Everything about Benito Mussolini totally explained
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (
July 29,
1883 –
April 28,
1945) was an
Italian who led the
National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of
Fascism. He became the
Prime Minister of Italy in 1922 and began using the title
Il Duce by 1925. Mussolini continued on in this role until he was replaced in 1943; for a short period after this until his death Mussolini was the leader of the
Italian Social Republic.
Mussolini was among the founders of
Italian fascism, which included elements of
nationalism,
corporativism,
national syndicalism,
expansionism,
social progress and
anti-communism in combination with
censorship of
subversives and state
propaganda. In the years following his creation of the fascist ideology, Mussolini influenced, or achieved admiration from, a wide variety of political figures.
Among the domestic achievements of Mussolini from the years 1924–1939 were: his
public works programmes such as the taming of the
Pontine Marshes, the improvement of job opportunities, and
public transport. Mussolini also solved the
Roman Question by concluding the
Lateran Treaty between the
Kingdom of Italy and the
Holy See. He is also credited with securing economic success in
Italy's colonies and commercial dependencies.
Although he initially favoured siding with
France against
Germany in the early
1930s, Mussolini became one of the main figures of the
Axis powers and, on
10 June 1940, Mussolini led Italy into
World War II on the side of Axis. Three years later, Mussolini was deposed at the
Grand Council of Fascism, prompted by the
Allied invasion. Soon after his incarceration began, Mussolini was rescued from prison in the daring
Gran Sasso raid by
German special forces.
Following his rescue, Mussolini headed the
Italian Social Republic in parts of Italy that were not occupied by Allied forces. In late April, 1945, with total defeat looming, Mussolini attempted to escape to
Switzerland, only to be captured and
summarily executed near
Lake Como by
Communist Italian partisans. His body was taken to
Milan where it was hung upside down at a petrol station for public viewing and to provide confirmation of his demise.
Early life
Mussolini was born in
Dovia di Predappio, a humble
rural town in the province of
Forlì in
Emilia-Romagna. The family Mussolini was born into was of a
working class background; his father Alessandro Mussolini was a
blacksmith and a socialist activist, while his mother Rosa Mussolini (
née Maltoni) was a
school teacher, unlike her husband she was a devout Catholic. Owing to his father's political leanings Mussolini was named
Benito after
Mexican reformist President
Benito Juárez; while his middle names
Andrea and
Amilcare were from Italian
socialists
Andrea Costa and
Amilcare Cipriani. Benito was the eldest of his parent's three children, his siblings Arnaldo and Edvige followed.
In 1891, Mussolini was banned from his local
church for throwing stones at the congregation after
Mass. Mussolini had never been
baptized, and would be only in 1927. He was sent to
boarding school later that year and at age 11 was
expelled for stabbing a fellow student in the hand and throwing an inkpot at a teacher. He did, however, receive good grades, and qualified as an elementary schoolmaster in 1901.
Although his military record was unremarkable, it was without blemish and it has been suggested that he may have been prevented from moving further along in the ranks due to his ongoing political agitation in various periodicals. Much later in life Mussolini said he felt by 1919 "Socialism as a doctrine was already dead; it continued to exist only as a grudge". On
March 23,
1919, Mussolini reformed the Milan
fascio as the
Fasci Italiani di Combattimento (Italian Combat Squad), consisting of 200 members.
An important factor in fascism gaining support in its earliest stages, was the fact that it opposed discrimination based on
social class and was strongly opposed to all forms of
class war. Fascism instead supported
nationalist sentiments such as a strong unity, regardless of class, in the hopes of raising Italy up to the levels of its great
Roman past. This side of fascism endeered itself to the
aristocracy and the
bourgeois as it assured to protect their existence, after the
Russian Revolution they'd greatly feared the prospect of a bloody class war coming to Italy by the hand of the communists and the socialists. Mussolini didn't ignore the plight of the
working class however and gained their support with stances such as those in
The Manifesto of the Fascist Struggle, published in June 1919. In the manifesto he demanded amongst other things; creation of a
minimum wage, to show the same confidence in the
labor unions (which prove to be technically and morally worthy) as was given to industry executives or public servants, voting rights for women, as well as the systemisation of public transport such as
railways.
