Illustration: an interwar radio-and-newsreel intelligence collage with a 1930s map of Europe and propaganda poster proofs.

Regimes

Fascist Italy under Mussolini

Illustration, not an archive object

In one line: From 31 October 1922 to 25 July 1943 Benito Mussolini and the National Fascist Party (PNF) governed Italy under the monarchy, first in coalition and then, from 1925 to 1926, as a one-party state with a special tribunal, a secret police and a directed press, and that state used violence against opponents, conquered Ethiopia with poison gas in 1935 to 1936, issued racial laws against Jews in 1938 and entered the Second World War in 1940.

The leader and the people under the leader

Photo: Bain News Service, publisher, Public domain (Library of Congress, no known restrictions)
Benito Mussolini
Prime Minister (Head of Government) and Duce of Fascism · 1922 to 1943
Benito Mussolini: Read more
Head of government from 31 October 1922 to 25 July 1943 and, under the laws of 1925 and 1926, answerable to the King alone; led the PNF as Duce and held the interior ministry for most of the period and the three service ministries from 1933.
In their words
“Fascism conceives of the State as an absolute, in comparison with which all individuals or groups are relative, only to be conceived of in their relation to the State.”
The Political and Social Doctrine of Fascism (the 1932 Enciclopedia Italiana entry "La dottrina del fascismo"), part 2, authorised translation by Jane Soames (Hogarth Press, London, 1933), p. 21 source
“Every speech made to the crowd has a twofold object, to clarify the situation and to suggest something to the masses. That is why speeches made to the people are essential to the arousing of enthusiasm for a war.”
Emil Ludwig, Talks with Mussolini, chapter "Influencing the Masses" (interview at the Palazzo Venezia, March to April 1932), translated by Eden and Cedar Paul (Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1933), pp. 120-121 source
“No exceptional laws were passed, [...] and the regulation of the Press is not an exceptional law.”
Speech on the Electoral Reform Bill, Chamber of Deputies, 16 July 1923, in Mussolini as Revealed in His Political Speeches (November 1914 - August 1923), translated by Bernardo Quaranta di San Severino (J. M. Dent, London, 1923), p. 355 (a parliamentary interjection between the two clauses is omitted) source
“Violence is not immoral. On the contrary it is sometimes moral. We dispute the right of our enemies to bewail our violence, because, compared with that which was committed in the unlucky years of ’19 and ’20 and with that of the Bolshevists in Russia—where two million people have been executed and another two million still pine in prison—our violence is child’s-play. On the other hand violence is decisive, because at the end of July and August, after having made use of it systematically for forty-eight hours, we got results which we should not have obtained in forty-eight years of sermons and propaganda. When, therefore, violence removes a gangrene of this sort, it is morally sacred and necessary.”
Content note: Justification of political violence. Speech at Udine, 20 September 1922 ("L'azione e la dottrina fascista dinanzi alle necessità storiche della Nazione"), in Mussolini as Revealed in His Political Speeches (November 1914 - August 1923), selected, translated and edited by Barone Bernardo Quaranta di San Severino (J. M. Dent, London, 1923), p. 147. Italian text: Opera omnia di Benito Mussolini, ed. Edoardo and Duilio Susmel, vol. 18: Dalla Conferenza di Cannes alla marcia su Roma (La Fenice, Florence, 1956), p. 413 source
“We have created our myth. The myth is a faith, it is passion. It is not necessary that it shall be a reality. It is a reality by the fact that it is a goad, a hope, a faith, that it is courage. Our myth is the Nation, our myth is the greatness of the Nation! And to this myth, to this grandeur, that we wish to translate into a complete reality, we subordinate all the rest”
Speech at the Fascist congress, Naples, 24 October 1922, in Herman Finer, Mussolini's Italy (Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1935), p. 218 (English). Italian text: Opera omnia di Benito Mussolini, ed. Edoardo and Duilio Susmel, vol. 18: Dalla Conferenza di Cannes alla marcia su Roma (La Fenice, Florence, 1956), p. 457 source
“With three hundred thousand young men, fully armed, ready for anything and almost religiously prompt to obey any command of mine, I could have punished all those who have slandered the Fascisti and thrown mud at them. (Approval on the Right.) I could have made a bivouac of this gloomy grey hall; I could have shut up Parliament and formed a Government of Fascisti exclusively; I could have done so, but I did not wish to do so, at any rate at the moment.”
Content note: Boast of ability to close Parliament by force. Speech in the Chamber of Deputies, 16 November 1922 (first speech as Prime Minister), in Mussolini as Revealed in His Political Speeches (November 1914 - August 1923), selected, translated and edited by Barone Bernardo Quaranta di San Severino (J. M. Dent, London, 1923), p. 208. Italian text: Opera omnia di Benito Mussolini, ed. Edoardo and Duilio Susmel, vol. 19: Dalla marcia su Roma al viaggio negli Abruzzi (La Fenice, Florence, 1956), p. 17 source
All 26 quotes from Benito Mussolini, and 5 often attributed but not verified
In the archive: Fascist Italy's propaganda machine: from the Duce's Press Office to the Ministry of Popular Culture

