Essay on Mussolini
BENITO MUSSOLINI, (1883-1945), Fascist dictator of Italy from 1922 to 1943. He
centralized all power in himself as the leader (il duce) of the Fascist party and attempted
to create an Italian empire, ultimately in alliance with Germany. The defeat of Italy
brought an end to his imperial dream and led to his downfall.
Mussolini was born in Predappio, near Forli, in Romagna, on July 29, 1883. His father,
Alessandro, was a blacksmith, and his mother, Rosa, was a schoolteacher. Like his father,
Benito became a fervent socialist. He qualified as an elementary schoolmaster in 1901. In
1902 he emigrated to Switzerland. Unable to find a permanent job there and arrested for
vagrancy, he was expelled and returned to Italy to do his military service. After further
trouble with the police, he joined the staff of a newspaper in the Austrian town of Trento
in 1908.
When World War I broke out in 1914, Mussolini agreed with the other Socialists that
Italy should not join it. Only a class war was acceptable to him, and he threatened to lead
a proletarian revolution if the government decided to fight. But several months later he
unexpectedly changed his position on the war, leaving the Socialist party and his editorial
chair.
Birth of Fascism
In November 1914 he founded a new paper, Il Popolo d'Italia, and the prowar group
Fasci d'Azione Rivoluzionaria. He evidently hoped the war might lead to a collapse of
society that would bring him to power. Called up for military service, he was wounded in
grenade practice in 1917 and returned to edit his paper.
Fascism became an organized political movement in March 1919 when Mussolini
founded the Fasci de Combattimento. After failing in the 1919 elections, Mussolini at last
entered parliament in 1921 as a right-wing member. The Fascisti formed armed squads to
terrorize Mussolini's former Socialist colleagues. The government seldom interfered. In
return for the support of a group of industrialists and agrarians, Mussolini gave his
approval to strikebreaking, and he abandoned revolutionary agitation. When the liberal
governments of Giovanni Giolitti, Ivanoe Bonomi, and Luigi Facta failed to stop the
spread of anarchy, Mussolini was invited by the king in October 1922 to form a
government.
Fascist Dictatorship
At first he was supported by the Liberals in parliament. With their help he introduced
strict censorship and altered the methods of election so that in 1925-1926 he was able to
assume dictatorial powers and dissolve all other political parties. Skillfully using his
absolute control over the press, he gradually built up the legend of the "Duce, a man who
was always right and could solve all the problems of politics and economics. Italy was
soon a police state.
With those who tried to resist him, for example the Socialist Giacomo Matteotti, he
showed himself utterly ruthless. But Mussolini's skill in propaganda was such that he had
surprisingly little opposition.
At various times after 1922, Mussolini personally took over the ministries of the interior,
of foreign affairs, of the colonies, of the corporations, of the army and the other armed
services, and of 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 (formed in 1921) and the armed Fascist militia. In this way he succeeded in keeping
power in his own hands and preventing the emergence of any rival. But it was at the price
of creating a regime that was overcentralized, inefficient, and corrupt.
Most of his time was spent on propaganda, whether at home or abroad, and here his
training as a journalist was invaluable. Press, radio, education, films--all were carefully
supervised to manufacture the illusion that fascism was "the doctrine of the 20th century
that was replacing liberalism and democracy. The principles of this doctrine were laid
down in the article on fascism, reputedly written by himself, that appeared in 1932 in
the Enciclopedia Italiana. In 1929 a concordat with the Vatican was signed, by which the
Italian state was at last recognized by the Roman Catholic Church.
Under the dictatorship the parliamentary system was virtually abolished. The law codes
were rewritten. All teachers in schools and universities had to swear an oath to defend the
Fascist regime. Newspaper editors were all personally chosen by Mussolini himself, and
no one could practice journalism who did not possess a certificate of approval from the
Fascist party. The trade unions were also deprived of any independence and were
integrated into what was called the "corporative system. The aim (never completely
achieved) was to place all Italians in various professional organizations or "corporations,
all of them under governmental control.
Mussolini played up to his financial backers at first by transferring a number of industries
from public to private ownership. But by the 1930's he had begun moving back to the
opposite extreme of rigid governmental control of industry. A great deal of money was
spent on public works. But the economy suffered from his exaggerated attempt to make
Italy self-sufficient. There was too much concentration on heavy industry, for which Italy
lacked the resources.
Military Aggression
In foreign policy, Mussolini soon shifted from pacifist anti-imperialism to an extreme
form of aggressive nationalism. An early example of this was his bombardment of Corfu
in 1923. Soon after this he succeeded in setting up a puppet regime in Albania and in
reconquering Libya. It was his dream to make the Mediterranean "mare nostrum ("our
sea). In 1935, at the Stresa Conference, he helped create an anti-Hitler front in order to
defend the independence of Austria. But his successful war against Abyssinia (Ethiopia)
in 1935-1936 was opposed by the League of Nations, and he was forced to seek an
alliance with Nazi Germany, which had withdrawn from the League in 1933. His active
intervention in 1936-1939 on the side of Gen. Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War
ended any possibility of reconciliation with France and Britain. As a result, he had 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. But his "axis with Germany was confirmed when
he made the Pact of Steel with Hitler in May 1939. Clearly the subordinate partner,
Mussolini followed the Nazis in adopting a racial policy that led to persecution of the
Jews and the creation of apartheid in the Italian empire.
As World War II approached, Mussolini announced his intention of annexing Malta,
Corsica, and Tunis. In April 1939, after a brief war, he occupied Albania. Failing to
realize that he had more to gain by trying to hold the balance of power in Europe, he
preferred to rely on a policy of bluff and bluster to induce the Western democracies to
give way to his increasing territorial demands.
Although he had preached for 15 years about the virtues of war and the military readiness
of Italy to fight, his armed forces were completely unprepared when Hitler's invasion of
Poland led to World War II. He decided to remain "nonbelligerent until he was quite
certain which side would win. Only after the fall of France did he declare war in June
1940, hoping that the war had only a few weeks more to run. His attack on Greece in
October revealed to everyone that he had done nothing to prepare an effective military
machine. He had no option but to follow Hitler in declaring war on Russia in June 1941
and on the United States in December 1941.
Following Italian defeats on all fronts and the Anglo-American landing in Sicily in 1943,
most of Mussolini's colleagues turned against him at a meeting of the Fascist Grand
Council on July 25, 1943. This enabled the king to dismiss and arrest him.
Rescued by the Germans several months later, Mussolini set up a Republican Fascist state
in northern Italy. But he was little more than a puppet under the protection of the German
Army. In this "Republic of Salo, Mussolini returned to his earlier ideas of socialism and
collectivization. He also executed some of the Fascist leaders who had abandoned him,
including his son-in-law, Galeazzo Ciano. Increasingly he tried to shift the blame for
defeat onto the Italian people, who had not been great enough to appreciate his imperial
dream. In April 1945, just before the Allied armies reached Milan, Mussolini, along with
his mistress Clara Petacci, was caught by Italian partisans as he tried to take refuge in
Switzerland. He was summarily executed.