Italy during the reign of Mussolini. Benito Mussolini: who really was the main ideologist of fascism

Benito Mussolini is the founder of Italian and, in fact, European fascism, which brought innumerable disasters to millions of people and brought humanity to the brink of disaster. In the 1920s and 1930s, the whole of Italy, young and old, knew the name of Mussolini. His profile with a shaved head and a protruding lower jaw was printed on coins, his numerous portraits, busts, and photographs flaunted in all state institutions and residential buildings. His name was typed in large print on every page in all newspapers, repeatedly throughout the day sounded on all national radio programs. Newsreels captured him at numerous parades, rallies, and competitions. It was the largest cult of personality in Europe, reigning supreme in Italy from October 1922 to July 1943.

The people of Mussolini seemed to be a brave, omnipotent man, constantly thinking about the citizens of Italy, concerned about her welfare. Leaving his office, he liked to leave the lights on so that lonely passers-by would stop and, under the unblinking gaze of the Duce's guards, think about the leader, who worked until late at night.

Benito Mussolini was born in 1883 in the family of a village blacksmith in the province of Forlì, Emilia Romagna, in the small village of Dovia. His mother was a school teacher, a believer, his father was a blacksmith, an ardent anarchist and an atheist. The name Benedetto, proposed by the mother, which means "blessed" in Italian, was changed by the father to Benito at baptism - in honor of the Mexican liberal Benito Juarez, then known in Italy. The childhood years of Benito Mussolini were not marked by anything special. True, he learned to play the violin well. Then this served as an occasion for the Duce to talk about his belonging to artistic natures. In general, he liked to emphasize his exclusivity, chosenness. He even appropriated the title "pilot of Italy No. 1" to himself, as he was happy to fly the plane. He also liked to compare himself with the heroes of Ancient Rome, especially with Julius Caesar (perhaps because at that time he quickly went bald).

At the beginning of the 20th century, Mussolini lived and worked in Switzerland. I tried the professions of a bricklayer, an assistant to a blacksmith. He was also a laborer. At this time, he became a member of the Socialist Party, actively promoted socialist ideas among Italian migrant workers.

Returning to his homeland, Benito Mussolini began to engage in journalism and literature, worked as a teacher. In 1908, he wrote a short article on Nietzsche, The Philosophy of Force, in which he expressed his admiration for "the most brilliant thinker of the last quarter of the 19th century." At the same time, he is working on a fundamental work on the history of philosophy. Mussolini's fame is growing. He was elected chief editor of the socialist newspaper "Avanti!". Shortly before the start of the First World War, he delivered lectures on "Socialism Today and Tomorrow", "From Capitalism to Socialism". Circulation "Avanti!" doubles. In one of his articles, Mussolini writes: "Italy needs a revolution and will get it."

The outbreak of the First World War changed the fate of the future Duce. In October 1914, Mussolini was expelled from the Socialist Party for promoting among the people the idea of ​​participating in the war. I must say that he himself was in no hurry to start fighting. Having been wounded in a training unit, he did not participate in any more battles.

After the war, many front-line soldiers who were disillusioned with the war, especially those who were politically illiterate and inclined to blame parliament and democracy for all troubles, and who also sought to militarize civilian life, organized "Arditi" (dared men) detachments. Benito Mussolini played along with them, arguing: "I have always been convinced that in order to save Italy, several dozen deputies must be shot. I believe that parliament is a bubonic plague that poisons the blood of the nation. It must be exterminated." In March 1919, Mussolini gathers his supporters in the "Union of Struggle" - "fashiodicompattimento". (Hence, "fascism" came from.) The struggle for the interests of the nation was proclaimed the main goal of the Union.

1919 - 1920 - the time of the rise of the revolutionary movement in Italy. The big bourgeoisie, having strengthened its positions during the war and wishing to maintain them, frightened by the scale of the labor movement and not having its own serious political party, begins to invest in Mussolini's organizations. Thus, the most likely way for Italy to get out of the revolutionary crisis is the path of repression and terror with an admixture of chauvinism. On October 2, 1922, Mussolini, with his supporters, built in thousands of columns, carried out a campaign against Rome. The Italian parliament passes power to him by majority vote. So Italy became the world's first fascist state.

Until 1926, Mussolini did not dare to openly act only by violence. He considered 1926 "Napoleonic" for himself. It was then that he finally destroyed the remnants of the opposition: emergency laws were issued, according to which all political parties, except for the fascist, were banned and dissolved. And deputies from them were expelled from parliament. In 1926, Mussolini created a fascist tribunal that condemned 2947 anti-fascists from 1927 to 1937. The Grand Fascist Council became the supreme legislative body of the country. In Italy, an open fascist dictatorship was finally formed: all democratic freedoms were abolished, free trade unions were banned, open terror began to be used against all anti-fascist figures, which began with the murder of a deputy from the Socialist Party Matteoni. Mussolini called his regime totalitarian. In the 1930s, a new police force was created. The authorities began to encourage denunciations, incite citizens' suspicion of each other. The old morality was declared a bourgeois relic, and the new one consisted in the complete subordination of the interests of the individual to the fascist state.

In the field of foreign policy, Mussolini, as early as 1923, embarked on the path of aggression (bombing and capturing the island of Corfu). But the situation, unfavorable for the aggressive plans of the Duce, forced him for the time being to refrain from implementing his aggressive plans. Preparations for military and colonial conquest allowed Italy to emerge from the "Great Depression" of the 1930s with minimal losses. Hitler's coming to power in Germany in 1933 gave Mussolini a worthy ally. Confident in the support of Nazi Germany and the neutrality of France, Mussolini captured Ethiopia, which was accompanied by a savage massacre of the country's population. The joint desire for a new redivision of the world through a new world war strengthened contacts between Mussolini and Hitler. Based on the alliance with Nazi Germany and the signed Rome agreements (Berlin-Rome axis), supplemented in 1937 by the Triple Alliance (Berlin-Rome-Tokyo), Mussolini proceeds to implement his aggressive plans in Europe. In 1936, in alliance with Hitler, he organizes a military-fascist rebellion against the republican system in Spain. Taking advantage of the de facto neutrality of the countries of Western Europe and their complete non-intervention, the Duce carried out a broad intervention against Spain, as a result of which the regime of General Franco was established in the country.

To please Hitler, Mussolini supported the German takeover of Austria. From August 1938, imitating Hitler's national policy, he issued a whole series of anti-Semitic laws. True, the Italian fascist regime was much more liberal than the German one. Jews were not burned in ovens, they were not thrown into camps - during all the years of fascism in Italy, "only" 3,500 families were persecuted. Mass executions and torture began here only in 1943.

Huge power was concentrated in the hands of Mussolini: the head of the fascist party, the chairman of the council of ministers, the head of the internal police detachments. In September 1938, Mussolini became one of the organizers of the Munich Agreement, which predetermined the capture of Czechoslovakia by Germany and contributed to the outbreak of World War II.

In this war, Italy participated on the side of Nazi Germany, acting as an intermediary between Germany on the one hand and England and France on the other. Since 1943, for Mussolini and his regime, dark times have come. The successes of the Red Army activate the anti-fascist movement in Italy itself. There are dissatisfied even among the inner circle of the Duce. In July 1943, the United States and England - allies of the USSR in the anti-Hitler coalition - begin military operations in Sicily, and then in Italy itself. This operation ended with the capitulation of Italy on September 3, 1943, signed on the island of Sicily by King Victor Emmanuel III. The Fascist Grand Council votes against Mussolini. The King of Italy, who had not shown himself in the political life of the country for almost two decades, in September 1943 ordered his punishers to arrest Mussolini. Soon, however, he was released by German paratroopers and brought to Germany. This operation was organized by SS Sturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny, one of the closest people to Hitler. After negotiations with Hitler, Mussolini was sent under German guard to northern Italy to lead the Republic of Salo, hastily created to cover German communications. Mussolini accused Victor Emmanuel of defeatism, of organizing a coup d'état.

On September 23, 1943, Mussolini formed a new government, in which he also took the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs. 28-29 September The Italian Social Republic is recognized by Germany, Japan, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia and Slovenia. Mussolini cracked down on traitors to the Fascist Grand Council. Mussolini did not hesitate to shoot the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, the husband of his eldest daughter Edda, Galiazzo Ciano.

In the spring and summer of 1944, the situation of the Republic of Salo worsened. On June 4, 1944, the Americans entered Rome, in August - Florence and moved to northern Italy. It was at this time that the reprisal of the Nazis against dissidents began. In the spring of 1945, the Resistance detachments launched a decisive offensive.

On April 27, 1945, in the town of Dongo in northern Italy, a small detachment of partisans stopped the retreating German unit. During a search of one of the trucks, Benito Mussolini was found in it. In complete secrecy, he was removed from the truck. The next morning, Colonel Valerio, sent by the command of the Resistance movement, arrived from Milan for him. The colonel took the prisoner to the village of Giulio di Metzetro, where he shot him. After his death, Mussolini's body was hung upside down as a sign of shame.

Thus ended the life of a man who aspired to create a new Great Roman Empire.

It is known from history that formally in the 20-30s of the last century, the king was at the head of Italy, and the pope was considered the spiritual leader of the entire Catholic world. However, the state called Italy, located in the center of the entire Christian world, was not really ruled by them, but by the so-called Duce, the leader of the fascist party.

Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (Italian: Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini, July 29, 1883 - April 28, 1945), Italian politician, writer, leader of the Fascist Party (FFP), dictator ("Duce"), who led Italy (as prime minister) from 1922 to 1943 First Marshal of the Empire (March 30, 1938). This is exactly how all the main titles and positions of this leader sounded, a historical figure about whom not much is known, basically except that he was the founder of fascism in Europe, that he was the first dictator of Italy, Hitler’s main ally, that he was a poseur, an amateur women and sought to recreate the new Roman Empire, plus there were a lot of anecdotes and various tales about the Italian Duce, most of the inhabitants who are interested in history, this person is mainly considered as a comical adventurer and nothing more.

Mussolini was in power for a very long time, almost 23 years. His reign can be divided into three periods. The first ten years were a time of fairly rapid and successful development of the country. The second ten years can be called a "period of stagnation" and the gradual erosion of the foundations of the fascist system. And the last three years, after Italy entered the war against the USSR, have become a time of agony for the regime.

The Duce accepted Italy in a state of extreme decline in all its aspects of economic and political life. In the early 1920s, the army of unemployed Italians numbered more than 500 thousand people, and when the world crisis hit Italy, unemployment covered more than 1,300 thousand people. The country's budget for many years was reduced to a large deficit, governments changed one after another. Crime flourished everywhere, bandits ran the railroads, stealing goods from wagons, and in Sicily the famous mafia generally openly determined the whole system and way of life. Dissatisfaction with the current situation was expressed by almost all segments of the population, everyone demanded changes and a firm hand, and they soon received this hand.

The most interesting and even funny thing was that before coming to power in Italy, Mussolini did not have any practical experience even in managing some small enterprise, such as a “candle factory”, and here he immediately headed one of the leading states of Europe, he managed to restore order in the country in a fairly short time, and then ensure the rapid growth of its economy. At the same time, he carried out social reforms unprecedented in the Western world, which elderly Italians often remember to this day.

The Duce had a specific style of governing Italy, like all dictators, he categorically denied the principle of democracy in governing the country, it was he who owned the words:

"There are three things that repel democracy: spinelessness, the habit of collective irresponsibility, and the false myth of universal happiness and unstoppable progress." This is probably why he officially combined the duties of the prime minister with the leadership of all leading ministries, when choosing top managers for himself, he often preferred stupid executors of his will and, in general, he openly despised his closest associates, believing that "they are all rotten to the marrow of their bones."

At a time when the economic crisis was gaining momentum throughout the Western world, which soon led to the resignation of almost all the governments of the leading capitalist powers, in Italy Mussolini not only remained in power, but could proudly announce the successes of his country. Thus, for the first time, the state budget turned out to be in surplus, despite the sharply increased spending, especially on military needs and social events, the number of unemployed fell to 120,000. Over 10 years, 8,000 kilometers of roads were built in Italy (including the first high-class highway in Europe) and 400 new bridges. A colossal aqueduct was built to supply water to the arid Abulia. The main railway lines were reconstructed (in particular, Rome - Syracuse, which made it possible to reduce travel time from 30 hours to 15). Even today, the former colonies of Italy, the now independent states of Libya, Ethiopia and Eritrea, still use the highways and railways built during the reign of Mussolini. The commissioning of 600 telephone exchanges made it possible to provide communication between all cities and towns of the country. Italy also strengthened its presence in the ocean, so during the reign of the Duce, 3 huge ocean liners came into operation, and the military fleet received powerful battleships of the Julius Caesar type, not only military, but also civil aviation was rapidly developing. In the early 1930s, 25 aircraft of the Italian air fleet made a flight on the Rome - Chicago route, which caused admiration throughout the world. But I especially wanted to dwell on the social policy of the formidable dictator, some of its features still arouse genuine interest.

Many economists believe that an important role in successfully overcoming the crisis was played by the fact that, unlike the leaders of other European states, Mussolini (as later US President F. Roosevelt) adopted the theory of the English economist J. Keynes, who called not to reduce but to increase government spending to kick-start the dying economy. In particular, Mussolini organized public works at the expense of the budget to reduce unemployment.

At the beginning of his reign, the Duce had tremendous support from the common people, many Italians considered him “to their board” and it is understandable why, since Mussolini came from the poor strata of society, he, like all the poor, hated the rich.

In addition to the economy, during the years of his reign, Mussolini paid quite a lot of attention to the so-called "demographic problem of Italy", mainly, of course, in the light of solving purely geopolitical problems. In those days, the population of Italy totaled only 42 million people, according to the Duce, this was not enough to create a new Roman Empire, so the country, the leader believed, by the middle of the 20th century needed to have at least 60 million citizens, and this is understandable, he soldiers and workers were needed to conquer more and more new spaces, so as not to be late for the next redivision of the world.

In matters of practical improvement of the country's demography, the Duce himself was an example, since in addition to five official children, he had another child born out of wedlock. Every family, he repeated, should have five children, like his family. As a result, under the rule of the Duce, the fathers of such large families received higher wages than other, less fortunate workers, and mothers who gave birth to numerous children even became honorary members of the fascist party. The issue of increasing the population was on a special note for the dictator, once he even canceled his order to promote a senior officer to generals, having learned that he was a bachelor, the ruler said: "The general should understand better than others that there can be no divisions without soldiers."

At that time, Italy was implementing an unprecedented program in the Western world to encourage the birth rate, protect motherhood and childhood. "Mother and Child Day" was established. "Fascist weddings" were arranged. Mothers who gave birth to seven children were awarded a medal, the police were obliged to salute pregnant women. But also for men - the heads of large families, advantages were established in hiring and in promotion.

By no means is there any justification for the fascist regime of Mussolini, but one cannot but admit that Mussolini did a lot of useful things for his country. Any Italian will tell you that it was thanks to him that decrees were first adopted in Italy, according to which they began to pay benefits for pregnancy and maternity, unemployment, disability and old age, medical insurance and material support for large families appeared. The working week under the rule of the Duce, and that was reduced from 60 to 40 hours. In this connection, it is not surprising that this power, headed by just one person, lasted so long.

Many other social measures were also carried out, for example, the fight against tuberculosis, the distribution of food to the needy, free medical care for families with many children, and so on. Probably for the first time in the history of Italy, there were no people dying of hunger in the country.

The Mussolini regime was also actively involved in the recreation and leisure of its subjects, for example, for an ordinary Italian, whether he was a worker, a peasant or a small employee, the fascist organization Dopolavoro (After Work) provided sports or recreational recreation and other benefits that were previously inaccessible to them. ". Here is what the work of Dopolavoro says in the book of the historian L. Belousov "The Mussolini Regime and the Masses":

“In the mid-30s, the fascist trade unions united about 4 million people, half of whom were members of the Dopolavoro organization ... Its grassroots cells could be found even in the most provincial corners of Italy. “Dopolavoro was a mass and very popular association engaged in organization of leisure, sports and cultural events... There, workers could "spend the evening, find warmth and comfort when it's cold outside, play cards, drink a glass of wine", have a sincere chat and relax a little. discounts on tickets to theaters and cinemas, the possibility of buying food and consumer goods at discounted prices in specialized stores, assistance in organizing summer holidays, tourism and excursions. and so on... Many of those who for the first time found warmth and comfort under the roof of "Dopolavoro" or went on vacation on its vouchers, voluntarily or involuntarily associated the benefits received with the conquests of the "fascist revolution".

As in all totalitarian regimes in Italy, under the Duce, the cult of sports reigned everywhere, all Italians, regardless of age, social status and gender, had to engage in military sports and political training on Saturdays.

All the fascist ministers and party bosses, together with the common people, ran, swam, lifted weights, played sports on weekends, just try to avoid participating in sports events, and if you did not pass the standard in gymnastics or athletics, then in this case you can was to lose his high official position, and such cases happened.

As a result of such attention to the healthy lifestyle of the country's citizens by the head of state, sport has become available to millions of Italians. In Italy, a large number of outdoor and indoor stadiums, swimming pools and sports grounds were built. Mass gymnastic exercises became fashionable and ubiquitous, because movements in a single rhythm, as the then fascist ideologists believed, contributed to the development of a sense of collectivism. All party gatherings were also accompanied by physical education, so it is not surprising that as a result of this approach to sports, Italy soon became one of the leading sports powers in the world.

Not infrequently in those days, party bosses and ministers watched with alarm how their boss Mussolini himself personally took part in a swim across the Gulf of Naples, the ministers naturally worried not about their boss, but for themselves, since at any moment from the Duce could for them to enter the command “to the start”, and then the pipe was a matter, not all of them could repeat the sports feat of their boss, and then there was hurdling, or even horse racing, where it was generally possible to break your neck out of habit. And everywhere Mussolini, as always, was ahead of everyone.

Loving publicity, very often after his next victorious swim, the Duce liked to appear before the people in all his glory, this is when he showed his naked bronze torso in front of the cameras and, like a real bodybuilder, played with pumped up muscles of his arms and body, the audience was delighted, especially women.

It also happened when the leader simply worked for the public, this is when he took part in the so-called "battles for the harvest", almost like ours, working on threshing, or with a pick and a shovel he worked on public works, and in the evenings after shock work in the country club he danced with the peasant women until he dropped. Sometimes, during the next meeting of the government, the Duce found some kind of insight, he suddenly jumped up from his seat and told his associates that he needed to consult, for example, with the peasants, got into the car and drove alone, without security, to the village. Often, in the same way, "to consult with the people," he went to factories and military units. Sometimes at night, the Italians could watch their head of state secretly leaving the gateway of a house, it was their Duce who, after working to improve demographics, returned to his home.

Of course, in fascist Italy, not everything was so cloudless, yes, there was a dictatorial regime, there was terror against the opponents of this regime, especially the communists - the main political competitors. Here is how it looked in practice, judging by the book of L. Belousov:

"Almost without interruption, the Special Fascist Tribunal met. During the years of the dictatorship, this punitive body condemned 4,675 anti-fascists, including 4,030 members of the CPI and sympathizers of the Communists." As you can see, in more than twenty years in fascist Italy, less than five thousand class enemies were convicted. Compared to Hitler's Germany, this was comparatively not much.

When the Second World War began, Mussolini was in no hurry to join it, but when France surrendered to the Germans almost without a fight, the Duce decided that such a unique chance should not be missed - to grab a piece of territory from her. On June 10, 1940, he declared war on England and France. Apparently, later he regretted this more than once, especially since his calculation for territorial acquisitions did not materialize. However, the complete collapse of Mussolini's dream to create a new Roman Empire occurred during a campaign to the East in the USSR, it was there, freezing in Russian snows on the banks of the Volga and Don, that the Italians cursed the one who sent them to die, it is not clear for what and for whom. Soon Italy plunged into crisis and chaos, all its previously conquered territories and colonies were lost, devastation and famine reigned in the country, the northern part of the country was occupied by the Germans, allies landed in the south, Italian partisans were operating everywhere, it was the partisans who identified the Duce, dressed in the uniform of a German soldier who tried to defect to Switzerland in 1945, shortly after the collapse of the remnants of his regime, the partisan trial was quick, it turned out that no one liked the loser Duce anymore.

Soon the former head, former marshal and former, former Benito Mussolini was sentenced to death, this sentence was quick, he was carried out immediately. At the same time, according to eyewitnesses, the Duce kept his composure to the end and even allegedly asked the fighters to shoot him directly in the chest. Then the bodies of Mussolini and his mistress who did not want to leave were hung upside down and put to shame, this photo went around all the then world print media, and documentary filmmakers captured on film the inglorious end of the founder of European fascism. Later, the body of the Duce was buried in the Mussolini family vault. Thus ended the love of the Italian people for their former idol Benito Mussolini.

The Nazis had to solve one of the most important issues at that time - "Roman". In Catholic Italy, for Mussolini, this meant receiving the blessing of the church. Since 1870, the church has been separated from the secular authorities by decree of the king. The Duce managed to sign the Lateran Agreement with Pope Pius XI in 1929, gaining a powerful ally. In exchange for Mussolini's support, he announces the creation of the smallest state in the world, the Vatican, which makes the church independent. Mussolini's economic and political successes in the 1920s and 1930s contributed to the growth of his personal popularity on the international stage: he received universal recognition as a "hero", a fighter against communism. US Ambassador to Italy R. Child called the Duce "the greatest figure." In January 1927, W. Churchill spoke of Mussolini as follows: “I could not help but be fascinated, like many others, by Signor Mussolini ... If I were an Italian, then I am convinced that from the beginning to the end I would be with all my heart in your victorious struggle against ... Leninism ... fascism has rendered a service to the whole world.

Benito Mussolini – Italian politician, leader of the Fascist movement, author of articles, Prime Minister from 1922-43 He began to engage in politics, becoming a member of the Socialist Party, from where he was subsequently expelled.

In 1919 he organized the Nazi Party. On October 28, 1922, as a result of a coup, he took power into his own hands and headed the government on November 1. He gave himself the powers of a dictator, organized and supported fascist terrorism, was an aggressor in foreign policy, invaded neighboring states. Together with Germany, he entered the 2nd World War. In 1945, he was sentenced to death by Italian partisans.

Benito Mussolini was born on July 29, 1883 in the small Italian village of Varano, near Predappio (his house-museum is now located there, 70 km from). His parents are blacksmith and carpenter Alessandro and school teacher Rosa Maltoni. They lived in 3 small rooms on the 2nd floor of a 3-story building. The mother was reputed to be a believing Catholic, and due to disagreements between her parents on religious grounds, Benito was baptized not in infancy, but at a later age.

My father did not receive an education, but he was always interested in politics and did not recognize theology. He often led rallies, later ending up in prison, and worshiped the revolutionary Bakunin. The father gave his first name to his son in honor of the President of Mexico, Benito Juárez, and the second and third - Andrea and Amilcare - after the names of the leaders of the socialist party - Costa and Cipriyani. The political views of his father left an imprint on the worldview of his son so much that at the age of 17 he became a member of the Socialist Party.

The couple could not even think that their firstborn would become a cruel dictator, leader of the Fascist Party in Italy. The Mussolini regime will establish a terrible totalitarian regulation in the country and a time of repression in politics.

Education and service

The family did not have a surplus of money, however, Benito received an education, despite the difficulties. And it was not even about finances, but about the quick-tempered and unrestrained character of the son, which he inherited from his father. Because of the fights, he was expelled twice from the church school in Faenza (Faenza), where he studied from the age of 9. As soon as he entered school, he quarreled with older students and stabbed one of them with a knife. In 1895, he was transferred to another school, where he did not stop trying to assert his leadership in front of his comrades. His cruelty, anger and frequent fights have repeatedly been the reason for the communication between teachers and Benito's parents. There were also problems at the high school. But the mother went to the directors of educational institutions with tears so that her son could finish his studies. Somehow he defended his diploma as a primary school teacher.

In 1902, the young man was to be taken to the service and, on the advice of Alessandra Mussolini, he left for Geneva, Switzerland. There he tried to work as a bricklayer, but gave up this occupation and began to wander. A big plus for him was the ability to read and speak beautifully, he could explain himself a little in French. In Lausanne, the young man met the scientist Pareto and went to his speeches in the audience. And acquaintance with Angela Balabanova and Vladimir Ulyanov Lenin opened the young man to such political scientists as Marx, Sorel, Nietzsche. Sorel especially impressed Mussolini, his work on the overthrow of liberal democracy by violence without moral framework found a warm response in the heart of the young man.

Foreign policy

The problem that Mussolini solved, consisted in the revival. He organized the expansion of the armed forces into Ethiopia, the Mediterranean and Albania.

Civil War 1939-39 forced the dictator to support the nationalists, preventing the victory of the communists. General Francisco Franco Bahamonde was also supported by Adolf Hitler, who in 1936 began to move closer to Mussolini. 1939 was the year of the signing of the alliance between Germany and Italy, according to which the latter became a participant in the World War from June 10, 1940. The Italian military take part in the capture of France and attack the British colonies in Africa, after which they enter Greece.

Soon the anti-Hitler coalition launched an offensive on all fronts, Italy had to retreat, losing ground. In 1943, Britain entered.

Overthrow of the dictatorship

The people drawn into the war blamed their prime minister for everything. He remembered all the aggressive and illegal actions. As a result, the leader of the Nazis was arrested by his own comrades-in-arms and sent to the mountains into custody. The Germans kidnapped Mussolini and entered Italy. In April 1945, the dictator tried to leave his homeland, but was captured by partisans and shot, along with his mistress Clara Petacci (Clarice Petacci).

Family

Mussolini's first wife was Ida Dalzer in 1914, she gave birth to his first child, Benito Albino. The son and wife died in a mental hospital, the dictator tried not to let anyone know about them. Some time after the birth of his first son, in 1915, Mussolini formalizes his relationship with Rakele Gaudi, his mistress since 1910, who gave him 5 children. Throughout his life, he had many mistresses and fleeting relationships on the side.

• From the age of 4, the boy already read on his own, and from the age of 5 he played the violin.
• There were 6 assassination attempts on the dictator, none of which were successful.
• Duci was engaged in skiing, running, motor sports, swimming, often went to football.
• The parents of the first wife did not give consent to the marriage until Mussolini began to threaten them with a gun.
• Once, a shell that exploded in a trench killed six of Benito's fellow soldiers. He, too, was with them, but remained alive.

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Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (Italian Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini, July 29, 1883 - April 28, 1945) - Italian politician, writer, leader of the Fascist Party (FFP), dictator ("Duce"), who led Italy (as prime minister) from 1922 to 1943. First Marshal of the Empire (March 30, 1938).

After 1936, his official title became "His Excellency Benito Mussolini, Head of Government, Duce of Fascism and Founder of the Empire". Mussolini remained in power until 1943, after which he was removed and arrested, but released by German special forces and then led the puppet Italian Social Republic in northern Italy until his death.

Mussolini was one of the founders of Italian fascism, which included elements of nationalism, corporatism, national syndicalism, expansionism and anti-communism, combined with censorship and government propaganda.

Among the domestic policy achievements of the Mussolini government during the period 1924-1939 were the successful implementation of a public works program such as draining the Pontine Marshes, improving employment opportunities, and modernizing the public transport system.

Mussolini also resolved the Rome Question through the Lateran Accords between the Kingdom of Italy and the Holy See. He is also credited with bringing economic success to Italy's colonies.

The expansionist foreign policy, which initially culminated in the conquest of Abyssinia and Albania, pushed him to an alliance with Germany and participation in the Second World War as part of the Axis, which was the cause of his ultimate death.

Mussolini was born on July 29, 1883 in the village of Dovia, near the village of Predappio (Italian: Predappio) in the province of Forli-Cesena in Emilia-Romagna.

The father, who had no education, but was actively interested in political life, gave his eldest son the name Benito in honor of the Mexican reformist president Benito Juarez, and also gave him two other names - Andrea and Amilcare, in honor of the socialists Andrea Costa and Amilcare Cipriani.

His mother Rosa Maltoni was a teacher and a devout Catholic. Father, blacksmith Alessandro Mussolini (Alessandro) (1854-1910), a militant anarchist (compiled the texts of appeals and spoke at rallies), went to prison several times for his ideas, an ardent admirer of the Russian revolutionary Bakunin, was a member of the Second (Socialist) International.

As a young boy, Mussolini helped his father in the blacksmith business. Under the influence of his father, Benito also becomes a socialist. Alessandro was a socialist and a republican, but also held nationalist views in some matters, especially with regard to Italians living in the territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Due to a conflict between his parents regarding religion, Mussolini, unlike most Italians, was never baptized.

In 1892, Benito's parents sent Benito to a private school of the monastic order of St. Francis de Sales. The first year of study at Mussolini's school was marked by the fact that he stabbed an older boy with a knife. After his mother's tears and the intervention of the Bishop of Forli, the director changed his decision to expel him from the school. In 1895, due to violent unruly behavior, he had to be transferred to another school.

Since 1900, Mussolini was actively interested in politics, writing articles for socialist newspapers in Forli and Ravenna.

After graduating from high school in 1901, he received a diploma as an elementary school teacher and got a job in the village of Pieve Saliceto, where he soon led the socialists and became a member of the local committee of workers.

In 1902, to avoid military service, Mussolini emigrated to Switzerland. He worked for some time in Geneva as a bricklayer, but could not find a permanent professional job and wandered. While in Switzerland, he raised the level of practical knowledge of the French language and a smattering of German.

In 1902, in Lausanne, he met the prominent economist and socialist Professor Vilfredo Pareto, attended his lectures (Pareto theory teaches that power is always taken by a minority).

At one of the political meetings, he met the Marxists Anzhelika Balabanova and Vladimir Lenin. Balabanova, who comes from a wealthy Jewish family living in Ukraine, was forced to leave her homeland because of her communist beliefs. She forced Mussolini to read Nietzsche, Stirner, Marx, Babeuf, Sorel.

Mussolini was greatly impressed by Sorel's work, which emphasized the need to overthrow decadent liberal democracy and capitalism through violence, direct action and the general strike. During this time, he joined the Marxist socialist movement.

In November 1904, after a conviction for draft evasion had been expunged as a result of an amnesty on the occasion of Prince Umberto's birthday, Mussolini was deported to Italy and subsequently volunteered for the Italian army. He arrived in the military district of Forli and on December 30, 1904 began his military service in the 10th Infantry Regiment in Verona.

On January 19, 1905, he received permission to return home and help his dying mother. After that, he returned to the regiment for further military service, after which he received gratitude for the good performance of his duties.

After two years of military service (from January 1905 to September 1906), Mussolini returned to Predappio on September 4, 1906 to continue teaching.

Shortly thereafter, he went to work in Tolmezzo, where on November 15 he got a job as deputy director. He has an excellent relationship with his students, but he is considered an eccentric for his loud recitation of poetry.

In November 1907, Mussolini qualified to teach French, and in March 1908 he became professor at the French College, where he taught Italian, history and geography.

In Oneglia, he becomes editor of the socialist weekly La Lima. In it, he criticizes the Giolitti government and the Vatican, accusing them of defending the interests of capitalism, not the proletariat. The newspaper is of great interest and Mussolini understands that journalism can be a political tool.

Returning to Predappio, Mussolini organized a strike of agricultural workers. On July 18, 1908, he was arrested for threatening the director of an agricultural organization.

He was sentenced to three months in prison, but after 15 days he was released on bail. In September of the same year, he was again imprisoned for ten days for holding an unsanctioned rally in Meldol.

In November he moved to Forlì where he lived in a rented room with his father, who thereafter opened a restaurant with his partner Anna Lombardi. During this time, Mussolini published on the pages of the free journal of revolutionary syndicalism, which was published in Lugano, the article "Philosophy of Force", in which he expressed his attitude towards Nietzsche.

After a long search, in February 1909 Mussolini found work in the Austro-Hungarian city of Trento, inhabited by Italians. On February 6, 1909, he moved to Trento, the capital of Italian irredentism, where he was elected secretary of the Labor Center and became director of his first daily newspaper: L'avvenire del lavoratore (The Future of the Worker).

In Trento, he met the socialist politician and journalist Cesare Battisti and began editing his newspaper Il Popolo (The People). For this newspaper, he co-authored with Santi Corvaia the novel Claudia Particella, l'amante del cardinale - Claudia Particella, the cardinal's mistress, which was published with a sequel during 1910.

The novel was radically anti-clerical, and a few years later, after Mussolini's truce with the Vatican, it was withdrawn from circulation.

Returning to Italy, he spent some time in Milan, Italy, and then returned to his native Forli in 1910, where he began editing the weekly magazine Lotta di classe (Class Struggle). During this time, he published the essay Il Trentino veduto da un Socialista in the radical periodical La Voce.

By this time he was already known as one of the most prominent socialists in Italy. In September 1911, Mussolini opposes the colonial war in Libya, organizes strikes and demonstrations to prevent the sending of troops to the front: The military continues to indulge in orgies of destruction and murder. Every day a huge pyramid of sacrificed human lives raises its bloodied top more and more boldly.

In November, he is imprisoned for five months for his anti-war activities. After his release, he helped expel two "revisionists" supporting the war, Ivanoe Bonomi and Leonid Bissolati, from the Socialist Party. As a result of this, in April 1912 he was awarded by the editors of the Socialist Party newspaper Avanti! editor's position. Under his leadership, circulation increased from 20,000 to 80,000 copies.

In December 1912, Mussolini was appointed editor-in-chief of Avanti! (“Avanti!”), the official organ of the Socialist Party of Italy.

After his appointment, he moved to Milan. In July 1912, he attended the congress of the Socialist Party in Reggio Emilia. At the congress, speaking of the failed assassination attempt on the king, he declared: “On March 14, a simple bricklayer shoots at the king. This incident shows us socialists the path we must follow." The audience rises and gives him a standing ovation.

In 1913 he published Giovanni Hus, il veridico, a historical and political biography describing the life and mission of the Czech ecclesiastical reformer Jan Hus and his militant successors, the Hussites. During this socialist period of his life, Mussolini sometimes used the pseudonym Vero Eretico (genuine heretic).

Defending the neutrality of Italy at first, he suddenly changed his position and placed in Avanti! an article in which he spoke in favor of entering the war against Germany: To refuse to distinguish between one war and another war, to allow oneself to oppose all wars in general, is evidence of stupidity bordering on idiocy. Here, as they say, the letter kills the mind. A German victory would mean the end of freedom in Europe. It is necessary that our country take a position favorable to France.

