query: what kind of government did benito mussolini have?

title: Death of Benito Mussolini

text: was staged with corpses. The first to put this forward was Franco Bandini in 1978. Other theories have been published, included allegations that not only Luigi Longo, subsequently leader of the Communist Party in post-war Italy, but also Sandro Pertini, a future President of Italy, carried out the shootings. Others have claimed that Mussolini (or Mussolini and Petacci together) committed suicide with cyanide capsules. Death of Benito Mussolini The death of Benito Mussolini, the deposed Italian fascist dictator, occurred on 28 April 1945, in the final days of World War II in Europe, when he was summarily executed by Italian

title: Death of Benito Mussolini

text: Death of Benito Mussolini The death of Benito Mussolini, the deposed Italian fascist dictator, occurred on 28 April 1945, in the final days of World War II in Europe, when he was summarily executed by Italian partisans in the small village of Giulino di Mezzegra in northern Italy. The official version of events is that Mussolini was shot by Walter Audisio, a communist partisan who used the "nom de guerre" of "Colonel Valerio". However, since the end of the war, the circumstances of Mussolini's death, and the identity of his killer, have been subjects of continuing confusion, dispute and controversy

title: Benito Mussolini

text: topical insult of "chisler". William Saroyan wrote a short story about Mussolini in his 1971 book, "Letters from 74 rue Taitbout or Don't Go But If You Must Say Hello To Everybody". More serious biographical depictions include Rod Steiger in Carlo Lizzani's 1974 movie "Last Days of Mussolini", and George C. Scott's portrayal in the 1985 television mini-series "Mussolini: The Untold Story". Another 1985 movie was "Mussolini and I", in which Bob Hoskins plays the dictator (with Susan Sarandon as his daughter Edda and Anthony Hopkins as Count Ciano). Actor Antonio Banderas also played the title role in "Benito" in

title: Benito Mussolini

text: 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 honor granted to Mussolini). His tomb is flanked by marble fasces, and a large idealized marble bust of him is above the tomb. Mussolini's first wife was Ida Dalser, whom he married in Trento in 1914. The couple had a son the following year and named him Benito Albino Mussolini. In December 1915, Mussolini married Rachele Guidi, who had been his mistress since 1910. Due to his upcoming

title: Bruno Mussolini

text: Bruno Mussolini Bruno Mussolini (22 April 1918 – 7 August 1941) was the son of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and Mussolini's wife Rachele. Bruno Mussolini was born in Milan in Lombardy. His father, Benito Mussolini, was the editor of "The People of Italy" ("Il Popolo d'Italia") newspaper before Bruno's birth and, on 22 April 1918, was away for the day in Genoa. Mussolini indicated to his wife that he did not want her to give birth before his return. In his words: "I don't want to be the last to be told again, as I was with Vittorio." That evening,

title: Mussolini diaries

text: Mussolini diaries The Mussolini diaries are several forged diaries of Italy's former fascist leader Benito Mussolini. The two best known cases of forged Mussolini diaries are those of 1957 and 2007, but other forgeries have also been discovered. During 1957 a mother and daughter (Amalia and Rosa Panvini) produced thirty volumes of what they later claimed were Mussolini's diaries; these diaries apparently fooled the dictator's son and an expert. At first it was believed that the large number of volumes in themselves were evidence that they were not forgeries; it was later discovered that these diaries had in fact been

title: Bruno Mussolini

text: died, including Bruno. Benito Mussolini rushed to the Santa Chiara Hospital to be at the side of his dead son. Bruno's death prompted his father to compose a booklet entitled "I Talk With Bruno" ("Parlo con Bruno"). The booklet implied timeless intimacy between the two and mixed Fascist, Catholic, and familial piety. Robert Downey, Jr. portrayed Mussolini in the TV mini-series "" in 1985. Bruno Mussolini Bruno Mussolini (22 April 1918 – 7 August 1941) was the son of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and Mussolini's wife Rachele. Bruno Mussolini was born in Milan in Lombardy. His father, Benito Mussolini, was

title: Last Days of Mussolini

text: Last Days of Mussolini Last Days of Mussolini (Italian: "Mussolini: Ultimo atto") is a 1975 Italian historical drama film directed by Carlo Lizzani and starring Rod Steiger, Franco Nero and Lisa Gastoni. The film depicts the downfall of the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. In 1945, Benito Mussolini goes to Milan to talk with Archbishop Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster to request his help in escaping from Italy. The Republic of Salò, the last bastion of fascism, is decaying, and the Americans, along with the partisans are about to win control of Milan. Mussolini flees, pursued by his lover Claretta Petacci, and manages

title: Last Days of Mussolini

text: in the village of Giulino, along with his female companion. Last Days of Mussolini Last Days of Mussolini (Italian: "Mussolini: Ultimo atto") is a 1975 Italian historical drama film directed by Carlo Lizzani and starring Rod Steiger, Franco Nero and Lisa Gastoni. The film depicts the downfall of the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. In 1945, Benito Mussolini goes to Milan to talk with Archbishop Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster to request his help in escaping from Italy. The Republic of Salò, the last bastion of fascism, is decaying, and the Americans, along with the partisans are about to win control of Milan.

title: Rachele Mussolini

text: Intimate Biography". Rachele Mussolini Rachele Mussolini (née Guidi; 11 April 1890 – 30 October 1979), also known (particularly in Italy) as Donna Rachele (Italian for "Lady Rachael"), was the wife of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. Rachele Mussolini was born Rachele Guidi in Predappio, Romagna, Kingdom of Italy ("Regno d'Italia"). She was born into a peasant family and was the daughter of Agostino Guidi and wife Anna Lombardi. After the death of her father, her mother became the lover of the widowed Alessandro Mussolini. In 1910, Rachele Guidi moved in with Alessandro's son Benito Mussolini. In 1914, Mussolini married his first

title: Rachele Mussolini

text: Rachele Mussolini Rachele Mussolini (née Guidi; 11 April 1890 – 30 October 1979), also known (particularly in Italy) as Donna Rachele (Italian for "Lady Rachael"), was the wife of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. Rachele Mussolini was born Rachele Guidi in Predappio, Romagna, Kingdom of Italy ("Regno d'Italia"). She was born into a peasant family and was the daughter of Agostino Guidi and wife Anna Lombardi. After the death of her father, her mother became the lover of the widowed Alessandro Mussolini. In 1910, Rachele Guidi moved in with Alessandro's son Benito Mussolini. In 1914, Mussolini married his first wife Ida

title: Romano Mussolini

text: Leader, my father"), followed by a similar book in 2005, collecting personal memories and accounts of private confidences and discussions with his father. He was the last surviving child of Benito Mussolini. Romano Mussolini died in 2006, aged 78, in a hospital in Rome from undisclosed causes. Romano Mussolini Romano Mussolini (26 September 1927 – 3 February 2006) was an Italian jazz pianist, painter and film producer. He was the fourth and youngest son of Benito Mussolini, fascist dictator of Italy from 1922 to 1943. A native of Villa Carpena, Forlì (Emilia-Romagna), Romano Mussolini studied music as a child, playing