Leader and monarchy

Photo: Bain News Service, publisher, Public domain (Library of Congress, no known restrictions)
Victor Emmanuel III
King of Italy · 1900 to 1946
Victor Emmanuel III: Read more
Head of state and nominal commander of the armed forces; asked Mussolini to form a government on 29 October 1922, took the title Emperor of Ethiopia in 1936 and King of Albania in 1939, dismissed Mussolini on 25 July 1943 and abdicated on 9 May 1946.
In their words
“Soldiers of the army and navy: The solemn hour of national vindication has arrived. Following the example of my ancestors, I assume today the supreme command of the army and navy; with the assurance of faith and victory that your valor, your self-abnegation, and your discipline will know how to accomplish. The enemy you are preparing to combat is well equipped and a worthy adversary. Favored by location and by learned military tactics, he will oppose you with tenacious resistance, but your indomitable buoyancy will lead you to victory. Soldiers! To you will belong the glory of planting the flag of Italy upon the sacred confines which nature placed as the boundaries of our country. To you will belong the glory of finally finishing the work begun by our forefathers, with so much heroism.”
Order of the day of King Victor Emmanuel III on taking the supreme command of the army and navy, General Headquarters, 26 May 1915, in Luigi Carnovale, Why Italy Entered Into the Great War / Perchè l'Italia è entrata nella guerra (Italian-American Publishing Company, Chicago, 1917), English p. 230, Italian p. 567 source
“Italians, from today I have assumed command of all armed forces. In the solemn hour which has occurred in the destinies of our country each must take up again his post of duty and of fighting. No deviation must be tolerated, no recriminations must be allowed. We must stand against those who have wounded the sacred soil of Italy. Italy, by the valor of its armed forces and the determination of all its citizens, will find again a way of recovery. Italians! I feel myself more than ever indissolubly united with you in the unshakable belief in the immortality of the fatherland.”
Proclamation of King Victor Emmanuel III to the Italians, countersigned by Badoglio, broadcast 25 July 1943. Italian text: Radiocorriere, no. 31 (31 July 1943), p. 3 of the scan, "Storico evento: il proclama del Re". English: The Commercial and Financial Chronicle (New York), 29 July 1943, "The King's Proclamation" source
“My dear Duce, it's no longer any good. Italy has gone to bits. Army morale is at rock bottom. The soldiers don't want to fight any more. The Alpine regiments are singing a song which says they don't want to make war on Mussolini's account any longer. [...] The Grand Council's vote is terrific - nineteen votes for Grandi's motion and among them four holders of the Order of the Annunciation. You can certainly be under no illusion as to Italy's feelings with regard to yourself. At this moment you are the most hated man in Italy. You can no longer count on more than one friend. You have one friend left you, and I am he. That is why I tell you that you need have no fears for your personal safety, for which I will ensure protection. I have been thinking the man for the job now is Marshal Badoglio. He will start by forming a government of experts for purely administrative purposes and for the continuation of the war. In six months' time we shall see. All Rome already knows about the Grand Council's resolution, and they are all expecting a change.”
Words attributed to King Victor Emmanuel III at his meeting with Mussolini at the Villa Savoia, 25 July 1943, as recalled by Mussolini in his Memoirs 1942-1943, translated by Frances Lobb, ed. Raymond Klibansky (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1949), p. 81 source
All 3 quotes from Victor Emmanuel III

Party

Photo: Camera dei Fasci e delle Corporazioni (as credited on Commons), Public domain (PD-Italy)
Achille Starace
Secretary of the National Fascist Party (PNF) · 1931 to 1939
Achille Starace: Read more
Ran the party organisation from December 1931 to October 1939, a period in which PNF membership became required for public employment and the party ran youth, leisure and Saturday-training programmes.
In their words
“When your older comrades fought and shed their blood in battle in order to achieve victory, you could not yet be among them. Today they welcome you with open heart and with most profound sympathy. In pronouncing your oath you will accomplish one of the most solemn acts of your life. Remember that those who betray the oath will be stricken by the swords of Fascism as traitors. Remember that Fascism promises you neither honors nor jobs nor profits-but only duty and combat.”
Content note: Threat against those who break the oath. Message of the Secretary of the National Fascist Party to the Fasci Giovanili di Combattimento, 7 October 1934, as reported in an Associated Press dispatch from Rome, 7 October 1934, in the Chicago Daily Tribune, 8 October 1934 (also printed in the Washington Post, 8 October 1934) source
“Our so-called Society people, [...] instead of going in for sport, persist in holding conversations in their drawing rooms, generally in a foreign tongue. They engage nurse maids, personal maids and governesses of all nationalities except Italian. They play poker and bridge with the accompanying drinks, certainly not Italian brands!”
Party bulletin issued by the Secretary of the National Fascist Party, summer 1935, quoted in "Italy: Activist on Society", Time, 5 August 1935 source
All 2 quotes from Achille Starace, and 2 often attributed but not verified
Photo: Ernesto Fazioli, Public domain (PD-Italy)
Roberto Farinacci
Secretary of the National Fascist Party (PNF) · 1925 to 1926
Roberto Farinacci: Read more
Led the Fascist squads of Cremona, ran the party from 12 February 1925 to 30 March 1926 while the laws of 1925 and 1926 were passed, edited the newspaper Il Regime Fascista, and was shot by partisans on 28 April 1945.
In their words
“each one vies with the other to create interpretations and philosophies always more and more in contradiction with one another; the multitude of those who have an average culture — without speaking of the workmen who also have some right to understand something — ends up by not understanding anything.”
Speech at Florence, 21 June 1925, quoted in the preface of Gaetano Salvemini, Under the Axe of Fascism (Victor Gollancz, London, 1936) source
“The campaign which the opposition parties waged against the Fascist rule, the Fascist Party and its leaders, had a most lamentable epilogue. In the house of a “Venerable” Freemason, which was used as a lodge, Giovanni Luporini, one of the most brilliant figures of Tuscan Fascism, was lured into an ambush and treacherously murdered. The local leaders have had to display the utmost energy and authority to prevent the legitimate exasperation of our faithful comrades from having still graver consequences. [...] The martyrdom of Giovanni Luporini cannot weaken Fascism. We shall pursue our course unshaken as long as a single enemy of the national cause treads the sacred soil of our country.”
Content note: Justification of reprisals after a killing. Article by Roberto Farinacci, Secretary of the National Fascist Party, in the Florentine Fascist weekly Battaglie Sindacali (extra edition, 5 October 1925), reported in Il Piccolo (Trieste), 6 October 1925, p. 2 (Italian); English in Gaetano Salvemini, The Fascist Dictatorship in Italy, vol. 1 (Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1927), pp. 211-212 source
“The Italian people to-day are by no means lying on a bed of roses. They are tormented by an economic crisis the gravity of which it would be ridiculous to deny or even attenuate. It dominates all industry, commerce, and agriculture. Even the most favourably situated provinces find themselves faced by economic difficulties that are neither light to bear nor easy to solve. No one, however affected by an incurable frenzy or abject servility, can deny the reality of things as they are, or, with the aid of artificial rhetoric, make them appear otherwise than they are.”
Article in Il Regime Fascista (Cremona), 28 October 1930, quoted in Gaetano Salvemini, Under the Axe of Fascism (Victor Gollancz, London, 1936), p. 214 source
All 4 quotes from Roberto Farinacci

