On the evening of April 28, 1945, the Berlin Reich Chancellery of Adolf Hitler, already under Soviet artillery fire, received an emergency radio message that Benito Mussolini had been executed by partisans in the North.
When on the evening of April 28, 1945, Adolf Hitler learned the terrible details of the execution of his ally and friend, the leader of the Italian fascists Benito Mussolini, he immediately began to prepare for suicide. Previously, the Fuhrer instructed his guards on what should be done with the corpses of him and Eva Braun. He did not at all want the victors to do to them after death the same way the Italians did to the body of Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci.
Lost war
For more than twenty years, the man who coined the very word “fascism” stood at the head of Italy. All this time, he maneuvered between the Anglo-French democracies, the Bolshevik Land of Soviets and Nazi Germany, trying not to spoil relations with any of them.
The moment of truth for Mussolini came on June 10, 1940. On this fateful day for him, Italy entered the war with France and England on the Nazi side. The fighting, however, did not bring victorious laurels to the “last of the Romans” - as Mussolini liked to call himself his beloved.
Italian troops were smashed to smithereens by the British in North Africa. In the distant future, the Italian Expeditionary Force sent there suffered huge losses. And on July 10, 1943, the Anglo-American allies landed on the island of Sicily. On the evening of July 25, the all-powerful Duce was arrested by order of the King of Italy, Victor Emmanuel, and removed from all his posts.
It is quite possible that Mussolini would have managed to remain under house arrest until the very end of the war. And then, having received a purely symbolic prison term, after a couple of years he will be released and live to a ripe old age. It would have been possible if not for Otto Skorzeny...
Nazi Germany's No. 1 saboteur, as a result of a daring special operation, managed to kidnap Mussolini right from under the noses of the Allies. And soon Mussolini created the so-called Italian Social Republic in Northern Italy. Commanding the Blackshirt detachments that remained faithful to him personally and to the ideals of fascism, he, together with German troops, unsuccessfully tried to suppress the partisan movement, which by mid-1944 had already engulfed almost all of Italy.
But, despite all the efforts, the Duce and Field Marshal Kesselring, who commanded the German troops in Italy, were unable to stop the advance of the Anglo-American allies, who were slowly but persistently and purposefully moving from the south of Italy to the north of the peninsula. With the help of German punitive detachments, he failed to destroy the partisans...
Failed masquerade
In the winter and spring of 1945, the position of the Germans in Italy became almost hopeless. It became clear to even the most stubborn fascist that Germany, and with it Mussolini’s puppet republic, had lost the war.
The commander of the German troops in the north of the country, Field Marshal Kesselring, gave up on the strict orders coming from the Fuhrer, who had completely lost his sense of reality, and began separate negotiations with the allies on surrender.
Mussolini tried, taking advantage of the confusion that began in the spring of 1945, to secretly cross the Italian-Swiss border and hide from the judgment of his people in a neutral country. In order not to attract the attention of the partisans, he dressed himself in the uniform of a Wehrmacht soldier and tied a handkerchief around his cheek, pretending to be an unfortunate soldier suffering from a toothache.
But this masquerade did not help him. Literally a few kilometers from the saving border, the car in which Mussolini was traveling along with his mistress Clara Petacci was stopped by a partisan patrol. Despite the German uniform and the bandage on his face, they immediately recognized the one who had recently been the ruler of Italy.
Having reported to their immediate superiors about the arrest of the Duce, the partisans received permission from him to liquidate him. Mussolini was personally shot by “Colonel Valerio” - one of the leaders of the anti-fascist Resistance, Walter Audisio.
"Colonel Valerio" outlined the details of the Duce's execution in his memoirs, which he allowed to be published only after his death. This only happened in 1973.
Emergency "justice"
This is how Walter Audisio described the last minutes of the Duce's life. According to the colonel, in order not to provoke the captured Musso-
In case of a rash act (and the Duce was quite capable, sensing mortal danger, of attacking the partisans), he pretended to be an “Italian patriot” sympathetic to the fascists, ready to secretly release Mussolini and transport him to a safe place.
In fact, the former ruler of Italy was brought to a deserted village, where the execution could be carried out without interference.
“...I walked along the road, wanting to make sure that no one was driving in our direction. When I came back, Mussolini’s expression changed, traces of fear were visible on him... - Walter Audisio recalled. “And yet, having looked at him carefully, I was convinced that Mussolini had only a suspicion so far. I sent Commissioner Pietro and the driver in different directions about 50-60 meters from the road and ordered them to monitor the surroundings. Then I forced Mussolini to get out of the car and stopped him between the wall and the goal post. He obeyed without the slightest protest. He still did not believe that he had to die, he was not yet aware of what was happening. People like him are afraid of reality. They prefer to ignore it; until the last moment, the illusions they themselves have created are enough for them. Now he has again turned into a tired, insecure old man. His gait was heavy; as he walked, he slightly dragged his right leg. At the same time, it was striking that the zipper on one boot came apart...
It seems to me that Mussolini did not even understand the meaning of these words: with wide eyes, full of horror, he looked at the machine gun aimed at him. Petacci put her arm around his shoulders. And I said: “Move away if you don’t want to die too.” The woman immediately understood the meaning of this “too” and moved away from the condemned man. As for him, he did not utter a word: he did not remember the name of his son, or his mother, or his wife. Not a scream or anything came out of his chest. He trembled, blue with horror, and, stammering, muttered with his fat lips: “But, but I... Signor Colonel, I... Signor Colonel.”
I pulled the trigger of the machine gun, but it jammed, despite the fact that just a few minutes ago I checked its serviceability. I pulled the shutter, pulled the trigger again, but again there was no shot. My assistant raised the pistol, took aim, but here it is, rock! - again a misfire...
Taking a machine gun from one of my fighters, I fired five bullets at Mussolini... The Duce, lowering his head to his chest, slowly slid along the wall... Petacci jerked strangely in his direction and fell face down on the ground, also killed... There were 16 hours 10 minutes April 28, 1945."
The corpses of Benito Mussolini and Clara Petacci, who voluntarily went to death out of love for her idol, were put on public display, and then anti-fascists dragged them to one of the squares in Milan, where they hung the dead upside down. After posthumous mockery and desecration, the Duce and his beloved were buried. Mussolini's grave eventually became a place of pilgrimage for former Blackshirts and current admirers of the Duce.
Historians will later pay attention to the suspicious haste with which the Duce was eliminated. According to some researchers, someone from the partisan command, as well as from the ruling elite of the Allies (undoubtedly, the issue of shooting the prisoner Mussolini was agreed upon with them) really did not want an open trial of Mussolini. During it, the names of many politicians active at that time, who at one time supported the fascist regime in Italy and were in friendly correspondence with the Duce, could be mentioned. And the dead Mussolini could no longer say anything to anyone.
On April 28, 1945, