ?id=6Y8XRZAdv9IC& pg=PA95& lpg=PA95&
dq=mussolini+ thoughts+ on+ race). Routledge. p. 95. ISBN 0-415-25292-X. .
[96] Arielli, Nir (9 June 2010). Fascist Italy and the Middle East, 1933–40. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 92–99. ISBN 978-0-230-23160-3.
[97] Stang 1999, p. 172
[98] Stang 1999
[99] Stang 1999, pp. 172-174
[100] Stang 1999, pp. 173-174
[101] Stang 1999, pp. 174-175
[102] Lowe, CJ (1967). Italian Foreign Policy 1870–1940 (http:/ / books. google. com/ ?id=5Cfuax6XHF0C& pg=PA11& lpg=PA11&
dq=irredentism). Routledge. ISBN 0-415-26597-5. .
[103] Kallis 2002, p. 153
[104] Kallis 2002, p. 97
[105] "The Italo-German Alliance, May 22, 1939" (http:/ / astro. temple. edu/ ~rimmerma/ Italo_German_alliance_1939. htm). astro.temple.edu.
8 January 2008. .
[106] "Victor Emanuel III" (http:/ / www. questia. com/ library/ encyclopedia/ victor_emmanuel_iii. jsp). Questia.com. 8 January 2008. .
[107] Knox, MacGregor (1986). Mussolini Unleashed, 1939–1941: Politics and Strategy in Fascist Italy's Last War (http:/ / books. google. com/
?id=_PwCu_D-HiUC& pg=PA44& lpg=PA44& dq=mussolini+ non-belligerent). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-33835-2. .
[108] Joseph, Frank (2010). Mussolini's War: Fascist Italy's Military Struggles from Africa and Western Europe to the Mediterranean and Soviet
Union 1935-45. Casemate Publishers. pp. 49-50. ISBN 1906033560.
[109] "Italy Declares War" (http:/ / library. thinkquest. org/ CR0212881/ italdewa. html). ThinkQuest.org. 8 January 2008. .
[110] Mussolini speech on 10 June 1940 (http:/ / globalrhetoric. wordpress. com/
mussolini-speech-of-the-10-june-1940-declaration-of-war-on-france-and-england/ )
[111] Samson, Anne (1967). Britain, South Africa and East African Campaign: International Library of Colonial History (http:/ / www. amazon.
co. uk/ dp/ 1845110404). I B Tauris & Co Ltd. ISBN 0-415-26597-5. .
[112] "1940 World War II Timeline" (http:/ / www. worldwariihistory. info/ 1940. html). WorldWarIIHistory.info. 8 January 2008. .
[113] Mollo, Andrew (1987). The Armed Forces of World War II (http:/ / www. amazon. com/ dp/ 0517544784). I B Tauris & Co Ltd.
ISBN 978-0-517-54478-5. .
[114] "World War II: Operation Compass" (http:/ / militaryhistory. about. com/ od/ worldwarii/ p/ compass. htm). About.com. 8 January 2008. .
[115] "Speech Delivered by Premier Benito Mussolini" (http:/ / www. ibiblio. org/ pha/ policy/ 1941/ 410223a. html). IlBiblio.org. 8 January
2008. .
[116] "The Invasion and Battle for Greece (Operation Marita)" (http:/ / www. feldgrau. com/ greecewar. html). Feldgrau.com. 8 January 2008. .
[117] Weinberg 2005, p. 276
[118] Weinberg 2005, pp. 276-277
[119] Weinberg 2005, p. 277
[120] Trial of German Major War Criminals, vol. 3, p. 398.
[121] Moseley 2004
[122] Whittam, John (2005). Fascist Italy (http:/ / books. google. com/ ?id=hHgMm6APG_0C& dq="Vatican+ Radio"+ "Radio+ London"+
fascist). Manchester University Press. ISBN 0-7190-4004-3. .
[123] "Modern era" (http:/ / www. bestofsicily. com/ history3. htm). BestofSicily.com. 8 January 2008. .
[124] Shirer, William (1960). The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. New York City: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-72868-7.
[125] Annussek, Greg (2005). Hitler's Raid to Save Mussolini (http:/ / www. amazon. com/ dp/ 0306813963). Da Capo Press.
ISBN 978-0-306-81396-2. .
[126] Moseley(2004), p. 23
[127] Moseley, Ray (2004). Mussolini: The Last 600 Days of Il Duce (http:/ / books. google. com/ ?id=UmxaWvOL_IgC& pg=PA7& lpg=PA7&
dq=Campo+ Imperatore+ abruzzo+ mussolini). Taylor Trade. ISBN 1-58979-095-2. .
[128] A copy of an existing document is available online. It reads
"In addition to my (...) order of the commander of the Greater German Reich in Italy and the organisation of the occupied Italian area from 10
September 1943 I determine:
The supreme commanders in the Operational Zone Adriatic Coast consisting of the provinces of Friaul, Görz, Triest, Istrien, Fiume, Quarnero,
Laibach, and in the Prealpine Operations Zone consisting of the provinces of Bozen, Trient and Belluno receive the fundamental instructions
for their activity from me.
Führer's headquarters, 10 September 1943.
The Führer Gen. Adolf Hitler".
See second document at
http:/ / www. karawankengrenze. at/ ferenc/ document/ show/ id/ 317?symfony=ad81b9f2cd1e66a7c973073ed0532df1
[129] Nicola Cospito; Hans Werner Neulen (1992). Salò-Berlino: l'alleanza difficile. La Repubblica Sociale Italiana nei documenti segreti del
Terzo Reich. Mursia. p. 128. ISBN 88-425-1285-0.
[130] Moseley (2004), p. 26.
30
Benito Mussolini
[131] "The twilight of Italian fascism" (http:/ / www. enterstageright. com/ archive/ articles/ 0105/ 0105mussolini. htm). EnterStageRight.com. 8
January 2008. .
[132] Toland, John. (1966). The Last 100 Days Random House, p. 504, OCLC 294225
[133] Time Magazine, 7 May 1945
[134] Video: Beaten Nazis Sign Historic Surrender, 1945/05/14 (1945) (http:/ / www. archive. org/ details/
1945-05-14_Beaten_Nazis_Sign_Historic_Surrender). Universal Newsreel. 1945. . Retrieved February 20, 2012.
[135] Quoted in "Mussolini: A New Life", p. 276 by Nicholas Burgess Farrell – 2004
[136] "The tomb" (http:/ / www. findagrave. com/ cgi-bin/ fg. cgi?page=pv& GRid=11638& PIpi=91458). findagrave.com. .
[137] Peter York. Dictator Style. Chronicle Books, San Francisco (2006), ISBN 0-8118-5314-4. pp. 17–18.
[138] D.M. Smith 1982, p. 1
[139] D.M. Smith 1982, p. 8
[140] D.M. Smith 1982, pp. 2–3
[141] D.M. Smith 1982, p. 12
[142] D.M. Smith 1982, p. 15
[143] Rachele Mussolini 1974, p. 129
[144] D.M. Smith 1982, p. 162-163
[145] Roberts, Jeremy (2006). Benito Mussolini. Minneapolis, MN: Twenty-First Century Books, p. 60.
[146] Neville, Peter (2004). Mussolini: Routledge Historical Biographies. New York: Psychology Press, p. 84. (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=ol6T-Ut_JdgC& pg=PA84)
[147] Townley, Edward (2002). Mussolini and Italy. New York: Heinemann Press, p. 49. (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=Y7CIAYPTx2gC& pg=PA49)
[148] D.M. Smith 1982, pp. 222–223
[149] D.M. Smith 1982, p. 311
[150] Rachele Mussolini 1974, p. 131
[151] Rachele Mussolini 1974, p. 135
[152] Jim Heddlesten. "Commando Supremo: Events of 1941" (http:/ / www. comandosupremo. com/ 1941. html). Comandosupremo.com. .
Retrieved 13 March 2009.
[153] The History of the Beano. Dundee, Scotland: D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd.. 2008. pp. 77–78. ISBN 978-1-902407-73-9.
Bibliography
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2007. Mussolini's Cities: Internal Colonialism in Italy, 1930–1939, Cambria Press.
Bosworth, R.J.B. 2002. Mussolini. London, Hodder.
Bosworth, R.J.B. 2006. "Mussolini's Italy: Life Under the Dictatorship 1915–1945". London, Allen Lane.
Corvaja, Santi. 2001. Hitler and Mussolini. The Secret Meetings. Enigma. ISBN 1-929631-00-6
Daldin, Rudolph S. The Last Centurion. http://www.benito-mussolini.com ISBN 0-921447-34-5
Renzo De Felice. 1995. Mussolini. Torino: Einaudi.
Golomb, Jacob; Wistrich, Robert S. 2002. Nietzsche, godfather of fascism?: on the uses and abuses of a
philosophy. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Farrell, Nicholas. 2003. Mussolini: A New Life. London: Phoenix Press, ISBN 1-84212-123-5.
Garibaldi, Luciano. 2004. Mussolini. The Secrets of his Death. Enigma. ISBN 1-929631-23-5
Hibbert, Christopher. Il Duce.
Kallis, Aristotle. 2000. Fascist Ideology. London: Routledge.
Lowe, Norman. Italy, 1918–1945: the first appearance of fascism. In Mastering Modern World History.
Morris, Terry; Murphy, Derrick. Europe 1870–1991.
Moseley, Ray. 2004. Mussolini: The Last 600 Days of Il Duce. Dallas: Taylor Trade Publishing.
Mussolini, Rachelle. 1977 [1974]. Mussolini: An Intimate Biography. Pocket Books. Originally published by
William Morrow, ISBN 0-671-81272-6, Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 74-1129
O'Brien, Paul. 2004. Mussolini in the First World War: The Journalist, the Soldier, the Fascist. Oxford: Berg
Publishers.