State

Photo: Agence Rol (Bibliotheque nationale de France), Public domain (Public Domain Mark 1.0, as marked by Europeana and the BnF)
Alfredo Rocco
Minister of Justice · 1925 to 1932
Alfredo Rocco: Read more
Nationalist jurist who drafted the law of 3 April 1926 recognising only Fascist unions, the state-defence law of 25 November 1926 and the Penal Code of 1930, and held the ministry from 5 January 1925 to 20 July 1932.
In their words
“Nationalism loudly proclaims its incompatibility with economic individualism and the complete error of all the principles upon which it is based. The fundamental attitude of Nationalist economy must be that of a violent, absolute, irreconcilable opposition to individualist, Liberal and Socialist economy which rests on principles antagonistic to those of the Nationalist movement, on individualism, utilitarianism, materialism, internationalism.”
Report by Alfredo Rocco and Filippo Carli to the Congress of the Italian Nationalist Association, Milan, 16-18 May 1914, as quoted and translated in Herman Finer, Mussolini's Italy (Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1935), p. 494, citing Rosenstock-Franck, L'économie corporative fasciste (1934), p. 16 source
“For Liberalism, the individual is the end and society the means; nor is it conceivable that the individual, considered in the dignity of an ultimate finality, be lowered to mere instrumentality. For Fascism, society is the end, individuals the means, and its whole life consists in using individuals as instruments for its social ends. The state therefore guards and protects the welfare and development of individuals not for their exclusive interest, but because of the identity of the needs of individuals with those of society as a whole. We can thus accept and explain institutions and practices, which like the death penalty, are condemned by Liberalism in the name of the preeminence of individualism.”
Alfredo Rocco, "The Political Doctrine of Fascism", speech at Perugia, 30 August 1925, in International Conciliation, no. 223 (October 1926), translated by Professor Bigongiari of Columbia University (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, New York), p. 403. Italian: Alfredo Rocco, La dottrina del fascismo e il suo posto nella storia del pensiero politico: discorso pronunciato nell'Aula dei Notari di Perugia il 30 agosto 1925 (La periodica lombarda, 1925), p. 14 source
“For Fascism, society has historical and immanent ends of preservation, expansion, improvement, quite distinct from those of the individuals which at a given moment compose it; so distinct in fact that they may even be in opposition. Hence the necessity, for which the older doctrines make little allowance, of sacrifice, even up to the total immolation of individuals, in behalf of society; hence the true explanation of war, eternal law of mankind, interpreted by the liberal-democratic doctrines as a degenerate absurdity or as a maddened monstrosity.”
Content note: Describes war as an eternal law and accepts the total sacrifice of individuals. Alfredo Rocco, "The Political Doctrine of Fascism", speech at Perugia, 30 August 1925, in International Conciliation, no. 223 (October 1926), translated by Professor Bigongiari of Columbia University (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, New York), p. 402. Italian: Alfredo Rocco, La dottrina del fascismo e il suo posto nella storia del pensiero politico: discorso pronunciato nell'Aula dei Notari di Perugia il 30 agosto 1925 (La periodica lombarda, 1925), pp. 13-14 source
All 7 quotes from Alfredo Rocco
Photo: Ghitta Carell, Public domain (PD-Italy)
Giuseppe Bottai
Minister of National Education · 1936 to 1943
Giuseppe Bottai: Read more
Held the education ministry from 15 November 1936 to 6 February 1943 and issued the School Charter of 15 February 1939; earlier Minister of Corporations (1929 to 1932) and Governor of Rome, and one of the 19 who voted for the Grandi motion on 25 July 1943.
In their words
“My friendship for Balbo was always an argumentative friendship, since our ideas were frequently different. As time goes on I must confess that he was right. I remember that he called Mussolini ‘a product of syphilis,’ and that I used to object to his words. I wonder now if this judgment on Mussolini wasn’t correct, or at least very close to the truth. The Duce has decayed intellectually and physically. He doesn’t attract me any more.”
Content note: Insult to Mussolini and a reference to disease, quoted by Bottai from Balbo. Galeazzo Ciano, diary entry of 21 October 1941, recording the words of Giuseppe Bottai, in Hugh Gibson (ed.), The Ciano Diaries 1939-1943 (Doubleday, 1946; Simon Publications reprint, 2001); Italian original: Galeazzo Ciano, Diario 1937-1943 (Italian text; 2020 FS digital reprint) source
