Italy: ‘The indoctrination of the population was so successful in fascist Italy that there was barely any need for the use of terror in the years 1925-40.’ How far do you agree with this statement?

Introduction

• There was barely any need for the use of terror, so agree

• It is difficult to know because of falsified stats

• However, youth indoctrination 1925-29

• Expansion of participation 1930-35

• Social control 1935-38

• Limited severity of repression 1938-40

Paragraph 1

• Consolidation through indoctrination 1925-29

• 2,400 individuals processed by the Special Tribunal (High-Level Court) 1925-27

• 60% of youth indoctrination northern Italy members of the ONB by 1929

• Over 75% of early tribunal cases were dismissed or resulted in acquittal

Paragraph 2

• Expansion of consent and participation 1930-35

• OND had over 4m members by 1930s

• OND included around 40% of the industrial workforce

• 8m-10m regular listeners to fascist radio by 1935

Paragraph 3

• 1935-38 centred around surveillance rather than terror

• 50,000 OVRA agents operating by 1935 (small relative to population)

• 100,000 informants feeding info to regime

• OVRA organised 20,000 raids per week, but only 6,000 were formally processed or exiled

Paragraph 4

• Limited severity of repression 1938-40

• Under 5,000 people imprisoned for political crimes by 1940

• 9 political executions carried out

• Average sentence of those tried in Special Tribunals was 5 years