Mussolini Nouns

Liberal Monarchy

an ideology that advocates a monarchy, be it constitutional or absolute with liberties for the people as well as federalization for the nation

Latifundia

large estates owned by a small minority of wealthy landowners

Agrari

wealthy landowners who rented out land to poorer farmers and peasant sharecroppers

Fiat Car Company

established in 1899, and by 1913 it was exporting over 4,000 cars a year

- by 1918, it was the largest motor manufacturer in Europe

Terra irredenta

"unredeemed land'

- originally referred to the areas inhabited by many Italian speakers but ruled by Austria-Hungary during the 19th and early 20th centuries

Fasci

Helped organise demonstrations and strikes in protest for low wages and high rents.

- Took action against the 'enemy within' - Ex: Neutralists, socialist revolutionaries

Conscription

military draft

Attrition

The process of wearing down the enemy by sustained attacks.

Italian officers often sacrificed thousands of lives needlessly in all

Mutilated victory

The popular nationalist Gabriele D'Annunzio spoke for many Italians - especially war veterans - by calling WW1 this

Socialist trade unions

Decided to call a general strike for 31 July, in an attempt to force the government to take action against the fascists' violence and their 'creeping insurrection', which was giving the movement control of an increasing number of towns and other areas of Italy

Proportional representation

each local fascio was allowed to decide their own election manifesto

Fascio

Italian word meaning group or band

Election manifesto

a list of policies that a political party says it will enact if it is voted into office at a general election

Manganaelli

a weapon/ another name for cudgels (like a club)

- Used by action squads

Creeping Insurrection

how historian Philip Morgan described the PNF becoming increasingly violent

Carabinieri

type of police officers

- 12 of these on July 31, disperse over 500 fascists as Saranza

Il Duce

"The Leader" - what Mussolini insisted on being called during 1926

Applause squad

who whipped up 'enthusiasm' for Mussolini's speeches, sometimes even resorting to prompt cards

Fuorusciti

exiles or 'escapees

- CEKA had disrupted their activities by sometimes assassinating leaders in exile

Libretti di lavoro

special workbooks that were printed in 1935 in an attempt to restrict the migration of rural workers to cities

- Had to be signed by local prefect before a worker could move to a new area

Second wave of fascist revolution

after Farinacci's forced resignation in October 1926, another outburst of squadristi violence, pushing for this

Vittorio Orlando

Italy's PM after the Italian defeat at Caporetto in October 1917

- At Paris Peace Conferences and his failure to win this territory prompted his resignation in June 1919.

- His inability to secure all of Italy's territorial expectations at Versailles = used by Mussolini and the fascists in their campaign to demonstrate the weakness of the Italian government.

- initially backed Mussolini in 1922, but he withdrew his support in 1924

Gabriel D'Annunzio

poet and writer

- Ultra-nationalist + supported Italy's entry into the First World War for Triple Entente.

- He was an irredentist + angered when Fiume was handed over to the new state of Yugoslavia after WWI →led men to take over Fiume by force

Giocanni Giolitti

Italy's PM five times between 1892 and 1921

- bows to nationalist pressure →agreed to the Italio-Turkish war of 1911-12

- 1915: he opposed Italy's involvement in the WW1, believing Italy unprepared

- last period as prime minister was 1920-21

- Was supported by the fascist squadristi + didn't oppose their violent takeover of towns and regions

- backed Mussolini at 1st but withdrew support in 1924

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti

Writer and artist

- proclaimed the unity of art and life

- The artistic movement he founded, futurism, incorporated elements of both anarchism and fascism.

- an early supporter of Mussolini

- later distanced himself from what he saw as the more conservative aspects of fascism, but remained an important influence on fascist ideology.

Italo Balbo

A right-wing republican

- joined the PNF in 1921

- became secretary of the fascist organisation in Ferrara, and soon the ras there

- His fascist gangs - known as the Celbano - broke strikes for landowners and industrialists, and attacked socialists and communists.

- 1 of the 4 main planners, known as the Quadrumirs, of Mussolini's 'March on Rome'

- 1923: became a member of the Fascist Grand Council.

Dino Grandi

ran ras in bologna, a high-ranking member of the Fascist Party

- led fascist revisionists with Rocca and Bottai

- Had a coup against mussolini

Luigi Facta

A liberal

- held various ministerial posts before and after WW1

initially favoured neutrality, but later supported the war effort.

- became PM February 1922. → dismissed in July → soon reappointed, as no one else could form a government.

- last PM of Italy before Mussolini

De Vecchi

- 1 of the 4 ras with with Balbo, Bianchi, and De Bono that would seize control of major towns and cities in northern/central italy

- A fascist commander that began to waver during March on Rome?

Pius XI

new pope in 1919

- did not support the leader of the Popolari and had previously - as archbishop of Milan - blessed the fascists' banners

- from the time of his election in 1922, remained on good terms with Mussolini

Roberto Farinacci

took charge of the government in 1925 while mussolini was sick; renews squadristi violence and purges disloyal PNF members

Victor Emmanuel II

last king of Italy, largely due to his role during the rise and rule of fascism.

- After 1922, the made little comment on fascist violence, anti-Semitic laws or the destruction of democracy.

- 1944: handed most of his powers to his son, Umberto, and abdicated in his favour in May 1946.

- June: 54 per cent of Italians voted for a republic, and he went into exile in Egypt

Don Luigi Sturzo

a priest that was also a popolari leader

- Backed by Pope Benedict XV in order to oppose the PSI (Italian Socialist Party)

Giacomo Acerbo

secretary of state

- outlined new electoral law giving the party/alliance that won the most votes two-thirds of the seats in parliament, as long as the percentage wasn't less than 25%

Amerigo Dumini

born in the USA after his parents emigrated there from Italy

travelled to Florence at the end of WW1 & became involved in the local Fascio di Combattimento

- known as 'Il Duce's hit man'.

- 1924: headed the group that kidnapped and then murdered Giacomo Matteotti

- 1943: after Mussolini's overthrow, he gave his support to the establishment of the Salò Republic

Giacomo Matteoti

Born into wealthy family & studied law at the University of Bologna.

- active in socialist politics

- opposed Italy's entry into WW1 in line with the official position of the Italian Socialist Party.

- was first elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1919

- became leader of the United Socialist Party.

- outspoken critic of fascist violence → got kidnapped by Dumini

Galeazoo Ciano

Mussolini's son in law; runs the press office

Achille Starace

appointed as fascist party secretary in 1930; promotes Mussolini as a hero

Antonio Gramsci

- 1913: joined Italian Socialist Party

- 1916: co-editor of the Piedmont edition of the socialist newspaper Avanti

- supported Socialist Party's decision to join the Communist 3rd International in 1919 and the establishment of the Italian Communist Party

- highly original Marxist theoretical thinker + wrote various important books,

- one of his most important theories was that of cultural hegemony (idea that the ruling capitalist classes construct and manipulate cultural norms to maintain a state that protects private property and their own interests)

Rosselli brothers

Carlo and Nello

- 1929: established the Giustizia e Libertà (Justice and Liberty) group

- were murdered in France in 1937, probably on Mussolini's orders, by members of La Cagoule (The Cowl)

Carlo Scorza

PNF secretary- fascist that wanted to forge closer ties with Germany in 1943

Marshal Pietro Badoglio

replaced Mussolini

- 8 September 1943: announced Italy's surrender to the Allies

Rudolf Rahn

a German ambassador who made the important decisions in Italian Social Republic (even though Mussolini was nominally leader of the new republic)

SS General Karl Wolff

with Rudolf Rahn, he made important decisions in Italian Social Republic

- Has a lot of brutality - towards Jewish people and sending italian men to Germany as forced labour

Alberto de Stefani

liberal appointed as finance minister by mussolini to increase support

Cardinal Gasparri

a senior Vatican official

- Made secret negotiations with fascists in 1929 that resulted in 3 Lateran Agreements

Margherita Sarfatti

member of the wealthy Grassini family from Venice.

- initially a radical socialist and feminist, and art critic

- 1st met Mussolini in Milan in 1911, before he was expelled from the Socialist Party,

- Worked as a journalist and art critic for Avanti!

- supported Mussolini after 1915, and is believed to have influenced the moderation of his policies after 1922

- as Mussolini became more anti-Semitic after 1938, she went into exile until the end of WWII

Giovanni Gentile

Known as the 'philosopher of fascism',

- his philosophy of 'actual idealism' corresponded to the fascist liking for action.

- 1923: became minister of public education under Mussolini

important member of the Fascist Grand Council, and remained a loyal supporter of Mussolini after the foundation of the Salò Republic in 1943

- gathered 200 intellectuals in bologna to make the manifesto of fascist intellectuals

- made the doctrine of fascism under Mussolini's name

Augusto Turati

ex-syndicalist, an irredentist, a supporter of Italy's entry into WWI, and a journalist

- joined Mussolini's Fascio di Combattimento in 1920, and became the PNF boss of Brescia

- National Party secretary from 1926 to 1930

- His purge of party members affected both provincial and non-provincial branches

- opposed Italy's entry into WWII and didn't support Mussolini's Salò Republic

Giovanni Guraiti

a politician and 134th Doge of Venice, known for his traditionalist, isolationist and expansionist policies and openly supporting Mussolini

Edmondo Roosoni

- initially a revolutionary syndicalist, who was imprisoned for his activities in 1908

- became a socialist and then a nationalist, joining Mussolini's PNF in 1921

- the most prominent of the fascist labour leaders and, as head of the Confederation of Fascist Syndicates, he wanted genuine workers' representatives who would share power with employers

- After his dismissal in 1928, he continued in fascist politics, serving as under- secretary to the president of the Fascist Grand Council from 1932 to 1935

- Later, he supported Dino Grandi's coup and voted against Mussolini in 1943

Giuseppe Bottai

- met Mussolini in 1919 and helped set up a fascio in Rome, where he acted as editor of Mussolini's paper, Il Popolo d'Italia.

- In March on Rome his unit was responsible for the deaths of several anti-fascists.

- 1926-1929: deputy secretary of corporations.

- 1936-1943: minister for education and mayor of Rome

responsible for implementing several anti- democratic and anti-Semitic measures. In

- 1943: sided with Grandi in the coup against Mussolini.

Catholic church (papacy)

opposed the liberal state

- Mussolini later tried to win over this group to increase fascist respectability.

- impressed with the fascists' defeat of the socialists and communists, and saw benefits in ending the conflict with the state.

- Later was formally recognized as a sovereign group over the independent state Vatican City

- Mussolini never fully conquered this group

Associazione nazionalista italiana

Italy's first nationalist party, formed in 1910

- Supported war against Austria as a way of gaining the terra irredenta

- grew close to Mussolini's Fascist Party and merged with it in 1923.

Bolsheviks

A party of revolutionary Marxists, led by Vladimir Lenin, who seized power in Russia in 1917

Partito popolare (PPI) (aka Popolari)

Catholic political party

- A coalition of conservative and liberal Catholics who wanted to defend Catholic interests and improve life for the peasants

- Led by the priest Luigi Sturza, and was backed by Pope Benedict XV to oppose the PSI

- Generally suspicious of liberalism because of liberalism's anti-clericalist history

Italian Social Party (PSI)

moved increasingly to a revolutionary position after post-WWI economic problems arose, inspired by Bolshevik Revolution, called for overthrow of liberal state, for the workers

Arditi Association

- veterans who felt the liberals betrayed their wartime sacrifice by failing to obtain the land promised in Italy

- first one was set up in Rome in January, 1919, while Filippo Tommaso Marinetti established another in Milan

- Throughout February, many other groups were formed across Italy

- used weapons to attack socialists and trade unionists.

Fascio di Combattimento

23 March 1919, 118 people representing various political groupings met in Milan and formed this

- intended to bring together nationalists and socialists, and a militant-sounding Fascist Programme was published on 6 June 1919

- hatred for the liberal state truly united them

Fascists of the first hour

Founding members of the Fascio di Combattimento

Chamber of deputies

the lower house of Italian parliament

Squadristi

This extreme group of Italian Fascist were known for their black shirts and their brutality towards anyone whom they perceived as a threat to Fascism

Giolittianti-socialist national bloc

for the national elections due to be held in May 1921

- electoral alliance offered to the fascist by the socialists

Ras

these were the regional fascist leaders who commanded their own action squads and often had a large degree of independence

- included Italo Balbo (Ferrara), Dino Grandi (Bologna), etc.

- Would March on Rome with or without Mussolini.

Blackshirts

- Members of Italian fascists before WWII

- was led by Mussolini

- Helped solidify Mussolini's control

Fascio rivoluzionario di azione internazionalista (Revolutionary group of international action)

this was set up by many of Mussolini's friends in republican and syndicalist groups that supported Italy's entry on the Franco-British side

Fascio parlamentare di difesa nazionale (Parliamentary group of national defense)

Set up by some senators and deputies.

- Coalition of nationalists, right-wing liberals, and republic "interventionists" and set up various local fasci to take tough action against the enemy within: neutralists, social revolutionaries, etc.

National fascist party (PNF)

created in October 1921 as a more disciplined political party, had a clear right-wing program

- Appealed to Mussolini's capitalist backers but angered the ras, who wanted to destroy the existing political system, not participate in it

Squadre d'azione (action squads)

sent in to help factory owners in the north and landowners in the Po Valley and Tuscany to end factory and land occupations

- Controlled by ras

Non-commissioned officers (NCOs)

was a main group that composed the fascist squads

- United by hatred of socialists and their belief in violent action, rather than by any coherent political ideology

General confederation of workers (CGL)

the main trade union organization, made a peace deal, the Pact of Pacification, with Mussolini

Fascist central committee

precursor for fascist grand council

- Mussolini then resigned from it in an attempt to out manoeuvre the ras

Fascist national congress

Convinced by Mussolini to elect him as a leader in Nov 1921, in return for ending truce with socialists

- More like decision making - more broad than fascist grand council

Fascist grand council

declared to be the supreme decision making body in the Fascist Party

- Mussolini insisted on sole power over appointments to his council and attempted to establish total control over fascist policy-making

National security guards (MVSN)

national militia funded by the government formed buy the merging of regional fascist squads

- they swore an oath of loyalty only to Mussolini

- gave him a paramilitary organization and reduced the power of the ras

Council of ministers

worked alongside the Fascist Grand Council

- These took the important decisions made by the Fascist Grand Council and then officially approved/disapproved them

Confidustria

the employers' organization

- early 1923: it pledged its support for Mussolini largely due to his announcement that there would be no serious measures taken against tax evasion

Nationalist party

this small member group of the coalition merged with the Fascist Party in March 1923

Blueshirts

fascist paramilitary forces

Ceka

led by Amerigo Dumini

- a secret gang of thugs and gangsters to terrorize anti-fascists both in Italy and abroad

- Set up by Mussolini in January 1924

- helped terrorize anti-fascists during the April 1924 elections and ended up being a factor in Mussolini's downfall

Podesta

appointed fascist officials that replaced elected mayors and councils of towns and cities in each province

- Although these were Fascist Party members, they were mainly conservatives, from landowning and military elites

- helped Mussolini exclude the more militant fascists from real power

special tribunal

a new law court that was established to deal with political offenses, some of which carried the death penalty

- established in October 1926 after another failed assassination attempt on Mussolini

Organization for vigilance and repression of anti-fascism (OVRA)

formed in 1927, this was a secret police force charged with suppressing political opponents

Opera nazionale dopolavoro (OND)

a national recreational club, set up in 1925

- main function was to increase acceptance of fascist ideology by promoting sports and leisure activities

- Unsuccessful in indoctrinating the public

LUCE

1924

- produce documentaries and news reels as propaganda

Ministry for press and propaganda

renamed from "the press office" in 1935

- Renamed in part as an imitation of developments in Nazi Germany

Ministry of popular culture (miniculpop)

- formerly known as press office

- try to broaden influence

- unsuccessful

- tried to gain support for the abyssinian war, alliances, and antisemitism

- liberal culture is too strong

Communist party of italy

set up in 1921

- 1924: many leading members were arrested by Mussolini's regime

- Antonio Gramsci was the leader of this organization and elected to the Chamber of Deputies,

Garibaldi legion

Italian anti-fascite volunteers that fought as a part of the International Brigades against Franco's forces, against Mussolini's troops

- defeated Mussolini's troops at the Battle of Guadalajara in March 1937

Giustizia e liberta

means "Justice and Liberty"

- Established by Carlo Rosselli and Nello Rosselli in 1929

La cagoule (the cowl)

a French fascist group that murdered the Rosselli brothers in France, 1937, probably on Mussolini's orders

Institute of industrial reconstruction (IRI)

set up in 1933

- At first, it took over various unprofitable industries on behalf of the state

- By 1939, it had become a massive state company, controlling most of the iron and steel industries, merchant shipping, etc

Opera nationale balilla (ONB)

- main youth group in Italy from 1926, apart from those run by the Catholic Church

Church catholic action youth organization

government tried to suppress this in 1931, which provoked further conflict between the Church and State

Sons of the she-wolf

4-8 age group for BOYS in the ONB

Balila

8-14 age group for BOYS in the ONB

Avanguardisti

14-18 age group for BOYS in the ONB

Piccole itatliane

girl section in the ONB

Young fascists

18-21 age group for BOYS, after which they could become members of the Fascist Party

Gioventu italiana del littorio (GIL)

1937: the ONB merged with the Young Fascists to form this

- Membership was made compulsory for all young people aged 8 to 21

- All groups followed physical fitness programs with summer camp pre-military training

- Older children received political indoctrination.