Benito Mussolini
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| Benito Mussolini | |
 | |
| | |
|---|---|
| In office October 31, 1922 – July 25, 1943 | |
| Monarch | Victor Emmanuel III |
| Preceded by | Luigi Facta |
| Succeeded by | Pietro Badoglio (Provisional Military Government) |
| | |
| In office March 30, 1938 – July 25, 1943 | |
| Succeeded by | Pietro Badoglio |
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| In office September 23, 1943 – April 26, 1945 | |
| | |
| Born | July 29, 1883 Predappio, Italy |
| Died | April 28, 1945 (aged 61) Giulino di Mezzegra, Italy |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Political party | Republican Fascist Party (1943-1945) National Fascist Party (1921-1943) Italian Socialist Party (1901-1914) |
| Spouse | Rachele Mussolini |
| Profession | Politician, Journalist |
| Religion | Converted to Roman Catholicism in 1927, irreligious in earlier life. |
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (July 29, 1883, Predappio, Italy – April 28, 1945, Giulino di Mezzegra, Italy) was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism. He became the Prime Minister of Italy in 1922 and began using the title Il Duce by 1925. After 1936, his official title was "His Excellency Benito Mussolini, Head of Government, Duce of Fascism, and Founder of the Empire".[1] Mussolini also created and held the supreme military rank of First Marshal of the Empire along with King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, which gave him and the King joint supreme control over the military of Italy. Mussolini remained in power until he was replaced in 1943; for a short period after this until his death he was the leader of the Italian Social Republic.
Mussolini was among the founders of Italian fascism, which included elements of nationalism, corporativism, national syndicalism, expansionism, social progress and anti-communism in combination with censorship of subversives and state propaganda. In the years following his creation of the fascist ideology, Mussolini influenced, or achieved admiration from, a wide variety of political figures.[2]
Among the domestic achievements of Mussolini from the years 1924–1939 were: his public works programmes such as the taming of the Pontine Marshes, the improvement of job opportunities, and public transport. Mussolini also solved the Roman Question by concluding the Lateran Treaty between the Kingdom of Italy and the Holy See. He is also credited with securing economic success in Italy's colonies and commercial dependencies.[3]
Although he initially favoured siding with France against Germany in the early 1930s, Mussolini became one of the main figures of the Axis powers and, on 10 June 1940, Mussolini led Italy into World War II on the side of Axis. Three years later, Mussolini was deposed at the Grand Council of Fascism, prompted by the Allied invasion. Soon after his incarceration began, 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 to Switzerland, only to be captured and summarily executed near Lake Como by Communist Italian partisans. His body was taken to Milan where it was hung upside down at a petrol station for public viewing and to provide confirmation of his demise.
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Early life
Mussolini was born in Dovia di Predappio, a small town in the province of Forlì in Emilia-Romagna. Mussolini was born into a working class background; his father Alessandro Mussolini was a blacksmith and a Marxist activist, while his mother Rosa Mussolini (née Maltoni) was a school teacher; unlike her husband, she was a devout Catholic.[4] 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.[5] Benito was the eldest of his parents' three children. His siblings Arnaldo and Edvige followed.[6]
As a young boy, Mussolini would spend time helping his father in his blacksmithing.[7] It was likely here that he was exposed to his father's significant political beliefs. Alessandro was a socialist and a republican, but also held some nationalistic views, especially in regards to some of the Italians who were living under the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire,[7] which were not consistent with the internationalist socialism of the time. 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. However, as a compromise with his mother, Mussolini was sent to a boarding school run by Salesian monks. Mussolini was rebellious and was 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.[7] After joining a new school, Mussolini achieved good grades, and qualified as an elementary schoolmaster in 1901.[4][5]
Political journalist and soldier
In 1902, Mussolini emigrated to Switzerland to work on his political horizons. During a period when he was unable to find a permanent job there, he was arrested for vagrancy and jailed for one night. Later, after becoming involved in the socialist movement, he was deported to Italy and volunteered for military service. Mussolini found a job in February 1908 in the city of Trento, which was ethnically Italian but then under the control of Austria-Hungary. He did office work for the local socialist party and edited its newspaper L'Avvenire del Lavoratore ("The Future of the Worker"). It did not take him long to make contact with irredentist politician and journalist Cesare Battisti, and to agree to write for and edit his newspaper Il Popolo ("The People") in addition to the work he did for the party.
In 1915, he had a son with Ida Dalser, a woman born in Sopramonte, a village near Trento.[8][4][5] By the time Mussolini's novel was printed in Il Popolo, Mussolini was already back in Italy. His growing defiance of Royal authority and anti-clericalism got him in trouble with the authorities until he was finally deported at the end of September. He was prompted to return to Italy once again when his mother became ill. He became a journalist for the socialist newspaper, Avanti! (Forward!).[4][5] After initially writing on numerous occasions against the war in the socialist paper Avanti, Mussolini relented and he and his class were called up in August of 1915 for active duty.[9]
Although his military record was unremarkable, it was without blemish and it has been suggested that he may have been prevented from moving further along in the ranks due to his ongoing political agitation in various periodicals.[9] 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 contracted paratyphoid fever.[9] 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[9] He was discharged from the hospital in August 1917 and resumed his editor-in-chief position at his new paper, Il Popolo d'Italia.
Creation of Fascism
By the time Mussolini returned from Allied service in the First World War, he had decided that socialism as a doctrine had largely been a failure. 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.[10] 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".[11] On March 23, 1919, Mussolini reformed the Milan fascio as the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento (Italian Combat Squad), consisting of 200 members.[10]
An important factor in fascism gaining support in its earliest stages was the fact that it opposed discrimination based on social class and was strongly opposed to all forms of class war.[12] 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. This side of fascism endeared itself to the aristocracy and the bourgeois, as it promised to protect their existence; after the Russian Revolution, they had greatly feared the prospect of a bloody class war coming to Italy by the hand of the communists and the socialists. Mussolini did not ignore the plight of the working class, however, and he gained their support with stances such as those in The Manifesto of the Fascist Struggle, published in June 1919.[12] In the manifesto he demanded, amongst other things, creation of a minimum wage, showing the same confidence in labor unions as was given to industry executives or public servants, voting rights for women, and the systemisation of public transport such as railways.[12]
Mussolini and the fascists managed to be simultaneously revolutionary and traditionalist;[13][14] because this was vastly different to anything else in the political climate of the time, it is sometimes described as "The Third Way".[15] 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, due 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.[5] In the mean time - 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.[16]
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 October 27 and October 29. On October 28, King Victor Emmanuel III refused his support to Facta and handed over power to Mussolini. Mussolini was supported by the military, the business class, and the liberal right-wing.