Mussolini and the fascists managed to be simultaneously
revolutionary and
traditionalist, because this was vastly different to anything else in the political climate of the time it's sometimes described as "The Third Way". The Fascisti, led by one of Mussolini's close confidants,
Dino Grandi, formed armed squads of war veterans called
Blackshirts (or
squadristi) with the goal of restoring order to the streets of Italy with a strong hand. The blackshirts clashed with
communists, socialists and
anarchists at parades and demonstrations, all of these factions were also involved in clashed against each other. The government rarely interfered with the blackshirts' actions, due in part to a looming threat and widespread fear of a communist revolution. The Fascisti grew so rapidly that within two years, it transformed itself into the
National Fascist Party at a congress in
Rome. Also in 1921, Mussolini was elected to the
Chamber of Deputies for the first time. On
January 3,
1925, Mussolini made a truculent speech before the Chamber in which he took responsibility for squadristi violence (though he didn't mention the assassination of Matteotti). He also promised a crackdown on dissenters. Before his speech, MVSN detachments beat up the opposition and prevented opposition newspapers from publishing. Mussolini correctly predicted that as soon as public opinion saw him firmly in control the "fence-sitters", the silent majority and the "place-hunters" would all place themselves behind him. This is considered the onset of Mussolini's dictatorship. From late 1925 until the mid-1930s, fascism experienced little and isolated opposition, although that which it did was memorable.
While failing to outline a coherent program, Fascism evolved into a new political and economic system that combined
totalitarianism,
nationalism,
anti-communism,
anti-capitalism and anti-liberalism into a state designed to bind all classes together under a
corporatist system (the "Third Way"). This was a new system in which the state seized control of the organisation of vital industries. Under the banners of nationalism and state power, Fascism seemed to synthesise the glorious
Roman past with a futuristic
utopia.
Building a dictatorship
Assassination Attempts
Mussolini's influence in propaganda was such that he'd surprisingly little opposition to suppress. Nonetheless, he was "slightly wounded in the nose" when he was shot on
April 7 1926 by
Violet Gibson, an
Irish woman and sister of
Baron Ashbourne. In January 1927, 15 year old Anteo Zamboni attempted to shoot Mussolini in Bologna. Zamboni was lynched on the spot. Mussolini also survived a failed assassination attempt in Rome by
anarchist Gino Lucetti, and a planned attempt by
American anarchist Michael Schirru, which ended with Schirru's capture and execution.
Police state
At various times after 1922, Mussolini personally took over the ministries of the interior, foreign affairs, colonies, corporations, defense, and public works. Sometimes he held as many as seven departments simultaneously, as well as the premiership. He was also head of the all-powerful Fascist Party and the armed local fascist militia, the
MVSN or "Blackshirts," who terrorised incipient resistances in the cities and provinces. He would later form the
OVRA, an institutionalised
secret police that carried official state support. In this way he succeeded in keeping power in his own hands and preventing the emergence of any rival.
Over the next two years, Mussolini progressively dismantled virtually all constitutional and conventional restraints on his power, thereby building a
police state. A law passed on
Christmas Eve 1925 changed Mussolini's formal title from "president of the Council of Ministers" to "head of the government." He was no longer responsible to Parliament and could only be removed by the king. While the
Italian constitution stated that ministers were only responsible to the sovereign, in practice it had become all but impossible to govern against the express will of Parliament. The Christmas Eve law ended this practice, and also made Mussolini the only person competent to determine the body's agenda. Local autonomy was abolished, and
podestas appointed by the
Italian Senate replaced elected mayors and councils.
All other parties were outlawed in 1928, though in practice Italy had been a one-party state since Mussolini's 1925 speech. In the same year, an electoral law abolished parliamentary elections. Instead, the
Grand Council of Fascism selected a single list of candidates to be approved by plebiscite. The Grand Council had been created five years earlier as a party body but was "constitutionalised" and became the highest constitutional authority in the state. The Grand Council also had the power to recommend Mussolini's removal from office, and was thus theoretically the only check on his power. However, only Mussolini could summon the Grand Council and determine its agenda.
