Benito Mussolini: biography, political activity, family. Key dates and events of his life

Italian politician, writer, leader of the fascist party, nicknamed Duce, dictator, who led Italy from 1922 to 1943. It was he who coined the term “fascism.”

Mussolini was born on July 29, 1883 in the village of Predappio (Italian: Predappio) in the province of Forli-Cesena in Emilia-Romagna. He was named Benito in honor of the Mexican reformist president Benito Juárez; he received the names Andrea and Amilcare in honor of the Italian socialists Andrea Costa and Amilcare Cipriani. His mother Rosa Maltoni was a teacher. Father, blacksmith Alessandro Mussolini (1854-1910).

Mussolini played the violin from a young age. This was his favorite instrument

In 1902, to avoid military service, he emigrated to Switzerland. There he took part in the socialist movement and was deported to Italy, where he was to serve in the army. He immediately returned to Switzerland. The next attempt to deport him was suspended due to the fact that the Swiss socialists urgently brought the question of his treatment to parliament. In 1902, in Lausanne, he met the prominent economist and socialist Professor Vilfredo Pareto and attended his lectures (Pareto's theory teaches that power is always seized by a minority). Here he gets acquainted with the works of Nietzsche, Marx, Stirner, Babeuf. His articles are published by Proletario and Avvenire del Lavoratore; Mussolini, honing his style, becomes an unsurpassed polemicist. Here, it is partially formed Mussolini's ideology.

Mussolini's personal flag

He wrote the novel Claudia Particella, l'amante del cardinale - Claudia Particella, the cardinal's mistress, which was published with a sequel during 1910 (he later renounced the novel [source not specified 193 days]), the purpose of this novel was to discredit the religious authorities. By the time the novel began to be published, Mussolini had already returned to Italy. The preface to the first Russian edition of the novel states that “in 1927, a certain Italian lady, a fan of the Duce, found all the feuilletons, cut them out from the newspaper, bound them and presented them to the author as a gift. Mussolini was delighted." The Russian edition was published in Riga by the Literature publishing house in 1929.

In 1911, Mussolini opposed the colonial war in Libya, organizing strikes and demonstrations to prevent troops from being sent to the front: “the military continues to indulge in orgies of destruction and murder. Every day a huge pyramid of sacrificed human lives raises its bloody top more and more brazenly...” In November he goes to prison for 3 months for this.

With the outbreak of the First World War, in contrast to the official pacifist position of the socialists, he began campaigning for Italy to enter the war. Places in "Avanti!" an article in this spirit, which caused a scandal and led to expulsion from the party. However, in November Mussolini began publishing the newspaper Del popolo d'Italia (The People of Italy), which carried out active pro-war propaganda, and as a result became the most popular pro-war publicist in the country. After entering the war, in August 1915 he was drafted into the army, joined the regiment of barsaliers and was sent to the front section near the river. Isonzo. Comrades in arms appreciate Mussolini for his responsiveness, optimism, and exemplary courage - during attacks, he is the first to jump out of the trench shouting “Long live Italy!” At the end of November he was hospitalized due to typhus. In February 1916, he received the rank of corporal (in the order: “... for exemplary service, high morale and courage ..."). In February 1917, while firing a mortar, a mine exploded in the barrel, and Mussolini was seriously injured, which is why he was demobilized.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs opens a case against him, which says in part: “Mussolini is a voluptuous person, as evidenced by his numerous relationships with women... Deep down, he is very sentimental, and this attracts people to him. Mussolini is not interested in money, which gives him a reputation as an unselfish person. He is very smart, kind and well versed in people, knows their shortcomings and strengths. He is prone to showing unexpected likes and dislikes, and is sometimes extremely vindictive.”

On October 27, 1922, the “black plague” begins its march on Rome. By the evening of October 30, with the permission of the frightened King Victor Emanuel III, Mussolini finished forming the cabinet of ministers.

"March on Rome" by Italian fascists led by Mussolini, 1922.

• On December 5, Mussolini in his speech on the Catholic religion: “Fascism respects the God of ascetics, saints, heroes and the faith that fills the hearts of ordinary people with prayer. Unlike Bolshevism, fascism does not try to expel God from human souls.”
• On December 31, the Duce gives the order to the Ministry of Internal Affairs (headed by Luigi Federzoni) to seize opposition journalists and conduct a search of the leading leaders of the anti-fascist movement. The police dissolve the Free Italy association, close more than 100 “subversive” institutions and arrest several hundred people.
  Mussolini gives a speech
• On January 31, 1926, a new law was issued giving the government the right to make laws without the consent of parliament. And on December 24, Justice Minister Alfredo Rocco issues a series of laws aimed at eliminating the administrative and political institutions of the democratic system. The Duce gains full executive power and will no longer answer to anyone except the king.
• April 7 Violeta Gibson (a British citizen) shoots Mussolini with a revolver. The bullet grazes his nose. Medical examination declares her insane. Wanting to save a good relationship with Great Britain, Mussolini orders her to be deported to her homeland.
• In October, anarchist Gino Luchetti (from France) threw a bomb at Mussolini's car, it injured 4 passers-by, but the Duce was not injured. On December 31, 15-year-old Anteo Zamboni fired at Benito's car, after which he was captured on the spot and torn to pieces by the crowd.
• In November, the Organization for Monitoring and Suppression of Anti-Fascist Activities was created. The Duce receives political police.

For a long time, Mussolini was very skeptical of Hitler’s ideas about the superiority of some races over others. In 1932, during a conversation with the German writer Emil Ludwig, Mussolini sharply condemned the Nazi theory of racism and anti-Semitism: “... I do not believe in any biological experiments that can supposedly determine the purity of a race, nor in the superiority of one race over others. Those who proclaim the nobility of the German race, by a funny coincidence, themselves have nothing in common with the German race... This cannot happen in our country. Anti-Semitism does not exist in Italy. Italian Jews have always behaved like true patriots. They fought bravely for Italy during the war..."...but after 6 years, for the sake of an alliance with Germany, his opinion will change to the opposite.

June 14, 1934 Mussolini receives Hitler in Venice. At the end of the visit, the Duce spoke of his guest as follows: “This annoying man... this Hitler is a ferocious and cruel creature. It makes me remember Attila. Since the time of Tacitus, Germany has remained a country of barbarians. She is the eternal enemy of Rome."

Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini in Berlin.