title: Benito Mussolini

text: turn were intended by Mussolini to allow Italy to take on France alone by sufficiently improving Anglo-Italian relations that London would presumably remain neutral in the event of a Franco-Italian war (Mussolini had imperial designs on Tunisia, and had some support in that country ). In turn, the Easter Accords were intended by Britain to win Italy away from Germany. Count Galeazzo Ciano, Mussolini's son-in-law and Foreign Minister, summed up the dictator's foreign policy objectives regarding France in an entry of his diary dated 8 November 1938: Djibouti would have to be ruled in common with France; "Tunisia, with a

title: Benito Mussolini

text: While Hitler cited Mussolini as an influence and privately expressed great admiration for him, Mussolini had little regard for Hitler, especially after the Nazis had assassinated his friend and ally, Engelbert Dollfuss, the Austrofascist dictator of Austria in 1934. With the assassination of Dollfuss, Mussolini attempted to distance himself from Hitler by rejecting much of the racialism (particularly Nordicism and Germanicism) and antisemitism espoused by the German radical. Mussolini during this period rejected biological racism, at least in the Nazi sense, and instead emphasized "Italianizing" the parts of the Italian Empire he had desired to build. He declared that the

title: Benito Mussolini

text: 1993, which covered his life from his school teacher days to the beginning of World War I, before his rise as dictator. Mussolini is also depicted in the films "Tea with Mussolini", "Lion of the Desert" (also with Steiger) and the award-winning Italian film "Vincere". A comic strip ran in the British comic "The Beano" entitled "Musso the Wop". This strip, which ran from 1940 to 1943, featured Mussolini as an arrogant buffoon. "Der Mussolini" is a hit single by the German electropunk/Neue Deutsche Welle band Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft (DAF), from their Deutscher Schallplattenpreis-winning 1981 album "Alles Ist Gut". It

title: Edda Mussolini

text: Edda Mussolini Edda Mussolini (1 September 1910 – 9 April 1995) was the child of Benito Mussolini, Italy's fascist dictator from 1922 to 1943. Upon her marriage to fascist propagandist and foreign minister Galeazzo Ciano, she became Edda Ciano, Countess of Cortellazzo and Buccari. Her husband was executed in January 1944 for dissenting from Mussolini's rule. She strongly denied her involvement in the National Fascist Party regime and had an affair with a Communist after her father's execution by the Italian partisans in April 1945. She was born out of wedlock to Benito Mussolini and Rachele Guidi in Forlì, Romagna.

title: Benito Mussolini

text: Mussolini was rescued from captivity in the Gran Sasso raid by German paratroopers and "Waffen-SS" commandos led by Major Otto-Harald Mors. Adolf Hitler, after meeting with the rescued former dictator, then put Mussolini in charge of a puppet regime in northern Italy, the Italian Social Republic (, RSI), informally known as the "Salò Republic". In late April 1945, in the wake of near total defeat, Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci attempted to flee to Switzerland, but both were captured by Italian communist partisans and summarily executed by firing squad on 28 April 1945 near Lake Como. His body was

title: Benito Mussolini

text: he becomes indwelt by the ghost of Nero. Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; ; 29 July 1883 – 28 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who was the leader of the National Fascist Party ("Partito Nazionale Fascista", PNF). He ruled Italy as Prime Minister from 1922 to 1943; he constitutionally led the country until 1925, when he dropped the pretense of democracy and established a dictatorship. Known as "Il Duce" ("The Leader"), Mussolini was the founder of Italian Fascism. In 1912, Mussolini had been a leading member of the National Directorate of the Italian Socialist Party

title: Benito Mussolini

text: Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; ; 29 July 1883 – 28 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who was the leader of the National Fascist Party ("Partito Nazionale Fascista", PNF). He ruled Italy as Prime Minister from 1922 to 1943; he constitutionally led the country until 1925, when he dropped the pretense of democracy and established a dictatorship. Known as "Il Duce" ("The Leader"), Mussolini was the founder of Italian Fascism. In 1912, Mussolini had been a leading member of the National Directorate of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), but was expelled from the PSI for

title: Benito Mussolini

text: August 1941. His oldest son, Benito Albino Mussolini, from his marriage with Ida Dalser, was ordered to stop declaring that Mussolini was his father and in 1935 forcibly committed to an asylum in Milan, where he was murdered on 26 August 1942 after repeated coma-inducing injections. Alessandra Mussolini, daughter of Romano Mussolini, Benito Mussolini's fourth son, and of Anna Maria Scicolone, Sophia Loren's sister, has been a member of the European Parliament for the far-right Social Alternative movement, a deputy in the Italian lower chamber and served in the Senate as a member of Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party. Although

title: Benito Mussolini

text: then taken to Milan, where it was hung upside down at a service station to publicly confirm his demise. Mussolini was born on 29 July 1883 in Dovia di Predappio, a small town in the province of Forlì in Romagna. Later, during the Fascist era, Predappio was dubbed "Duce's town" and Forlì was called "Duce's city", with pilgrims going to Predappio and Forlì to see the birthplace of Mussolini. Benito Mussolini's father, Alessandro Mussolini, was a blacksmith and a socialist, while his mother, Rosa (née Maltoni), was a devout Catholic schoolteacher. Owing to his father's political leanings, Mussolini was named

title: Benito Mussolini

text: Benito after Mexican leftist 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 parents' three children. His siblings Arnaldo and Edvige followed. As a young boy, Mussolini would spend some time helping his father in his smithy. Mussolini's early political views were heavily influenced by his father who idolized 19th-century Italian nationalist figures with humanist tendencies such as Carlo Pisacane, Giuseppe Mazzini and Giuseppe Garibaldi. His father's political outlook combined views of anarchist figures like Carlo Cafiero and Mikhail Bakunin, the military authoritarianism of

title: Assassination attempts on Benito Mussolini

text: arrested and executed in Italy for plotting to kill Mussolini. The next month, Angelo Sbardellotto was arrested and executed for a similar plot. Assassination attempts on Benito Mussolini Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini survived several assassination attempts as the head of state in the 1920s and 1930s. The former Socialist deputy Tito Zanibóni was arrested for attempting to assassinate Mussolini on November 4, 1925. In a hotel with a view unto Palazzo Chigi, where Mussolini had planned to give a balcony speech, Zanibóni set up a rifle with telescopic sights. Shortly before his target appeared, however, Zanibóni was arrested. A

text: Assassination attempts on Benito Mussolini Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini survived several assassination attempts as the head of state in the 1920s and 1930s. The former Socialist deputy Tito Zanibóni was arrested for attempting to assassinate Mussolini on November 4, 1925. In a hotel with a view unto Palazzo Chigi, where Mussolini had planned to give a balcony speech, Zanibóni set up a rifle with telescopic sights. Shortly before his target appeared, however, Zanibóni was arrested. A friend and double agent had informed the police. Historians believe that the plot itself was engineered by the Mussolini administration as a pretext

title: Alessandro Mussolini

text: wife, Mussolini did not believe in God and hated the Roman Catholic Church. Maltoni's father looked down upon her decision to marry Mussolini and did not approve of the marriage. In 1883, Maltoni gave birth to their first son, Benito Mussolini. Benito helped his father at the forge where Alessandro Mussolini worked as a blacksmith. Mussolini and his son Benito were close. He taught his son about revolutionary leaders he admired such as Karl Marx. Mussolini experienced a number of personal troubles; he had difficulty in finding employment and became an alcoholic. Mussolini entered politics in 1873 at the age

title: Benito Mussolini

text: he passed legislation that favored the wealthy industrial and agrarian classes (privatizations, liberalizations of rent laws and dismantlement of the unions). In 1923, Mussolini sent Italian forces to invade Corfu during the Corfu incident. In the end, the League of Nations proved powerless, and Greece was forced to comply with Italian demands. Writing of Mussolini's foreign policy, the American historian Gerhard Weinberg said: If the new regime Benito Mussolini installed in 1922 on the ruins of the old glorified war as a sign of vitality and repudiated pacifism as a form of decay, the lesson drawn from the terrible battles

title: Benito Mussolini

text: Silvio Berlusconi, which eventually disbanded after the defeat in the 2013 general election. Olaf Stapledon in his SF novel "Last and First Men" has a future historian give Mussolini's story, though without naming him. Written in 1930, it has Mussolini starting and losing a war with France and then being killed by an angry Italian mob. The book does not predict Hitler. In his 1938 novel "The Holy Terror", H.G. Wells predicted Mussolini's execution: Benito Mussolini, with a surfeit of bad history decaying in his imagination, could not see the plain realities before him. Like most of his generation he

title: Benito Mussolini

text: Fascists, sometimes government employees but more often fanatic civilians or paramilitary volunteers, hastened to curry favor with the Nazis. Informers betrayed their neighbors, "squadristi" seized Jews and delivered them to the German SS, and Italian journalists seemed to compete in the virulence of their anti-Semitic diatribes. It has been widely speculated that Mussolini adopted the Manifesto of Race in 1938 for merely tactical reasons, to strengthen Italy's relations with Germany. Mussolini and the Italian military did not consistently apply the laws adopted in the Manifesto of Race. In December 1943, Mussolini made a confession to journalist/politician Bruno Spampanato that seems

title: Rachele Mussolini

text: Dalser. Though the records of this marriage were destroyed by Mussolini's government, an edict from the city of Milan ordering Mussolini to make maintenance payments to “his wife Ida Dalser” and their child was overlooked. Shortly before his son Benito Albino Mussolini was born to Ida Dalser, Rachele Guidi and Benito Mussolini were married in a civil ceremony in Treviglio, Lombardy on 17 December 1915. In 1925, they renewed their vows in a religious service (after Mussolini's rise to power). Rachele Mussolini bore five children by Benito Mussolini and she was willing to ignore his various mistresses. Rachele and Benito

title: Benito Mussolini

text: constitutional powers–in effect, a vote of no confidence in Mussolini. This motion carried by a 19–8 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 did not think the vote would have any substantive effect. That afternoon, he was summoned to the royal palace by King Victor Emmanuel III, who had been planning to oust Mussolini earlier. When Mussolini tried to tell the king about the meeting, Victor Emmanuel cut him off and told him that he was being replaced by Marshal

title: Benito Mussolini

text: in prison as Mussolini made it absolutely clear that he did not want his soldiers and officials serving in Ethiopia to ever have sex with Ethiopian women under any circumstances as he believed that multiracial relationships made his men less likely to kill Ethiopians. Mussolini favored a policy of brutality partly because he believed the Ethiopians were not a nation because black people were too stupid to have a sense of nationality and therefore the guerrillas were just "bandits". The other reason was because Mussolini was planning on bringing millions of Italian colonists into Ethiopia and he needed to kill

title: Benito Mussolini

text: consisting of Fascists, most of the old Liberals and others, won 64% of the vote. The assassination of the socialist deputy Giacomo Matteotti, who had requested that the elections be annulled because of the irregularities, provoked a momentary crisis in the Mussolini government. Mussolini ordered a cover-up, but witnesses saw the car that transported Matteotti's body parked outside Matteotti's residence, which linked Amerigo Dumini to the murder. Mussolini later confessed that a few resolute men could have altered public opinion and started a coup that would have swept fascism away. Dumini was imprisoned for two years. On his release, Dumini

title: Benito Mussolini

text: made plans to arrest the king, Crown Prince Umberto, Badoglio, and the rest of the government and restore Mussolini to power in Rome, but the government's escape south likely foiled those plans. Three days following his rescue in the Gran Sasso raid, Mussolini was taken to Germany for a meeting with Hitler in Rastenburg at his East Prussian headquarters. Despite public professions of support, Hitler was clearly shocked by Mussolini's disheveled and haggard appearance as well as his unwillingness to go after the men in Rome who overthrew him. Feeling that he had to do what he could to blunt

title: Benito Mussolini

text: party. Their employment in banks, insurance companies, and public schools was forbidden. Even after the introduction of the racial laws, Mussolini continued to make contradictory statements about race. Many high government officials told Jewish representatives that the antisemitism in Fascist Italy would soon be over. Antisemitism was unpopular within the Fascist party; once when a Fascist scholar protested to Mussolini about the treatment of his Jewish friends, Mussolini is reported to have said "I agree with you entirely. I don't believe a bit in the stupid anti-Semitic theory. I am carrying out my policy entirely for political reasons." Hitler felt

title: Benito Mussolini

text: Sabaudia) on land reclaimed by draining the Pontine Marshes. In Sardinia, a model agricultural town was founded and named "Mussolinia", but has long since been renamed Arborea. This town was the first of what Mussolini hoped would have been thousands of new agricultural settlements across the country. The Battle for Wheat diverted valuable resources to wheat production away from other more economically viable crops. Landowners grew wheat on unsuitable soil using all the advances of modern science, and although the wheat harvest increased, prices rose, consumption fell and high tariffs were imposed. The tariffs promoted widespread inefficiencies and the government

title: Benito Mussolini

text: UK and the start of World War II. On 10 June 1940—with the Fall of France imminent—Italy officially entered the war on the side of Germany, though Mussolini was aware that Italy did not have the military capacity and resources to carry out a long war with the British Empire. He believed that after the imminent French armistice, Italy could gain territorial concessions from France, and he could then concentrate his forces on a major offensive in North Africa, where British and Commonwealth forces were outnumbered by Italian forces. However, the British government refused to accept proposals for a peace

