Download Benito Mussolini

Benito Mussolini
In the 1920s, thousands of industrial and agricultural strikes created climate of class warfare and
continual violence. Italy was also angered over its failure to receive more territory for its assistance in
WWI. Mussolini, once a school teacher and ex member of the socialist party, led a new political
movement, Fasico di Combattimento (League of Combat) which took advantage of the current
conditions to attain power. Mussolini used this violence to create order and eventually he was able to
frighten the government into making him Prime Minister. He started a secret police force that was
empowered to arrest and confine anyone for political or nonpolitical crimes without due process of law.
Although he used the police to control all aspects of civilian and political life, the police were not as
brutal as the police in the Soviet Union or Germany. Mussolini had total control of the Italian media. He
used newspapers and radio to spread propaganda that supported the government and created Press
Laws that gave the government the right to suspend any publications that fostered disrespect for the
Catholic Church, the monarchy, or the state. Mussolini also recognized the power of the Catholic Church
by giving it large amounts of money and declaring it the main religion of the state.
Mussolini wanted to mold Italians into a single-minded community. Because schools maintained
considerable freedom from Fascist control, Mussolini used youth groups to indoctrinate the young
people of the nation in fascist ideals. He children between the ages of 8 and 18 joined these groups and
by 1939, 66% of the population of that age group was enrolled in some kind of a Fascist youth group.
Mussolini also reinforced traditional social attitudes regarding women. Fascists believed a woman’s
natural and fundamental mission in life is to be homemakers and baby producers. The family was
portrayed as the pillar of the state and they slogan “woman into the home became popularized.”
Mussolini believed female emancipation was “un-fascist” and that employment outside of the home
distracted women from conception. In addition to encouraging larger families, the elimination of
women from the job market also reduced male unemployment during the depression of the 1930s.
Despite the instruments of repression, the use of propaganda, and the creation of numerous Fascist
organizations, Mussolini failed to attain the degree of totalitarian control achieved by Hitler and Stalin.
Mussolini could never completely destroy the old power structure as the armed forces and the
monarchy were still able to maintain their independence.