Contrary to popular belief, Benito Mussolini ascended to power legally, according to the Italian Constitution; appointed directly by King Victor Emmanuel III. No revolution took place.
The Italian government at this time was very weak. The ruling Liberals had gained a reputation of being corrupt and uninspired to challenge Italy’s social and political problems, tending to simply rig and buy off elections as a solution to the political turmoil. They had ruled before the war and had suffered a split over the war intervention issue from which they never recovered.
Italy emerged from the war with soaring inflation, a huge debt and unemployment spurred on by the demobilization of the army. To stave off uprisings among the poor, the government subsidized almost everything from bread to clothes. Its expenditure was far greater than its revenue, yet the Liberal State refused to tax the wealthy, severely angering working-classes. The party stood divided and no group ever again gained a complete majority in the House of Deputies, leading to many consecutive coalition agreements. This allowed their opponents to gain greater support from the people, such as the Socialists and Communists who’s support base was made up from many of the working-classes who were impressed by the Bolshevik ‘worker’s revolution’ in Russia, which soon inspired revolution in Italy.
After being thrown out by the Italian Socialist Party for publishing his support for war intervention in the Socialist newspaper Avanti, Mussolini made a radical change and soon denounced socialism for failing to recognize that the war had showed national identity and patriotism as being of more importance than social-class, proclaiming: “Socialism as a doctrine was already dead; it continued to exist only as a grudge”.
In retaliation, he formed the newspaper Fasci Rivoluzionari d’Azione Internazionalista, the ‘Revolutionary Fasci for International Action’. His support of Italian intervention gave him financial support from various armament manufacturers such as Ansaldo, to create another newspaper, Il Popolo d’Italia to convince socialists to support the war.
Mussolini soon founded a movement called Fasci di Combattimento. The first meeting was attended by proud war veterans, nationalists and disillusioned socialists. He made allies from those veterans who called themselves the Arditi (the brave). The Arditi were organized for violence against the ‘traitors’ who spoke out against the war, expressing this through street fighting and their passion for wearing an insignia uniform, soon becoming known as: the ‘Blackshirts’. They complained that at the Paris Peace Conference, Italy was being cheated out of its just reward for participation in World War I. Soon developing a loathing for the incapable Liberal government, Mussolini said that Italy had a right to its place in the world and held a desire for the re-emergence of a new Roman Empire and made clear his opposition to the Monarchy and the Catholic Church.
Mussolini’s main enemy was the Socialist Party and in 1919, Mussolini’s movement attacked the Avanti newspaper building, attempting to persuade workers to align with his cause but failed to attract them away from their socialist-led unions.
The later Milanese elections led to further disappointment as Mussolini and his Fascists won nothing. His supporters resorted to acts of terrorism, sending explosives through the mail to Socialist supporters and incited non-partisan gangs to throw bombs at groups of Socialists celebrating their victory. Many of them were tried and found guilty, but were were omitted due to their actions being described as personal ‘patriotic motives’.
A former World War I pilot, Gabriele D’Annunzio led an army of 2,000 veterans into the small city of Fiume on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea and seized power. Fiume had a large Italian population, and many Italians wanted the province to be a part of their nation. However the leaders of the newly formed Yugoslavia bitterly resented this, financing an underground resistance movement. Mussolini praised D’Annunzio, describing him as the only man who had “dared to revolt against the plutocracy that had created the Versailles Treaty” and eagerly adopted his personality and style of patriotic balcony speeches and hosting parades and publicity events.
In 1919-20 during a period known as ‘Red Week’, workers in Italy’s top industries went on strike. Workers and trade unions locked themselves inside their factories and the homes of land-owners were ransacked. The upper-classes became terrified of the threat of revolution and the loss of their property.