The leadership of the socialist party summons Mussolini and demands an explanation from him. After disputes, Benito has to leave the post of editor-in-chief of Avanti! and be, in fact, on the street.

Mussolini travels throughout Italy with public speeches. He accuses the socialists of intending to stifle the national aspirations of the people, calls the Germans "European pirates" and the Austrians "the executioners of the Italian people."

He claims that "the German proletariat, following the Kaiser, destroyed the International and thus freed the Italian workers from the obligation not to go to war." Mussolini proclaims that "basically neutrality is nothing but outright selfishness."

After the entry of Italy into the war, in August 1915, Mussolini was drafted into the army and he was assigned to the Bersaglieri regiment, which was sent to the front section near the Isonzo River. Comrades in arms appreciated Mussolini for his responsiveness, optimism, exemplary courage - during the attacks, he was the first to jump out of the trench with exclamations of "Long live Italy!" At the end of November, Mussolini was hospitalized due to typhus.

In February 1916, Mussolini received the rank of corporal (in the order for the assignment of the rank it was indicated: "for exemplary service, high morale and courage"). In February 1917, while firing a mortar, a mine exploded in the barrel, and Mussolini received severe leg injuries, which was why he was demobilized. Until the end of his life he had to walk in an orthopedic boot.

After the end of the First World War, Mussolini decided that socialism as a doctrine had failed. In 1917, Mussolini began his political career with £100 a week from MI5, the British security service; this assistance was authorized by Sir Samuel Hoare.

In early 1918, Mussolini declared that a "brutal and energetic man" was needed to revive the Italian nation. Much later in his lifetime, Mussolini said that in 1919 he felt that “socialism as a doctrine was already dead; it continued to exist only as discontent.

On March 23, 1919, in Milan, Benito Mussolini held a founding meeting of the new organization "Italian Union of Struggle" ("Fashi di combattimento"; Fasci italiani di combattimento).

In the elections of May 1921, Mussolini supported Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Party, Giovanni Giolitti. As a result, 35 deputies from the Nazis, led by Mussolini, entered the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Parliament. On November 7, 1921, the Italian Wrestling Union was transformed into the National Fascist Party.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs starts a case against him, where, in particular, it is said: Mussolini is a voluptuous man, as evidenced by his numerous connections with women ... Deep down, he is very sentimental, and this attracts people to him. Mussolini is not interested in money, which gives him a reputation as a disinterested person. He is very smart, kind and well versed in people, knows their shortcomings and virtues. He is prone to showing unexpected likes and dislikes, sometimes he is extremely vindictive.

On October 27, 1922, supporters of the fascist party began a campaign of many thousands against Rome. However, there were much more government troops that Rome could count on.

Fearing a possible civil war, and according to some reports, hints at his possible removal by a palace coup by the economic elite, King Victor Emmanuel III did not sign the act of the Prime Minister declaring a state of emergency in the country and resisting the Nazis. He met with Mussolini and appointed him Prime Minister of Italy.

Soon, Victor Emmanuel III and Mussolini together met the PFP troops entering the city. By the evening of October 30, Mussolini completes the formation of the cabinet of ministers. The largely Liberal parliament under pressure voted in favor of confidence in the new government.

Prince Torlonia provides Mussolini with Villa Torlonia as his personal residence for a nominal fee of 1 lira per year.

On April 10, 1923, in the Vatican, at a meeting between Mussolini and Cardinal Pietro Gasparri, Mussolini promises to cleanse Italy of communists and Freemasons, increase sanctions against those who offend religion, install images of the crucified Christ in schools and judicial institutions, introduce compulsory religious education in educational institutions and to restore the position of military chaplains in the army.

Italian electoral law of 1923, proposed by Baron Giacomo Acerbo and passed through the Italian parliament, whereby the party with the "most" votes (required a minimum of 25%) would win 66% of the seats in parliament.

The remaining third of the seats were distributed among the remaining parties according to the proportional system. The law gave significant advantages to the fascist party.

The political assassination of the socialist Giacomo Matteotti, who asked for the election results to be annulled due to the violations committed, caused an instant crisis in the Mussolini government. The killer, a scadristi named Amerigo Dumini, later reported to Mussolini about the murder.

The government was in a state of paralysis for several days, and Mussolini later admitted that a few determined people could raise the public and start a coup that would destroy the fascist government. Dumini was imprisoned for two years.

After his release, he said that he served this term for Mussolini. For the next 15 years, Dumini received income from Mussolini, the Fascist Party, and other sources.

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 unite all classes under a corporate system (the "Third Way").

It was a new system in which the state seized control of the organization of vital areas. Under the banner of nationalism and state power, fascism seemed to synthesize a glorious Roman past with a futuristic utopia.

The effectiveness of fascist propaganda was at such a high level that there was no serious opposition to the Mussolini regime in the country. On April 7, Violeta Gibson shot at Mussolini with a revolver, the bullet only grazed his nose. A psychiatric examination found Gibson insane.

Wanting to maintain good relations with Great Britain, Mussolini ordered her to be sent to her homeland. On December 31, 1926, 15-year-old Anteo Zamboni fired at Benito Mussolini's car, after which he was seized on the spot and torn to pieces by the crowd.

Mussolini also survived a failed assassination attempt in Rome by anarchist Gino Luchetti, and a planned assassination attempt by American anarchist Michael Schirra, which ended in Schirra's capture and execution. Members of the TIGR, a Slovenian anti-fascist group, made an attempt to plot the assassination of Mussolini at Caporetto in 1938, but the attempt was unsuccessful.

After 1922, Mussolini took personal control of the Ministries of the Interior, Foreign Affairs, Colonies, Corporations, Defense, and Public Works. There were periods when he headed seven ministries at the same time, and also served as the prime minister of the country.

He was also the head of the all-powerful Fascist Party and the armed "blackshirt" fascist militia, which nipped in the bud any resistance to the regime in the cities and provinces.

He later formed the OVRA, the Duce's personal security service. His actions were aimed at keeping power in his hands and preventing the emergence of any competitor, in which the Duce succeeded.

Between 1925 and 1927, Mussolini gradually removed virtually all constitutional and customary restrictions on his power, thus building a police state. A law passed on Christmas Eve 1925 changed Mussolini's official title from "President of the Council of Ministers" to "Head of Government".

He was no longer responsible to Parliament and could only be removed from the further exercise of his powers by the king. Local autonomy was abolished and podestas were replaced by mayors and consuls.

All other parties were banned only in 1928, although in practice Italy became a one-party state in 1925. In the same year, the electoral law abolished the parliamentary elections.

Instead, the Grand Fascist Council chose a single list of candidates to be approved by plebiscite. The Grand Council was created five years earlier as a party body, but was "constitutionalized" and became the highest constitutional body in the state.

The Grand Council had the right to bring up for discussion the question of Mussolini's removal from office. However, only Mussolini could convene the Grand Council and determine its agenda. To consolidate control over the South, especially Sicily, he appointed Cesare Mori as prefect of the city of Palermo, demanding that the Mafia be destroyed at all costs.

The new prefect did not hesitate to besiege cities, use torture, hold women and children as hostages, obliging suspects to surrender. For such cruel methods, he received the nickname "Iron Prefect". Mussolini appointed Mori as a senator, and fascist propaganda announced to the country that the mafia had been defeated.

Throughout Italy, Mussolini launched several public building programs and government initiatives to combat economic hardship and unemployment.

The earliest and one of his most famous programs was the Green Revolution, also known as the Bread Race, which built 5,000 new farms and five new agricultural cities on land reclaimed from the draining of the Pontic Marshes.

On December 24, 1928, Mussolnii approves the “Comprehensive Land Reclamation Program”, thanks to which the country received more than 7,700 thousand hectares of new arable land in 10 years. Abandoned and uncultivated territories were quickly put in order and settled by 78 thousand peasants from the poorest regions of Italy.

Work began to be carried out on the banks of the Po River, on the swampy plains along the shores of the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic seas. More than 60,000 hectares of swamps, which had been breeding grounds for molaria for centuries, were drained and divided into 3,000 plots for the poor. New cities were built there. From 1922 to 1930, the number of clinics and hospitals quadrupled.

In Sardinia, the exemplary agricultural town of Mussolinia was built in 1930 and renamed Arborea in 1944. This city was the first of thousands that Mussolini hoped to build throughout the country to improve the country's agricultural production. This plan directed valuable resources to grain production, away from other, less economically viable crops.

The huge tariffs associated with the project contributed to its inefficiency, and government subsidies given to farmers pushed the country into even more debt. Mussolini also launched the "Battle for the Land", a policy based on land development, outlined in 1928. The initiative met with mixed success.

Mussolini hoped to raise the welfare of the peasants, but in reality, only the owners of large estates benefited from his policies.