““After all it is another goal that has been reached. In 1911 Mussolini uttered his ‘away from Libya.’ After thirty-two years he has kept his word.””
Galeazzo Ciano, diary entry of 8 January 1943, recording the words of Giuseppe Bottai, in Hugh Gibson (ed.), The Ciano Diaries 1939-1943 (Doubleday, 1946; Simon Publications reprint, 2001); Italian original: Galeazzo Ciano, Diario 1937-1943 (Italian text; 2020 FS digital reprint) source
All 2 quotes from Giuseppe Bottai
Photo: Unknown (published in Swiatowid, 9/1939), Public domain (PD-Poland, PD-1996-text)
Galeazzo Ciano
Minister of Foreign Affairs · 1936 to 1943
Galeazzo Ciano: Read more
Mussolini's son-in-law; ran the Press Office from 1933, became Undersecretary and then Minister for Press and Propaganda, and was Foreign Minister from 9 June 1936 to 6 February 1943; voted for the Grandi motion and was executed at Verona on 11 January 1944.
In their words
“Many Italians also were taken prisoner: anarchist and communist. I informed the Duce about it, and he ordered that they all be shot, adding, “Dead men tell no tales.””
Content note: Order to kill prisoners. Galeazzo Ciano, diary entry of 22 February 1939, in Hugh Gibson (ed.), The Ciano Diaries 1939-1943 (Doubleday, 1946; Simon Publications reprint, 2001); Italian original: Galeazzo Ciano, Diario 1937-1943 (Italian text; Rizzoli edition text as reproduced in the 2020 FS digital reprint) source
“I return to Rome completely disgusted with the Germans, with their leader, with their way of doing things. They have betrayed us and lied to us. Now they are dragging us into an adventure which we have not wanted and which might compromise the regime and the country as a whole.”
Galeazzo Ciano, diary entry of 13 August 1939, in Hugh Gibson (ed.), The Ciano Diaries 1939-1943 (Doubleday, 1946; Simon Publications reprint, 2001); Italian original: Galeazzo Ciano, Diario 1937-1943 (Italian text; Rizzoli edition text as reproduced in the 2020 FS digital reprint) source
“Mussolini speaks from the balcony of the Palazzo Venezia. The news of the war does not surprise anyone and does not arouse very much enthusiasm. I am sad, very sad. The adventure begins. May God help Italy!”
Galeazzo Ciano, diary entry of 10 June 1940, in Hugh Gibson (ed.), The Ciano Diaries 1939-1943 (Doubleday, 1946; Simon Publications reprint, 2001); Italian original: Galeazzo Ciano, Diario 1937-1943 (Italian text; Rizzoli edition text as reproduced in the 2020 FS digital reprint) source
All 6 quotes from Galeazzo Ciano
In the archive: Fascist Italy's propaganda machine: from the Duce's Press Office to the Ministry of Popular Culture
Photo: Unknown (Bundesarchiv), CC BY-SA 3.0 de
Dino Grandi
Minister of Justice; President of the Chamber of Fasci and Corporations · 1939 to 1943
Dino Grandi: Read more
Foreign Minister from 1929 to 1932 and ambassador in London to 1939; from 1939 Justice Minister and Chamber president, and on 24 to 25 July 1943 the author of the Grand Council motion that led to Mussolini's dismissal.
In their words
““I don’t know how I was able to disguise myself as a Fascist for twenty years.””
Galeazzo Ciano, diary entry of 22 January 1942, recording the words of Dino Grandi, in Hugh Gibson (ed.), The Ciano Diaries 1939-1943 (Doubleday, 1946; Simon Publications reprint, 2001); Italian original: Galeazzo Ciano, Diario 1937-1943 (Italian text; 2020 FS digital reprint) source
““That rascal,” he said, “is preparing himself to become the Italian Petain and would like to kill us all. But we shall bump him off first.””
Content note: Threat against a named official. Galeazzo Ciano, diary entry of 10 August 1942, recording the words of Dino Grandi, in Hugh Gibson (ed.), The Ciano Diaries 1939-1943 (Doubleday, 1946; Simon Publications reprint, 2001); Italian original: Galeazzo Ciano, Diario 1937-1943 (Italian text; 2020 FS digital reprint) source
“Invites the Government to beg the King, to whom the whole nation looks with loyalty and confidence, that he should for the honour and safety of the country, assume the effective command of the Army, Navy and Air Force according to article 5 of the Constitution, and take the supreme initiative of command which our institutions confer upon him and which has been throughout our history the glorious heritage of the House of Savoy.”
Ordine del giorno Grandi, motion presented to the Fascist Grand Council, night of 24 to 25 July 1943 (final paragraph), English in Badoglio, Italy in the Second World War, trans. Muriel Currey (OUP, 1948), ch. 5, The Coup d'Etat, pp. 40-41 (footnote); Italian text from it.wikisource.org, 'Italia - 24 luglio 1943, Ordine del giorno Grandi presentato al Gran Consiglio del Fascismo' source
All 3 quotes from Dino Grandi