As Prime Minister, the first years of Mussolini's rule were characterized by a right-wing coalition government composed of Fascists, nationalists, liberals and even two Catholic ministers from the Popular Party. The Fascists made up a small minority in his original governments. Mussolini's domestic goal, however, 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).[5]
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.
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 percent of the votes. This law was punctually applied in the elections of April 6, 1924. The "national alliance", consisting of Fascists, most of the old Liberals and others, won 64 percent 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, 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. The government was shocked into paralysis for a few days, and Mussolini later confessed that a few resolute men could have alerted public opinion and started a coup that would have swept fascism away. Dumini was imprisoned for two years. On release he told others 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.
The opposition parties responded weakly or were generally unresponsive. Many of the socialists, liberals and moderates boycotted Parliament in the 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 caught fire. 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. The militant members of the party were angry that only a few dozen had been killed and a bloodbath ensued, causing thousands of casualties[citation needed].
On December 31, 1924, 31 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.[17] On January 3, 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 also 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. This is considered the onset of Mussolini's dictatorship. From late 1925 until the mid-1930s, fascism experienced little and isolated opposition, although that which it did was memorable[citation needed].
While failing to outline a coherent program, Fascism evolved into a new political and economic system that combined totalitarianism, nationalism, anti-communism, anti-capitalism and anti-liberalism into a state designed to bind all classes together under a corporatist system (the "Third Way"). This was a new system in which the state seized control of the organisation of vital industries. Under the banners of nationalism and state power, Fascism seemed to synthesize the glorious Roman past with a futuristic utopia.
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 April 7, 1926 by Violet Gibson, an Irish woman and daughter of Baron Ashbourne.[18] On October 31 1926, 15-year-old Anteo Zamboni attempted to shoot Mussolini in Bologna. Zamboni was lynched on the spot.[19] [20]Mussolini also survived a failed assassination attempt in Rome by anarchist Gino Lucetti,[21] and a planned attempt by American anarchist Michael Schirru, which ended with Schirru's capture and execution.[22] Members of TIGR, a Slovene anti-fascist group, plotted to kill Mussolini in Kobarid in 1938, but their attempt was unsuccessful.
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.
Over the next two years, 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 removed by the king. While the Italian constitution stated that ministers were 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 podestas appointed by the Italian Senate replaced elected mayors and councils.
All other parties were outlawed in 1928, 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. The Grand Council also had the power to recommend Mussolini's removal from office, and was thus theoretically the only check on his power. However, only Mussolini could summon the Grand Council and determine its agenda.
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 Italy's equivalent of the Green Revolution, known as the "Battle for Grain", in which 5,000 new farms were established and five new agricultural towns 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 settlements across the country. This plan diverted valuable resources to grain production, away from other less economically viable crops. The huge tariffs associated with the project 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 Grain (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.[23] 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.
Government
As dictator of Italy, Mussolini's foremost priority was the subjugation of the minds of the Italian people and the use of propaganda to do so; whether at home or abroad, and here his training as a journalist was invaluable. Press, radio, education, films—all were carefully supervised to create the illusion that fascism was the doctrine of the twentieth century, replacing liberalism and democracy.
The principles of this doctrine were laid down in the article on fascism, written by Giovanni Gentile and signed by Mussolini 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 also included a legal provision whereby the Italian government would protect the honor and dignity of the Pope by prosecuting offenders.[24] In 1927, Mussolini was baptised by a Roman Catholic priest in order to take away certain Catholic opposition, who were still very critical of a regime which had taken away papal property and virtually blackmailed the Vatican. However, Mussolini was never known to be a practicing Catholic, and was privately very hostile to the church. Since 1927, and more even 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 SS Rex Blue Riband ocean liner 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.
Foreign policy
In foreign policy, Mussolini soon shifted from the pacifist 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. However, his first 'baby 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, however, 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.
Conquest of Ethiopia
In an effort to realise an Italian Empire or the New Roman Empire as supporters called it,[25] 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 were soon declared victors. 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.[26]
Although all of the major European powers of the time had also colonised parts of Africa and committed atrocities in their colonies, the 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.[26]
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.[26] 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.[26] It wasn't 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
His 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.
Axis power
Rome-Berlin relations
The relationship between Mussolini and Adolf Hitler was a contentious one early on. While Hitler cited Mussolini as an influence, Mussolini had little regard for Hitler, especially after the Nazis had assassinated his friend and ally, Engelbert Dollfuss the Austrofascist dictator of Austria in 1933. Both movements focused heavily on the state and conquest, though there was some conflicting views of ideology: while Hitler lauded racialism and anti-semitism, Mussolini and the Italian fascists did not. Mussolini viewed himself as a modern day Roman Emperor, a cultural elite and wished to "Italianise" the parts of the Italian Empire he had desired to build.[27] A cultural superiority, rather than a view of racialism.[27] The difference was that a culture can be learned, while a race cannot.