Painter, Borden W. Jr., 2005. Mussolini's Rome: rebuilding the Eternal City,
• Petacco, Arrigo (ed.). 1998. L'archivio segreto di Mussolini. Mondadori. ISBN 88-04-44914-4
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Benito Mussolini
• Smith, Denis Mack. 1982. Mussolini: A biography, Borzoi Book published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. ISBN
0-394-50694-4
• Sternhell, Zeev; Sznajder, Mario; Asheri, Maia (1999). [The birth of Fascist ideology, from cultural rebellion to
political revolution]. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
• Stang, G. Bruce (1999). "War and peace: Mussolini’s road to Munich". In Lukes, Igor; Goldstein, Erik. The
Munich crisis 1938: prelude to World War II. London: Frank Cass. pp. 160–190.
• Tucker, Spencer. 2005. Encyclopedia of World War I: a political, social, and military history. Santa Barbara,
California: ABC-CLIO.
• Weinberg, Gerhard. 2005. A World in arms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Writings of Mussolini
• Giovanni Hus, il Veridico(Jan Hus, True prophet), Rome (1913). Published in America as John Hus (New York:
Albert and Charles Boni, 1929). Republished by the Italian Book Co., NY (1939) as John Hus, the Veracious.
• The Cardinal's Mistress (trans. Hiram Motherwell, New York: Albert and Charles Boni, 1928)
• There is an essay on "The Doctrine of Fascism" written by Benito Mussolini that appeared in the 1932 edition of
the Enciclopedia Italiana, and excerpts can be read at Doctrine of Fascism. There are also links to the complete
text.
• La Mia Vita ("My Life"), Mussolini's autobiography written upon request of the American Ambassador in Rome
(Child). Mussolini, at first not interested, decided to dictate the story of his life to Arnaldo Mussolini, his brother.
The story covers the period up to 1929, includes Mussolini's personal thoughts on Italian politics and the reasons
that motivated his new revolutionary idea. It covers the march on Rome and the beginning of the dictatorship and
includes some of his most famous speeches in the Italian Parliament (Oct 1924, Jan 1925).
• Vita di Arnaldo, Milano, Il Popolo d'Italia, 1932.
• Scritti e discorsi di Benito Mussolini, 12 voll., Milano, Hoepli, 1934-1940.
• Parlo con Bruno, Milano, Il Popolo d'Italia, 1941.
• Storia di un anno. Il tempo del bastone e della carota, Milano, Mondadori, 1944.
• From 1951 to 1962 Edoardo and Duilio Susmel worked for the publisher "La Fenice" in order to print opera
omnia (the complete works) of Mussolini in 35 volumes.
External links
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•
•
Benito Mussolini in pictures (http://www.benitomussolini.info/gallery/)
Comando Supremo: Benito Mussolini (http://www.comandosupremo.com/Mussolini.html)
Did Mussolini really make the trains run on time? (http://www.snopes.com/history/govern/trains.htm)
Is Mussolini quote on corporatism accurate? (http://www.publiceye.org/fascist/corporatism.html)
Benito Mussolini Speeches (http://greatspeeches.wordpress.com/category/twentieth-century-speeches/
benito-mussolini-speeches/)
Michael Schirru's failed attempt on Mussolini's life (http://www.libcom.org/history/articles/
murder-michael-schirru)
Il Duce 'sought Hitler ban' (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3144984.stm) September 2003 BBC News
Mussolini shaking hands with King George V. of England, 1923, [[The Illustrated London News (http://www.
maxschoenherr.de/Archiv/londonNews1936.html#Mussolini)]]
Mussolini's Piazza Augusto Imperatore (http://cdm.reed.edu/ara-pacis/meier/piazza-augusto-imperatore/
piazza/)
• Time Magazine, 5 April 1937 (5 April 1937). "Islam, Duce, and Duke." (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/
article/0,9171,757543,00.html). Retrieved 19 August 2009.
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• Time Magazine, 7 May 1945 (7 May 1945). "Death in Milan." (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/
0,9171,797481-1,00.html). Retrieved 20 August 2009.
33
Article Sources and Contributors
Article Sources and Contributors
Benito Mussolini Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=519531550 Contributors: (aeropagitica), -Midorihana-, 0lorenzo0, 14thArmored, 151.24.189.xxx, 172, 213.105.137.xxx,
24.95.140.xxx, 62.253.64.xxx, 852derek852, 9riffin, A.S. Brown, A3r0, A876, ACinfo, ACupOfCoffee, AI, Aaron Schulz, Abdalla A, Abhijitsathe, Abonazzi, Abrech, Accurizer, Acidskater,
Acntx, Active Banana, Adambro, Adashiel, Addshore, Adhib, Aditreeslime, Ado, Adrian, AdultSwim, Afasmit, Afil, Agathoclea, Ahoerstemeier, Aimaz, Airlift, Airsurfer210, Aitias, Akamad,
Akonas, Alai, Ale jrb, Alereon, Alessandro57, Alex Ex, Alex2706, Alex:D, Alexander336, Alexius08, AlexiusHoratius, Alienus, Alison, All Hallow's Wraith, Allstarecho, Alpha.three,
Alphachimp, Altenmann, Alvaro, Amasterpierce88, Amberrock, Amr.rs, Anabus, Ananyapaul, Anaxial, Andav, Andonic, Andronicus Ry, Andy Marchbanks, Andy120, AngelOfSadness,
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