While projects like draining the Pontine Marshes in 1935 were good for agriculture and propaganda purposes, providing employment for the unemployed and allowing large landowners to control subsidies, other projects in the Battle of the Land were not very successful.

This program was incompatible with the "Battle for the Grain" (small tracts of land were incorrectly set aside for large-scale wheat production), and the Pontine Marshes were lost during World War II. The Battle for the Earth program was terminated in 1940.

He also fought the economic downturn by introducing the Gold for the Motherland program, encouraging the public to voluntarily donate gold jewelry such as necklaces and wedding rings to government officials in exchange for steel bracelets bearing the words "Gold for the Motherland".

Even Rachele Mussolini donated her own engagement ring. The collected gold was melted down and turned into gold bars, which were then distributed to national banks.

Mussolini sought state control of business: in 1935, Mussolini claimed that three-quarters of Italian firms were under state control.

In the same year, he issued several decrees to further control the economy, including forcing all banks, businesses and private citizens to give up all their foreign shares in favor of Bank of Italy bonds.

In 1938 he set wages and regulated prices. He also attempted to turn Italy into an autarchy in its own right by imposing high tariffs on trade with most countries except Germany.

The social policy pursued by him brings Mussolini recognition throughout the world. Gandhi and Freud treat him with respect. In private life, Mussolini is unpretentious and simple. During conversations, he is calm, knows how to control himself, always tries to find the most accurate word or expression. Sometimes he is harsh, the Duce physically cannot stand people who are somehow unpleasant to him. He does not care about money and material values ​​at all.

In 1943 he proposed the theory of economic socialization.

As an Italian dictator, Mussolini was primarily concerned with propaganda and the conquest of the minds of the Italian people. The press, radio, education, films were all carefully controlled to create the illusion that fascism was a twentieth-century doctrine capable of replacing liberalism and democracy.

The principles of this doctrine were laid down in an article on fascism written by Giovanni Gentile and signed by Mussolini, which appeared in 1932 in the Enciclopedia Italiana.

In 1929, the Lateran Accords were signed with the Vatican, under which the Italian state was finally recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, and the Vatican, in turn, was recognized as an Italian state; the agreement also included legal provisions under which the Italian government would protect the honor and dignity of the Pope by prosecuting those responsible.

In 1927, Mussolini was baptized a Catholic priest to appease the Catholic opposition, who were still critical of the fascist regime, which removed papal property and effectively blackmailed the Vatican. Beginning in 1927, Mussolini, with his anti-communist doctrine, urged many Catholics to support him.

The codes of the parliamentary system were rewritten under Mussolini. All teachers in schools and universities had to take an oath that they would defend the fascist regime. On July 10, 1924, a decree is issued that has the force of law, which introduces a restriction on the freedom of the press.

Mussolini personally chose the newspaper editors, and imposed a ban on journalism without a certificate of approval from the Fascist Party. These certificates were secretly issued; thus Mussolini skillfully created the illusion of a "free press".

On July 31, 1924, the Ministry of Press and Propaganda was created in Italy, headed by Dino Alfieri. The measures he took led to the closure of most opposition newspapers. Trade unions were also deprived of any independence and were united in a "corporate system". The goal was to place all Italians in various professional organizations or "corporations" that were under secret government control.

On December 31, the Duce orders the Ministry of Internal Affairs, headed by Luigi Federzoni, to seize opposition journalists and search the homes of the leading leaders of the anti-fascist movement. The police disband the association of "Free Italy", close more than 100 "subversive" institutions and arrest several hundred people.

Large sums of money were spent on public works as well as on prestigious international projects such as the SS Rex Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic and aviation achievements such as the world's fastest seaplane MC72 and Italo Balbo's transatlantic cruise flying machine, which was greeted with much fanfare in United States when he landed in Chicago.

On October 31, 1926, a new law was issued giving the government the right to legislate without the consent of Parliament. And already on December 24, Minister of Justice Alfredo Rocco issues a number of laws aimed at eliminating the administrative and political institutions of the democratic system. The Duce gained full executive power and no longer answered to anyone except the king.

On September 2, 1928, at the suggestion of trade unions and other associations, the Great Fascist Council drew up a pre-election list of candidates for parliament in accordance with the new electoral law, according to which voters vote "for" or "against" the entire list of deputies.

On March 24, parliamentary elections were held, which showed that Italy voluntarily accepts fascism. (Ratio of votes for/against = 8.51/0.13 million people). July 20, 1932 Mussolini took over the leadership of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (his deputy Fulvio Suvic), Dino Grandi was sent as ambassador to London. During 1928 and 1938, the Foro Mussolini sports complex was built in Rome.

Mussolini's obelisk of Carrara marble was also erected there, which is the largest monolith sawn in the twentieth century, weighing almost 300 tons and 17.40 meters high. In 1933, the stadium was built for the games of the World Cup in Turin, held in Italy in 1934, originally called "Mussolini".

In foreign policy, Mussolini moved from pacifist anti-imperialism to aggressive nationalism. He dreamed of making Italy a country that would be "great, respected and feared" throughout Europe and around the world.

A quick example was the bombing of Corfu in 1923. Soon after, he succeeded in creating a puppet regime in Albania and in a ruthless consolidation of Italian power in Libya, which had been free since 1912. His dream was to make the Mediterranean mare nostrum ("our sea" in Latin), and he established a large naval base on the Greek island of Leros to provide a strategic hold on the eastern Mediterranean.

In order to implement plans to create an Italian Empire, or New Roman Empire as its supporters called it, Italy set its sights on an invasion of Ethiopia, which was quickly implemented.

In October 1935, Italy launched a war of conquest against Ethiopia. The Italian forces greatly outnumbered the Abyssinians, especially in aviation, and were soon declared victorious.

In May 1936, Emperor Haile Selassie was forced to flee the country, while Italian troops, having entered the country's capital, Addis Ababa, announced that Ethiopia had become part of Italian East Africa. In connection with the victory in Ethiopia, Mussolini proclaimed the rebirth of the Roman Empire, and King Victor Emmanuel III took the title of Emperor of Ethiopia.

Although all the major European powers of that time also colonized Africa and committed atrocities in their colonies, the colonial partition was completed only at the beginning of the twentieth century. International sentiment was now against colonial expansion and condemned Italy's actions in this regard. In hindsight, Italy was criticized for using mustard gas and phosgene against its enemies, allegedly authorized by Mussolini.

Fearing that the communists would win during the civil war in Spain, the Duce actively supported the nationalists who fought against the republic. Since 1936, the rapprochement between Mussolini and Hitler began. The reason for this was the joint military and economic support for the performance of General Franco in Spain. Suvic was sent as ambassador to the United States, and Mussolini's son-in-law G. Ciano became Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Relations between Mussolini and Adolf Hitler were initially ambiguous, especially worsening after the Nazis assassinated Austrian friend and ally Engelbert Dollfuss, the Austro-fascist dictator of Austria, in 1934.

With the assassination of Dollfuss, Mussolini tried to distance himself from Hitler by rejecting much of racism (notably Nordicism and Germanicism) and radical German antisemitism.

Mussolini, during this period, rejected biological racism, at least in the Nazi form, and instead emphasized the increased "Italianization" of parts of the Italian empire that he wanted to build. He stated that the ideas of eugenics and racially the notion of an "Aryan nation" could not be possible.

June 14, 1934 Mussolini receives Hitler in Venice. On July 25, 1934, in an attempt to stage a coup d'état, the Nazis assassinated Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss. Mussolini hastily mobilizes four divisions, orders them to approach the border - to the Brenner Pass and be ready to go to the aid of the Austrian government.

Mussolini is counting on the support of Great Britain and France - but they are inactive. But the actions of Italy are enough for Hitler to retreat and the coup attempt failed.

On January 4, 1937, Mussolini held talks with Goering, Hitler's emissary. In response to Göring's suggestion that the annexation of Austria be considered a done deal, Mussolini shakes his head and resolutely declares that he will not tolerate any change in the Austrian question.

Mussolini declines an invitation to visit Germany, but sends his son-in-law instead. From August 21 to 24, Ciano held negotiations with von Neurath, after which he was expected to be received by Hitler.

After five refusals to visit Germany, the Duce finally accepts the Fuhrer's invitation in September 1937. Dressed in the form of assault troops, Hitler unfolds a string of grandiose parades in front of the guest for a week, gathers huge rallies, demonstrates all the splendor of a well-functioning military machine, while simultaneously demonstrating his amazing power over the crowd. The military power of Germany, the discipline and high morale of the soldiers shock the Duce.

Mussolini had imperial plans for Tunisia and had some support in that country. In April 1939, Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia, seeking to restore honor from past defeats, Italy invaded Albania. Italy defeated Albania in just five days, forcing the king to flee.