• In October 1935, Italy launched a war of conquest against Ethiopia.
• In November, member states of the League of Nations (except the United States) undertake to boycott Italian goods, deny loans to the Italian government, and ban the import of strategic materials into Italy. Upon learning of this, the Duce becomes furious. Germany supports Italy.
• On May 8, 1936, in connection with the victory in Ethiopia, Mussolini proclaimed the rebirth of the Roman Empire. King Victor Emmanuel III assumed the title of Emperor of Ethiopia.
• On November 6, Benito Mussolini announced his country’s accession to the Anti-Comintern Pact, previously signed by Germany and Japan. He said that Stalin and the Communists posed a threat to Europe and that he was "tired of defending Austrian independence." On December 11, Italy leaves the League of Nations.
• On February 19, 1938, the Italian ambassador in London made a statement about the need to prevent the Anschluss - the seizure of Austria by the Nazis. Mussolini is trying to prevent the creation of a "Greater Germany", but no concrete statements have been given from Great Britain or France. On March 12, 1938, Hitler, confident that the Duce would not dare to act alone, gave the order to his troops to cross the border into Austria.
• Through the efforts of Mussolini and Hitler, the Munich Agreement on the division of Czechoslovakia was concluded in 1938.

Benito Mussolini on the cover of Time magazine

On March 18, 1940, the Duce meets with Hitler at the Brenner Pass. Mussolini promised to enter the war, but only after the main forces of France were defeated by the Germans. He laid claim to historically Italian lands that had once been seized by France - namely Corsica, Savoy and Nice, as well as Tunisia.

In May, the Germans launched a successful offensive on the Western Front, and Mussolini decided that the decisive hour had arrived. June 10, 1940 from the balcony of the Venice Palace, in front of a crowd of thousands Duce announces Italy's entry into the war. However, 32 Italian divisions were unable to significantly dislodge 6 French divisions from their positions in the Alps. As a result, Italy received nothing under the Compiegne Truce. Mussolini tried to compensate for this shame by conquering Greece, which he attacked on October 28, 1940, without warning Hitler. However, even here he was never able to win laurels: after the first successes, the Italians were defeated in November and thrown back to Albania at the Lake Ohrid line - Mount Tamar. Only Germany's intervention in the war in the spring of 1941 made it possible to defeat Greece.

• On October 23, 1942, a counteroffensive by British troops began near El Alamein, ending in the complete defeat of the Italo-Germans. On November 8, the Americans began landing in Morocco.

On September 12, Mussolini, who was being held at the Albergo Rifugio Hotel in the Apennine Mountains, was freed by German paratroopers under the command of Otto Skorzeny. He was taken to a meeting with Hitler, from there to Lombardy, where he headed the puppet “Italian Social Republic” with its capital in the town of Salo (the so-called “Republic of Salo”). In fact, all power in this entity belonged to the German military.

On the morning of April 27, Mussolini, along with his mistress Clara (Claretta) Petacci and other leaders of the Republic of Salo, joined a convoy of German trucks heading north. At noon, the column was stopped by a picket of the 52nd Garibaldi Brigade (commander - “Pedro” - Count P. Bellini della Stelle, commissar - Bill - U. Lazzaro). After a shootout, the partisans agreed to let the convoy through on the condition that the Italian fascists be handed over to them. They tried to pass Mussolini off as a German by dressing him in the uniform of a Luftwaffe non-commissioned officer. However, Commissioner Bill and the communist partisan D. Negri identified Mussolini, after which he was arrested. Mussolini and Clara Petacci were sent to the village of Giulina di Mezzegra, where they spent their last night in a peasant house in strict secrecy. The allied command, having learned about Mussolini's arrest, persistently demanded that the National Liberation Committee hand over the dictator to him. For their part, the communist members of the KNO decided to shoot the dictator and all the fascist leaders arrested with him. For this purpose, Colonel Valerio (Walter Audisio) was sent with a detachment to Giulina di Mezzegra, equipped with a mandate vesting him with emergency powers on behalf of the CCNO. Mussolini and Petacci were taken to Villa Belmonte, near the fence of which it was decided to shoot Mussolini. Audisi invited Petacci to step aside, but she grabbed Mussolini’s sleeve and tried to shield him with her body. Mussolini and Petacci were executed by firing squad on April 28, 1945.

Clara Petacci - Benito Mussolini's lover, who chose the hard death of life without her lover

Moreover, there is a strange story about the place where the Duce was executed. 10 years before his death, he was driving near Mezere, and his car almost fell off a cliff. Mussolini then said: “Damn this place.” It was there, years later, that he was shot.

• The bodies of Mussolini and Petacci were brought to Milan. At a gas station near Piazza Loretto, where 15 partisans were executed on August 10, 1944, they, along with the bodies of 5 other executed fascist party leaders, were hanged upside down. After this, the ropes were cut, and the bodies lay in the gutter for some time. On May 1, Mussolini and Petacci were buried in Milan's Musocco Cemetery (Simitero Maggiore), in an unmarked grave in a poor lot.

Benito and Clara hanging from meat hooks after execution

Benimto Amimlcare Andrema Mussolimni (July 29, 1883 - April 28, 1945) - Italian politician, writer, leader of the Fascist Party (FFP), dictator ("Duce"), who led Italy (as Prime Minister) from 1922 to 1943. First Marshal of the Empire (30 March 1938). After 1936, his official title became "His Excellency Benito Mussolini, Head of Government, Duce of Fascism and Founder of the Empire." Mussolini remained in power until 1943, after which he was deposed and arrested, but released by German special forces and then headed the puppet Italian Social Republic in northern Italy until his death.

Mussolini was one of the founders of Italian fascism, which included elements of nationalism, corporatism, national syndicalism, expansionism and anti-communism, combined with censorship and state propaganda.

Among the achievements domestic policy Mussolini's government in the period 1924-1939 were: the successful implementation of public works programs such as draining the Pontine marshes, improving employment opportunities, and modernizing the system public transport. Mussolini also resolved the Roman Question by concluding the Lateran Agreements between the Kingdom of Italy and the Papal See. He is also credited with bringing economic success to Italy's colonies.

An expansionist foreign policy, initially culminating in the conquest of Abyssinia and Albania, pushed him into an alliance with Germany and participation in World War II as part of the Axis powers, which was the cause of his eventual demise.

Animal lover

In his youth, Mussolini had an unpredictable character and was known in the village as a hooligan. But wild antics happened to him only from time to time. He showed interest in science and studied quite well.

Mussolini was cruel to people, but always remained kind to animals. He liked owls and horses more than others. Mussolini loved to ride horseback through the foothills and spend hours watching the flight of owls at night.

He continued to ride a horse, even becoming the recognized leader of fascist Italy. With this, Mussolini often amazed people he unexpectedly met in the mountains. He did not give up the habit of riding, even when he had problems political problems. This allowed him to disconnect from the cruel reality for a while and rest his soul.

Fascist violinist

Mussolini fell in love with music early childhood. At school, he was a member of the school orchestra, playing trombone. While in Trento, Mussolini began to learn to play the violin. He often demonstrated his skills in front of family members and associates even after he became the head of the fascist party.

Mussolini maintained friendly relations with the Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, author of the operas Madama Butterfly and Tosca. Mussolini often visited the theater for performances of his works.

The famous conductor Arturo Toscanini initially supported the fascists. After Puccini's death, Toscanini conducted his last, unfinished opera, Turandot, which was highly praised by Mussolini. But later Toscanini became disillusioned with fascism and once refused to conduct the official anthem of the fascist party. After this, his relationship with the Duce deteriorated.

Mussolini fought very harshly against any anti-fascist sentiments and speeches. However, he also understood that the activities of outstanding masters - even those who did not support fascism - played an important role in the development of Italian national culture, and the attitude towards the fascist regime on the part of other European powers largely depended on their political position.

An irrepressible thirst for power was the dominant feature of Mussolini's life. Power determined his concerns, thoughts and actions and was not fully satisfied even when he found himself at the very top of the pyramid of political dominance. His own morality, and he considered moral only that which contributed to personal success and the preservation of power, as a shield that covered him from the outside world. He constantly felt lonely, but loneliness did not weigh on him: it was the axis around which the rest of his life revolved.

A brilliant actor and poser, abundantly endowed with the characteristic Italian temperament, Mussolini chose a wide role for himself: an ardent revolutionary and a stubborn conservative, a great Duce and his own “shirt guy,” an unbridled lover and a pious family man. However, behind all this is a sophisticated politician and demagogue who knew how to accurately calculate the time and place to strike, pit opponents against each other, and play on people’s weaknesses and base passions.

He sincerely believed that strong personal power was necessary to control the masses, for “the masses are nothing more than a flock of sheep until they are organized.” Fascism, according to Mussolini, was supposed to turn this “herd” into an obedient instrument for building a society of general prosperity. Therefore, the masses must, they say, love the dictator “and at the same time fear him. The masses love strong men. The mass is a woman.” Mussolini's favorite form of communication with the masses was public speeches. He systematically appeared on the balcony of the Palazzo Venezia in the center of Rome in front of a crowded square that could accommodate 30 thousand people. The crowd exploded with excitement. The Duce slowly raised his hand, and the crowd froze, eagerly listening to every word of the leader. Usually the Duce did not prepare his speeches in advance. He kept only basic ideas in his head, and then relied entirely on improvisation and intuition. He, like Caesar, stirred the imagination of Italians with grandiose plans, the mirage of empire and glory, great achievements and general well-being.

The future Duce was born on July 29, 1883 in a cozy village called Dovia in the province of Emilia-Romagna, which has long been known as a hotbed of rebellious sentiments and traditions. Mussolini's father worked blacksmithing, occasionally “having a hand” in raising the first-born (later Benito had another brother and sister), the mother was a rural teacher. Like any petty-bourgeois family, the Mussolinis did not live richly, but they were not poor either. They were able to pay for the education of their eldest son, who was systematically expelled from school for fighting. Having received a secondary education, Mussolini tried to teach in the lower grades for some time, led a completely dissolute life and received venereal disease, from which he was never able to fully recover.

However, his active nature was looking for a different field, and his ambitious plans pushed him to adventurous decisions, and Mussolini went to Switzerland. Here he did odd jobs, was a mason and laborer, clerk and garson, lived in cramped closets common for emigrants of that time, and was arrested by the police for vagrancy. Later, at every opportunity, he recalled this period when he experienced “hopeless hunger” and experienced “a lot of life’s difficulties.”

At the same time, he became involved in trade union activities, spoke passionately at workers’ meetings, met many socialists and joined the socialist party. Particularly important for him was his acquaintance with the professional revolutionary Angelica Balabanova. They talked a lot, argued about Marxism, translated from German and French (Mussolini studied these languages ​​in courses at the University of Lausanne) the works of K. Kautsky and P.A. Kropotkin. Mussolini became acquainted with the theories of K. Marx, O. Blanca, A. Schopenhauer and F. Nietzsche, but he never developed any coherent system of views. His worldview at that time was a kind of “revolutionary cocktail”, mixed with the desire to become a leader in the labor movement. The most reliable way to gain popularity was revolutionary journalism, and Mussolini began to write on anti-clerical and anti-monarchist topics. He turned out to be a talented journalist who wrote quickly, energetically and clearly for readers.

In the fall of 1904, Mussolini returned to Italy, served in the army, and then moved to his native province, where he decided on two urgent matters: he acquired a wife, a blue-eyed, blond peasant woman named Raquele, and his own newspaper. Class struggle" It was he who acquired it - against the will of his father and mother Rakel, for he once appeared at her house with a revolver in his hand, demanding to give him his daughter. The cheap trick was a success, the young people rented an apartment and began to live without registering either a civil or church marriage.

The year 1912 turned out to be decisive in the revolutionary career of the Duce (“Duce” - they began to call him the leader back in 1907, when he went to prison for organizing public unrest). His fierce struggle against the reformists within the PSI won him many supporters, and soon the party leaders invited Mussolini to lead Avanti! — central newspaper parties. At 29 years old, Mussolini, few others famous year ago, received one of the most responsible posts in the party leadership. His dexterity and unscrupulousness, boundless narcissism and cynicism were also evident in the pages of Avanti!, whose circulation within a year and a half staggeringly increased from 20 to 100 thousand copies.

And then the First World War broke out. The Duce, who was known as an irreconcilable anti-militarist, initially welcomed the neutrality declared by Italy, but gradually the tone of his speeches became more and more militant. He was confident that the war would destabilize the situation and make it easier to carry out a social revolution and seize power.

Mussolini played a win-win game. He was expelled from the ISP for renegade, but by this time he already had everything he needed, including money, to publish his own newspaper. It became known as the “People of Italy” and launched a noisy campaign to join the war. In May 1915, Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary. The Duce was mobilized to the front and spent about a year and a half in the trenches. He tasted the “delights” of front-line life to the fullest, then was wounded (accidentally, from a training grenade exploding), hospitals, and demobilized with the rank of senior corporal. Mussolini described everyday life at the front in his diary, pages from which were regularly published in his newspaper, which was published in mass circulation. By the time of demobilization, he was well known as a man who had gone through the crucible of war and understood the needs of front-line soldiers. It was these people, accustomed to violence, who saw death and had difficulty adapting to peaceful life, who became the combustible mass that could blow up Italy from the inside.