Armed forces

Photo: George Grantham Bain Collection, Public domain (Library of Congress, no known restrictions)
Italo Balbo
Minister of Aeronautics (Air Minister) · 1929 to 1933
Italo Balbo: Read more
Former head of the Ferrara squads and of the Fascist Militia, Air Minister from 1929 and Air Marshal from 1933, organised the mass transatlantic flights of 1930 to 1931 and 1933, was Governor-General of Libya from 1934, and died on 28 June 1940 when Italian anti-aircraft fire shot down his aircraft over Tobruk.
In their words
““You are shining Germany’s boots.””
Galeazzo Ciano, diary entry of 21 March 1939, recording the words of Italo Balbo, in Hugh Gibson (ed.), The Ciano Diaries 1939-1943 (Doubleday, 1946; Simon Publications reprint, 2001); Italian original: Galeazzo Ciano, Diario 1937-1943 (Italian text; 2020 FS digital reprint) source
““Just whistle,” he says, “and I’ll come to your aid.””
Galeazzo Ciano, diary entry of 14 February 1940, recording the words of Italo Balbo, in Hugh Gibson (ed.), The Ciano Diaries 1939-1943 (Doubleday, 1946; Simon Publications reprint, 2001); Italian original: Galeazzo Ciano, Diario 1937-1943 (Italian text; 2020 FS digital reprint) source
All 2 quotes from Italo Balbo
Photo: Agence Rol (Bibliotheque nationale de France), Public domain (PD-old, BnF Agence Rol)
Pietro Badoglio
Chief of the Supreme General Staff · 1925 to 1940
Pietro Badoglio: Read more
Senior officer of the armed forces from 4 June 1925 to 4 December 1940, Governor of Libya from 1929 to 1933, commander in Ethiopia from November 1935 (Addis Ababa fell on 5 May 1936), and prime minister from 25 July 1943 to June 1944.
In their words
“Your Excellency, you know perfectly well that we are absolutely unprepared—you have received complete reports every week. We have about twenty divisions with 70 per cent. of the necessary equipment and training; and about another twenty divisions with 50 per cent. We have no tanks. The Air Force, as you know from General Pricolo’s reports, is grounded. This is to say nothing of stores—we have not even sufficient shirts for the army. In such a state of affairs how is it possible to declare war? Our colonies lack everything. Our merchant shipping is on the high seas.”
Pietro Badoglio, Italy in the Second World War: Memories and Documents, trans. Muriel Currey (OUP, 1948), ch. 2, "Mussolini decides on Intervention", pp. 14-15 (Badoglio's account of his reply to Mussolini on 28 May 1940) source
““There is no doubt that Jacomoni and Visconti Prasca have a large share of the responsibility in the Albanian affair, but the real blame must be sought elsewhere. It lies entirely in the Duce’s command. This is a command that he, the Duce, cannot hold. Let him leave everything to us, and when things go wrong let him punish those responsible.””
Galeazzo Ciano, diary entry of 22 November 1940, recording the words of Pietro Badoglio (as reported to Ciano by Alessandro Pavolini), in Hugh Gibson (ed.), The Ciano Diaries 1939-1943 (Doubleday, 1946; Simon Publications reprint, 2001); Italian original: Galeazzo Ciano, Diario 1937-1943 (Italian text; 2020 FS digital reprint) source
“The second measure related to the Jews. It was not possible at that moment to abrogate publicly all the racial laws without coming into violent conflict with the Germans, or, to be more accurate, with Hitler. He had not only inspired this legislation, he had actually forced it on Mussolini, who only a few months earlier had declared in the Senate that there was no Jewish problem in Italy. I sent for representative Jews and told them that, though it was not possible at the moment to revoke the laws, they would not be carried out.”
Content note: Statement on antisemitic legislation. Pietro Badoglio, Italy in the Second World War: Memories and Documents, trans. Muriel Currey (OUP, 1948), ch. 7, pp. 62-63 (Badoglio's account of his government's measures after 25 July 1943) source
All 3 quotes from Pietro Badoglio
Photo: Unknown (National Digital Archives of Poland, NAC), Public domain (PD-anon-70-EU)
Rodolfo Graziani
Viceroy of Italian East Africa (Marshal of Italy) · 1936 to 1937
Rodolfo Graziani: Read more
Vice-Governor of Cyrenaica from 1930 to 1934, commander of the southern front in Ethiopia in 1935 to 1936, Viceroy from 11 June 1936 to 21 December 1937 (the attempt on his life on 19 February 1937 was followed by reprisals in Addis Ababa), and army chief of staff from 1939 to 1941.
In their words
“‘[Your work] must conclude with the total submission of Shewa and the elimination of all who refuse to disarm, even if every last house must be razed to the soil’ … ‘Remember that every false pity is a crime when dealing with people decidedly against our dominion’ … ‘Conquest is conquest … and its only law is that of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’”
Content note: Order to eliminate those who refuse to disarm; call for no mercy. Ian L. Campbell, The Addis Ababa Massacre: Italy's National Shame (C. Hurst & Co., London; Oxford University Press, New York, 2017), ch. 7 "Reprisals Should Cease", p. 191 and note 10 (Graziani to Lessona, 13 May 1937, telegram no. 24923, in Stato Maggiore del Governo Generale, Il secondo anno dell'impero, Addis Ababa, 1937-38, pp. 58-9, cited in G. Rochat, 1988, p. 214) source
“45 men have been executed on the morning of the 26th and none of them raised his voice in protest against the destiny that awaited them.”
Content note: Report of executions of prisoners. Ian L. Campbell, The Addis Ababa Massacre: Italy's National Shame (C. Hurst & Co., London; Oxford University Press, New York, 2017), ch. 9 "Roman Justice", p. 259, quoting G. Rochat, 1988 (note 53) source
““for a man who knows Africa means that he must suffer from softening of the brain, or, what is worse, from bad faith.” “The water supply is entirely insufficient. We move toward a defeat which, in the desert, must inevitably develop into a rapid and total disaster.””
Galeazzo Ciano, diary entry of 8 August 1940, recording a conversation with Graziani, in Hugh Gibson (ed.), The Ciano Diaries 1939-1943 (Doubleday, 1946; Simon Publications reprint, 2001); Italian original: Galeazzo Ciano, Diario 1937-1943 (Italian text; 2020 FS digital reprint) source
All 4 quotes from Rodolfo Graziani