title: Benito Mussolini

text: to death and then taken to the Piazzale Loreto and shown the body of Mussolini. Starace, who once said of Mussolini "He is a god," saluted what was left of his leader just before he was shot. The body of Starace was subsequently hung up next to that of Mussolini. After his death and the display of his corpse in Milan, Mussolini was buried in an unmarked grave in the Musocco 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. On the loose for

title: Alessandro Mussolini

text: Alessandro Mussolini Alessandro Mussolini (11 November 1854 – 19 November 1910) was the father of Italian Fascist founder and leader Benito Mussolini. He was an Italian revolutionary socialist activist with Italian nationalist sympathies. Mussolini was a blacksmith by profession. Mussolini was married to Rosa Maltoni, a schoolteacher, who became the mother of Benito Mussolini. Mussolini exercised considerable influence over his son Benito's early political beliefs, even naming his son Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini after three leaders he admired: Benito Juárez, Amilcare Cipriani, and Andrea Costa. On 25 January 1882, Mussolini married Rosa Maltoni, a schoolteacher and Roman Catholic. Unlike his

title: Benito Mussolini

text: Mussolini as "the Man of Providence". The 1929 treaty included a legal provision whereby the Italian government would protect the honor and dignity of the Pope by prosecuting offenders. In 1927, Mussolini was re-baptized by a Roman Catholic priest. After 1929, Mussolini, with his anti-Communist doctrines, convinced many Catholics to actively support him. In foreign policy, Mussolini was pragmatic and opportunistic. At the center of his vision lay the dream to forge a new Roman Empire in Africa and the Balkans, vindicating the so-called "mutilated victory" of 1918 imposed by the "plutodemocracies" (Britain and France) that betrayed the Treaty of

title: Benito Mussolini

text: give rise to antisemitism in the only country where it has never existed." In 1932, Mussolini during a conversation with Emil Ludwig described antisemitism as a "German vice" and stated that "There was 'no Jewish Question' in Italy and could not be one in a country with a healthy system of government." On several occasions, Mussolini spoke positively about Jews and the Zionist movement, although Fascism remained suspicious of Zionism after the Fascist Party gained power. Until 1938 Mussolini had denied any antisemitism within the Fascist Party. The relationship between Mussolini and Adolf Hitler was a contentious one early on.

title: Benito Mussolini

text: responsibility for squadristi violence (though he did not mention the assassination of Matteotti). He did not abolish the squadristi until 1927, however. German-American historian Konrad Jarausch has argued that Mussolini was responsible for an integrated suite of political innovations that made fascism a powerful force in Europe. First, he went beyond the vague promise of future national renewal, and proved the movement could actually seize power and operate a comprehensive government in a major country along fascist lines. Second, the movement claimed to represent the entire national community, not a fragment such as the working class or the aristocracy. He

title: Benito Mussolini

text: Italo Balbo accused Mussolini of "licking Hitler's boots", blasted the Duce's pro-German foreign policy as leading Italy to disaster and noted that the "opening to Britain" still existed and it was not inevitable that Italy had to ally with Germany. Though many "gerarchi" like Balbo were not keen on closer relations with Berlin, Mussolini's control of the foreign-policy machinery meant this dissidence counted for little. Mussolini had a leading position within the Fascist Party, but he did not totally dominate it as Balbo's attack on Mussolini for "licking Hitler's boots" and his demand that the "opening to Britain" be pursued

title: Benito Mussolini

text: that the Italian Navy was no match for the British Royal Navy, persuaded Mussolini to accept a diplomatic solution. In a secret speech to the Italian military leadership in January 1925, Mussolini argued that Italy needed to win "spazio vitale", and as such his ultimate goal was to join "the two shores of the Mediterranean and of the Indian Ocean into a single Italian territory". Reflecting his obsession with demography, Mussolini went on to say that Italy did not at the present possess sufficient manpower to win a war against Britain or France, and that the time for war would

title: Benito Mussolini

text: off much of the Ethiopian population to make room for the Italian colonists just as he had done in Libya. The sanctions against Italy were used by Mussolini as a pretext for an alliance with Germany. In January 1936, Mussolini told the German Ambassador Ulrich von Hassell that: "If Austria were in practice to become a German satellite, he would have no objection". By recognizing Austria was within the German sphere of influence, Mussolini had removed the principal problem in Italo-German relations. The American historian Barry Sullivan wrote about the Hitler-Mussolini relationship: On 11 July 1936, an Austro-German treaty was

title: Benito Mussolini

text: 1939 with the German invasion of Poland eliciting the response of the United Kingdom and France declaring war on Germany, Italy did not become involved in the conflict. However, when the Germans incarcerated 183 professors from Jagiellonian University in Kraków on 6 November 1939, Mussolini personally intervened to Hitler against this action, leading to the freeing of 101 Poles. 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,

title: Benito Mussolini

text: at the meeting of the Fascist Grand Council together with what the Greek historian Aristotle Kallis called Mussolini's "relatively restrained" response show – the Nazi Party had nothing equivalent to the Fascist Grand Council and it was inconceivable that one of Hitler's "gauleiters" would attack him in the same way that a "gerarchi" like Balbo criticized Mussolini. In April 1939, Mussolini ordered the Italian invasion of Albania. Italy defeated Albania within just five days, forcing king Zog to flee and setting up a period of Albania under Italy. Until May 1939, the Axis had not been entirely official, but during

title: Benito Mussolini

text: signed under which Austria declared itself to be a "German state" whose foreign policy would always be aligned with Berlin, and allowed for pro-Nazis to enter the Austrian cabinet. Mussolini had applied strong pressure on the Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg to sign the treaty in order to improve his relations with Hitler. After the sanctions against Italy ended in July 1936, the French tried hard to revive the Stresa Front, displaying what Sullivan called "an almost humiliating determination to retain Italy as an ally". In January 1937, Britain signed a "Gentleman's Agreement" with Mussolini intended to limit Italian intervention in

title: Benito Mussolini

text: Italian Fascism varied its official positions on race from the 1920s to 1934, ideologically Italian fascism did not originally 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 were even some Jews in the National Fascist Party, such as Ettore Ovazza, who in 1935 founded the Jewish Fascist paper "La Nostra Bandiera" ("Our Flag"). By mid-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

title: Benito Mussolini

text: humility, resignation, charity, and goodness." He valued Nietzsche's concept of the superman, "The supreme egoist who defied both God and the masses, who despised egalitarianism and democracy, who believed in the weakest going to the wall and pushing them if they did not go fast enough." On his 60th birthday, Mussolini received a gift from Hitler of a complete twenty-four volume set of the works of Nietzsche. Mussolini made vitriolic attacks against Christianity and the Catholic Church, which he accompanied with provocative remarks about the consecrated host, and about a love affair between Christ and Mary Magdalene. He denounced socialists

