Mussolini Benito (Duce): biography. The dictator of Italy

In the small Italian village of Dovia, July 29, 1883, the family of local blacksmith Alessandro Mussolini and schoolteacher Rosa Maltoni was born first-born. He was given the name Benito. Years will pass, and this swarthy boy will become a ruthless dictator, one of the creators of the fascist party of Italy, which plunged the country into the most cruel period of the totalitarian regime and political repressions.

Youth of the future dictator

Alessandro was a conscientious hard worker, and his family had some prosperity, which allowed young Mussolini Benito to be sent to a Catholic school in the city of Faenza. After receiving secondary education, he started teaching in primary school, but this life was his burden, and in 1902 a young teacher left for Switzerland. At that time, Geneva was filled with political emigres, among whom Benito Mussolini constantly rotates. The books of K. Kautsky, P. Kropotkin, K. Marx and F. Engels have a fascinating effect on his consciousness.

But the most impressive impression is produced by Nietzsche's work and his concept of "superman". Having fallen on fertile soil, it resulted in the conviction that it was he - Benito Mussolini - who was destined to fulfill this great destiny. The theory, according to which the people was reduced to the level of the pedestal by elected leaders, was accepted by him without hesitation. There was no doubt about the interpretation of war as the highest manifestation of the human spirit. Thus, the ideological foundation of the future leader of the fascist party was laid.

Return to Italy

Soon the socialist rebel is expelled from Switzerland, and he again finds himself in his homeland. Here he becomes a member of the Socialist Party of Italy and with great success tries his hand at journalism. In his small newspaper, The Class Struggle, he published his own articles, in which the institutions of bourgeois society are ardently criticized. Among the broad masses this position of the author meets with approval, and in a short time the circulation of the newspaper is doubled. In 1910, Mussolini Benito was elected deputy of the next congress of the Socialist Party, held in Milan.

It was in this period that the name Mussolini begins to be added to the prefix "duce" - the leader. This unusually flattered his vanity. Two years later, he was instructed to head the central printed organ of the socialists - the newspaper Avanti! ("Forward!"). It was a huge leap in his career. Now he had the opportunity to address in his articles to all the millions of people in Italy. And Mussolini brilliantly coped with this. Here, his talent as 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. It became the most widely read in the country.

Leaving the Socialist camp

Soon it was followed by a break with former like-minded people. Since that time the young duce has been heading the newspaper The People of Italy, which, despite its name, reflects the interests of the big bourgeoisie and the industrial oligarchy. In the same year, Benito Mussolini's illegitimate son Benito Albino is born. 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 with Raquela Gaudi, from whom he will have five children.

In 1915, Italy, which had maintained its neutrality until that time, entered the war. Mussolini Benito, like many of his fellow citizens, was at the front. In February 1917, after serving seventeen months, the Duce was wounded 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, costing hundreds of thousands of lives, served as a push for Mussolini on the way to power. From the recent front-line soldiers, people embittered and tormented by war, he creates an organization called "Combat Alliance". In Italian it sounds "Fascio de Combattimento". This very "Fascio" also gave the name to one of the most inhuman movements - fascism.

The first major meeting of the Union was held on March 23, 1919. About 100 people took part in it. Within five days there were speeches about the need to revive the former greatness of Italy and the numerous demands concerning the establishment of civil liberties in the country. Members of this new organization, who called themselves fascists, addressed in their speeches to all Italians, 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 seats belonged to the fascists. Their party was officially registered in November 1921, and its leader was Mussolini Benito. All the new members join the ranks of the fascists. In October 1927, the columns of his adherents make a famous march to Rome for many thousands, 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. Cleverly manipulating, Mussolini was able 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 a background of wide political repression - an integral feature of all totalitarian regimes. The "Special Security Tribunal of the State" was created, whose competence included the suppression of all manifestations of dissent. During its existence, from 1927 to 1943, it was considered more than 21,000 cases.

Despite the fact that the monarch remained on the throne, all power was concentrated in the hands of the Duce. He headed seven ministries at the same time, was prime minister, head of the party and a number of law enforcement agencies. He managed to liquidate almost all the constitutional restrictions of his power. In Italy, the regime of the police state was established. On top, a decree was issued banning all other political parties in the country and abolishing direct parliamentary elections.

Political propaganda

Like every dictator, Mussolini attached great importance to the organization of propaganda. In this direction, he achieved considerable success, since he himself worked for a long time in the press and mastered the methods of influencing the consciousness of the masses. The propaganda company developed by him and his supporters has taken on the widest scope. Portraits duce filled the pages of newspapers and magazines, watched from posters and advertising brochures, decorated boxes of sweets and packages with medications. The whole of Italy was filled with images of Benito Mussolini. Quotations from his speeches were replicated in huge quantities.

Social programs and fighting with the mafia

But as an intelligent and far-sighted man, the Duce understood that the people alone could not earn a lasting credibility with one propaganda. 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 made it possible to effectively increase the employment of the population. Within the framework of its program, more than five thousand farms and five agricultural cities were built in a short period of time. For this purpose, the draining of the Pontine marshes was carried out, the vast territory of which for centuries has been only a breeding ground for malaria.

Thanks to the land reclamation program led by Mussolini, the country received an additional eight million hectares of arable land. Seventy-eight thousand peasants from the poorest areas of the country received fertile land. During 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 his reign Duce managed to do the impossible - he almost destroyed the famous Sicilian Mafia.

Military relations with Germany and entry into war

In foreign policy Mussolini nurtured plans for the revival of the Great Roman Empire. In practice, this resulted in the armed seizure of Ethiopia, Albania and a number of Mediterranean territories. During the civil war in Spain, Duce sent considerable forces to support General Franco. It was during this period that his fatal rapprochement with Hitler began, which also provided support to the Spanish nationalists. Finally their union was established in 1937 during Mussolini's visit to Germany.

In 1939, between Germany and Italy, an agreement was signed on the conclusion of a defensive-offensive alliance, as a result of which, on June 10, 1940, Italy enters the World War. Mussolini's troops take part in the seizure of France and attack the British colonies in eastern Africa, and in October they invade Greece. But soon the successes of the first days of the war were replaced by the bitterness of defeat. The troops of the anti-Hitler coalition intensified their actions in all directions, and the Italians retreated, losing the territories they had seized before and bearing heavy losses. To top it off, on July 10, 1943, the British units captured Sicily.

The collapse of the dictator

The former enthusiasm for the masses was replaced by general discontent. The dictator was accused of political short-sightedness, as a result of which the country was dragged into the war. They also recalled the usurpation of power, and the suppression of dissent, and all the miscalculations in foreign and domestic politics that Benito Mussolini admitted before. Duce was displaced by his own comrades-in-arms from all positions occupied and arrested. Before his trial, he was detained in a mountain hotel, but from it he was kidnapped by German paratroopers under the command of the famous Otto Skorzeny. Soon Germany occupied Italy.

Fate gave the opportunity to the former Duce for some time to head the puppet government of the republic created by Hitler. But the denouement was drawing near. At the end of April 1945, the former dictator and his lover, Clara Petachchi, were captured by the partisans while trying to illegally leave Italy together with a group of their associates.

The execution of Benito Mussolini and his girlfriend followed on April 28. They were shot on the outskirts of the village of Mezzegra. Later, their bodies were taken to Milan and hung by their feet in the town square. So ended his days Benito Mussolini, whose biography in something, of course, is unique, but on the whole typical for most dictators.