Mussolini saw this as an opportunity to exploit the fear of the upper-classes and the Fascists formed organised armed squads of Blackshirts led by Mussolini’s closest friend Dino Grandi, with the intention of restoring order to the streets of Italy. They quickly took advantage of the situation, violently breaking up strikes and attacking trade union leaders. The Blackshirts clashed with communists, socialists, and anarchists who all regally fought with each other, instead of coming together to coercively oppose this new threat. They were so effective against the Socialist threat that they soon began to gain significant support and his armed Fascists soon took on the role of heroes of social order as they began running the essential services that were abandoned by the strikers. The Fascists having won the praise of Italy’s middle-classes, were applauded by former Liberal supporters, viewing the violence not as a threat to them, but as a defence against the threat of a left-wing revolution. Mussolini initially avoided Fascist violence but then began to use it as a weapon, gaining support from property owners. The government rarely intervened with the Blackshirts’ actions, due to the looming threat of a ‘red revolution’ and as they foresaw them as becoming a significant political force and assumed they may be forced to strike a deal with them if a coalition occurred and so had no wish to anger them in anticipation of the future.
The Fascisti gained much approval for their actions and grew so rapidly that within two years Mussolini founded another movement, ‘The Fighting Fascists’ who won the favour of the nation’s youth. The electors in 1921 sent him to Parliament along with thirty-five other Fascist Deputies, giving birth to the National Fascist Party – boasting more than 250 thousand followers and Mussolini as its uncontested leader. They now enjoyed the support of vital groups: the large industries, farmers, military, and the Church who were delighted with Mussolini’s solution to their problems: organize the youth to forcibly control the workers and set up a tough government to restore ‘law and order’. It was the complete opposite of his early views as a socialist.
An important reason for Fascism’s early support, was the fact that it opposed social-class discrimination. Instead, supporting nationalist sentiments such as strong unity, regardless of race or class, in the hope of raising Italy up to the levels of its great Roman past.. Mussolini promoted an ideology of protecting class unity, rejection of equality, mass militarization of the nation and imperialism of the world.
Although they gained but a minority in the House of Deputies, many property owners strongly felt that the Fascists should be in government, and urged Liberal leaders to make this possible. The support gained from groups such as the police who sympathised with the Fascists – thankful for their assistance with suppressing the regular strikers, played an important role in the Fascist takeover. Mussolini soon realised however, that an attempt at using violence to achieve a military coup and overthrow the Monarchy would be stopped by the army, destroying his reputation among the upper-classes and would never succeed in bringing him to power.
Mussolini attempted to please both his violent Fascists and the traditionalist higher-classes, by expressing both revolutionary and conservative attitudes simultaneously; often described as the ‘The Third Way’ because it was vastly different to anything else in the political climate during that era.
Meanwhile, the Liberal Prime Minister Giolitti had done much to alienate his political base. His government was in need of additional strength so he invited the Fascists to join him in a coalition. Mussolini soon saw an opportunity for entering national politics and securing power by legal means. He immediately joined the coalition, which in turn planted seeds of dissent among his violent supporters who still held hopes for a revolutionary coup to gain power. Although Mussolini’s party had won the lowest amount of seats in the House of Deputies, their paramilitary Blackshirts still controlled the streets, violently punishing those who expressed Socialist attitudes, much to the delight of the business owners.
In response to the squadrista’s increasing violent behaviour towards non-Fascists, Mussolini soon feared the formation of a counteractive coalition among his opponents that would leave him politically isolated – as many anti-Fascist Deputies favored. To stave off such a threat, Mussolini ordered his squadrista leaders; the Ra’s, to briefly hold back their violence. Now that he was into genuine politics, he was seeking more credibility to attract potential allies from the conservative upper-classes.
The opposition parties however, were generally unresponsive. They boycotted Parliament in the ‘Aventine Secession’, hoping to force the King to dismiss Mussolini whilst creating a new Parliament as they saw Mussolini’s actions as unconstitutional. The king – as ever, fearful of violence from the Fascist squadristi, refused to dismiss him.