title: Benito Mussolini

text: that would involve accepting Axis victories in Eastern and Western Europe; plans for an invasion of the UK did not proceed and the war continued. In October 1940, Mussolini sent Italian forces into Greece, starting the Greco-Italian War. The invasion failed and the following Greek counter-offensive pushed the Italians back to occupied Albania. The Greek debacle and simultaneous defeats against the British in North Africa reduced Italy to dependence on Germany. Beginning in June 1941, Mussolini sent Italian forces to participate in the invasion of the Soviet Union, and Italy declared war on the United States in December. In 1943,

title: Benito Mussolini

text: policy of ten eyes to one, we cannot heal this wound in good time". Mussolini personally ordered Graziani to execute the entire male population over the age of 18 in one town and in one district ordered that "the prisoners, their accomplices and the uncertain will have to be executed" as part of the "gradual liquidation" of the population. Believing the Eastern Orthodox Church was inspiring Ethiopians to resist, Mussolini ordered that Orthodox priests and monks were to be targeted in revenge for guerrilla attacks. Mussolini brought in Degree Law 880, which made miscegenation a crime punishable with five years

title: Benito Mussolini

text: and the remaining loyal fascists who formed the government of the Republic of Salò, 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 Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Italian Social Republic, Mussolini used much of his time to write his memoirs. Along with his autobiographical writings of 1928, these writings would be combined and published by Da Capo Press as "My Rise and Fall". In an interview in

title: Benito Mussolini

text: fears; Mussolini enjoyed wide support in the military and among the industrial and agrarian elites, while the King and the conservative establishment were afraid of a possible civil war and ultimately thought they could use Mussolini to restore law and order in the country, but failed to foresee the danger of a totalitarian evolution. As Prime Minister, the first years of Mussolini's rule were characterized by a right-wing coalition government composed of Fascists, nationalists, liberals, and two Catholic clerics from the Popular Party. The Fascists made up a small minority in his original governments. Mussolini's domestic goal was the eventual

title: Benito Mussolini

text: in clashes against each other. The Italian government rarely interfered with the blackshirts' actions, owing in part to a looming threat and widespread fear of a communist revolution. The Fascisti grew rapidly; within two years they transformed themselves into the National Fascist Party at a congress in Rome. In 1921, Mussolini won election to the Chamber of Deputies for the first time. In the meantime, from about 1911 until 1938, Mussolini had various affairs with the Jewish author and academic Margherita Sarfatti, called the "Jewish Mother of Fascism" at the time. In the night between 27 and 28 October 1922,

title: Benito Mussolini

text: others refused to switch sides and had joined the Germans. The Badoglio government held a political truce with the leftist partisans for the sake of Italy and to rid the land of the Nazis. Only two months after Mussolini had been dismissed and arrested, he was rescued from his prison at the Hotel Campo Imperatore in the Gran Sasso raid on 12 September 1943 by a special Fallschirmjäger (paratroopers) unit and "Waffen-SS" commandos led by Major Otto-Harald Mors; Otto Skorzeny was also present. The rescue saved Mussolini from being turned over to the Allies, as per the armistice. Hitler had

title: Death of Benito Mussolini

text: According to Leo Valiani, the Action Party representative on the CLNAI, the decision to execute Mussolini was taken on the night of 27/28 April by a group acting on behalf of the CLNAI comprising himself, Sandro Pertini, and the communists Emilio Sereni and Luigi Longo. The CLNAI subsequently announced, on the day after his death, that Mussolini had been executed on its orders. In any event, Longo instructed a communist partisan of the General Command, Walter Audisio, to go immediately to Dongo to carry out the order. According to Longo, he did so with the words "go and shoot him".

text: to consolidate power, which is what followed. Mussolini's laws enacted in late 1925 enabled the suppression of any oppositional political organization. The Italian army officer Luigi Capello was arrested in conjunction with the Zanibóni plot and received a 30-year prison sentence. The author and labor organizer Carlo Tresca wrote a play and political satire in late 1925 based on the attempt, "L'Attentato a Mussolini ovvero il segreto di Pulcinella" ("The Attempt on Mussolini or the Secret of Pulcinella"). Zanibóni received a 30-year prison sentence, but was released in 1943 and later named to government positions. The next year, on April

title: Death of Benito Mussolini

text: like a mangy dog. Differing accounts exist of who made the decision that Mussolini should be summarily executed. Palmiro Togliatti, the Secretary-General of the Communist Party, claimed that he had ordered Mussolini's execution prior to his capture. Togliatti said he had done so by a radio message on 26 April 1945 with the words: "Only one thing is needed to decide that they [Mussolini and the other fascist leaders] must pay with their lives: the question of their identity". He also claimed that he had given the order as deputy prime minister of the government in Rome and as leader

title: Benito Mussolini

text: Only 28% of the entire military Italian budgets between 1934–39 was spent on military modernization with the rest all being consumed by Mussolini's wars, which led to a rapid decline in Italian military power. By contrast, reflecting the far larger size of the German economy, the total Italian military expenditure in 1936 was equal to only 27% of the total German military expenditure for 1936. The much greater size of the German economy allowed Hitler to both modernize the Wehrmacht and intervene in the Spanish Civil War at the same time, an option that Mussolini did not have. Between 1935–39,

title: Benito Mussolini

text: used the nom de guerre of Colonnello Valerio. His real identity is unknown, but conventionally he is thought to have been Walter Audisio, who always claimed to have carried out the execution, though another partisan controversially alleged that Colonnello Valerio was Luigi Longo, subsequently a leading communist politician in post-war Italy. Mussolini was killed two days before Hitler and his wife Eva Braun committed suicide. On 29 April 1945, the bodies of Mussolini, Petacci and the other executed Fascists were loaded into a van and moved south to Milan. At 3:00 am, the corpses were dumped on the ground in

title: Alessandra Mussolini

text: government. Alessandra Mussolini Alessandra Mussolini (born 30 December 1962) is an Italian politician, the granddaughter of Benito Mussolini, and a former actress and model. She has been a member of the Italian Senate since 2013, was elected for The People of Freedom which later became part of Forza Italia, and since 2014 has been a Member of the European Parliament for FI. She was the founder and leader of the national conservative political party Social Action; from 2004 until 2008, Mussolini also served as a Member of the European Parliament, and she has been a member of the Chamber of

title: Benito Mussolini

text: to indicate that he regretted the Manifesto of Race: Mussolini also reached out to the Muslims in his empire and in the predominantly Arab countries of the Middle East. In 1937, the Muslims of Libya presented Mussolini with the "Sword of Islam" while Fascist propaganda pronounced him as the "Protector of Islam." Mussolini was survived by his wife, Rachele Mussolini, two sons, Vittorio and Romano Mussolini, and his daughters Edda (the widow of Count Ciano) and Anna Maria. A third son, Bruno, was killed in an air accident while flying a Piaggio P.108 bomber on a test mission, on 7