Propaganda and culture

No public-domain or openly licensed portrait found. Nearest: source, tagged PD-Italy on Commons but described there as a Corbis press print of about the 1940s, so not cleared.
Dino Alfieri
Minister of Popular Culture (from 1936 Minister for Press and Propaganda) · 1936 to 1939
Dino Alfieri: Read more
Undersecretary in Ciano's press office, Minister for Press and Propaganda from June 1936 and of Popular Culture from 27 May 1937 until October 1939, then ambassador to the Holy See and, from 1940, to Germany.
In their words
In the archive: Fascist Italy's propaganda machine: from the Duce's Press Office to the Ministry of Popular Culture
Photo: Unknown (Commons), Public domain (PD-Italy)
Alessandro Pavolini
Minister of Popular Culture · 1939 to 1943
Alessandro Pavolini: Read more
Ran the ministry's press, radio and film directorates from October 1939 to February 1943; after 23 September 1943 he was secretary of the Republican Fascist Party of the Italian Social Republic, and he was shot at Dongo on 28 April 1945.
In their words
All 0 quotes from Alessandro Pavolini, and 1 often attributed but not verified
In the archive: Fascist Italy's propaganda machine: from the Duce's Press Office to the Ministry of Popular Culture
Photo: Unknown (Commons), Public domain (PD-old)
Giovanni Gentile
Minister of Public Instruction; philosopher and director of the Enciclopedia Italiana · 1922 to 1924
Giovanni Gentile: Read more
Education minister from 31 October 1922 to July 1924 and author of the school reform of 1923; wrote the Manifesto of the Fascist Intellectuals of 21 April 1925 and the first part of the entry La dottrina del fascismo (1932); killed by partisans in Florence on 15 April 1944.
In their words
“For Fascism, on the other hand, the State and the individual are one, or better, perhaps, “State” and “individual” are terms that are inseparable in a necessary synthesis.”
Origins and Doctrine of Fascism (1929), section XII, "The Fascist Doctrine of the State", in Origins and Doctrine of Fascism, translated by A. James Gregor (Transaction Publishers, 2003), p. 25
“Fascism is a party, a political doctrine. But Fascism—in so far as it is a party, a political doctrine—is before all else a total conception of life. That is its force...its great merit, and the secret of the prestige it exercises over all those who are not victims of the malign and interminable maunderings of certain newspapers.”
"Fascism is Religion" (pp. 38-39 of Che cosa è il fascismo: Discorsi e polemiche, Vallecchi, Florence, 1925), in the selections from What is Fascism? in Origins and Doctrine of Fascism, translated by A. James Gregor (Transaction Publishers, 2003), p. 57
“...Fascism is a party, a political doctrine. But Fascism—in so far as it is a party, a political doctrine—is before all else a total conception of life. That is its force...its great merit, and the secret of the prestige it exercises over all those who are not victims of the malign and interminable maunderings of certain newspapers. One cannot be a Fascist in politics and not a Fascist...in school, not a Fascist in one’s family, not a Fascist in one’s workplace.”
Giovanni Gentile, "Che cosa è il fascismo", lecture given at Florence, 8 March 1925, in Che cosa è il fascismo: Discorsi e polemiche (Vallecchi, Florence), pp. 38-39 of the Italian volume; English in "Fascism is Religion", Selections from What is Fascism?, ed. and trans. A. James Gregor, Origins and Doctrine of Fascism (Transaction, 2003), p. 57 source
“Now, we say it clearly once again for all persons of good will. There is violence and there is violence. No one worthy of marching under Fascist guidons has ever confused the two. Those who are not worthy of remaining with us—are to be expelled when discovered. There is private violence, which is arbitrary, anarchic, and which undermines society. If Fascism is not a word devoid of meaning—something that even its adversaries do not pretend—private violence finds no more determined, more genuine, more formidable an enemy than Fascism. There is another violence, willed by God and by all men who believe in God and in order—in support of laws that God certainly wishes to obtain in the world.”
Content note: Justification of political violence. Giovanni Gentile, "Che cosa è il fascismo", lecture given at Florence, 8 March 1925, in Che cosa è il fascismo: Discorsi e polemiche (Vallecchi, Florence), section on Fascist violence (pp. 29-32 of the Italian volume); English in "Fascist Violence", Selections from What is Fascism?, ed. and trans. A. James Gregor, Origins and Doctrine of Fascism (Transaction, 2003), p. 50 source
“An energetic, violent faith, not disposed to respect anything that stood against the life and greatness of the Fatherland.”
Content note: Endorses political violence. Giovanni Gentile, Manifesto degli intellettuali fascisti, in Il Popolo d'Italia, 21 April 1925; Italian as printed on an Edatlas teaching sheet and on it.wikisource source
All 5 quotes from Giovanni Gentile
No public-domain or openly licensed portrait found. Nearest: none; a Commons search for the name returned no photograph of him.
Luigi Freddi
Director General for Cinema · 1934 to 1939
Luigi Freddi: Read more
Headed the state film directorate created in September 1934 under the press and propaganda undersecretariat and ministry, and oversaw the building of the Cinecittà studios, opened on 28 April 1937.
In their words

Background and rise to power

Italy had been a constitutional monarchy since unification in 1861, governed under the Statuto Albertino of 1848. It joined the First World War in 1915; nationalists spoke of a vittoria mutilata ("mutilated victory") and the postwar years brought inflation and strikes. Mussolini, a Socialist journalist expelled from the party in 1914 for backing intervention, founded the Fasci italiani di combattimento in Milan on 23 March 1919. From 1920 armed Fascist squads (squadre d'azione) attacked Socialist unions, newspapers and leagues, above all in the Po valley, often with the tolerance of local officials and army officers (Paxton). The movement became the PNF in November 1921.

After the "March on Rome" of 27 to 29 October 1922, King Victor Emmanuel III declined to sign a decree of martial law and asked Mussolini to form a government. He took office on 31 October at the head of a coalition in which Fascists held a minority of posts, and parliament gave him full powers for a year. The Acerbo Law of 18 November 1923 gave two-thirds of the seats to any list that won at least 25 per cent of the vote. In the election of 6 April 1924 the government list took about 65 per cent amid reports of violence. On 30 May the Socialist deputy Giacomo Matteotti told the Chamber that violence had distorted the vote; a Fascist squad abducted and killed him on 10 June. On 3 January 1925 Mussolini told the Chamber: "io assumo, io solo, la responsabilità politica, morale, storica di tutto quanto è avvenuto" ("I assume, I alone, the political, moral, historical responsibility for all that has happened").

How power was organized

The laws of 1925 and 1926 (the leggi fascistissime) made the head of government answerable to the King alone and let the executive issue laws. A press law of 31 December 1925 subjected editors to government approval. After attempts on Mussolini's life in 1925 and 1926, the state-defence law of 25 November 1926 dissolved the opposition parties, restored the death penalty for some political offences, created a Special Tribunal for the Defence of the State and provided for internal exile (confino). A secret police, the OVRA, operated from about 1927. Thousands were tried or sent to confino; Antonio Gramsci, arrested on 8 November 1926, died in 1937. A law of 3 April 1926 recognised only Fascist unions and banned strikes, and the Labour Charter of 21 April 1927 declared the nation "una unità morale, politica ed economica, che si realizza integralmente nello Stato Fascista". Mussolini's formula of 28 October 1925 was "tutto nello Stato, niente al di fuori dello Stato, nulla contro lo Stato".

Palazzo Braschi dressed for the 1934 plebiscite: rows of "SI" around the Duce, March 1934. From the collection. Single-list plebiscites of 1929 and 1934 as staged in Rome.