Economic policy
Mussolini launched several public construction programs and government initiatives throughout Italy to combat economic setbacks or
unemployment levels. His earliest, and one of the best known, was Italy's equivalent of the
Green Revolution, known as the "Battle for Grain", in which 5,000 new farms were established and five new agricultural towns on land reclaimed by draining the
Pontine Marshes. This plan diverted valuable resources to grain production, away from other less economically viable crops. The huge
tariffs associated with the project promoted widespread inefficiencies, and the government
subsidies given to farmers pushed the country further into debt. Mussolini also initiated the "Battle for Land", a policy based on
land reclamation outlined in 1928. The initiative had a mixed success; while projects such as the draining of the Pontine Marsh in 1935 for
agriculture were good for propaganda purposes, provided work for the
unemployed and allowed for great land owners to control subsidies, other areas in the Battle for Land were not very successful. This program was inconsistent with the Battle for Grain (small plots of land were inappropriately allocated for large-scale wheat production), and the Pontine Marsh was lost during
World War II. Fewer than 10,000
peasants resettled on the redistributed land, and peasant poverty remained high. The Battle for Land initiative was abandoned in 1940.
He also combated an
economic recession by introducing the "Gold for the Fatherland" initiative, by encouraging the public to voluntarily donate
gold jewellery such as
necklaces and
wedding rings to government officials in exchange for
steel wristbands bearing the words "Gold for the Fatherland". Even
Rachele Mussolini donated her own wedding ring. The collected gold was then melted down and turned into gold bars, which were then distributed to the
national banks.
Mussolini pushed for government control of business: by 1935, Mussolini claimed that three quarters of Italian businesses were under state control. That same year, he issued several edicts to further control the economy, including forcing all banks, businesses, and private citizens to give up all their foreign-issued stocks and bonds to the Bank of Italy. In 1938, he also instituted wage and
price controls. He also attempted to turn Italy into a self-sufficient
autarky, instituting high barriers on trade with most countries except
Germany.
Government by propaganda
As dictator of Italy, Mussolini's foremost priority was the subjugation of the minds of the Italian people and the use of
propaganda to do so; whether at home or abroad, and here his training as a journalist was invaluable. Press, radio, education, films—all were carefully supervised to create the illusion that fascism was
the doctrine of the twentieth century, replacing liberalism and democracy.
The principles of this doctrine were laid down in the article on fascism, written by
Giovanni Gentile and signed by Mussolini that appeared in 1932 in the
Enciclopedia Italiana. In 1929, a concordat with the
Vatican was signed, the
Lateran treaties, by which the Italian state was at last recognised by the
Roman Catholic Church, and the independence of
Vatican City was recognised by the Italian state. In 1927, Mussolini was
baptised by a Roman Catholic
priest in order to take away certain Catholic opposition, who were still very critical of a regime which had taken away papal property and virtually
blackmailed the Vatican. However, Mussolini was never known to be a practicing Catholic, and was privately very hostile to the church. Since 1927, and more even after 1929, Mussolini, with his anti-Communist doctrines, convinced many Catholics to actively support him. In the encyclical
Non abbiamo bisogno,
Pope Pius XI attacked the Fascist regime for its policy against the
Catholic Action and certain tendencies to overrule Catholic education morals.
The law codes of the
parliamentary system were rewritten under Mussolini. All teachers in schools and universities had to swear an oath to defend the fascist regime. Newspaper editors were all personally chosen by Mussolini and no one who didn't possess a certificate of approval from the fascist party could practice journalism. These certificates were issued in secret; Mussolini thus skillfully created the illusion of a "free press". The trade unions were also deprived of any independence and were integrated into what was called the
"corporative" system. The aim (never completely achieved), inspired by medieval guilds, was to place all Italians in various professional organizations or "corporations", all of which were under clandestine governmental control.