title: Benito Mussolini

text: Garibaldi, and the nationalism of Mazzini. In 1902, at the anniversary of Garibaldi's death, Mussolini made a public speech in praise of the republican nationalist. The conflict between his parents about religion meant that, unlike most Italians, Mussolini was not baptized at birth and would not be until much later in life. As a compromise with his mother, Mussolini was sent to a boarding school run by Salesian monks. After joining a new school, Mussolini achieved good grades, and qualified as an elementary schoolmaster in 1901. In 1902, Mussolini emigrated to Switzerland, partly to avoid military service. He worked briefly

title: Benito Mussolini

text: allegedly told other people that Mussolini was responsible, for which he served further prison time. The opposition parties responded weakly or were generally unresponsive. Many of the socialists, liberals, and moderates boycotted Parliament in the Aventine Secession, hoping to force Victor Emmanuel to dismiss Mussolini. On 31 December 1924, MVSN consuls met with Mussolini and gave him an ultimatum: crush the opposition or they would do so without him. Fearing a revolt by his own militants, Mussolini decided to drop all pretense of democracy. On 3 January 1925, Mussolini made a truculent speech before the Chamber in which he took

title: Death of Benito Mussolini

text: inadvertently wounded earlier in the day when Petacci tried to grab the gun of one of the partisans, who killed Petacci and Michele Moretti then shot dead Mussolini. There have been several claims that Britain's wartime covert operations unit, the Special Operations Executive (SOE), was responsible for Mussolini's death, and that it may have even been ordered by the British prime minister, Winston Churchill. Allegedly, it was part of a "cover up" to retrieve "secret agreements" and compromising correspondence between the two men, which Mussolini was carrying when he was captured by partisans. It is said that the correspondence included

title: Death of Benito Mussolini

text: offers from Churchill of peace and territorial concessions in exchange for Mussolini persuading Hitler to join the western Allies in an alliance against the Soviet Union. Proponents of this theory have included historians such as Renzo De Felice and Pierre Milza and journalists including Peter Tompkins and Luciano Garibaldi; however, the theory has been dismissed by many. In 1994 Bruno Lonati, a former partisan leader, published a book in which he claimed that he had shot Mussolini and he was accompanied on his mission by a British army officer called "John", who shot Petacci. Journalist Peter Tompkins claimed to have

title: Benito Mussolini

text: about 30,000 Fascist blackshirts gathered in Rome to demand the resignation of liberal Prime Minister Luigi Facta and the appointment of a new Fascist government. On the morning of 28 October, King Victor Emmanuel III, who according to the Albertine Statute held the supreme military power, refused the government request to declare martial law, which led to Facta's resignation. The King then handed over power to Mussolini (who stayed in his headquarters in Milan during the talks) by asking him to form a new government. The King's controversial decision has been explained by historians as a combination of delusions and

title: Benito Mussolini

text: century. The international mood was now against colonialist expansion and Italy's actions were condemned. Furthermore, Italy was criticized for its use of mustard gas and phosgene against its enemies and also for its zero tolerance approach to enemy guerrillas, authorized by Mussolini. Between 1936 and 1941 during operations to "pacify" Ethiopia, the Italians killed hundreds of thousands of Ethiopian civilians, and are estimated to have killed about 7% of Ethiopia's total population. Mussolini ordered Marshal Rodolfo Graziani "to initiate and systematically conduct a policy of terror and extermination against the rebels and the population in complicity with them. Without a

title: Benito Mussolini

text: Mussolini, like all revolutionaries, considered himself a Marxist and he described Marx as "the greatest of all theorists of socialism." In 1913, he published "Giovanni Hus, il veridico" ("Jan Hus, true prophet"), an historical and political biography about the life and mission of the Czech ecclesiastic reformer Jan Hus and his militant followers, the Hussites. During this socialist period of his life, Mussolini sometimes used the pen name "Vero Eretico" ("sincere heretic"). Mussolini rejected egalitarianism, a core doctrine of socialism. He was influenced by Nietzsche's anti-Christian ideas and negation of God's existence. Mussolini felt that socialism had faltered, in view

title: Benito Mussolini

text: secret police and outlawing labor strikes, Mussolini and his followers consolidated their power through a series of laws that transformed the nation into a one-party dictatorship. Within five years, Mussolini had established dictatorial authority by both legal and extraordinary means and aspired to create a totalitarian state. In 1929, Mussolini signed the Lateran Treaty with the Vatican, ending decades of struggle between the Italian state and the Papacy, and recognized the independence of Vatican City. After the Abyssinia Crisis of 1935–1936, Mussolini invaded Ethiopia in the Second Italo–Ethiopian War. The invasion was condemned by the Western powers and was answered

title: Benito Mussolini

text: had remained "basically irreligious until the later years of his life". Mussolini was given a Catholic funeral in 1957. Although Mussolini had initially disregarded biological racism, he was a firm believer in national traits and made several generalizations about the Jews. Nevertheless, Mussolini considered Italian Jews to be Italians. Mussolini's antisemitic remarks in the late 1910s and early 1920s were more suited to the moment rather than a sincere belief in them. Mussolini blamed the Russian Revolution of 1917 on "Jewish vengeance" against Christianity with the remark "Race does not betray race . . . Bolshevism is being defended by

title: Benito Mussolini

text: Eritreans, and Somalis fighting in Italian service. Mussolini believed that conquering Ethiopia would cost 4 to 6 billion lire, but the true costs of the invasion proved to be 33.5 billion lire. The economic costs of the conquest proved to be a staggering blow to the Italian budget, and seriously retarded Italian efforts at military modernization as the money that Mussolini had earmarked for military modernization was instead spent in conquering Ethiopia, something that helped to drive Mussolini towards Germany. To help cover the huge debts run up during the Ethiopian war, Mussolini devalued the lire by 40% in October

title: Benito Mussolini

text: come sometime in the mid-1930s, when Mussolini calculated the high Italian birth rate would finally give Italy the necessary numbers to win. Subsequently, Mussolini took part in the Locarno Treaties of 1925, that guaranteed the western borders of Germany as drawn in 1919. In 1929, Mussolini ordered his Army General Staff to begin planning for aggression against France and Yugoslavia. In July 1932, Mussolini sent a message to German Defense Minister General Kurt von Schleicher, suggesting an anti-French Italo-German alliance, an offer Schleicher responded to favorably, albeit with the condition that Germany needed to rearm first. In late 1932–early 1933,

title: Death of Benito Mussolini

text: a tribunal had been convened and said: I was convinced Mussolini deserved death ... but there should have been a trial according to law. It was very barbarous. In a book he wrote in the 1970s, Audisio argued that the decision to execute Mussolini taken at the meeting in Dongo of the partisan leaders on 28 April constituted a valid judgment of a tribunal under Article 15 of the CNLAI's ordinance on the Constitution of Courts of War. However, the lack of a judge or a "Commissario di Guerra" (required by the ordinance to be present) casts doubt on this

