Today Mussolini is remembered as a hated dictator who, along with Hitler and Stalin, ushered in an of totalitarian ¬¬– an ideology, a single party typically led by one man, a terroristic police, a communications monopoly, a weapons monopoly, and a centrally directed economy – repression unsurpassed in human history. He plunged his country into an alliance with Nazi Germany and a disastrous war, leaving it literally in ruins. Yet Italy’s relationship with and feeling towards the dictator were; and remain, complex and contradictory. We know much about how Fascism functioned in Italy in the 1930s, the major institutions, figures and policies. However, how the ordinary Italian has viewed Mussolini during his lifetime has remained somewhat of a
…show more content…
However, when Mussolini saw that his violent verbal assaults on rival Socialist won him growing support from conservatives and the frightened middle classes, he shifted gears in 1920, exalting nation and race over class. Mussolini and his private army of Black Shirts began to grow violent. Few people were killed, but socialist newspapers, union halls, and local Socialist Party headquarters were destroyed. With the government breaking down in 1922, largely because of the chaos created by his Black Shirts bands, Mussolini stepped forward as the savior of order and property. In October 1922 a large group of Fascists marched on Rome to threaten the king and force him to appoint Mussolini prime minister. The threat worked. Victor Emmanuel III asked Mussolini to form a new cabinet. Thus, after widespread violence and threat of armed uprising, Mussolini seized power …show more content…
Raffaella Valenti, a young primary school teacher, brought up in the Marche region in central Italy, who had been sent to work in the remote hilltop town of Sant’Angelo Muxaro to the north of Agrigento in Sicily in the mid-1920s. Like many schoolteachers in impoverished rural communities Raffaella was sustained by a conviction that it was her duty to impart not just the rudiments of literacy and numeracy but also a strong sense of patriotism to the local children, and through them to their parents. In her diary she wrote proudly of her “great mission as educator of the people.” She used songs to help her pupils learn Italian and develop a sense of love for their country; and she was particularly pleased at the way they chanted “We are little Italians.” “I felt at that moment that their hearts were vibrating with love for the Fatherland.” On 10 March 1926 she received some pictures of Mussolini and immediately hung them in each classroom next to the images of the king and queen. She got the children to give the Roman salute, talked to them about the achievements of the fascist leader, and made them sing Blackshirt and March on Rome. She felt they were pleased. “The Duces who today control the destiny of the Fatherland are side by side. The King, the symbol of national unity, and Benito Mussolini, who with a steady hand is
However, when Mussolini saw that his violent verbal assaults on rival Socialist won him growing support from conservatives and the frightened middle classes, he shifted gears in 1920, exalting nation and race over class. Mussolini and his private army of Black Shirts began to grow violent. Few people were killed, but socialist newspapers, union halls, and local Socialist Party headquarters were destroyed. With the government breaking down in 1922, largely because of the chaos created by his Black Shirts bands, Mussolini stepped forward as the savior of order and property. In October 1922 a large group of Fascists marched on Rome to threaten the king and force him to appoint Mussolini prime minister. The threat worked. Victor Emmanuel III asked Mussolini to form a new cabinet. Thus, after widespread violence and threat of armed uprising, Mussolini seized power …show more content…
Raffaella Valenti, a young primary school teacher, brought up in the Marche region in central Italy, who had been sent to work in the remote hilltop town of Sant’Angelo Muxaro to the north of Agrigento in Sicily in the mid-1920s. Like many schoolteachers in impoverished rural communities Raffaella was sustained by a conviction that it was her duty to impart not just the rudiments of literacy and numeracy but also a strong sense of patriotism to the local children, and through them to their parents. In her diary she wrote proudly of her “great mission as educator of the people.” She used songs to help her pupils learn Italian and develop a sense of love for their country; and she was particularly pleased at the way they chanted “We are little Italians.” “I felt at that moment that their hearts were vibrating with love for the Fatherland.” On 10 March 1926 she received some pictures of Mussolini and immediately hung them in each classroom next to the images of the king and queen. She got the children to give the Roman salute, talked to them about the achievements of the fascist leader, and made them sing Blackshirt and March on Rome. She felt they were pleased. “The Duces who today control the destiny of the Fatherland are side by side. The King, the symbol of national unity, and Benito Mussolini, who with a steady hand is