| “ | 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. [...] National pride has no need of the delirium of race. | ” |
| —Benito Mussolini, 1933.[28] | ||
Incidentally, the British would question even the Germans' claims of "racial purity" by commonly deriding the Nazis as "Huns",[29][30] a reference to the fact that Germany was once conquered and made part of the Hunnic Empire, a mongoloid people.[31][32] Regardless of some differences in ideology, Hitler's Nazi Germany had clearly established itself as a formidable power that was rising quickly in prominence by the mid-1930s and in November 1936, Mussolini had coined the term Axis Powers to refer to the Rome-Berlin relationship between the states.[33] 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".[34] There was even some Jews in the National Fascist Party, such as Ettore Ovazza who in 1935 founded the Jewish Fascist paper La Nostra Bandiera[35] ("Our Flag"). However 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,[17] 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.[36]
Munich Conference, war looming
Mussolini had imperial designs on Tunisia which had some support in that country.[37] In April 1939 with world focus on Hitler's invasion of Czechoslovakia, looking to restore honour from a much older defeat 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, however during that month the Pact of Steel treaty was made outlining the "friendship and alliance" between Germany and Italy, signed by each of its foreign ministers.[38] Italy's king Victor Emanuel III was also wary of the pact, favouring the more traditional Italian allies of Britain and France.[39]
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 the West would back down as in Czechoslovakia and suggested that Italy should invade Yugoslavia.[40] 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.[40] Thus when World War II in Europe began on September 1, 1939 with the German invasion of Poland eliciting the response of the United Kingdom and France declaring war on Germany, Italy remained non-belligerent in the conflict.[40]
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.[40] French government opinion was more geared towards action against Italy; they were itching to attack Italy in Libya. Though 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.[40]
| “ | So long as the Duce lives, one can rest assured that Italy will seize every opportunity to achieve its imperialistic aims. | ” |
| —Adolf Hitler, late November 1939.[40] | ||
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 June 10, 1940.[41] 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 south-eastern counties.[41] 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.[42] British Somaliland was conquered and became part of Italian East Africa on August 3, 1940, and there were Italian advances in Sudan and Kenya.[43]
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 October 25, 1940, Mussolini sent the Italian Air Corps to Belgium, where the airforce took part in the Battle of Britain for around two months.[44] 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.[45]
Events in Africa had changed by early 1941, Operation Compass had forced the Italians back into Libya, with some additional losses.[46] Also in the East African Campaign, a three pronged Allied invasion against Italian East Africa took place, though the Italians fought back hard, the multiple-nation force they faced was too much and after the Battle of Keren defense started to crumble. However, 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."[47] Part of his comment was in relation to earlier success the Italians had in Africa, before being defeated by an Allied force later. Germany finally supported Italy with the Afrika Korps, with fighting continuing on long into 1941 when Gondar was lost in November.[48] Italy was part of the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia, which was greatly successful, the same month the Battle of Greece ended in Italian victory with Axis support.[49] 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. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he declared war on the United States.[45]
Dismissed and arrested
Italy's position had become untenable by the summer of 1943. The Allies had defeated the Axis in the Tunisia Campaign, there were setbacks on the Eastern Front and the war had come to the nation's very doorstep with the Allied invasion of Sicily.[50] The home front was also in bad shape as the Allied bombings were taking their toll. The factories were ground to a virtual standstill due to a lack of raw materials, coal and oil. Additionally, there was a chronic shortage of food, and what food was available was being sold at nearly confiscatory prices. Some Italians began to lose trust in governmental reports and turned to Vatican Radio or Radio London for more accurate news coverage. Discontent came to a head in March with a wave of strikes in the industrial north—the first large-scale strikes since 1925.[51] Also in March, some of the major factories in Milan and Turin stopped 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 took Sicily, the public welcomed them as liberators.[52]
Earlier, 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. He feared that with the losses in Tunisia and North Africa, the next step for Dwight Eisenhower's armies would be to come across the Mediterranean and attack the peninsula. Within a few days of the Allied landings on Sicily, 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 July 19. By this time, Mussolini was so shaken 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.[53]
Some prominent members of the Italian Fascist government had turned against Mussolini by this point. Among them were Grandi and Mussolini's son-in-law Ciano. With several of his colleagues close to revolt, il Duce was forced to summon the Grand Council of Fascism on July 24. When he announced that the Germans were thinking of evacuating the south, Grandi launched a blistering attack on him.[50] Grandi moved a resolution asking the king to resume his full constitutional powers—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 advisory body and didn't think the vote would have any substantive effect.[51] 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.[51] After Mussolini left the palace, he was arrested on the king's orders.[54]
By this time, discontent with Mussolini was such that when the news of his ouster was announced on the radio, there was no resistance.[51] In an effort to conceal his location from the Germans, Mussolini was moved around before being sent to Campo Imperatore, a mountain resort in Abruzzo where he was completely isolated.[50] Due to 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.[50] Even as Badolglio was keeping up the appearance of loyalty to the Axis, he dissolved the Fascist Party two days after taking over. Also, his government was negotiating an armistice with the Allies, which was signed on September 3, 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. After a period of anarchy, Italy finally declared war on Nazi Germany on October 13 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.[50]
Italian Social Republic
Meanwhile, only two months after Mussolini had been dismissed and arrested, he was rescued from prison in the Gran Sasso raid by a special Fallschirmjäger unit on September 12, 1943; present was Otto Skorzeny.[54] The rescue saved Mussolini from being turned over to the Allies, as per the armistice.[50] 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.[53]
By this time, Mussolini was in very poor health and wanted to retire. However, he was immediately taken to Germany for an audience with Hitler in his East Prussia hideaway. There, Hitler told him that unless he agreed to return to Italy and set up a new fascist state, the 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.[50] informally known as the Salò Republic because of its administration from the town of Salò.
Mussolini lived in Gargnano on Lake Garda in Lombardy during this period, but he was little more than a puppet ruler under the protection of his German liberators. 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.
| “ | Yes, madam, I am finished. My star has fallen. 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. | ” |
| —Benito Mussolini, interviewed in 1945 by Madeleine Mollier.[55] | ||
Death
 | This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (March 2008) |
Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci were stopped by communist partisans and identified by the Political Commissar of the partisans' 52nd Garibaldi Brigade, Urbano Lazzaro, on April 27, 1945, near the village of Dongo (Lake Como), as they headed for Switzerland to board a plane to escape to Spain. 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.
The next day, Mussolini and his mistress 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 "Colonel Valerio" (Colonnello Valerio). Valerio's 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 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 shot him in the chest. Mussolini fell down but he didn't die; he 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 were also lined up before a firing squad later the same night.[56] It has also been suggested Mussolini was killed by communist Partisan commander Luigi Longo in accordance with the English high-ranked officials in Italy, who did not want Mussolini to survive because he could uncover the secret relationship he had entertained with Great Britain. Furthermore, it is possible that Italian Partisans did not want to try Mussolini because they feared he could eventually be used by USA administration to fight the Communist influence in Italy.
Mussolini's body
On April 29, 1945, the bodies of Mussolini and his mistress were taken to the Piazzale Loreto (in Milan) and hung upside down on meathooks from the roof of a gas station, 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 and abuse.
After he himself was captured and sentenced to death, Fascist loyalist Achille Starace was taken to the Piazzale Loreto and shown the body of Mussolini. Starace, who once said of Mussolini "He is a God"[57] , 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 Musocco, the municipal 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."
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 birth place, after a campaign headed by Leccisi and the Movimento Sociale Italiano.
Leccisi, now 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.
Legacy
Mussolini was survived by his wife, Donna Rachele Mussolini, two sons, Vittorio and Romano Mussolini, and his daughter 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 August 7, 1941.[58] Sophia Loren's sister, Anna Maria Scicolone, was formerly married to Romano Mussolini, Mussolini's son. Mussolini's granddaughter Alessandra Mussolini is currently a member of the European Parliament for the extreme right-wing party Alternativa Sociale; other relatives of Edda (Castrianni) moved to England after World War II.
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. Alessandra Mussolini runs one of the primary neo-fascist parties in modern Italy, Azione Sociale. Historically, the strongest neo-fascist party was MSI (Movimento Sociale Italiano), which was declared dissolved in 1995 and replaced by the National Alliance, which in the meanwhile has 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 the leader of the National Alliance, Gianfranco Fini, was one of Berlusconi's most trusted advisors. In 2006, the House of Freedoms coalition was narrowly defeated by Romano Prodi's coalition, L'Unione.
In popular culture
Charlie Chaplin's 1940 film The Great Dictator satirizes Mussolini as "Benzino Napaloni", portrayed by Jack Oakie. 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) and George C. Scott's portrayal in the 1985 television mini-series Mussolini: The Untold Story. Another 1985 movie was Mussolini: The Rise and Fall of Il Duce, 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 - The Rise and Fall of Mussolini in 1993, which covered his life from his school teacher days to the beginning of World War I, prior to his rise as dictator. Mussolini is also depicted in the films Tea with Mussolini and Lion of the Desert.
Also in The Time Tunnel , in the episode called "The Ghost of Nero": When the protagonists Doug and Tony were rescued by some Italian soldiers during the First World War, the "ghost" of Nero inhabits a soldier, which is revealed to be Mussolini.
Mussolini has been referenced less seriously in television episodes of The Simpsons, The X Files and The Young Ones, as well as in the song 'Cult of Personality' by the rock band Living Colour. Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's novel Inferno, a 1976 modern take on Dante's Inferno, has the protagonist being guided by an analog of Virgil who is ultimately revealed to be Mussolini. In the sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond", Ray described life growing up with his father as "growing up with Benito Mussolini." In the American version of "The Office", Jim gives Dwight points for his speech based off a speech made by Mussolini.
Becco Giallo, underground newspaper (1924)
(1) Benito Mussolini, speech (1929)
In the creation of a new State which is authoritarian but not absolutist, hierarchical and organic - namely, open to the people in all its classes, categories and interests - lies the great revolutionary originality of Fascism, and a teaching perhaps for the whole modern world oscillating between the authority of the State and that of the individual, between the State and the anti-State. Like all other revolutions, the Fascist revolution has had a dramatic development but this in itself would not suffice to distinguish it. The reign of terror is not a revolution: it is only a necessary instrument in a determined phase of the revolution.
(2) Francesco Nitti, speech (1929)
The ignoble phenomenon of a dictatorship is a shameful blot on European civilization. Reactionary minds, which are indignant at red dictatorships, have only sympathy with 'white' dictatorships, which are equally, if not more bloodthirsty, no less brutal and unjustified by any ideal, even a false one.
The Fascist government abolished in Italy every safeguard of the individual and every liberty. No free man can live in Italy, and an immoral law prevents Italians from going to a foreign country on pain of punishment. Italy is a prison where life has become intolerable. Everything is artificial - artificial finance - artificial exchange - artificial public economy - artificial order - artificial calm.
Without a free parliament, a free press, a free opinion and a true democracy, there will never be peace.
(3) George Seldes wrote about Benito Mussolini in his book You Can't Print That! (1929)
He began coldly, in a voice northern and unimpassioned. I had never heard an Italian orator so restrained. Then he changed, became soft and warm, added gestures, and flames in his eyes. The audience moved with him. He held them. Suddenly he lowered his voice to a heavy whisper and the silence among the listeners became more intense. The whisper sank lower and the listeners strained breathlessly to hear. Then Mussolini exploded with thunder and fire, and the mob - for it was no more than a mob now - rose to its feet and shouted. Immediately Mussolini became cold and nordic and restrained again and swept his mob into its seats exhausted. An actor. Actor extraordinary, with a country for a stage, a great powerful histrionic ego, swaying an audience of millions, confounding the world by his theatrical cleverness.
(4) Benito Mussolini, message to the British Ambassador to Italy (7th July, 1939)
Tell Chamberlain that if England is ready to fight in defence of Poland, Italy will take up arms with her ally, Germany.
(5) Benito Mussolini, letter to Adolf Hitler (August, 1939)
If Germany attacks Poland and the conflict is localised, Italy will give Germany every form of political and economic aid which may be required.
If Germany attacks Poland and the allies of the latter counter-attack Germany, I must emphasize to you that I cannot assume the initiative of warlike operations, given the actual conditions of Italian military preparations which have been repeatedly and in timely fashion pointed out to you.
(6) Benito Mussolini, speech declaring war on the Allies (10th June, 1940)
Fighters of the land, the sea and the air, Blackshirts of the revolutions and of the legions, men and women of Italy, of the Empire, and of the kingdom of Albania.
Listen - the hour marked out by destiny is sounding in the sky of our country. This is the hour of irrevocable decision. The declaration of war has already been handed to the Ambassadors of Britain and France.
We are going to war against the plutocratic and reactionary democracies of the West, who have hindered the advance and often threatened the existence even of the Italian people.
The events of quite recent history can be summarized in these words - half-promises, constant threats, Blackmail and finally as the crown of this ignoble edifice the League siege of the 52 States. This reference was to sanctions.
Our conscience is absolutely tranquil. With you the whole world is witness that the Italy of the lictor has done what was humanly possible to avoid the hurricane which is overwhelming Europe, but all was in vain.
It would have been enough to revise the treaties to adapt them to the vital demands of the life of nations, and not to regard them as infrangible throughout eternity.
It would have been enough not to have persisted in the policy of guarantees which have shown themselves to have been above all fatal for those who accepted them. It would have been enough not to have rejected the proposal which the Fuhrer made last October when the Polish campaign came to an end.
But all that belongs to the past. We are to-day decided to face all the risks and sacrifices of war. A nation is not really great if it does not regard its undertakings as sacred, and if it recoils them those supreme trials which decide the course of history.
We are taking up arms after having solved the problem of our land frontiers." he went on. We want to break off the territorial and military chains which are strangling us in our sea for a people of 45.000.000 inhabitants is not truly free if it has no free passage over the ocean.
The gigantic struggle is only a phase of the logical development of our revolution. It is the struggle of peoples poor, but rich in workers against the exploiters who fiercely hold on to all the wealth and all the gold of the earth. It is the struggle of the fruitful and young peoples against the sterile peoples on the threshold of their decline. It is the struggle between two centuries and two ideas.
Now that the die is east and we have our own will burned the bridges behind us. I solemnly declare that Italy does not intend to drag into the conflict other peoples who are her neighbours by sea and land. Let Switzerland, Yugoslavia, Turkey, Egypt, and Greece take note of these words of mine, for it will depend entirely on them whether they are fully confirmed or not.
At a memorable meeting that in Berlin - I said that according to the law of Fascist morality when one has a friend one stands by him to the end.
We have done that and we shall do it with Germany, with her people, and her victorious armed forces. On the eve of this event of historic importance we address our thoughts to his Majesty the King emperor and we salute equally the head of a allied Greater Germany.
(7) William Joyce, Germany Calling (29th July, 1943)
And, for the personal point of view, if that be allowed to me, I can only say that when I joined the first Fascist movement in Britain on 6th December 1923 I saw that night in Battersea the mob violence, the Red Flags, the broken heads and the broken bodies, the typical evidence of the disruption which Communism can bring into a nation; and while I heard the dismal wail of the 'Red Flag' intoned by the sub-men out for blood, I thought of Mussolini and of what he had been able to do for Italy. I was not pro-Italian, I was merely pro-human; there were many millions of people throughout the world at about that time who had the same thoughts; and when I look back upon these 20 years I can only say that Mussolini has, in that period, become one of the greatest figures in history. The shades of the great Romans up to the time of Augustus, and unborn generations of Italian people, can pay homage to this great leader whose stature time can only increase.
(8) The Manchester Guardian (30th April, 1945)
Mussolini, with mistress, Clara Petacci, and twelve members of his Cabinet, were executed by partisans in a village on Lake Como yesterday afternoon, after being arrested in an attempt to cross the Swiss frontier. The bodies were brought to Milan last night. A partisan knocked at my door early this morning to tell me the news.
We drove out to the working-class quarter of Loreto and there were the bodies heaped together with ghastly promiscuity in the open square under the same fence against which one year ago fifteen partisans had been shot by their own countrymen.
Mussolini's body lay across that of Petacci. In his dead hand had been placed the brass ensign of the Fascist Arditi. With these fourteen were also the bodies of Farinacci and Starace, two former general secretaries of the Fascist party, and Teruzzo, formerly Minister of Colonies who had been caught elsewhere and executed by partisans.
Mussolini was caught yesterday at Dongo, Lake Como, driving by himself in a car with his uniform covered by a German greatcoat. He was driving in a column of German cars to escape observation but was recognised by an Italian Customs guard.
The others were caught in a neighbouring village. They include Pavolini, Barracu, and other lesser lights in Fascist world on whom Mussolini had to call in later days to staff his puppet Government.
This is the first conspicuous example of mob justice in liberated Italy. Otherwise the partisans have been kept well under control by their leaders. The opinion expressed this morning by the partisan C.-in-C., General Cadorna, son of the former field marshal, was that such incidents in themselves were regrettable. Nevertheless, in this case he considered the execution a good thing, since popular indignation against the Fascists demanded some satisfaction. The risk of protracted trials, such as has been taking place in Rome, was thus avoid.
(9) Ann Stringer, United Press (12th June, 1945)
"I was never close to him when he was high: I was always near him when he was down." With that weeping epitaph, Benito Mussolini's gray-haired widow summed up her life with the flamboyant Duce who left her for a younger, prettier mistress at the height of his Fascist power.
Pouring out her words between choking sobs, Donna Rachele revealed in an exclusive interview that she spoke to the doomed Duce by telephone only six hours before he was slain by a band of Italian partisans near Milan last April.
We spoke informally in the six-room apartment in an abandoned synthetic rubber factory where she and her two youngest children are being held in British protective custody. Throughout the interview, Donna Rachele defended her dead husband against every accusation - except his final infidelity with Clara Petacci, who shared his death and humiliation in the bloody public square in Milan.
For the red-haired Clara, Mrs. Mussolini had nothing but hatred and a fierce satisfaction that Benito's mistress was dead. Her eyes literally flashed when Clara's name was mentioned. She pushed herself far back in her chair, sat up straight and spat out: "They've done well to hang her. She was the only one around Mussolini who had anything really to do with the Germans."
Then speaking even more furiously and pounding the table before her she almost shouted: "Mussolini (she always referred to him that way) never had anything to do with women. He never let them have any influence over him. That was propaganda just to ruin him."
She trembled with anger and emotion as she spoke, but the frail widow, still attractive in spite of her 50 years, maintained her dignity, presenting a far different picture from the hulking, peasant-type woman I have been led to expect.
BENITO MUSSOLINI
"Il Duce"
Portrait of Benito Mussolini Benito Mussolini was born on July 29th, 1883 in the town of Varnano dei Costa near the village of Predappio. His mother Rosa Maltoni was married to a blacksmith named Alessandro Mussolini. Alessandro, being an admirer of the Mexican revolutionary Benito Juarez, named his son after the patriot and hero. Benito Mussolini was an avid writer and after he finished his schooling, he became an editor for the Milan socialist paper "Avanti". He became well known among the Italian socialists, but soon started promoting his views for war against Germany in World War I.