title: Death of Benito Mussolini

text: partisans recognised one Italian fascist leader in the convoy, but not Mussolini at this stage, and made the Germans hand over all the Italians in exchange for allowing the Germans to proceed. Eventually Mussolini was discovered slumped in one of the convoy vehicles. Lazzaro later said that: His face was like wax and his stare glassy, but somehow blind. I read utter exhaustion, but not fear ... Mussolini seemed completely lacking in will, spiritually dead. The partisans arrested Mussolini and took him to Dongo, where he spent part of the night in the local barracks. In all, over fifty fascist

title: Benito (film)

text: Benito (film) Benito (Il Giovane Mussolini in Italian) is an Italian TV film regarding the story of Benito Mussolini's early rise to power in the Socialist International and his relationship with Angelica Balabanoff. It was made in 1993 by RTVE of Spain, Rai Due of Italy, Microfilm, and the Kirch Company. It stars Antonio Banderas as Mussolini. The movie starts off with Mussolini arriving in a small town in 1901 and getting a job as a school teacher; he is subsequently fired for having sex with the headmaster's daughter. This would be a common theme throughout the movie. After giving

title: Benito Mussolini

text: 1943, Mussolini proposed the theory of economic socialization. Mussolini's foremost priority was the subjugation of the minds of the Italian people through the use of propaganda. The regime promoted a lavish cult of personality centered on the figure of Mussolini. He pretended to incarnate the new fascist Übermensch, promoting an aesthetic of exasperated Machism that attributed to him quasi-divine capacities. 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

title: Benito Mussolini

text: was covered by German-American industrial rock band KMFDM on their 2006 remix album "Ruck Zuck", as well as German EBM/synthpop band And One on their 2007 EP "Bodypop 1½". Mussolini is the protagonist of the 2009 film "Vincere", directed by Marco Bellocchio. Mussolini is a major character in Niven and Pournelle's Inferno, a retelling of Dante's work of that name. He is referenced in the season 1 episode 3 of the documentary "Dictators Rulebook", by National Geographic. The episode "The Ghost of Nero" of the television series "Time Tunnel" depict Mussolini as a corporal; at the end of the episode,

title: Benito Mussolini

text: with economic sanctions against Italy. Relations between Germany and Italy improved due to Hitler's support of the invasion. In 1936, Mussolini surrendered Austria to the German sphere of influence, signed the treaty of cooperation with Germany and proclaimed the creation of a Rome–Berlin Axis. From 1936 through 1939, Mussolini provided huge amounts of military support to Franco's forces in the Spanish Civil War. This active intervention further distanced Italy from France and Britain. Mussolini had sought to delay a major war in Europe, but Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, resulting in declarations of war by France and the

title: Benito Mussolini

text: ideas of eugenics and the racially charged concept of an Aryan nation were not possible. Mussolini dismissed the idea of a master race as "arrant nonsense, stupid and idiotic." When discussing the Nazi decree that the German people must carry a passport with either Aryan or Jewish racial affiliation marked on it, in 1934, Mussolini wondered how they would designate membership in the "Germanic race": When German-Jewish journalist Emil Ludwig asked about his views on race in 1933, Mussolini exclaimed: In a speech given in Bari in 1934, he reiterated his attitude towards the German ideology of Master race: Though

title: Benito Mussolini

text: as a stonemason in Geneva, Fribourg and Bern, but was unable to find a permanent job. During this time he studied the ideas of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, the sociologist Vilfredo Pareto, and the syndicalist Georges Sorel. Mussolini also later credited the Christian socialist Charles Péguy and the syndicalist Hubert Lagardelle as some of his influences. Sorel's emphasis on the need for overthrowing decadent liberal democracy and capitalism by the use of violence, direct action, the general strike and the use of neo-Machiavellian appeals to emotion, impressed Mussolini deeply. Mussolini became active in the Italian socialist movement in Switzerland, working

title: Benito Mussolini

text: Allied invasion of Italy. Mussolini feared that with the losses in Tunisia and North Africa, the next logical step for Dwight Eisenhower's armies would be to come across the Mediterranean and attack the Italian peninsula. Within a few days of the Allied landings on Sicily in July 1943, it was obvious Mussolini's army was on the brink of collapse. This led Hitler to summon Mussolini to a meeting in Feltre on 19 July 1943. By this time, Mussolini was so shaken from stress that he could no longer stand Hitler's boasting. His mood darkened further when that same day, the

title: Benito Mussolini

text: got his start in politics with the help of a £100 weekly wage (the equivalent of £6000 ) from the British security service MI5, to keep anti-war protestors at home and to publish pro-war propaganda. This help was authorized by Sir Samuel Hoare. In early 1918 Mussolini called for the emergence of a man "ruthless and energetic enough to make a clean sweep" to revive the Italian nation. Much later Mussolini said he felt by 1919 "Socialism as a doctrine was already dead; it continued to exist only as a grudge". On 23 March 1919 Mussolini re-formed the Milan "fascio"

title: Benito Mussolini

text: Pietro Badoglio. After Mussolini left the palace, he was arrested by Carabinieri on the king's orders. By this time, discontent with Mussolini was so intense that when the news of his downfall was announced on the radio, there was no resistance of any sort. People rejoiced because they thought it meant the war was over. In an effort to conceal his location from the Germans, Mussolini was moved around before being imprisoned at Campo Imperatore, a mountain resort in Abruzzo where he was completely isolated. Badoglio announced that the war would continue in alliance with Germany. Even as Badoglio was

title: Benito Mussolini

text: line with a directive received from Mussolini in June 1942: "I would not be opposed to all ("sic") Slovenes being imprisoned and replaced by Italians. In other words, we should take steps to ensure that political and ethnic frontiers coincide". Mussolini first learned of Operation Barbarossa after the invasion of Soviet Union had begun on 22 June 1941, and was not asked by Hitler to involve himself. Mussolini took the initiative in ordering an Italian Army Corps to head to the Eastern Front, where he hoped that Italy might score an easy victory to restore the Fascist regime's luster, which

title: Benito Mussolini

text: advocating military intervention in World War I, in opposition to the party's stance on neutrality. Mussolini served in the Royal Italian Army during the war until he was wounded and discharged in 1917. Mussolini denounced the PSI, his views now centering on nationalism instead of socialism and later founded the fascist movement which came to oppose egalitarianism and class conflict, instead advocating "revolutionary nationalism" transcending class lines. Following the March on Rome in October 1922, Mussolini became the youngest Prime Minister in Italian history until the appointment of Matteo Renzi in February 2014. After removing all political opposition through his

title: Benito Mussolini

text: to kill Mussolini in Kobarid in 1938, but their attempt was unsuccessful. By the late 1930s, Mussolini's obsession with demography led him to conclude that Britain and France were finished as powers, and that it was Germany and Italy who were destined to rule Europe if for no other reason than their demographic strength. Mussolini stated his belief that declining birth rates in France were "absolutely horrifying" and that the British Empire was doomed because one-quarter of the British population was over 50. As such, Mussolini believed that an alliance with Germany was preferable to an alignment with Britain and