In March 1919, Mussolini created the first “combat union” (“fascio di combattimento”, hence the name - fascists), which included mainly former front-line soldiers, and after some time these unions appeared almost everywhere in Italy.

In the fall of 1922, the fascists mobilized forces and staged the so-called “March on Rome.” Their columns marched on the “Eternal City,” and Mussolini demanded the post of prime minister. The military garrison of Rome could resist and disperse the loudmouths, but for this the king and his inner circle needed to show political will. This did not happen, Mussolini was appointed prime minister and immediately demanded a special train to travel from Milan to the capital, and crowds of Blackshirts entered Rome on the same day without firing a single shot (a black shirt is part of the fascist uniform). This is how a fascist coup took place in Italy, ironically called by the people “the revolution in a sleeping car.”

Having moved to Rome, Mussolini left his family in Milan and for several years led the dissolute life of a Don Juan unencumbered by family concerns. This did not prevent him from engaging in government affairs, especially since meetings with women, of whom there were hundreds, took place in work time or in lunch break. His behavior and style were far from aristocratic sophistication and a little vulgar. Mussolini demonstratively despised secular manners and even at official ceremonies did not always follow the rules of etiquette, since he did not really know and did not want to know them. But he quickly acquired the habit of talking arrogantly to his subordinates, without even inviting them to sit in his office. He got himself a personal guard, and on duty he preferred to drive a bright red sports car.

By the end of the 20s, a totalitarian fascist dictatorship was established in Italy: all opposition parties and associations were dissolved or destroyed, their press was banned, and opponents of the regime were arrested or expelled. To persecute and punish dissidents, Mussolini created a special secret police (OVRA) under his personal control and a Special Tribunal. During the years of dictatorship, this repressive body convicted more than 4,600 anti-fascists. The Duce considered reprisals against political opponents to be quite natural and necessary when establishing a new government. He said that freedom has always existed only in the imagination of philosophers, and the people, they say, ask him not for freedom, but for bread, houses, water pipes, etc. And Mussolini really tried to satisfy many of the social needs of the working people, creating such a broad and multifaceted social security system that did not exist in any capitalist country in those years. The Duce understood well that it was impossible to create a solid foundation for his rule through violence alone, that something more was required - the consent of the people with existing orders, refusal to try to counteract the authorities.

The image of a man with a large hydrocephalic skull and a “decisive, strong-willed look” accompanied the average person everywhere. In honor of the Duce, they composed poems and songs, made films, created monumental sculptures and stamped figurines, painted pictures and printed postcards. Endless praise flowed at mass rallies and official ceremonies, on the radio and from the pages of newspapers, which were strictly forbidden to print anything about Mussolini without permission from the censor. They were not even able to congratulate him on his birthday, since the dictator’s age was a state secret: he was supposed to remain forever young and serve as a symbol of the regime’s unfading youth.

To create a “new moral and physical type of Italian,” Mussolini’s regime began to violently introduce ridiculous and sometimes simply idiotic standards of behavior and communication into society. Among the fascists, handshakes were abolished, women were forbidden to wear trousers, and one-way traffic was established for pedestrians on the left side of the street (so as not to interfere with each other). The fascists attacked the “bourgeois habit” of drinking tea and tried to erase from the speech of Italians the polite form of address “Lei”, which was familiar to them, supposedly alien in its softness to the “courageous style of fascist life.” This style was strengthened by the so-called “fascist Saturdays,” when all Italians had to engage in military, sports and political training. Mussolini himself set an example to follow, organizing swims across the Bay of Naples, hurdles and horse racing.

Known at the dawn of his political biography as an adamant anti-militarist, Mussolini zealously set about creating military aviation and a navy. He built airfields and laid down warships, trained pilots and captains, and organized maneuvers and reviews. The Duce madly loved to watch military equipment. He could stand motionless for hours, with his hands on his hips and his head up. He was unaware that to create the appearance of military power, zealous assistants drove the same tanks through the squares. At the end of the parade, Mussolini himself stood at the head of the Bersaglieri regiment and, with a rifle at the ready, ran with them in front of the podium.

In the 30s, another mass ritual appeared - “fascist weddings.” The newlyweds received a symbolic gift from the Duce, who was considered an imprisoned father, and in a return telegram of gratitude they promised to “give a soldier to their beloved fascist homeland” in a year. In his youth, Mussolini was an ardent supporter of artificial contraceptives and did not object to their use by the women with whom he interacted. Having become a dictator, he turned in this regard too. reverse side. The fascist government introduced criminal penalties for those who advocated the distribution of such drugs, and increased the already considerable fines for abortions. By personal order of the Duce, infection with syphilis began to be considered a criminal offense, and the ban on divorce was reinforced by new severe penalties for adultery.

He declared war on fashionable dancing, which seemed “indecent and immoral” to him, imposed strict restrictions on various types of night entertainment and banned those that involved undressing. Far from being inclined to puritanism, the Duce was concerned with the styles of women's swimsuits and the length of skirts, insisting that they cover most of the body, and fought against the widespread use of cosmetics and high-heeled shoes.

Carried away by the struggle to increase the birth rate, the Duce called on his fellow citizens to double its pace. The Italians joked about this that to achieve their goal they could only halve the pregnancy period. Childless women felt like lepers. Mussolini even tried to impose tribute on childless families and introduced a tax on “unjustified celibacy.”

The Duce also demanded more offspring in the families of the fascist hierarchs, being a role model: he had five children (three boys and two girls). People close to the dictator knew about the existence of an illegitimate son from a certain Ida Dalser, whom Mussolini long years supported financially.

Since 1929, the Duce family lived in Rome. Rakele shunned high society, took care of the children and strictly followed the daily routine established by her husband. This was not difficult, since Mussolini did not change his habits in everyday life and on ordinary days led a very measured lifestyle. He got up at half past six, did exercises, drank a glass orange juice and took a horseback ride through the park. When he returned, he took a shower and had breakfast: fruit, milk, flour bread coarse, which Rakelé sometimes baked, coffee with milk. He left for work at eight, took a break at eleven and ate fruit, and returned for lunch at two in the afternoon. There were no pickles on the table: spaghetti with tomato sauce - the simplest dish most Italians love, fresh salad, spinach, stewed vegetables, fruits. During siesta I read and talked with children. By five he returned to work, had dinner no earlier than nine and went to bed at ten-thirty. Mussolini did not allow anyone to wake him, except in the most urgent cases. But the village
Since no one really knew what this meant, they preferred not to touch it under any circumstances.