This infuriated the Socialists who were against Italy's entry into the war. In 1915 he formed his own paper, Il Popolo d'Italia, and continued his promotion for war. When Italy finally joined the Allies to fight Germany, Mussolini enlisted into the "Esercito" (Army). Mussolini achieved the rank of Corporal, the same rank as Adolf Hitler, but was discharged in 1917 due to shrapnel wounds while in a trench. A younger Benito Mussolini He returned to his career in journalism in which he began to develop his ideas that would soon become known as Fascism. After the war, Italy was in turmoil. The economy was shattered and there were strikes and protests everywhere. On March 23, 1919, Mussolini and several other veterans formed the National Fascist Party. This party grew in popularity among the people of Italy, who were disenchanted with the chaos surrounding them. Mussolini seemed to have the answers to bring their country into order. During this time, he adopted the Roman salute and the Black Shirt militia, which Hitler later copied from the him as the Brown Shirts. On March 15th 1921, Mussolini along with 35 other Fascists were elected to the Italian Chamber of Deputies.
Mussolini speaking to the people In August of 1922, The ruling Leftist party ordered a general strike in the nation. Mussolini was enraged and issued an ultimatum that if they did not end the strike, his Fascist party would. The Leftist claimed he was trying to siege the government, but the armed forces wanted nothing to do with stopping the fascists from preventing the strike. On October 29, 1922, King Vittorio Emmanuele III (1869-1947) phoned Mussolini to come to Rome and form a government. Mussolini insisted on a telegram and it was wired soon afterwards. Mussolini boarded a train to Rome and was greeted by thousands of Fascist Blackshirts awaiting his arrival. His first act was to send the strikers back home to their families and their jobs. Mussolini managed to assume the powers of all the government offices in order to regain control of the economy. In a short period of time, he was successful in stabilizing the economy and taking his country out of economic turmoil. He became known as "Il Duce" (the leader).
His first international crisis as head of Italy made him an Italian hero. The crisis was a border dispute between Greece and Albania. Mussolini sent several men to the area representing Italy as part of an International Commission to dispute the issue. On August 23, 1923, all the Italians were murdered and discovered in Greek territory. In a rage, Mussolini sent the Greek government a list of demands, including a public apology, immediate inquiry into the killings, death sentence to those convicted and payment of 50 million Lira within 5 days. The Greeks refused the demand, since they did not know if it was Greeks who committed the murders. Mussolini ordered the Italian navy to bombard Corfu (Kerkyra) off the Greek coast. The shelling was then followed by an amphibious landing of Italian marines. After the League of Nations condemned the act, Mussolini threatened to pull Italy out of the League.
Mussolini and child He insisted that the Conference of Ambassadors, who formed the original mission in the first place, must arbitrate the dispute. France, wanting Italy's support over the mineral rich Ruhr Valley, sided with Italy. As a result, the Conference of Ambassadors endorsed most of Italy's position. The Greek government gave in and agreed to Il Duce's demands. This victory was immediately followed by Mussolini sending elements of the Italian Esercito into the city of Fiume and annexing it from Yugoslavia. Mussolini was eventually made a British Knight of the Bath, but that was canceled in August of 1940.
Although Mussolini quenched his thirst for power, he was still enraged by the treatment Italy received for their part in defeating the Germans and Austrians in World War I. He had visions of a new Roman Empire and he could see the day when the Mediterranean Sea became the "Mare Nostrum"(Our Sea). The invasion of Ethiopia, commanded by Field Marshal Pietro Badoglio, in many ways a revenge against the Italian defeat at Adwa in 1896, and the Italian military assistance in Spanish Civil War, reflected his dreams coming to life. But Mussolini found his country blacklisted by the League of Nations and it forced his relationship closer to Nazi Germany, which was also isolated for their actions. Mussolini soon realized that the League of Nations did not have the backbone to stop Hitler or himself in gaining new colonies, so he pressed forward. On the April 7, 1939, Mussolini invaded Albania and on May 22,1939, Italy and Germany cemented their alliance with the Pact of Steel.
Italy would find limited success in the war, his conquests in Africa, Greece and Yugoslavia slowly vanished due to poor leadership in the military, and lack of fuel to power their forces. By 1943, Italy was losing the war. In July 1943, Mussolini was deposed by a revolt within his own Fascist Grand Council, and Vittorio Emmanuelle III, the King of Italy, reduced to a figure head by Mussolini, appointed Field Marshal Pietro Badoglio to be the new Prime Minister of Italy. Mussolini was arrested but later rescued by German paratroopers in a mountain top resort where he was imprisoned. After his rescue, he set up the Italian Socialist Republic in German-held northern Italy, with himself as its leader.
On April 28, 1945, Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci, were arrested again by Italian partisans by Lake Como. Walter Audisio (1909-1973), who was once pardoned by Mussolini for a jail term in 1934, took custody of Mussolini and Petacci. Mussolini, realizing he was going to killed, opened up his shirt and asked to be shot in the chest. Audisio complied and attempted to shoot the pair with an Italian submachine gun, but it would not fire. He then pulled out an Italian pistol and again it would not fire. In desperation he grabbed a French weapon, a MAS 7.65, from a fellow partisan and killed them both. Their bodies were strung upside down the next day for all to see.
Mussolini shot, beaten and hung Benito Mussolini
AKA 'Il Duce' (The Leader).
Country: Italy.
Kill tally: Over 400,000 Italians killed during the Second World War. At least 30,000 Ethiopians killed during Italian occupation of Ethiopia.
Background: The factious Italian confederation emerges from the First World War on the side of the victorious Allies and with its eastern African colonies in Eritrea and Somalia in tact. But serious economic problems plague the state. Inflation escalates and unemployment climbs. The political climate is also destabilised as left and right groups from around the country resume their struggle for influence.
Mini biography: Born on 29 July 1883 near Predappio in the Forli Province of Romagna, in northeastern Italy, into a working class family. His father is a blacksmith, his mother a school teacher.
1901 - After a difficult childhood during which he is twice expelled from schools for attacking fellow students but easily passes his exams, Mussolini obtains a teaching diploma and works for a year as a schoolteacher at Gaultieri, northeast of Parma, until he is dismissed.
1902 - By now a committed socialist, he emigrates to Switzerland, where he gains a reputation as a journalist, public speaker and political agitator. He is arrested and imprisoned several times.
1904 - He reenters Italy and is drafted into the army for the compulsory two-years of national service.