title: Benito Mussolini

text: and councils. On 7 April 1926, Mussolini survived a first assassination attempt by Violet Gibson, an Irish woman and daughter of Lord Ashbourne, who was deported after her arrest. On 31 October 1926, 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 the Italian anarchist Michele Schirru, which ended with Schirru's capture and execution. All other parties were outlawed following Zamboni's assassination attempt in 1926, though in practice Italy had been a one-party state since 1925

title: Benito Mussolini

text: five hundred Slovene and Croatian primary schools followed. One thousand "Slav" teachers were forcibly exiled to Sardinia and to Southern Italy. In the same way, Mussolini argued that Italy was right to follow an imperialist policy in Africa because he saw all black people as "inferior" to whites. Mussolini claimed that the world was divided into a hierarchy of races ("stirpe", though this was justified more on cultural than on biological grounds), and that history was nothing more than a Darwinian struggle for power and territory between various "racial masses". Mussolini saw high birthrates in Africa and Asia as a

title: Arnaldo Mussolini

text: wife Augusta Bondanini, a town which still exists. In the family home, his private studio with furnishings and memorabilia of the time were kept on exhibit. At Forlì, the Casa del Balilla, then the GIL, opened a votive chapel dedicated to him. In the church of Santa Maria Nuova, at Mercato Saraceno, a plaque was installed under orders of Benito Mussolini to mark the burial ground. The little cemetery of Paderno has become inaccessible. The journalists' organization, "Istituto Nazionale di Previdenza dei Giornalisti Italiani Arnaldo Mussolini", was dedicated to him after his death while Benito Mussolini was in power. After

title: Benito Mussolini

text: preferred large rooms like his office at the Palazzo Venezia. Mussolini was raised by a devoutly Catholic mother and an anti-clerical father. His mother Rosa had him baptized into the Roman Catholic Church, and took her children to services every Sunday. His father never attended. Mussolini regarded his time at a religious boarding school as punishment, compared the experience to hell, and "once refused to go to morning Mass and had to be dragged there by force." Mussolini became anti-clerical like his father. As a young man, he "proclaimed himself to be an atheist and several times tried to shock

title: Benito Mussolini

text: political ascendency, the information about his first marriage was suppressed, and both his first wife and son were later persecuted. With Rachele, Mussolini had two daughters, Edda (1910–1995) and Anna Maria (1929–1968), the latter of whom married in Ravenna on 11 June 1960 to Nando Pucci Negri; and three sons: Vittorio (1916–1997), Bruno (1918–1941) and Romano (1927–2006). Mussolini had several mistresses, among them Margherita Sarfatti and his final companion, Clara Petacci. Mussolini had many brief sexual encounters with female supporters, as reported by his biographer Nicholas Farrell. Imprisonment likely caused Mussolini's claustrophobia. He refused to enter the Blue Grotto, and

title: Benito Mussolini

text: beneficial for the working class. While he was supportive of the Entente powers, Mussolini responded to the conservative nature of Tsarist Russia by stating that the mobilization required for the war would undermine Russia's reactionary authoritarianism and the war would bring Russia to social revolution. He said that for Italy the war would complete the process of "Risorgimento" by uniting the Italians in Austria-Hungary into Italy and by allowing the common people of Italy to be participating members of the Italian nation in what would be Italy's first national war. Thus he claimed that the vast social changes that the

title: Benito Mussolini

text: 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, inspired by medieval guilds and never completely achieved, was to place all Italians in various professional organizations or "corporations", all under clandestine governmental control. Large sums of money were spent on highly visible public works and on international prestige projects. Thes included as the Blue Riband ocean liner SS "Rex"; setting aeronautical

title: The Pope and Mussolini

text: of Biography or Autobiography. The Pope and Mussolini The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe is a 2014 Pulitzer Prize winner biography of Pope Pius XI about his relations with Benito Mussolini and rise of Fascism in Europe by David Kertzer. The book examined documentary evidence from the Vatican archives, arguing that Pope Pius XI played a significant role in supporting the rise of Fascism and Benito Mussolini in Italy, but not of Nazism in Germany. "The Pope and Mussolini" won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography. It

title: The Pope and Mussolini

text: The Pope and Mussolini The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe is a 2014 Pulitzer Prize winner biography of Pope Pius XI about his relations with Benito Mussolini and rise of Fascism in Europe by David Kertzer. The book examined documentary evidence from the Vatican archives, arguing that Pope Pius XI played a significant role in supporting the rise of Fascism and Benito Mussolini in Italy, but not of Nazism in Germany. "The Pope and Mussolini" won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography. It is the story of

title: Death of Benito Mussolini

text: leaders and their families were found in the convoy and arrested by the partisans. Aside from Mussolini and Petacci, sixteen of the most prominent of them would be summarily shot in Dongo the following day and a further ten would be killed over two successive nights. Fighting was still going on in the area around Dongo. Fearing that Mussolini and Petacci might be rescued by fascist supporters, the partisans drove them, in the middle of the night, to a nearby farm of a peasant family named De Maria; they believed this would be a safe place to hold them. Mussolini

title: Death of Benito Mussolini

text: CLNAI's assumption of control in Milan and the German army in northern Italy about to surrender, Mussolini fled the city on 25 April and attempted to escape north to Switzerland. On the same day as Mussolini left Milan, the CNLAI declared: On 27 April 1945, Mussolini and his mistress Claretta Petacci, together with other fascist leaders, were travelling in a German convoy near the village of Dongo on the north western shore of Lake Como. A group of local communist partisans led by Pier Luigi Bellini delle Stelle and Urbano Lazzaro attacked the convoy and forced it to halt. The

title: Death of Benito Mussolini

text: He also came from Predappio and knew Mussolini's widow, Rachele, well. The re-interment in the Mussolini family crypt in Predappio was carried out on 1 September 1957, with supporters present giving the fascist salute. Mussolini was laid to rest in a large stone sarcophagus. The tomb is decorated with fascist symbols and contains a large marble head of Mussolini. In front of the tomb is a register for visitors paying their respects to sign. The tomb has become a neo-fascist place of pilgrimage. The numbers signing the tomb's register range from dozens to hundreds per day, with thousands signing on

title: Death of Benito Mussolini

text: Maria family's farmhouse to collect Mussolini and Petacci. After they were picked up, they drove a short distance to the village of Giulino de Mezzegra. The vehicle pulled up at the entrance of the Villa Belmonte on a narrow road known as "via XXIV maggio" and Mussolini and Petacci were told to get out and stand by the villa's wall. Audisio then shot them at 4:10p.m. with a submachine gun borrowed from Moretti, his own gun having jammed. There were differences in Lampredi's account and that of Audisio. Audisio presented Mussolini as acting in a cowardly manner immediately prior to