In contrast to this weakness of the ruling government, Mussolini was a figure of strength. He spoke of recreating Italian power by reviving the economy and restoring law and order. He also declared his support for the Monarchy, with the admiration and approval of Italy’s Queen Mother, Margarita. And because of the boycott of Parliament, Mussolini could pass any legislation unopposed which he began with the ‘Acerbo Act’, granting a two-thirds majority of seats in the party which obtained at least 25% of the vote and his law was utilized in the elections of 1924, where his ‘National Alliance’ of Fascists, and old absorbed Liberals won 64% of the vote.
But these successive victories soon proved too little, as within his own party, Mussolini faced severe dissension. His squadristi Ra’s met with Mussolini and gave him a final demand – ”Crush the opposition and march on Rome, or we will seek another to lead us towards genuine revolution”. Fearing a revolt from inside his own party, Mussolini decided to drop all pretence of his democratic ideals.
The possibility of such a march soon became public knowledge, although the current government led by Facta however, appeared unwilling to defend against a Fascist coup or to limit the violence that was still occurring on the streets. The Left saw itself as the only force that could stop them, but were heavily divided. In a final attempt at a show of force, the Socialist Party declared a general strike in late 1924. Very few people participated however and the strike gave Mussolini an opportunity to demonstrate how the Fascists were willing to provide voluntary services to the nation, once again posing as the saviours of the country, increasing national and patriotic pride, appealing to the middle-classes who simply wanted an uninterrupted daily life.
Once he saw that his opponents had put up such meagre resistance, Mussolini unleashed his threat in early 1925, where he made a final challenge before the Chamber to his opponents; backed up by the looming squadrista militants lurking outside the Parliament building, where – after receiving no challenger, he promised to ”march into Rome and save the Fatherland from the Anarchists”. This threat made Facta so uneasy that he doubled the city garrison in the face of the Fascist threat. Facta later pleaded with the King, Victor Emmanuel III, who was the head of the armed forces, to establish martial law. However, the King – being unsure of the loyalty of his army to the Monarchy because of the recent conflict in Albania where half the entire army completely disobeyed their orders from their commander-in-chief, he had u-turned on his original decision and refused to sign the order; in his mind, potentially averting a civil war. Facta then resigned as Prime Minister and the king was forced to find a replacement.
Victor Emmanuel III eventually offered Giolitti’s opponent, Salandra, the position of Prime Minister, who in turn, offered the Fascists four cabinet places, but Mussolini – spurred on by his foresight of close victory and the threats from his squadrista commanders, declined. Mussolini was invited by the King to become the Prime Minister, who eagerly accepted.
The Fascist revolutionaries were beginning to arrive from their ‘March on Rome’ and Mussolini turned what had been a threat to seize power, into a victory parade, pleasing both groups of his political base. To quickly consolidate his position, Mussolini received dictator-like powers from the legislature for one single year; legal under the Italian constitution of the time. He forced through the complete restoration of state authority, with the integration of the Blackshirts into the armed forces and the identification of ultra-nationalism within the state.
However, the assassination of the Socialist Deputy Giacomo Matteotti – murdered after he openly denounced Fascist violence during the elections, sparked a crisis and reversed Mussolini’s early fortunes. The murderer, a Blackshirt named Dumini, reported to Mussolini soon after the murder, who instantly ordered a cover-up, although several prominent witnesses managed to discreetly reveal the incident and the crisis provoked cries for justice against the murder of an outspoken critic of Fascist violence. The outcry soon wore off, for there was no mass demonstration against the murder of Matteotti. And with his death, soon followed the end of any organised opposition.
As the 1930s began, Mussolini was seated safely in power and enjoyed wide support. The wealthiest groups who had backed him now profited from the system of corporatism. As Prime Minister however, Mussolini offered few solutions to Italy’s problems, declaring many controversial issues such as the lack of successful harvests as solved, simply by stating so. He suspended civil liberties, silenced all opposition, and imposed dictatorship upon his people. However in 1931, a historic meeting with the Vatican saw him settle the age-old differences between the Italian state and the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Pius XI proclaimed that Mussolini had been sent ”by Divine Providence”, which helped to him to assume further totalitarian powers under the guise of the old ‘Divine Right of Kings’ ruling authority.
The Uncreative Journalist 