1906 - When he returns to journalism and political agitation he is again arrested and imprisoned. The arrests continue over the following years as his reputation as a leading Italian socialist begins to rise. He becomes editor of the socialist newspaper 'La Lotta di Classe' (The Class Struggle) in 1909, is appointed secretary of the Socialist Party branch at Forli in his home province in 1910, then in 1912 is appointed editor of the official Socialist newspaper, 'Avanti!' (Forward!) and moves to Milan. Under Mussolini's guidance the paper's circulation soon doubles.
1914 - On the editorial pages of 'Avanti!', Mussolini at first opposes Italy's involvement in the First World War. But, believing that the conflict could bring about the overthrow of capitalism and the opportunity for social renewal, he changes his position and begins to advocate Italian intervention in the war.
At odds with his socialist peers, he resigns from 'Avanti!' and is expelled from the Socialist Party. He assumes the editorship of the pro-war 'Il Popolo d'Italia' (The People of Italy) but does not join the armed forces until he is conscripted. He sees active service and receives a serious wound from a training accident.
1918 - Mussolini returns from the war a confirmed antisocialist. He now believes that only a firm, authoritarian government headed by "a man who is ruthless and energetic enough to make a clean sweep" can overcome the political and economic problems seemingly endemic to Italy.
1919 - At a gathering of war veterans, revolutionary socialists and futurists in Milan in March, Mussolini organises the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento (Italian Combat Veteran's League), creating a new and powerful force in Italian politics and bringing the word 'fascism' into the public mind. The term is derived from the Italian word 'fascio', meaning 'union' or 'league', and refers to the ancient Roman symbol of discipline and authority, the 'fasces', the standard of rods and an axe borne before Roman officials.
Supporters distinguish themselves by wearing black shirts and by their nationalistic, antiliberal and antisocialist ideals. Working in squads they haunt the countryside, persecuting socialists and unionists, breaking up strikes, burning down union and Socialist Party offices and intimidating local governments.
By late 1921 the fascists control large parts of rural Italy. Mussolini uses his charisma and talent at public speaking to popularise the movement as the bastion of Italian nationalism and a bulkhead against the communist "threat". He receives support from landowners and the urban middle-class.
1921 - At elections for parliament, 35 fascists, including Mussolini, win seats. In November Mussolini organises the movement into a formal political party, the National Fascist Party. The fascists also form their own trade unions, the 'syndicates', to control the labour force.
1922 - When the socialist-led Confederation of Labour calls an antifascist protest strike in the August Mussolini challenges the government to prevent it then sends his fascist squads in as strikebreakers. At a gathering of 40,000 fascists in Naples on 24 October he demands that government be "given to us, or we will seize it by marching on Rome". Four days later the fascist militia begins the march. Mussolini stays in Naples to await the outcome.
On 31 October the king of Italy, Victor Emmanuel III, summons Mussolini to Rome and asks him to form a new government. Mussolini is appointed prime minister of a coalition government and begins transforming Italy into a fascist regime, where the individual belongs to the state.
He will remain as prime minister, and Italy will be ruled by fascists, for 21 years. The fascist squads are incorporated into an official voluntary militia for national security and the party expands with new recruits.
1924 - At elections held under a corrupted electoral system the fascists win 64% of the vote and 374 seats. When parliament meets, Giacomo Matteotti, the Socialist Party's parliamentary deputy and one of the most effective critics of the regime, denounces the elections as a sham. On 10 June he is kidnapped and murdered by fascists led by Mussolini's press officer.
1925 - On 3 January, following political and social unrest unleashed by Matteotti's murder, Mussolini seizes dictatorial control and promises to crack down on dissenters. The fascists launch a program to achieve economic and social stability, introducing large-scale public works and a one-party, police state.
Constitutional safeguards against government autocracy are removed. All social, economic and political power is centred on Mussolini. Opposition parties, trade unions, the free press and freedom of speech are banned. The leaders of opposition parties and unions are forced into exile. Public servants are required to swear allegiance to fascism. Mussolini handpicks newspaper editors. A military tribunal is set up to try antifascist "subversives".
In 1928 all executive power is ceded to the Fascist Grand Council, making it the supreme constitutional authority of the state. When the Great Depression devastates the world economy in 1929, Mussolini's policies are able to spare Italy from the full impact of the crisis. His popularity grows and all over the country his speeches draw huge crowds.
1932 - Mussolini grants Croatian fascist Ante Pavelic asylum in Italy and provides his Ustase movement with training camps, protection and financial support. The Ustase soon begin a campaign of terror bombings within Yugoslavia. With Mussolini's backing Pavelic will go on to lead the 'Independent State of Croatia' during the Second World War. Pavelic's reign will be one of the bloodiest of the war and will result in 600,000 to one million deaths.
Mussolini will also provide funds to the Spanish Falange, a fascist-style organisation that will plot with Spanish nationalists to overthrow Spain's elected government.
Meanwhile, in an article co-written with Giovanni Gentile, Mussolini provides a comprehensive definition of fascism. Titled 'The Doctrine of Fascism', the article states, "Anti-individualistic, the Fascist conception of life stresses the importance of the State and accepts the individual only in so far as his interests coincide with those of the State ... It is opposed to classical liberalism ...
"The Fascist conception of the State is all embracing; outside of it no human or spiritual values can exist, much less have value. Thus understood, Fascism is totalitarian and the Fascist State ... interprets, develops, and potentates the whole life of a people.
"Fascism is ... opposed to that form of democracy which equates a nation to the majority, lowering it to the level of the largest number; but it is the purest form of democracy if the nation be considered as it should be from the point of view of quality rather than quantity, as an idea, ... expressing itself in a people as the conscience and will of the few, if not, indeed, of one ...
"Fascism does not, generally speaking, believe in the possibility or utility of perpetual peace. It therefore discards pacifism as a cloak for cowardly supine renunciation in contradistinction to self-sacrifice. War alone keys up all human energies to their maximum tension and sets the seal of nobility on those peoples who have the courage to face it. All other tests are substitutes which never place a man face to face with himself before the alternative of life or death. Therefore all doctrines which postulate peace at all costs are incompatible with Fascism.