Chart with Mussolini at the centre, flanked by King Victor Emmanuel III and the legal basis of the laws of 1925 and 1926, above five columns (party, government, law and security, armed forces and empire, propaganda and culture) listing the office-holders, bodies and dates given on this page, each person with a small portrait or initials. — The main offices and organisations of the Italian state under Mussolini, 1922 to 1943, simplified from the sources cited on this page. Source: FRAME diagram. Portraits, cropped to thumbnails: Commons file Achille Starace.jpg, credited to the Camera dei Fasci e delle Corporazioni; Commons file Alessandro Pavolini (cropped).jpg; Bibliotheque nationale de France, Agence Rol, via Europeana item 9200518/ark__12148_btv1b531422346; Library of Congress, George Grantham Bain Collection, LCCN 2014717611; Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-00160 / CC-BY-SA 3.0; Swiatowid, no. 9, 1939, Jagiellonian Digital Library (https://jbc.bj.uj.edu.pl/publication/240956); Commons file Giovanni Gentile sgr.jpg (from Giorgio Batini, Album di Pisa, 1972); Lombardia Beni Culturali, photograph IMM-3r010-0001043 (Ghitta Carell, 1937); Library of Congress, George Grantham Bain Collection, LCCN 99403485; Bibliotheque nationale de France, Agence Rol, Rol 101317 (June 1925); Lombardia Beni Culturali, photograph IMM-LOM60-0033748 (Ernesto Fazioli, 1930); Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe (Poland), http://img.audiovis.nac.gov.pl/PIC/PIC_1-E-190.jpg; Library of Congress, George Grantham Bain Collection, LCCN 2014717705, CC BY-SA 3.0 de (the portraits that carry it); other portraits: Public domain (Library of Congress, no known restrictions); Public domain (PD-Italy); Public domain (PD-Poland, PD-1996-text); Public domain (PD-anon-70-EU); Public domain (PD-old); Public domain (PD-old, BnF Agence Rol); Public domain (Public Domain Mark 1.0, as marked by Europeana and the BnF).

Under the electoral law of 1928 voters could only accept or reject a single list drawn up by the Fascist Grand Council; the plebiscite of 24 March 1929 reported over 98 per cent in favour. The monarchy and the army stayed in place beside the party, and the Lateran Pacts of 11 February 1929 with the Holy See created Vatican City and confirmed Catholicism as "la sola religione dello Stato". Mussolini held the interior ministry for most of the period and, from 1933, the three service ministries. Under Starace (secretary from 1931) the party ran youth and leisure organisations; PNF membership became required for public employment in 1933.

The state also used force outside Italy proper. In Libya, Badoglio and Graziani put down the Senussi rebellion in 1929 to 1932 with internment camps and executions, including that of Omar al-Mukhtar on 16 September 1931; estimates of the dead run to tens of thousands. Italy invaded Ethiopia on 3 October 1935 and took Addis Ababa on 5 May 1936, using mustard gas despite the 1925 Geneva Protocol. After an attempt on Graziani's life on 19 February 1937, reprisals in Addis Ababa killed thousands; estimates vary widely. Italy sent troops to Spain from 1936 and annexed Albania in 1939. The racial laws of 1938 expelled Jews from schools and public jobs and, by the decree of 17 November 1938, barred marriage between "Aryans" and Jews (Sarfatti). On 25 July 1943 the Grand Council voted against Mussolini and the King dismissed him.

Illustration: a rally crowd seen from behind as anonymous silhouettes, with crowd-estimate charts. — Illustration, not an archive object

The propaganda apparatus

Galeazzo Ciano headed the Press Office from 1933. It became an Undersecretariat in 1934, a Ministry for Press and Propaganda in 1935 (under Dino Alfieri from 1936) and by royal decree of 27 May 1937 the Ministry of Popular Culture (MinCulPop), later run by Alessandro Pavolini. It sent editors daily written instructions (veline) and ran film policy through Luigi Freddi (the ministry). Decree no. 1000 of 3 April 1926 required every cinema to show the propaganda films of the Istituto Nazionale L.U.C.E., whose newsreel began in 1927; EIAR held the radio monopoly from 1927 to 1928.

"Credere Obbedire Combattere": a school group photograph, Mirandola, 1938, 1938. From the collection. The slogan in use among schoolchildren in 1938.

The inscription Credere Obbedire Combattere painted on the wall of the Casa del Fascio at Momo, Piedmont — A surviving regime-era wall inscription of the slogan on the Casa del Fascio at Momo, Piedmont, photographed in 2026. Source: Moxmarco, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Giovanni Gentile wrote the Manifesto of the Fascist Intellectuals (21 April 1925), directed the Enciclopedia Italiana and wrote the first part of its 1932 entry "La dottrina del fascismo". Schools, the Opera Nazionale Balilla (1926), the Gioventù Italiana del Littorio (1937) and the Dopolavoro leisure organisation carried the message to children and workers. Content included the cult of the Duce (the 1934 Palazzo Braschi plebiscite façade; Credere, obbedire, combattere, Mirandola 1938), the campaign against League sanctions and the gold collection of December 1935 (Oro alla Patria), the Manifesto degli scienziati razzisti of 14 July 1938 ("Gli ebrei non appartengono alla razza italiana") and the war slogan "Vincere! E vinceremo!". The Italian press printed nothing about gas in Ethiopia.

The archive's definitions fit most clearly: identity fusion (the Duce, "Mussolini ha sempre ragione"), manufactured consensus (single-list plebiscites), card stacking (the veline, the silence on gas), scapegoating (the race campaign), whataboutism (charges of Ethiopian dum-dum bullets set against the gas charges at the League) and euphemism ("propaganda" renamed "popular culture").

