In an election year, it's tempting to look at fascism versus democracy, as we prepare to vote. Many recent names come to mind: Putin, Saddam Hussein, Gaddafi, and now perhaps Turkey's Erdogan, for example.
Mussolini is probably the best illustration of a fascist. The word 'fascist' is mostly used in a pejorative way, rather as the word 'communist' is used—but they are closer to opposites. Mussolini's fascisti of northern Italy were neither socialists nor communists, but believed instead in a strong government that would look after the nation and brook no dissent.
After political upheavals following WW1 the King of Italy had asked 38-year-old Mussolini, in 1922, to form a government, and he was at first much appreciated by the masses for at last getting things done. Referred to popularly as Il Duce, he said "My objective is simple... to make Italy great ..." [Ref.1,p.69].
Benito Mussolini's father was a blacksmith and there was little money for food. The boy was disobedient, quarrelsome and moody, and later became arrogant and uncontrollable [Ibid,p.5]. He would climb trees to throw stones at children on their way to Sunday School [Ibid,p.5]. But his teachers found him very intelligent and at 18 he passed his final exams, obtaining a teaching diploma. At 19 he was a teacher in a village school in Gualtieri [p.6] south-east of Milan, and it was there that he found his first mistress, the wife of a soldier. According to the writer Christopher Hibbert the two fought and fornicated with a violence that was to characterize much of his love-making, and he once stabbed her in the thigh [Ibid,p.7].
At 20 Mussolini crossed over to Switzerland and worked as a navvy, butcher's boy and errand boy. He was a fiery speaker and was considered an intellectual by workers he came into contact with. Before long he was offered the Secretaryship of the Bricklayers and Manual Labourers Union in Lausanne [Ibid,pp8-9]. He began to read voraciously—Karl Marx, Schopenhauer, Kant, Spinoza—and got paid for his newspaper articles on Socialism.
He was deported from both Switzerland and Austria and imprisoned about 5 times (for articles against the government) but he was becoming known as one who could fire up the masses. At 26 he met and married a 16 year old girl, Rachele, who became mother of their 5 children. Despite at least 20 mistresses he remained married to Rachele until his death in 1945, and when asked about his unfaithfulness, Rachele replied that the mistresses didn't matter for he loved his family.
Mussolini taught himself the violin, and authored quite a few books, including an autobiography and The Doctrine of Fascism, but he failed artistically, as had Hitler with his paintings. Marconi was a fascist supporter in the 1930s, and the well-known writer Alberto Moravia thought well of him, saying that Mussolini's worst fault was his abysmal ignorance of foreign affairs[p.61]. Cardinal O'Connor of Boston said he was a 'genius in the field of government' [Ibid p.76].
Mussolini had first met Hitler in 1934, and referred to him as a"silly little clown." But by 1936 Il Duce was beginning to warm to the Fuehrer. That was the year Mussolini, wanting an empire to compare with how Rome once was, had annexed Ethiopia. This seems a pattern with dictators: Hitler annexing Austria; Putin annexing the Crimea.
By 1938 Mussolini was embracing Hitler's anti-semitism. He is quoted as saying "... Hitler is one of those geniuses who make history" [p.85].
During WW2 the people grew disenchanted. Mussolini remained in power, but was executed by an Italian firing squad in April 1945. Photographs show him hanging from his feet in the center of Milan beside his upside down mistress Claretta, together with two others executed traitors.
Interestingly, Hitler committed suicide a few days later with his mistress, Eva. Saddam Hussein met an inglorious end, as did the Libyan dictator Gaddafi in 2011, found hiding in a culvert by Libyan rebels who beat and shot him.
Sadly, no time to look at other fascisti.
References:
1. "Benito Mussolini", by Christopher Hibbert; Longmans, Green & Co., 119 W.40th St., NY, NY (1962.)