On May 22, 1939, Italian and German Foreign Ministers Ciano and Ribbentrop signed the Italian-German Treaty of Defensive and Offensive Alliance (the so-called "Pact of Steel"). King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy was wary of the treaty, favoring more traditional Italian allies such as France.

Hitler was determined to launch an invasion of Poland, although Galeazzo Ciano warned that this would likely lead to war with the Allies. Hitler dismissed Ciano's comment, predicting that Britain and other Western countries would retreat instead, and he suggested that Italy launch an invasion of Yugoslavia.

Mussolini thought the offer was tempting, but a declaration of war would be disastrous for Italy, due to the extreme shortage of weapons. Also, King Victor Emmanuel advocated the neutrality of Italy in this war.

However, contrary to the obligations of Italy, after the outbreak of war between Germany, on the one hand, and Poland, France and Great Britain, on the other, the Duce declares his neutrality.

He orders to accelerate the construction of defensive structures on the border with Germany. In addition, Italy continues to supply aircraft equipment and vehicles to France.

After the outbreak of World War II, Italian Foreign Minister Ciano and British representative Viscount Halifax held secret telephone conversations. The British wanted to see Italy on their side against Germany, as they did in the First World War.

The French government was more cool towards Italy. However, in September 1939, France decided to discuss controversial issues with Italy, but since the French did not want to discuss territorial disputes about Corsica, Nice and Savoy, Mussolini did not respond to the initiative of the French leadership.

On March 18, 1940, the Duce meets Hitler at the Brenner Pass. Mussolini promised to enter the war, but only after the main forces of France were defeated by the Germans. He laid claim to the historically Italian lands that had once been torn away by France - namely Corsica, Savoy and Nice, as well as Tunisia.

Mussolini, convinced that the war would soon end with a German victory, decided to enter the war on the side of the Axis. Accordingly, Italy declared war on Britain and France on 10 June 1940.

Italy joined the Germans in the fight for France, fighting the fortified Alpine line on the frontier. However, 32 Italian divisions were unable to significantly push the 6 French divisions from their positions in the Alps.

Only eleven days later, France surrendered to the Axis powers. Nice and other southeastern regions of France came under the control of the Italians. Meanwhile, Italian East African forces attacked the British in Sudan, Kenya and the British colony of Somaliland. On August 3, 1940, British Somaliland was conquered and became part of Italian East Africa.

Only more than a month later, the Italian Tenth Army, commanded by General Rodolfo Graziani, moved from Italian Libya to Egypt, where British forces were stationed.

On October 25, 1940, Mussolini sent an Italian air corps to Belgium, where the air force fought against Britain for two months. In October, Mussolini sent Italian forces into Greece, starting the Italo-Greek War.

After initial successes, trouble ensued as the Greek counter-attack continued unabated, resulting in Italy losing a quarter of Albania. Germany soon transferred part of its forces to the Balkans to fight the gathering Allies.

Events in Africa changed in early 1941 as Operation Compass held back the Italian push into Libya, causing huge losses in the Italian army.

Also in the East African Campaign, an attack was launched against Italian forces. Despite resistance, they were defeated at the Battle of Keren and the Italian defense was decisively defeated at the Battle of Gondar.

In danger of losing control of all Italian possessions in North Africa, Germany finally sent the Afrika Korps to support Italy. Meanwhile, Operation Marita was underway in Yugoslavia, ending the Italo-Greek War, leading to Axis victory and the occupation of Greece by Italy and Germany.

With the invasion of the Axis troops into the territory of the Soviet Union, Mussolini declared war on the Soviet Union in June 1941 and sent an army there. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he declared war on the United States.

In May 1941, with the help of partisans, the British liberated Ethiopia, and also occupied the Italian colonies of Eritrea and Somalia. By this time, the transfer of Rommel's African Corps to Libya led to the fact that in North Africa the advantage was on the side of the Italian-German troops. Rommel managed not only to return Cyrenaica, but also to reach El Alamein in the summer of 1942 (100 km from Alexandria).

On October 23, 1942, the counteroffensive of the British troops near El Alamein began, ending in the complete defeat of the Italians and Germans. On November 8, the Americans began landing in Morocco.

On May 13, 1943, the Italian-German troops in Africa with a total number of 250 thousand people (about half of them Italians) capitulated in Tunisia.

On July 10, the Anglo-Americans landed in Sicily. July 19-20 Mussolini met with Hitler in Feltra, asking him to organize the defense of Sicily; but Hitler, busy fighting on the Kursk Bulge, was unable to help his ally and demanded that Mussolini evacuate.

By this time (1943) among the elite, including even the top of the Fascist Party, a conviction had formed about the need to remove Mussolini and withdraw from the war. At the news of the landing in Sicily, the leaders of the Fascist Party, led by Dino Grandi, began to insist that Mussolini convene a Fascist Grand Council.

The Council, which had not met since 1939, was convened on July 24 under the chairmanship of Grandi and passed a resolution demanding the resignation of Mussolini and the transfer of the supreme command of the army into the hands of the king. Mussolini did not recognize this resolution as binding on himself, but the next day he was summoned to an audience with the king and arrested there.

A government was formed, headed by Marshal Pietro Badoglio, who began secret negotiations with the Anglo-Americans. The news of Mussolini's arrest caused violent anti-fascist speeches, and on July 27 the dissolution of the fascist party was announced.

Badoglio began secret negotiations with the Allies to withdraw from the war, and on September 3, an armistice was signed, one of the points of which was the extradition of Mussolini. On the same day, the Anglo-Americans began landings in Italy. On September 8, Italy's withdrawal from the war was officially announced. In response, the Germans occupied Italy.

On September 12, Mussolini, who was held at the Albergo Rifugio Hotel in the Apennine mountains, was released by German paratroopers under the command of Otto Skorzeny. He was taken to a meeting with Hitler, from there to Lombardy, where he headed the puppet "Italian Social Republic" with its capital in the town of Salo (the so-called "Republic of Salo").

In fact, all power in this formation belonged to the German military. September 18, 1943 Mussolini announced the creation of the Republican Fascist Party.

By this time, Mussolini was in very poor health and wanted to retire. However, he was immediately taken to Germany to speak with Hitler at his hiding place in East Prussia.

There, Hitler told him that if he did not agree to return to Italy and create a new fascist state there, the Germans would destroy Milan, Genoa and Turin. Mussolini negotiated the creation of a new regime, the Italian Social Republic, informally known as the Republic of Salo because of its capital city of Salo.

Mussolini lived with Clara Petacci at Gargnano on Lake Garda in Lombardy during this period, but he was little more than a puppet in the hands of his German liberators.

Yielding to pressure from Hitler and the remaining Fascist loyalists who formed the government of the Italian Social Republic, 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 was his son-in-law Galeazzo Ciano.

As head of state and foreign minister of the Italian Social Republic, Mussolini used much of his time to write his memoirs.

April 17, 1945 Mussolini arrives in Milan. He was going to organize resistance in Valtellina, north of Bergamo, or take refuge in Switzerland. On the 25th, he holds long negotiations with the leader of the Resistance, General Cadorna, and the members of the KNOSI Marazza and Lombardi. Mussolini wants to remind that there are still German troops in the country, and was very upset when he learned that the Nazis decided to lay down their arms.

Soon Mussolini and his associates are heading to Lake Como in the Valtellina valley. Arriving at about 9 pm in the city of Como, they occupy the building of the prefecture. Here Raquel joined Mussolini, but the next morning the Duce said goodbye to her.

A small detachment advanced along Lake Como to Menaggio. From Menaggio the road goes to Switzerland. Marshal Graziani, afraid to fall into the hands of the partisans, prefers to surrender to the allies. On the night of April 26-27, the fugitives join a detachment of 200 Germans who are also about to cross the border. A little later, Alessandro Pavolini and Clara Petacci meet with them.

At the small village of Musso, a partisan barrier stops the column. The partisan commander suggests that the column continue on its way, but only the Germans let it through. A German lieutenant puts a soldier's overcoat on Mussolini and hides him in the back of a truck.

The partisans begin to inspect the cars, and one of them recognizes the Duce. Escorted to the village of Dongo, Mussolini spends the night in a peasant's house. The message of his arrest goes to the command of the Allied forces.

Between the secret services of Great Britain and the United States, a real competition is unfolding to kidnap him. Winston Churchill, who would like to forget his admiration for Benito Mussolini in the 1930s, is not averse to removing him before he gives official testimony. This plan was not carried out.

By order of the leadership of the KDS, a small detachment led by Colonel Valerio (Walter Audisio) takes Mussolini and Clara Petacci from the hands of the partisans. On April 28, at 4:10 pm, they were shot on the outskirts of the village of Mezagra. The dead bodies of the Duce and his mistress, as well as the bodies of six other fascist hierarchs, are transported to Milan, where they are hung by their feet from the ceilings of a gas station in Piazzale Loreto. The face of the former dictator is disfigured beyond recognition.