The main source of income for the Mussolini family was the newspaper “People of Italy” that he owned. In addition, the Duce received a deputy's salary, as well as numerous fees for publishing speeches and articles in the press. These funds allowed him not to deny anything necessary to himself or his loved ones. However, there was almost no need to spend them, since the Duce almost uncontrollably disposed of colossal public funds, spent on entertainment expenses. Finally, he had huge secret funds of the secret police and, if he wanted, could become fabulously rich, but he did not feel any need for this: money, as such, did not interest him. No one ever even tried to accuse Mussolini of any financial abuses, since there simply were none. This was confirmed by a special commission that investigated the facts of embezzlement among the fascist hierarchs after the war.

By the mid-30s, the Duce turned into a real celestial, especially after declaring himself First Marshal of the Empire. By the decision of the fascist parliament this is the highest military rank was assigned only to the Duce and the king and thereby seemed to put them on the same level. King Victor Emmanuel was furious: he only formally remained the head of state. The timid and indecisive monarch did not forget about the revolutionary past and anti-royalist statements of the dictator, despised him for his plebeian origin and habits, feared and hated his “humble servant” for the power he had. Mussolini felt the monarch's internal negative mood, but did not attach serious importance to it.

He was at the zenith of glory and power, but next to him was already looming the ominous shadow of another contender for world domination - a truly powerful maniac who had seized power in Germany. The relationship between Hitler and Mussolini, despite the seemingly obvious “kinship of souls,” the similarity of ideology and regimes, was far from fraternal, although sometimes it looked like that. The dictators did not even have any sincere sympathy for each other. In relation to Mussolini, this can be said for sure. Being the leader of fascism and the Italian nation, Mussolini saw in Hitler a petty imitator of his ideas, a little possessed, a little caricatured upstart, devoid of many qualities necessary for a real politician.

In 1937, Mussolini made his first official visit to Germany and was deeply impressed by its military power. With his nose and gut, he felt the approach of a big war in Europe and took away from the trip the conviction that it was Hitler who would soon become the arbiter of the destinies of Europe. And if so, then it is better to be friends with him than to be at enmity. In May 1939, the so-called “Pact of Steel” was signed between Italy and Germany. In the event of an armed conflict, the parties pledged to support each other, but Italy’s unpreparedness for war was so obvious that Mussolini came up with the formula of temporary “non-participation,” thereby wanting to emphasize that he was not taking a passive position, but was only waiting in the wings. This hour struck when the Nazis had already captured half of Europe and were completing the defeat of France.

On June 10, 1940, Italy declared a state of war with Great Britain and France and launched 19 divisions on the offensive in the Alps, which got bogged down within the first kilometers. The Duce was discouraged, but there was no turning back.

Failures at the front were accompanied by major troubles in the dictator’s personal life. In August 1940, his son Bruno died in an accident. The second misfortune was associated with his mistress Claretta Petacci, who in September underwent a difficult operation that threatened to lead to death.

The Italian armies suffered one defeat after another and would have been completely defeated if not for the help of the Germans, who in Italy themselves behaved more and more impudently. There was growing mass dissatisfaction with the hardships of wartime in the country. Many people no longer had enough bread, and strikes began. On July 10, 1943, Anglo-American troops landed in Sicily. Italy found itself on the brink of a national catastrophe. Mussolini turned out to be the culprit of military defeats, all troubles and human suffering. Two conspiracies matured against him: among the fascist leaders and among the aristocracy and generals close to the king. The Duce was aware of the plans of the conspirators, but did nothing. Like no one else, he understood that resistance could only prolong the agony, but not prevent a sad ending. This consciousness paralyzed his will and ability to fight.

On July 24, at a meeting of the Fascist Grand Council, a resolution was adopted that actually invited the Duce to resign. The next day, the emboldened king relieved Mussolini from the post of head of government. Upon leaving the royal residence, he was arrested by carabinieri and sent to the islands. Italy was immediately occupied by Hitler's troops, the king and the new government fled from Rome. On the occupied territory, the Nazis decided to create a fascist republic, headed by Mussolini.

German intelligence spent a long time looking for the place of his imprisonment. At first, the Duce was transported from island to island, and then sent to the high-altitude winter resort of Gran Sasso, to the Campo Imperatore hotel, located at an altitude of 1,830 meters above sea level. It was here that he was found by SS captain Otto Skorzeny, whom Hitler instructed to free the prisoner. To get to the high mountain plateau, Skorzeny used gliders that could be blown away by the wind, crash during landing, the Duce’s guards could provide strong resistance, the escape route could be cut off, and you never know what else could happen. However, Mussolini was safely delivered to Munich, where his family was already waiting for him.

The Duce was pathetic. He did not want to return to active work, but the Fuhrer did not even listen to him. He knew that no one except Mussolini would be able to revive fascism in Italy. The Duce and his family were transported to Lake Garda, near Milan, where a new, openly puppet government was located.

The two years Mussolini spent on Lake Garda were a time of complete humiliation and despair. The anti-fascist Resistance movement was expanding in the country, the Anglo-American allies were advancing, and the Duce had no chance of salvation. When the ring finally tightened, he tried to flee to Switzerland, but was caught near the border by partisans. With him was Claretta Petacci, who wanted to share the fate of her lover. The partisan command sentenced Mussolini to death. When he was executed, Claretta tried to cover the Duce with her body and was also killed. Their bodies, along with the bodies of executed fascist hierarchs, were brought to Milan and hung upside down in one of the squares. Jubilant townspeople and partisans threw rotten tomatoes and fruit cores at them. This is how the Italians expressed hatred for a man who had treated people with deep contempt all his life.

Lev Belousov, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor

- a young, unusually beautiful woman entered Mussolini’s life back in the mid-30s. They met by chance, on the road in the suburbs of Rome, but Claretta (the daughter of a Vatican doctor) was already a secret admirer of the leader. She had a fiancé, they got married, but a year later they separated peacefully, and Claretta became the Duce’s favorite. Their connection was very stable, all of Italy knew about it, except Raquele Mussolini. The Italian establishment initially treated the Duce’s next hobby condescendingly, but over time, Claretta, who sincerely loved Mussolini, became a significant factor in political life: she had the opportunity to influence the Duce’s adoption of personnel decisions, learned to convey various information to him at the right time and facilitate the adoption of the necessary decisions, provide protection and remove unwanted ones. High-ranking officials and entrepreneurs increasingly began to turn to her and her family (mother and brother) for assistance. At the beginning of the war in Italy they were already openly talking about the “Petacci clan” ruling the country.

Several times, tired of the hysterics and tragic scenes that the insanely jealous Claretta created, the Duce decided to break up with her and even forbade the guards to let her into the palace. However, a few days later they were together again and everything started all over again.