"Fascism denies that numbers, as such, can be the determining factor in human society; it denies the right of numbers to govern by means of periodical consultations; it asserts the irremediable and fertile and beneficent inequality of men who cannot be leveled by any such mechanical and extrinsic device as universal suffrage. Democratic regimes may be described as those under which the people are, from time to time, deluded into the belief that they exercise sovereignty, while all the time real sovereignty resides in and is exercised by other and sometimes irresponsible and secret forces."
1935 - Seeking to expand the Italian Empire in eastern Africa, Mussolini orders the invasion of Ethiopia on 3 October. During the ensuing seven-month campaign the Italian forces use chemical weapons and air power to defeat the Ethiopians. Mussolini announces the Italian victory to a jubilant crowd of 400,000 in Rome on 9 May. In 1937, following a failed assassination attempt on the Italian colonial governor, 30,000 Ethiopians are executed.
1936 - Mussolini joins with German fascist dictator Adolf Hitler in the Rome-Berlin Axis. In 1937, Italy joins Germany and Japan in the 'Anti-Comintern Pact', an agreement to fight the spread of communism.
The Spanish Civil War begins on 18 July when Spanish Nationalists led by Francisco Franco stage a coup against the country's left-leaning Republican Government. Mussolini provides support to Franco and his Nationalist forces. Franco will go on to win the war.
1938 - Following Hitler's lead, the Italian fascist government passes antisemitic laws discriminating against Jews in all sectors of public and private life and preparing the way for the deportation of thousands of Italian Jews to German death camps during the Second World War. Almost 7,000 Italian Jews will be deported. Of these, 5,910 will be killed.
On 29 September Mussolini is a co-signatory to the 'Munich Agreement' between Britain, France, Germany and Italy. The agreement, which cedes the German-speaking area in the north of Czechoslovakia to Germany, is an ill-fated attempt to avoid the Second World War.
1939 - When Germany occupies all of Czechoslovakia in March Mussolini decides to complete the slow annexation of Albania begun soon after he came to power. Italy invades on 7 April. The Italian-trained Albanian Army is soon overcome, and on 12 April the Albanian parliament votes to unite the country with Italy.
In May, as Germany prepares for war, Mussolini and Hitler agree to a formal military alliance, the 'Pact of Steel'. German troops invade Poland on 1 September. Britain and France declare war on Germany two days later. The Second World War has begun.
Mussolini delays Italy's entry into the war until it appears that Germany will conquer all of Western Europe without his aid. Finally, on 10 June 1940, he joins the Germans and declares war on the Allies. From the start, Hitler treats Mussolini as a junior ally, withholding details of Germany's military plans and failing to provide notice of major offensives.
1940 - Smarting from Hitler's secrecy, Mussolini orders the invasion of Greece on 28 October without informing the Germans. The campaign is a disaster and the Germans are forced to intervene in April 1941.
In Africa the Italians launch an attack on British-occupied Egypt from their colony of Libya in September 1940.
1941 - By the start of the year the Italians have been pushed back into Libya. In February Hitler deploys the Afrika Korps led by General Erwin Rommel to launch a counteroffensive against the British.
Italians sent to support Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union in June also fail.
The United States enters the war when the Japanese airforce bombs the US naval base at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii on 7 December. Italy and Germany declare war on the US on 11 December.
1942 - The German offensive in North Africa is stopped at the beginning of November when Allied troops led by General Bernard Law Montgomery force the German Afrika Korps into a retreat. By 13 May 1943 275,000 Germans and Italians have surrendered. The war in North Africa is over, signalling the end of Italy's African Empire and causing Joseph Goebbels, Germany's propaganda minister, to comment, "We have the worst allies that could possibly be imagined".
1943 - The Allies prepare to land in Sicily and Italy. In the wake of the Italian defeats, Mussolini's popularity begins to nosedive.
The Allied invasion of Sicily comes in July. Italy also appears ripe to fall. Mussolini's days seem numbered. On 24 July an overwhelming majority of the Fascist Grand Council passes a resolution effectively deposing him. The following day he is arrested. He is imprisoned on the island of Ponza off Naples, moved to a remoter island off the coast of Sardinia, then placed in a supposedly impregnable hotel high in the mountains of Abruzzi, east of Rome. But German SS commandos stage a daring rescue on 12 September and he escapes to Munich.
On Hitler's suggestion, Mussolini establishes a new fascist "government" (the 'Italian Social Republic') at Salò on Lake Garda in German occupied territory in Italy's north. The new "government" is nothing more than Hitler's puppet and, with Allied forces advancing northward, will be short lived.
Meanwhile, the legitimate Italian Government signs an armistice with the Allies on 3 September and declares war on Germany in October. The Allies take Naples in same month but because of strong resistance from the German forces now occupying Italy do not reach Rome until June 1944. Florence is liberated in August and the northern cities in April 1945.
1945 - With Germany's defeat imminent, Mussolini attempts to flee to Switzerland disguised as a German soldier but is recognised by Italian partisans and captured on 27 April. He and his mistress, Clara Petacci, are shot and killed near Lake Como the following day.
Their bodies are then transported to Milan where they are hung by the feet with piano wire in Piazza Loreto for public display and humiliation. All of Italy rejoices at the downfall of the dictator and the end of the conflict.
Mussolini's body is buried in an unmarked grave at the Musocco cemetery outside Milan. On 23 April 1946 it is dug up by a neo-fascist and hidden. Over three months later it is retrieved by the police and secretly interred in the chapel of the Cerro Maggiore convent near Milan. On 31 August 1957 Mussolini's remains are permanently laid to rest at the family plot in Predappio.
Postscript
Over 46 million Europeans have died as a result of the war, including 410,000 Italians. Worldwide, over 60 million have died.
1946 - Following a referendum in June, Italy is declared a republic with a new antifascist constitution.
1948 - The first parliamentary elections of the new republic are held in April. A neofascist party advocating Mussolini's ideals wins only 2% of the vote. Italy has repudiated fascism.
Comment: Benito Mussolini, the father of fascism - in retrospect not exactly the century's greatest claim to fame. In its heyday though Italian fascism's economic achievements were at worst respected and at best admired by the rest of the world, and there was no bigger admirer than German dictator Adolf Hitler. Hitler took Mussolini's tenets and applied Nazi ruthlessness to produce a far more rigorous and pervasive fascist state that finally exposed the sterility of the ideology, but not without a sickening human cost.
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