Large sums of money were spent on highly visible public works, and on international prestige projects such as the
SS Rex Blue Riband ocean liner and aeronautical achievements such as the world's fastest
seaplane the
Macchi M.C.72 and the transatlantic flying boat cruise of
Italo Balbo, who was greeted with much fanfare in the
United States when he landed in
Chicago.
Foreign policy
In
foreign policy, Mussolini soon shifted from the
pacifist anti-
imperialism of his lead-up to power to an extreme form of aggressive nationalism. An early example was his bombardment of
Corfu in 1923. Soon after he succeeded in setting up a
puppet regime in
Albania and in ruthlessly consolidating Italian power in
Libya, which had been loosely a colony since 1912. It was his dream to make the
Mediterranean mare nostrum ("our sea" in
Latin), and he established a large naval base on the Greek island of
Leros to enforce a strategic hold on the eastern Mediterranean.
Conquest of Ethiopia
In an effort to realise an
Italian Empire or the
New Roman Empire as supporters called it, Italy set its sights on
Ethiopia with an invasion that was carried out rapidly. Italy's forces were far superior to the Abyssinian forces, especially in regards to air power and were soon
declared victors. Emperor
Haile Selassie was forced to flee the country, with Italy entering the capital
Addis Ababa to proclaim an Empire by May 1936, making Ethiopia part of
Italian East Africa.
Despite the fact that all of the major European powers of the time had also colonised parts of Africa, including some who maintained power by particularly brutal means such as the
French and
British, detractors of Mussolini commonly choose to single out Italy's actions. Retroactively, Italy was criticised for its use of
mustard gas and
phosgene against its enemies and also for its zero tolerance approach to enemy guerrillas, allegedly authorised by Mussolini.
When
Rodolfo Graziani the
viceroy of Ethiopia was nearly assassinated at an official ceremony, with the guerrilla bomb actually exploding among the people there, a very stronghanded reaction followed against the guerrillas, including those who were prisoners according to the
International Red Cross. The IRC also alleged that Italy bombed their tents in areas of guerrillas military encampment; though Italy denied it had intended to, insisting that the rebels were targeted. It wasn't until the
East African Campaign's conclusion in 1941 that Italy lost its East African territories, after taking on a fourteen nation allied force.
Spanish Civil War
His active intervention in 1936–1939 on the side of
Franco in the
Spanish Civil War ended any possibility of reconciliation with
France and
Britain. As a result, his relationship with
Adolf Hitler became closer, and he chose to accept the German
annexation of
Austria in 1938 and the dismemberment of
Czechoslovakia in 1939. At the
Munich Conference in September 1938, he posed as a moderate working for European peace, helping
Nazi Germany seize control of the
Sudetenland. His "axis" with Germany was confirmed when he made the "
Pact of Steel" with Hitler in May 1939, as the previous "
Rome-Berlin Axis" of 1936 had been unofficial. Members of
TIGR, a Slovene anti-fascist group, plotted to kill Mussolini in
Kobarid in 1938, but their attempt was unsuccessful.
Axis power
Rome-Berlin relations
The relationship between Mussolini and Adolf Hitler was a contentious one early on. While Hitler cited Mussolini as an influence, Mussolini had gone as far as deriding Hitler as "a
barbarian, a criminal and a
pederast" after the Nazis had assassinated his friend and ally,
Engelbert Dollfuss the
Austrofascist dictator of
Austria in 1933. Both movements focused heavily on
the state and
conquest, though there was some conflicting views of ideology: while Hitler lauded
racialism and
anti-semitism, Mussolini and the Italian fascists did not. Mussolini viewed himself as a modern day
Roman Emperor, a
cultural elite and wished to "
Italianise" the parts of the
Italian Empire he'd desired to build. A cultural superiority, rather than a view of racialism. The difference being that a culture can be learned, while a race cannot.