8. Mussolini - leader

(continuation)

Duce

After 1926, the legend of the omniscient, wise Duce began to spread more and more, and this cult became the last and most expressive feature of Italian fascism. Mussolini did not encourage it out of vanity; he saw the cult of personality as an instrument of power. Trusted ministers and other fascist leaders - whether zealous or rebellious - understood that their own future depended entirely on the dictator. Without him they were nothing: the more majestic he became, the higher they rose. Augusto Turati, who became party secretary after Farinacci in 1926, was the first who began to contribute to the creation of the cult of personality of the leader. The second who helped create the predominantly intellectual aspect of the cult was the famous journalist-politician Giuseppe Botta, one of the most intelligent fascists, who preached a belief in the exceptionalism of Mussolini - the most outstanding personality in history, without whom fascism would have been meaningless. But the high priest of the new religion became Arnoldo Mussolini, who, working at Popolo d'Italia, day after day extolled his older brother as a demigod who sees every person and knows everything that happens in Italy; who, being the leading political figure of modern Europe, gave all his wisdom, heroism and powerful intellect to the service of the Italian people.

The Duce himself also believed, or pretended to believe, in his infallibility. He no longer needed assistants, but rather servants. Even as the editor of a rather obscure newspaper, due to his temperament, he always behaved like a dictator, simply giving orders to employees without accepting any advice. Having become prime minister and turning to others for information, he, out of habit, tried to create the impression that the answers confirmed what he had already guessed intuitively. The expression “Mussolini is always right” soon became one of the flying phrases of the regime, something like a walking subtitle, which the leader knew about and encouraged. When, in a conversation with the German publicist Emil Ludwig, he admitted that he sometimes did stupid things, this remark was deleted from the Italian version of his interview.

Another catchphrase, stenciled all over the walls, said that the duty of Italians is to believe, fight and obey. Mussolini believed that Italians crave discipline and that obedience must become an "absolute and religious feeling" if Italy and fascism are to dominate the twentieth century. Only one person should give orders, and his instructions should not be challenged even in minor matters. Mussolini considered fascism to be his personal creation, something that could not exist without obedience to it.

In 1926–1927 the worship of “Duchism” was already in full swing. School teachers were ordered to extol the exceptional personality of the dictator, emphasizing in every possible way his unselfishness, courage and brilliant mind, and to teach that obedience to such a person was the highest virtue. His portraits - most often in one of the Napoleonic poses - were hung on almost all public buildings, and were sometimes carried during processions through the streets, like an icon of the patron saint. True fascists printed photographs of the Duce on their business folders with one of his aphorisms. He has been compared to Aristotle, Kant and Thomas Aquinas; called the greatest genius in the history of Italy, greater than Dante or Michelangelo, than Washington, Lincoln or Napoleon. In fact, Mussolini was equated to a god, whose priests and novices other fascist leaders considered themselves to be.

This legendary figure became more understandable from a human point of view thanks to the biography written by Signora Sarfatti and published first on English language in 1925, and then (in a significantly modified form, since it was intended for a completely different audience) in 1926 in Italy. Mussolini himself corrected the proofs and included in the preface to the English edition one of his pretentious statements comparing his eventful life with the biography of “the late Mr. Savage Landor, the great traveler.” Only much later, after Sarfatti had been replaced by another mistress, did Mussolini admit that the book was ridiculous nonsense, published only because he considered “fiction more useful than the truth.” By that time, the “biography” had already been translated into many languages ​​of the world, including Danish and Latvian, and in Italy itself it received the status of almost a prophetic book.

Mussolini himself preferred the "official" version of his biography, written by the journalist Giorgio Pini, which - since it was not too critical and not too flattering - was more suitable for the Italian reader and was translated until 1939 into only a few foreign languages. While working on his biography in 1926, Pini could already afford to tell the Italians that “when the Duce gives a speech, the whole world freezes with fear and admiration.” The circulation of this book, like Sarfatti's book, was very large; it was reprinted fifteen times and distributed in schools as a textbook.

The third, even more official book was the "autobiography", which in reality was material written by different people and collected by Mussolini's brother with the help of Luigi Barzini, former ambassador United States in Rome. It was published by a London publisher who paid an incredibly large advance of £10,000.

Although Mussolini claimed that he did not care what was said about him abroad, he carefully studied the work of the press control service to ensure that the image he wanted was being projected. At times he treated the Foreign Office as if main function this service was propaganda. He once ridiculed the “immoral narcissism” of democratic politicians who like to give interviews, but as the Duce, he himself turned into a great practitioner of this art form, forcing foreign correspondents to write flattering notes about him. In return, he sometimes provided them with information of special value, which he did not even honor the ambassadors with.

Mussolini always maintained a special relationship with representatives of the press, not because he himself was once a journalist, but because he needed their help. While ministers stood at attention in his presence, foreign journalists were allowed to sit, especially if they came from those countries whose public he wanted to make the greatest impression on. From time to time, journalists enjoyed the exclusive privilege of being invited to his home at Villa Torlonia. However, the degree of his friendliness and condescension had clear boundaries for each individual guest. Mussolini was sometimes gracious enough to greet journalists at the door of his huge office without subjecting them to the ordeal of walking the twenty yards from the door to his desk, while others, such as ministers and generals, had to cover that distance in later years at a run. . Of course, only supporters or potential supporters of fascism could receive interviews. But even for them, the performance, replete with theatrical poses, did not always make the right impression. From time to time, Mussolini had to redo recordings of interviews in the foreign press before they appeared in Italy - it was important for him to convince the Italians how much everyone abroad admired him. The creators of his “autobiography” asserted without a shadow of a doubt that after meeting the Duce, any person began to understand that this “ greatest personality in Europe". Any edition of a foreign newspaper entering Italy that contradicted this legend risked confiscation. As a result, the Italian people had very little understanding of the critical attitude towards fascism and its leader abroad.

Mussolini had a lot of trouble speaking in front of the public. He carefully prepared his speeches, although at times he pretended that he did not need to. Italy, he used to say, is a theatrical stage and its leaders should serve as an orchestra, ensuring its contact with the people. Part of the secret of his success lay in Mussolini's characteristic disdain for the masses, who were so easily deceived and subjugated. He perceived the people as something like children who need to be helped, but at the same time corrected and punished - “they are stupid, dirty, do not know how to work hard and are content with cheap movies.” However, he was glad to discover that the herd - he was very fond of using this word - gratefully accepted inequality and drill instead of equality and freedom. If you give them bread and circuses, they will be able to do without ideas, except for those that someone comes up with especially for them. “The crowd should not strive to know, it should believe; it must obey and take the desired form.” Once the masses realize that they are not capable of forming any opinion themselves, they will not want to debate or argue, they will prefer to obey the command. And here Mussolini agreed that his attitude to this was the same as that of Stalin.