Moreover, there is a strange story about the place of execution of the Duce. 10 years before his death, he was driving near Mezzegra, and his car almost fell off a cliff. Mussolini then said: "Damn this place." It was there, years later, that he was shot.

The bodies of Mussolini and Petacci were brought to Milan. At the gas station near Piazza Loretto, where 15 anti-fascist partisans were executed on August 10, 1944, they, along with the bodies of 5 other executed members of the fascist party, were hung upside down.

After that, the ropes were cut, and the bodies lay for some time in the gutter. On May 1, Mussolini and Petacci were buried in Milan's Muzocco Cemetery (Simitero Maggiore), in an unmarked grave on a plot for the poor.

Fascist loyalist Achilles Staras was captured, sentenced to death, then taken to the Piazzale Loreto and shown to him the body of Mussolini. Staras, who once said of Mussolini "He is God", saluted his leader, after which he was shot. Staras' body was hung next to Mussolini's.

On Easter 1946, Mussolini's body was exhumed and stolen by three neo-fascists led by Domenico Leccisi. The body was found in August of that year, but remained unburied for 10 years due to a lack of political consensus. Currently, Mussolini rests in a family crypt in his hometown of Predappio.

Mussolini first married Ida Dalzer in Trento in 1914. A year later, the couple had a son, Benito Albino Mussolini. In December 1915, Mussolini married Raquel Guidi, his mistress since 1910, after coming to power, all information about the first marriage was hushed up, and his wife and son were repressed.

By Rachele, Mussolini had two daughters, Eddie and Anna Maria, and three sons, Vittorio, Bruno, and Romano. Mussolini had many mistresses, including Margherita Sarfatti and his last companion, Clara Petacci.

In addition, Mussolini had innumerable brief sexual encounters with women, according to biographer Nicholas Farrell. The third son, Bruno, died in a plane crash while flying a P108 bomber on a test mission, August 7, 1941.

Titled The Unknown Mussolini, the book contains excerpts from Petacci's diaries written between 1932 and 1938. In particular, the diaries say that the Duce considered Adolf Hitler an overly sentimental person, but envied the fame and power of the Nazi dictator.

He emphasized that his racist and anti-Semitic beliefs originated in the 1920s, that is, before Hitler became famous.
Another entry in the diary indicates that Mussolini was extremely unhappy with the fact that the Italians in the African colonies were establishing relations with the locals.
In 1923, Mussolini called Rome "the eternal heart of our race", and in 1934 he banned the book "Black Love" about the romance of an Italian and an African. In 1929, when the Italian Academy was founded, Jews were not included in it, and in 1934 an anti-Semitic campaign was carried out in the newspapers. Mussolini issued a series of racist laws:

* April 19, 1937 - Decree on the prohibition of mixing with Ethiopians
* December 30, 1937 - Decree on the prohibition of mixing with Arabs
* November 17, 1938 - a decree on the prohibition of mixing with Jews and the prohibition of Jews from being in state and military service.
Duce was engaged in fencing, swimming, skiing, horseback riding, made long runs along the beach, participated in regattas. He was into flying. In his hobbies, Mussolini led the movement he propagated for a healthy lifestyle. Duce's favorite football club was Rome's Lazio.

— Italian awards
* The highest order of the Holy Annunciation - 1924
* Military Order of Italy - May 7, 1936
* Order of Saints Mauritius and Lazarus
* Civil and military Order of the Roman Eagle
* Order of the Crown of Italy
* Colonial Order of the Star of Italy
* Medal of Honor"
* Commemorative medal of the Italo-Austrian war 1915-18
* Commemorative medal for the Italian victory
* Medal in memory of the unification of Italy
* Medal in memory of the March on Rome
* Cross for 20 years of service in the Volunteer Militia for National Security
* Order of Malta
* Order of the Holy Sepulcher
* Insignia of the German Red Cross
* Grand Cross of the Order of Beza
* Order of Skanderbeg

- Awards from other countries
* Order of the German Eagle
* Order of the Golden Spur
* Military Order of Lachplesis
* Order of the Bath
* Cross of Liberty
* Order of the Seraphim
* Order of the Elephant
* Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum
* Grand Cross of the Order of the Southern Cross - January 12, 1934/XII

— Mussolini's writings
* Giovanni Hus, il Veridico (Jan Hus, True prophet), Rome (1913). Published in America as John Hus (New York: Albert and Charles Boni, 1929). Republished by the Italian Book Co., NY (1939) as John Hus, the Veracious.
* The Cardinal's Mistress (trans. Hiram Motherwell, New York: Albert and Charles Boni, 1928)
* There is an essay on "The Doctrine of Fascism" written by Benito Mussolini that appeared in the 1932 edition of the Enciclopedia Italiana, and excerpts can be read at Doctrine of Fascism. There are also links to the complete text.
* La Mia Vita ("My Life"), Mussolini's autobiography written upon request of the American Ambassador in Rome (Child). Mussolini, at first not interested, decided to dictate the story of his life to Arnaldo Mussolini, his brother. The story covers the period up to 1929, includes Mussolini’s personal thoughts on Italian politics and the reasons that motivated his new revolutionary idea. It covers the march on Rome and the beginning of the dictatorship and includes some of his most famous speeches in the Italian Parliament (Oct 1924, Jan 1925).
* From 1951 to 1962 Edoardo and Duilio Susmel worked for the publisher "La Fenice" in order to print opera omnia (the complete works) of Mussolini in 35 volumes.

Mussolini , Benito (Mussolini) (1882-1945) - the leader of the Italian fascists, the fascist dictator of Italy in 1922-1943. He was born in the family of a blacksmith artisan. In his youth, he was a teacher at a rural school in the Romagna region. For connection with a revolutionary organization, he was persecuted by the police and fled to Switzerland. After the amnesty, he returned to Italy and settled in the mountains. Forli. Here he began to take an active part in the socialist movement and soon became secretary of the local federation of the socialist party. Translated from French the book of Peter Kropotkin "History of the French Revolution". Thanks to his efforts, by 1912 in the mountains. Forli, a strong socialist organization was created, which published the newspaper Class Struggle under the editorship of Mussolini. At the congress of the Italian Socialist Party in Reggio Emilia (1912), Mussolini led the extreme left faction of the "irreconcilables". Thanks to the demands of this faction, the congress expelled the right-wing reformists (Bissolati, Bonomi, Kobrik, and others) from the party. At the same congress, Mussolini was elected editor of the central organ of the Italian socialist party Avanti. Shortly before the World War, in July 1914, Mussolini led a massive uprising in Forli and Ravenna. During the same period, he insisted on the exclusion of the Freemasons from the party. When the world war broke out, Mussolini first spoke in the pages of "Avanti" for the neutrality of Italy. However, he soon began to lean towards the idea that Italy should intervene in the world war on the side of the Triple Entente. In response to this, the Italian Socialist Party, which remained true to the principles of revolutionary internationalism, in September 1914 expelled Mussolini from its ranks. Then Mussolini, at the expense of a group of Italian capitalists, founded the social-chauvinist newspaper "Italian People" in Rome. Soon after, he volunteered for the front, where he was wounded. After the end of the war, Mussolini began to organize the first fascist detachments, first putting forward extremely left demagogic demands to attract the broad masses: land for the working people, a constituent assembly, confiscation of military profits, etc. In 1920, at the height of the revolutionary movement in Italy, the fascist detachments received strong financial support from the big bourgeoisie and the agrarians, who were afraid of strengthening the proletarian uprisings, and Mussolini, rejecting demagogic demands, began to wage a fierce struggle against the communists and revolutionary workers. During this period, the fascist detachments were especially zealous in the villages, brutally suppressing peasant uprisings. In May 1921, Mussolini was elected to the chamber. Supported by all sections of the reactionary bourgeoisie, a significant part of the intelligentsia, seduced by the slogan of "great Italy", as well as some backward sections of the workers, Mussolini makes his famous "march on Rome" and on October 29, 1922, seizes power from the insufficiently aggressive liberal government of Giolitti. Since the conquest of power, the fascist party under the leadership of Mussolini has been conducting a regime of iron bourgeois dictatorship in Italy: merciless persecution of the working class, the struggle against the 8-hour working day and for lower wages, etc., have begun. Disregarding any parliamentary conventions, Mussolini passes a new electoral law whereby the party with the most votes wins 2/3 of all seats in the House. Mussolini's evolution towards the full protection of the interests of the big imperialist bourgeoisie caused a process of internal disintegration among fascism. Recently, petty-bourgeois groups have broken away from the party, having become disillusioned with Mussolini's policies. In 1926, 4 unsuccessful assassination attempts were made on Mussolini, to which the government each time responded with the most severe terror. All 1000 biographies alphabetically: