In the small Italian village of Dovia, on July 29, 1883, the first-born was born in the family of the local blacksmith Alessandro Mussolini and school teacher Rosa Maltoni. He was given the name Benito. Years will pass, and this dark-skinned little boy will become a merciless dictator, one of the founders of the fascist party of Italy, plunging the country into the most severe period of the totalitarian regime and political repressions.
Youth of the future dictator
Alessandro was a conscientious hard worker, and his family had some wealth, which allowed placing a young Mussolini Benito in a Catholic school in the city of Faenza. Having received secondary education, he began teaching in elementary grades, but such a life bothered him, and in 1902 a young teacher left for Switzerland. At that time, Geneva was crowded with political emigrants, among which Benito Mussolini constantly rotates. The books of K. Kautsky, P. Kropotkin, K. Marx and F. Engels have a fascinating effect on his consciousness.
But Nietzsche’s work and his concept of “superman” make the greatest impression. Once on fertile ground, she became convinced that it was he - Benito Mussolini - who was destined to fulfill this great destiny. The theory, according to which the people were reduced to the level of a pedestal for the elected leaders, was accepted by him without hesitation. The interpretation of war as the highest manifestation of the human spirit did not raise any doubts. Thus was laid the ideological foundation of the future leader of the fascist party.
Return to Italy
Soon, the socialist rebel is expelled from Switzerland, and he again returns to his homeland. Here he becomes a member of the Socialist Party of Italy and with great success is trying his hand at journalism. The small newspaper “The Class Struggle” published by him mainly publishes his own articles in which the institutions of bourgeois society are vehemently criticized. Among the broad masses, this position of the author is approved, and in a short time the circulation of the newspaper doubles. In 1910, Mussolini Benito was elected to the next congress of the socialist party, held in Milan.
It was during this period that the prefix "Duce" —the leader — began to be added to the name of Mussolini. This flatter his pride extraordinarily. Two years later, he was assigned to head the central printing organ of the socialists - the newspaper Avanti! ("Forward!"). It was a huge leap in his career. Now, before him, an opportunity opened up in his articles to the whole multimillion-dollar people of Italy. And Mussolini brilliantly dealt with it. Here his talent of a journalist was fully revealed. Suffice it to say that within a year and a half he managed to increase the circulation of the newspaper five times. She became the most read in the country.
Leaving the socialist camp
Soon followed by his break with former like-minded people. Since that time, the young Duce has been heading the People of Italy newspaper, which, despite its name, reflects the interests of the big bourgeoisie and the industrial oligarchy. In the same year, the illegitimate son of Benito Mussolini is born - Benito Albino. He is destined to end his days in a clinic for the mentally ill, where his mother, the civil wife of the future dictator, Ida Dalzer, will die. After some time, Mussolini marries Rachele Gaudi, from whom he will have five children.
In 1915, Italy, which had maintained neutrality until this time, entered the war. Mussolini Benito, like many of his fellow citizens, was at the front. In February 1917, after serving for seventeen months, the Duce was commissioned for the wound and returned to his previous activities. Two months later, the unexpected happened: Italy suffered a crushing defeat from the Austrian troops.
The birth of the fascist party
But the national tragedy, which cost hundreds of thousands of lives, served as an impetus for Mussolini on the path to power. From the recent war veterans, people embittered and exhausted by the war, he creates an organization called “Combat Alliance”. In Italian it sounds "fashio de combattimento". This is the "fascio" and gave the name to one of the most inhumane movements - fascism.
The first major meeting of members of the union was held on March 23, 1919. About a hundred people took part in it. For five days, there were speeches about the need to revive the former greatness of Italy and numerous demands regarding the establishment of civil liberties in the country. Members of this new organization, calling themselves fascists, addressed in their speeches to all Italians who are aware of the need for radical changes in the life of the state.
Fascists in power in the country
Such appeals were successful, and soon the Duce was elected to parliament, where thirty-five mandates belonged to the Nazis. Their party was officially registered in November 1921, and Mussolini Benito became its leader. More and more new members join the ranks of the fascists. In October 1927, convoys of his followers make the famous march to Rome, as a result of which the Duce becomes prime minister and shares power only with King Victor Emmanuel III. The Cabinet of Ministers is formed exclusively of members of the fascist party. Skilfully manipulating, Mussolini managed to enlist the support of the pope in his actions, and in 1929 the Vatican became an independent state.
Fighting Dissent
Fascism Benito Mussolini continued to strengthen against the backdrop of widespread political repression - an integral feature of all totalitarian regimes. A “Special State Security Tribunal” was created, the competence of which included the suppression of all manifestations of dissent. During its existence, from 1927 to 1943, he considered more than 21,000 cases.
Despite the monarch remaining on the throne, all power was concentrated in the hands of the Duce. He headed seven ministries at the same time, was the prime minister, the head of the party and a number of power structures. He managed to eliminate almost all the constitutional restrictions of his power. In Italy, the regime of a police state was established. To top it off, a decree was issued banning all other political parties in the country and canceling direct parliamentary elections.
Political propaganda
Like every dictator, Mussolini attached great importance to the organization of propaganda. In this direction, he achieved significant success, since he himself worked in the press for a long time and perfectly mastered the methods of influencing the consciousness of the masses. The propaganda campaign launched by him and his supporters has taken on the widest scale. Portraits of the Duce flooded the pages of newspapers and magazines, looked from billboards and brochures, decorated boxes of chocolates and packaging with medicines. All of Italy was filled with images of Benito Mussolini. Quotes from his speeches were circulated in huge quantities.
Social programs and the fight against the mafia
But as a smart and far-sighted person, the Duce understood that people could not earn solid authority with propaganda alone. In this regard, he developed and implemented an extensive program to raise the country's economy and improve the living standards of Italians. First of all, measures were taken to combat unemployment, which allowed to effectively increase employment. Within the framework of his program, over five thousand farms and five agricultural cities were built in a short time. For this purpose, the Pontic marshes were drained, the vast territory of which for centuries was only a nursery of malaria.
Thanks to the land reclamation program led by Mussolini, the country received an additional nearly eight million hectares of arable land. Seventy-eight thousand peasants from the poorest regions of the country received fertile plots on them. In the first eight years of his reign, the number of hospitals in Italy has quadrupled. Thanks to his social policy, Mussolini gained deep respect not only in his country, but also among the leaders of the leading states of the world. During the years of his reign, the Duce managed to do the impossible - he practically destroyed the famous Sicilian mafia.
Military ties with Germany and entry into the war
In foreign policy, Mussolini hatched plans for the revival of the Great Roman Empire. In practice, this resulted in the armed capture of Ethiopia, Albania and a number of Mediterranean territories. During the Spanish Civil War, the Duce sent significant forces to support General Franco. It was during this period that a fatal rapprochement began for him with Hitler, who also supported the Spanish nationalists. Their union was finally established in 1937 during the visit of Mussolini to Germany.
In 1939, an agreement was signed between Germany and Italy on the conclusion of a defensive-offensive alliance, as a result of which, on June 10, 1940, Italy entered the World War. Mussolini's troops take part in the capture of France and attack the British colonies in east Africa, and in October invade Greece. But soon the successes of the first days of the war gave way to the bitterness of defeat. The troops of the anti-Hitler coalition stepped up their operations in all directions, and the Italians retreated, losing the territories that had been seized before and suffering heavy losses. To top it off, on July 10, 1943, British units captured Sicily.
The collapse of the dictator
The former enthusiasm of the masses gave way to general discontent. The dictator was accused of political myopia, as a result of which the country was drawn into the war. We recalled the usurpation of power, the suppression of dissent, and all the miscalculations in foreign and domestic policy that had been made before by Benito Mussolini. Duce was dismissed by his associates from all posts and arrested. Before the trial, he was detained in one of the mountain hotels, but he was abducted from it by German paratroopers under the command of the famous Otto Skorzeny. Soon, Germany occupied Italy.
Fate gave the former Duce the opportunity to lead the puppet government of the republic created by Hitler for some time to come. But the denouement was drawing near. At the end of April 1945, the former dictator and his mistress, Clara Petacci, were captured by partisans while trying to illegally leave Italy with a group of their associates.
The execution of Benito Mussolini and his girlfriend followed on April 28th. They were shot on the outskirts of the village of Mezzegra. Later, their bodies were taken to Milan and hung by their legs in a city square. Thus ended his days Benito Mussolini, whose biography is in some ways, of course, unique, but generally typical of most dictators.