Incidentally, the British would question even the Germans claims of "racial purity" by commonly deriding the Nazis as "
Huns", a reference to the fact that Germany was once conquered and made part of the
Hunnic Empire, a
mongoloid people. Regardless of some differences in ideology, Hitler's
Nazi Germany had clearly established itself as a formidable power that was rising quickly in prominence by the mid-1930s and in November 1936, Mussolini had coined the term
Axis Powers to refer to the Rome-Berlin relationship between the states. Ideologically Italian fascism didn't discriminate against the
Italian Jewish community: Mussolini recognised that a small contingent had lived there "since the days of the
Kings of Rome" and should "remain undisturbed". There was even some Jews in the
National Fascist Party, such as Ettore Ovazza who in 1935 founded the Jewish Fascist paper
La Nostra Bandiera. However by 1938, the enormous influence Hitler now had over Mussolini became clear with the introduction of the
Manifesto of Race. The Manifesto, which was closely modeled on the Nazi
Nuremberg laws
Munich Conference, war looming
The
Allies still regarded Mussolini as approachable at this point and
Il Duce acted as the go-between at the
Munich Agreement. This was an effort to avoid all-out warfare between the powers, which was signed by
Neville Chamberlain of Britain,
Édouard Daladier of France, as well as Mussolini and Hitler. However the
Italia irredenta stance, desired the returning of lands which previous belonged to older states now incorporated inside of Italy, to complete the
Italian unification. This included
Nice which was part of the
Kingdom of Sardinia until 1860 as well as
Savoy,
Corsica which was part of the
Republic of Genoa until 1768,
Dalmatia which was part of the
Republic of Venice until 1797 and
Malta which was part of the
Kingdom of Sicily until 1530.
Mussolini had imperial designs on
Tunisia which had some
support in that country. In April 1939 with world focus on Hitler's invasion of
Czechoslovakia, looking to restore honour from a much older defeat
Italy invaded Albania. Italy defeated
Albania within just five days forcing king
Zog to flee, setting up a period of
Albania under Italy. Until May 1939, the Axis hadn't been entirely official, however during that month the
Pact of Steel treaty was made outlining the "
friendship and
alliance" between Germany and Italy, signed by each of its foreign ministers. Italy's king
Victor Emanuel III was also wary of the pact, favouring the more
traditional Italian allies of Britain and France.
Hitler was intent on invading
Poland, though
Galeazzo Ciano warned this would likely lead to war with the Allies. Hitler dismissed Ciano's comment, predicting that instead the West would back down like with Czechoslovakia and suggested that Italy should invade
Yugoslavia. The offer was tempting to Mussolini, but at that stage world war would be a disaster for Italy as the
armaments situation from building the
Italian Empire thus-far was lean. Most significantly, Victor Emmanuel had demanded neutrality in the dispute. Thus when
World War II in
Europe began on
September 1,
1939 with the
German invasion of Poland eliciting the response of the
United Kingdom and
France declaring war on Germany, Italy remained
non-belligerent in the conflict.
War declared
As World War II began, Ciano and
Viscount Halifax were holding secret phone conversations. The British wanted Italy on their side against Germany as it had been in
World War I. French government opinion was more geared towards action against Italy, they were itching to attack Italy in
Libya. Though in September 1939, France swung to the opposite extreme, offering to discuss issues with Italy, but as the French were unwilling to discuss Corsica, Nice and Savoy, Mussolini didn't answer.
Convinced that the war would soon be over, with a German victory looking likely at that point, Mussolini decided to enter the war on the Axis side. Accordingly, Italy declared war on Britain and France on
June 10 1940. Italy joined the Germans in the
Battle of France, fighting the fortified
Alpine Line at the border: just eleven days later France surrendered to the
Axis powers, included in
Italian controlled France was most of
Nice and other south-eastern counties. Meanwhile in Africa, Mussolini's
Italian East Africa forces attacked the British in their
Sudan,
Kenya and
British Somaliland colonies, in what would become known as the
East African Campaign. British Somaliland was conquered and became part of Italian East Africa on
August 3,
1940, there were Italian advances in Sudan and Kenya.
Just over a month later, the
Italian Tenth Army commanded by General
Rodolfo Graziani crossed from
Italian Libya into
Egypt where British forces were located; this would become the
Western Desert Campaign. Advances were successful, but the Italians stopped at
Sidi Barrani waiting for
logistic supplies to catch up. During
October 25,
1940, Mussolini sent the
Italian Air Corps to
Belgium, where the airforce took part in the
Battle of Britain for around two months. In October, Mussolini also sent Italian forces into
Greece starting the
Greco-Italian War, after initial success this backfired, as the Greek counterattack proved relentless, resulting in Italy losing one quarter of Albania. Germany soon committed forces to the
Balkans to fight the gathering
Allies.
Events in Africa had changed by early 1941,
Operation Compass had forced the Italians back into Libya, with some additional losses. Also in the
East African Campaign, a three pronged Allied invasion against Italian East Africa took place, though the Italians fought back hard, the mulitple-nation force they faced was too much and after the
Battle of Keren defense started to crumble.
With mounting losses for the Italian armed forces being spoken of in the public spotlight, in February 1941 Mussolini informed the Italian people that the armed forces were indeed facing serious difficulties in North Africa and that the Fascist regime wasn't diminishing this in any way:
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Germany finally supported Italy with the
Afrika Korps, with fighting continuing on long into 1941 when
Gondar was lost in November. Italy was part of the Axis
invasion of Yugoslavia, which was greatly successful, the same month the
Battle of Greece ended in Italian victory with Axis support. With the
Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, Mussolini declared war on the
Soviet Union in June 1941 and sent an
army to fight there. After the
Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor, he declared war on the
United States.
Dismissed and arrested
Italy's position had become untenable by the summer of 1943. The Allies had defeated the Axis in the
Tunisia Campaign, and there were also major setbacks on the
Eastern Front. Only two months after the Allied victory in Tunisia, the war came to the nation's very doorstep with the
Allied invasion of Sicily. Earlier, Mussolini had begged Hitler to make a separate peace with Stalin and send German troops to the west to guard against an expected Allied invasion of Italy, believing it was the next step for
Dwight Eisenhower's armies after the losses in North Africa. Within a few days of the Allied landings on Sicily, it was obvious Mussolini's army was on the brink of collapse. This led Hitler to summon Mussolini to a meeting in northern Italy on
July 19. By this time, Mussolini was so shaken that he could no longer stand Hitler's boasting. His mood darkened further when that same day, the Allies bombed Rome--the first time that city had ever been the target of enemy bombing.
The home front was also in bad shape as the Allied bombings were taking their toll. The factories were ground to a virtual standstill due to a lack of
raw materials, coal and oil. Additionally, there was a chronic shortage of food, and what food was available was being sold at nearly confiscatory prices. Some Italians began to lose trust in governmental reports and turned to
Vatican Radio or
Radio London for more accurate news coverage. Discontent came to a head in March with a wave of strikes in the industrial north--the first large-scale strikes since 1925. Also in March, some of the major factories in
Milan and
Turin stopped production to secure evacuation allowances for workers' families. The physical German presence in Italy had sharply turned public opinion against Mussolini; for example, when the Allies took Sicily, the public welcomed them as liberators.
Some prominent members of the
Italian Fascist government had turned against Mussolini by this point. Among them were Grandi and Mussolini's son-in-law Ciano. With several of his colleagues close to revolt,
il Duce was forced to summon the
Grand Council of Fascism on
July 24. When he announced that the Germans were thinking of evacuating the south, Grandi launched a blistering attack on him. Grandi moved a resolution asking the king to resume his full constitutional powers--a
vote of no confidence in Mussolini. This motion carried by a 19-7 margin. Despite this sharp rebuke, Mussolini showed up for work the next day as usual. He allegedly viewed the Grand Council as merely an advisory body and didn't think the vote would have any substantive effect.
By this time, discontent with Mussolini was such that when the news of his ouster was announced on the radio, there was no resistance.
Due to the large Nazi presence in Italy, Badoglio announced that "the war continues at the side of our Germanic ally" in the hopes that chaos and Nazi retaliation against civilians could be avoided. Even as Badolglio was keeping up the appearance of loyalty to the Axis, he dissolved the Fascist Party two days after taking over. Also, his government was negotiating an
armistice with the Allies, which was signed on
September 3,
1943. Its announcement five days later threw Italy into chaos, a
civil war of sorts. Badoglio and the king fled
Rome, leaving the
Italian Army without orders. After a period of anarchy, Italy finally declared war on
Nazi Germany on October 13 from
Malta; thousands of troops were supplied to fight against the Germans, others refused to switch sides and had joined the Germans. The Badoglio government held a social truce with the
leftist partisans for the sake of Italy and to rid the land of the Nazis.
Italian Social Republic
Meanwhile, only two months after Mussolini had been dismissed and arrested, he was rescued from prison in the
Gran Sasso raid by
German special forces on
September 12,
1943; this was carried out by
Otto Skorzeny. The rescue saved Mussolini from being turned over to the Allies, as per the armistice.
Mussolini's body
On
April 291945, the bodies of Mussolini and his mistress were taken to the Piazzale Loreto (in
Milan) and hung upside down on meathooks from the roof of a gas station, then stoned by civilians from below. This was done both to discourage any fascists from continuing the fight and as an act of revenge for the hanging of many partisans in the same place by Axis authorities. The corpse of the deposed leader became subject to ridicule and abuse.
After his death, and the display of his corpse in Milan, Mussolini was buried in an unmarked grave in
Musocco, the municipal cemetery to the north of the city. On
Easter Sunday 1946 his body was located and dug up by
Domenico Leccisi and two other
neo-Fascists. Making off with their hero, they left a message on the open grave: "Finally, O Duce, you're with us. We will cover you with roses, but the smell of your virtue will overpower the smell of those roses."
On the loose for months—and a cause of great anxiety to the new Italian democracy—the Duce's body was finally 'recaptured' in August, hidden in a small trunk at the
Certosa di Pavia, just outside Milan. Two
Fransciscan brothers were subsequently charged with concealing the corpse, though it was discovered on further investigation that he'd been constantly on the move. Unsure what to do, the authorities held the remains in a kind of political limbo for 10 years, before agreeing to allow them to be re-interred at
Predappio in
Romagna, his birth place, after a campaign headed by Leccisi and the Movimento Sociale Italiano.
Leccisi, now a fascist deputy, went on to write his autobiography,
With Mussolini Before and After Piazzale Loreto. Adone Zoli, the Prime Minister of the day, contacted
Donna Rachele, the former dictator's widow, to tell her he was returning the remains, as he needed the support of the far-right in parliament, including Leccisi himself. In Predappio the dictator was buried in a
crypt (the only posthumous honour granted to Mussolini). His tomb is flanked by
marble fasces and a large idealised marble
bust of himself sits above the
tomb.
Legacy
Mussolini was survived by his wife,
Donna Rachele Mussolini, two sons,
Vittorio and
Romano Mussolini, and his daughter
Edda, the widow of Count Ciano and Anna Maria. A third son,
Bruno, was killed in an air accident while flying a P108 bomber on a test mission, on
August 7,
1941.
Sophia Loren's sister, Anna Maria Scicolone, was formerly married to Romano Mussolini, Mussolini's son.
Mussolini's granddaughter
Alessandra Mussolini is currently a member of the
European Parliament for the extreme
right-wing party
Alternativa Sociale; other relatives of Edda (Castrianni) moved to
England after World War II.
Mussolini's
National Fascist Party was banned in the postwar
Constitution of Italy, but a number of successor neo-fascist parties emerged to carry on its legacy. Mussolini's granddaughter,
Alessandra Mussolini, runs one of the primary neo-fascist parties in modern Italy,
Azione Sociale. Historically, the strongest neo-fascist party was
MSI (
Movimento Sociale Italiano), which was declared dissolved in 1995 and replaced by the
National Alliance, which distanced itself from Fascism (its leader
Gianfranco Fini once declared that Fascism was "an absolute evil"). These parties were united under
Silvio Berlusconi's
House of Freedoms coalition and the leader of the National Alliance,
Gianfranco Fini, was one of Berlusconi's most trusted advisors. In 2006, the
House of Freedoms coalition was narrowly defeated by
Romano Prodi's coalition,
L'Unione.
In popular culture
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As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