Timeline

23 March 1919: Mussolini founds the Fasci italiani di combattimento in Milan.
27 to 31 October 1922: the March on Rome; Mussolini becomes prime minister.
10 June 1924: Matteotti is abducted and killed; 3 January 1925, Mussolini accepts responsibility in the Chamber.
1925 to 1926: press law, powers of the head of government, state-defence law and Special Tribunal.
11 February 1929: the Lateran Pacts.
3 October 1935: Italy invades Ethiopia; 9 May 1936, the Empire is proclaimed.
14 July and 17 November 1938: the racial manifesto and main racial decree.
10 June 1940: Italy enters the Second World War.
25 July 1943: Mussolini is dismissed and arrested after the Grand Council vote.
8 September 1943: the armistice is announced; on 23 September the German-backed Italian Social Republic is set up in the north, and deportations of Jews from Italy begin.
28 April 1945: partisans kill Mussolini.
2 June 1946: a referendum ends the monarchy.

Proclamation Suppressing Slavery in Tigray (Adwa, 1935), October 14, 1935. From the collection. A proclamation issued at Adwa on 14 October 1935, days after the invasion of Ethiopia.

Oro alla Patria: handing in gold wedding rings in Milan, 1935, December 1935. From the collection. The December 1935 gold-ring collection during the Ethiopian war.

Timeline of eleven dated steps from 23 March 1919 to 28 April 1945: the founding of the Fasci, the March on Rome, the Matteotti killing, the laws of 1925 and 1926, the Lateran Pacts, the invasion of Ethiopia, the racial manifesto and decree of 1938, entry into the Second World War, the dismissal of Mussolini, the armistice and the Italian Social Republic, and Mussolini's death. — Fascist Italy, 23 March 1919 to 28 April 1945, using the dates given on this page; spacing is even, not to scale, simplified from the sources cited on this page. Source: FRAME diagram, drawn from the sources listed on this page, CC BY 4.0 (FRAME archive content).

How it ended

Mussolini was dismissed by the king and arrested on 25 July 1943, freed by German paratroopers on 12 September, and from 23 September 1943 to April 1945 headed the German-backed Italian Social Republic in the occupied north. On 27 April 1945, as the Republic collapsed, partisans captured him at Dongo, and on 28 April he was shot with Clara Petacci at Giulino di Mezzegra; who fired and at what hour is disputed. His body was displayed in Milan's Piazzale Loreto on 29 April, stolen by neo-Fascists in 1946 and buried at Predappio in 1957. How Benito Mussolini died

Same-standard note

This page uses the same structure and definitions as every other regime page: a technique is listed only where the archive's working definition and a documented example fit, the same technique ids are applied to every regime, and offices and dates are stated without judging the people who held them. The scale and purpose of what this state did are set out as history, not ranked: a one-party state that ruled beside a monarchy, used chemical weapons in colonial wars, and persecuted opponents, minorities and, from 1938, Jews; most deportations of Jews from Italy came after 1943. Other regime pages record other systems, each with its own scale, intent and context.

Sources

Law no. 2444 of 18 November 1923 (Acerbo Law); laws of 24 and 31 December 1925 and 31 January 1926; law no. 563 of 3 April 1926; law no. 2008 of 25 November 1926; Carta del Lavoro, 21 April 1927; Lateran Pacts, 11 February 1929; Royal Decree no. 752 of 27 May 1937; Royal Decree-Law no. 1728 of 17 November 1938.
Benito Mussolini, speeches of 3 January and 28 October 1925, Opera omnia, ed. E. and D. Susmel (1951 to 1963).
R. J. B. Bosworth, Mussolini (2002) and Mussolini's Italy (2005); Robert O. Paxton, The Anatomy of Fascism (2004); Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Fascist Modernities: Italy, 1922 to 1945 (2001).
Philip V. Cannistraro, La fabbrica del consenso (1975); Nicola Tranfaglia and Bruno Maida, La stampa del regime 1932 to 1943 (2005); Michele Sarfatti, The Jews in Mussolini's Italy (2006); Angelo Del Boca (ed.), I gas di Mussolini (1996); SIPRI, The Use of Chemical Weapons in the 1935 to 1936 Italo-Ethiopian War (2009).

In the archive

Quotes from this regime's speakers (15)

Achille Starace, Secretary of the National Fascist Party (2 quotes)
Alessandro Pavolini, Minister of Popular Culture (1939 to 1943); Secretary of the Republican Fascist Party (1943 to 1945) (0 quotes)
Alfredo Rocco, Minister of Justice (7 quotes)
Benito Mussolini, Prime Minister and Duce of Fascism (26 quotes)
Dino Alfieri, Minister of Popular Culture (1936 to 1939); Ambassador to the Holy See (1939 to 1940) and to Germany (1940 to 1943) (0 quotes)
Dino Grandi, Foreign Minister (1929 to 1932), Ambassador to Britain (1932 to 1939), President of the Chamber of Fasci and Corporations; author of the Grand Council motion of 25 July 1943 (3 quotes)
Galeazzo Ciano, Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs (1936 to 1943) (6 quotes)
Giovanni Gentile, Philosopher; Minister of Public Instruction (1922 to 1924); principal author of the doctrinal part of "The Doctrine of Fascism" (5 quotes)
Giuseppe Bottai, Minister of Corporations (1929 to 1932), Governor of Rome (1935 to 1936), Minister of National Education (1936 to 1943) (2 quotes)
Italo Balbo, Marshal of the Air Force; Governor-General of Libya (1934 to 1940); one of the four Quadrumvirs of the March on Rome (2 quotes)
Luigi Freddi, Director General of Cinema (1934 to 1939) (0 quotes)
Pietro Badoglio, Marshal of Italy; Chief of the General Staff (1925 to 1940); Head of Government (1943 to 1944) (3 quotes)
Roberto Farinacci, Secretary of the National Fascist Party (4 quotes)
Rodolfo Graziani, Marshal of Italy; Governor of Cyrenaica (1930 to 1934), Viceroy of Italian East Africa (1936 to 1937), Minister of Defence of the Italian Social Republic (1943 to 1945) (4 quotes)
Victor Emmanuel III, King of Italy (3 quotes)