Despite the fact that Mussolini pretended to be indifferent to public opinion and the applause of the crowd, he in every possible way nurtured one of his greatest gifts: “a tangible and even visible understanding of what the common people think and want.” Even those who considered his work in government ineffective recognized his ability to control the crowd. As the Duce himself explained, “you need to know how to capture the imagination of the public: this is the main secret of managing it.” The art of politics is not to tire or disappoint the listeners, but to maintain one's influence over them to constantly put on a show, "to keep people at the windows" year after year in anxious anticipation of some great and apocalyptic event.

Mussolini's speeches are not interesting to read, but his style of recitation always had a very strong effect on the audience. One skeptical listener once said that the Duce's speech is like the periodic liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius in Naples: it is impossible to explain how it happens, but it works. Sometimes his speeches were like a series of newspaper headlines - simple, oft-repeated statements, without any flights of fancy, using a very limited vocabulary. The prevailing general tone was always aggressive and harsh. Mussolini loved to speak from the balcony overlooking the street from his office, which he used as a “stage”: standing on it, he encouraged the crowd to answer his rhetorical questions in unison, thus involving them in active participation in the discussion. He admitted that he enjoyed feeling like a sculptor, persistently processing the material, making it pliable and giving it a certain shape.

In this very important area In his political life, Mussolini, like Hitler, owed much to Gustav Le Bon, whose book on the philosophy of the crowd he, by his own admission, read countless times. Le Bon explained that the actions and movements of the crowd are not causal, but illusory, often primitively illusory, caused by reckless and involuntary credulity, which can spread like a contagion if the speaker knows how to influence feelings. In this book, Mussolini found confirmation of his conviction that a ruler must master the art of speech. The effective power of the word - regardless of whether it is used in oral speeches or in the mass press - acquires special weight, if no one is allowed to respond to it except with a chorus of approval, and allows the politician to dispense with argumentation, raising people to heroic deeds or nullifying this heroism, which, if necessary, can border on the absurd.

Mussolini did not like to deal with colleagues and usually tried to belittle their role in teamwork. By his natural qualities and thanks to calculation, he became the center of authority and over time continued to strengthen his position. Along with his duties as prime minister, Mussolini took control of six of the thirteen ministerial departments by 1926, and two more by 1929. In addition, he led the fascist party, the Grand Council and the national council of corporations, and also chaired cabinet meetings. At the same time, Mussolini was the commander of the police, and later the armed forces. Among its important bodies were the Supreme Defense Committee, the State Council, the Court of Accounts, the Military Council, the Supreme Council of Statistics, the Standing Committee for Grain Production and the Committee for the Mobilization of the Civilian Population, as well as each of the twenty-two corporations established after 1934. In subsequent years, this list became even longer. When asked whether such a burden was excessive, he replied: “It is much easier to give orders myself than to send for the relevant minister and convince him to do what I consider necessary.”

With this way of doing things, the main work in each department fell to the lot of minor officials and secretaries, who, as a rule, could not act independently, and each of whom had only a few minutes of the prime minister's time. This made such centralization of power ineffective. Previous prime ministers believed that managing two ministries at the same time was an intolerable burden. Mussolini exercised temporary control over several ministries at once, not officially subordinate to him, and made decisions without bothering with consultations with ministers.

However, what was good for Mussolini's egoism turned out to be disastrous for the country.

If any leader was condemned by his own chosen subordinates, it was Mussolini. He despised his colleagues and liked to repeat that “they are all rotten to the core.” Indeed, only one or two of the ministers he appointed had more than modest abilities, most were completely incompetent, and some would have been in prison long ago in any other country. When choosing ministers, Mussolini preferred stupid people or obvious crooks: at least you know how to deal with a scoundrel and you will not be misled by hypocrisy. He was so confident in his own abilities, blinded by a sense of superiority, convinced of the stupidity and dishonesty of others, that he did not hesitate to appoint ignorant and mediocre people to high positions, as a result of which he found himself surrounded by sycophants, pretenders and careerists. Mussolini was written about as a man who truly had a talent for appointing people to the wrong places and who neglected employees who were honest or who told him the truth. He loved being surrounded by flatterers, and did not tolerate those who had character and inner culture, who had the courage to disagree with him.

It sometimes happened that Mussolini chose his ministers by skimming the list of deputies until he came across a face that he liked or a name that sounded good. Preference was given to those who were even shorter than himself. When De Vecchi, one of the most brutal and stupid fascists, was appointed Minister of Education, it seemed that this was done specifically to humiliate the teaching profession. Some believed that De Vecchi was chosen solely because of his reputation as a bringer of good fortune. A similar opinion was expressed regarding some appointments in the army. Mussolini was superstitious, and over the years this feature of his did not go away: he was afraid of people with the “evil eye” and tried not to offend them.

When complaints were made that people higher up in the hierarchy were behaving dishonestly, Mussolini chose to ignore the accusations as long as possible, since he could not allow the public to know that he had made the wrong choice. Having a low opinion of human nature, he admitted that every person has his own price, although he continued to play a comedy in public, declaring that fascism was intended to cleanse politics. Mussolini knew from police investigations that many senior officials were less than paragons of integrity, yet he rarely took action against them. The Duce even joked, saying that it made no sense to fire those who had made a career in his department, because this would open the way for others, who were no better. To one of his comrades, who dared to warn the prime minister that the dishonest actions of representatives of the regime provide food for public gossip, Mussolini replied that every revolution has the right to allow its leaders to make money on the side. This was, in all likelihood, his genuine belief.

The selection of the fascist hierarchy, as he was eventually forced to admit, turned out to be the weak point of the Mussolini regime. But he found an excuse for this, saying that he could not trust anyone, least of all those he knew. Whatever the reason, not a single truly talented person could stay in the apparatus for long or was not given any opportunity to prove himself. Mussolini preferred to keep all ministers and other senior officials, good and bad, at a respectful distance and tried not to leave them in responsible positions for long. All subordinates quickly became accustomed to the Duce's need for privacy and intolerance of familiarity. They knew that no one was allowed to approach him, lest they see him without a mask. The frequent change of ministers was sometimes explained by the desire to find another scapegoat, sometimes by the need to prevent potential rivals from building an independent power base. In some ways, Mussolini deliberately encouraged servility by giving as many people as possible the hope of advancement. Mussolini did not like to tell his subordinates to their faces that they were fired; most often they learned about it from newspapers or on the radio, while their leader took a strange pleasure in the general confusion caused by such an event.

Another character trait of the Duce was the pleasure with which he incited ministers and generals to each other. As if his task was not to coordinate their actions, but, on the contrary, to create discord and general chaos. Mussolini liked it when his subordinates gossiped; he himself constantly conveyed various malicious inventions to the offended party, in every possible way exacerbating tension and fueling jealousy between rivals. A lot of papers with such squabbles accumulated in the Duce’s personal archives, along with various gossip collected for him by spies using listening devices. Slanders and gossip rarely resulted in reprisals. Mussolini mainly used them to strengthen his authority, making it clear to his subordinates that he knew what they were talking about in private conversations. With the air of a man who took morbid pleasure from contemplating erotic scenes, he inflated in every possible way a sense of superiority over his surroundings.

Mussolini's activities led to excessive centralization of power, when almost everything depended on the will of one person. If Mussolini left Rome, most of the administration simply stopped working. Cabinet meetings could approve many regulations in one session; sometimes all of them were offered to Mussolini personally. He often made conflicting decisions in different departments on the same day. Mussolini considered it necessary to personally give orders: to put the troops in order, to decide on what day the orchestra could start playing on the Venetian Lido, whether it was necessary to trim the trees along the road to Riacensa, whether to send an assistant trumpeter instructor to the police college... He demanded that names be reported to him those employees who did not have time to sit down at their desks by nine o'clock in the morning. This amazing waste of energy on all sorts of nonsense gave Mussolini real pleasure, as a way of showing off, making people (and perhaps himself) believe that the entire life of the nation was under his constant control.

Thus, the administrative and legislative bodies represented another field of activity for Mussolini, where he could show in all its brilliance the art of organizing public spectacles. Beneath the enormous burden of his duties, he rarely found time to ensure that his orders were carried out. In a sense, it didn't matter to him, because their publication was much more important than their execution. This whole performance in his hands turned out to be very effective means strengthening personal authority. Mussolini told English newspapermen that in one Cabinet meeting he had done more for the economy than the government of England in a year, because while the British were struggling through lengthy debates in a parliament consisting of complete amateurs, he was a professional, directing the entire life of the nation with the help of a battery of eighty buttons on his desktop. This statement, of course, was an empty boast and could only impress a limited part of the public. In fact, Mussolini never learned, unlike Giolitti, how to control his assistants and often failed to translate his desires into practical action. Despite his outward brilliance, he was in many ways weak person, constantly changing his mind. He lacked the ability to manage a rather complex real-life situation. There was a running joke among senior officials that his “dictatorship was made of soft cheese.”

Spectacular gestures were designed to disguise Mussolini's ineptitude and impracticality. He tried in this way to hide his inability to withstand difficulties and make decisions in a critical situations. The Duce always preferred to let events themselves impose a political direction on him. One of his friendly senators called the dictator a “cardboard lion” that could be pulled by a string. And if he continued to have a strange reputation as a man who always agreed with the interlocutor with whom he was currently talking, this was also because Mussolini was afraid that he would be defeated in an argument. Because of this, he tried his best to avoid disputes and discussions wherever possible.

Mussolini's close acquaintances, as well as members of his own family, said that even in conversations with relatives he adopted a threatening tone, as if addressing a huge crowd. He was ready to listen, especially at the very beginning of his activity, to specialists, but did not allow a friendly exchange of opinions or discussions - this could destroy the legend of his omniscience and infallibility. At times Mussolini took the pose of a man who wanted to hear the truth, even if it was unpleasant, but for this he chose a person who deliberately tried to first find out what the Duce would like to hear from him.

Benito Mussolini short biography

1. But what, the Wikipedia article about him was deleted???
2. Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) Italian politician, leader (Duce) of the Fascist Party of Italy, Prime Minister of Italy (1922-1943). He began his political career in the Socialist Party, from which he was expelled in 1914. In 1919 he founded the fascist party. Having carried out a campaign against Rome (October 28, 1922), Mussolini seized power in the country and on November 1, 1922 headed the government of Italy. Being at the same time the leader (Duce) of the fascist party, Mussolini had dictatorial powers. Mussolini's government introduced a regime of fascist terror in the country and carried out aggressive foreign policy(occupation of Ethiopia in 1936, Albania in 1939, etc.), together with Nazi Germany, unleashed the 2nd World War. In 1945 he was captured by Italian partisans and executed.
   The beginning of Mussolini's political activity

   Benito Mussolini was born on July 29, 1883, in Dovia. His father was a blacksmith and his mother a teacher primary school. After graduating from high school in 1901, he received a diploma as a primary school teacher.

   In 1903, Benito joined the Italian Socialist Party (PSI). He served in the army and was a teacher. In the early 1910s, he actively participated in the actions of the socialist movement, was engaged in journalism, and was arrested several times.

   At the beginning of World War I, Mussolini called for Italy to enter the war on the side of the Entente. In this regard, he was expelled from the party and left the post of editor of the ISP Avanti newspaper.

   After Italy entered the war (1915), Mussolini was drafted into the army, participated in hostilities, and was wounded.

   In 1919, relying on the nationalist sentiments of former front-line soldiers, Mussolini created the fascist movement the Fighting Union, which began to carry out pogroms.
   Fascist dictatorship

   The fascist organization of Benito Mussolini soon received the support of the ruling circles and quickly gained popularity among those sections of the population who longed for order. In the elections of 1921 he was elected as a member of parliament, and in 1922 he was appointed Prime Minister of Italy. In the elections of 1924, the Nazis won a majority of seats in parliament. However, the murder of Socialist deputy Giacomo Matteoti, who publicly exposed the falsified voting results, brought the fascist government to the brink of collapse. Deputies from other parties left parliament and created the opposition Aventine bloc. After the assassination attempt on the Duce in 1926, the country introduced state of emergency, everything is prohibited political parties, except fascist. A fascist dictatorship was established in the country. The secret police (OVRA) and the Special Fascist Tribunal were created.

   The personal cult of the dictator was implanted. In addition to the post of Prime Minister, Mussolini simultaneously held the posts of Minister of the Interior, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of War and Navy, was the head of the fascist militia, the first marshal of the empire, an honorary academician of the Bologna Philharmonic, and had many other titles.

   Mussolini sought to create an empire. In 1935-36, Ethiopia was captured by Italian troops; in 1936-1939, he assisted Franco during civil war in Spain. In November 1937, Italy joined the Anti-Comintern Pact concluded between Germany and Japan. Following in the wake of German policy, Italy captured Albania in 1939. In May 1939, Italy and Germany concluded the Pact of Steel.
   continuation--- http://to-name.ru/biography/benito-mussolini.htm

3. 1) was born
   2) became dictators
   3) hung upside down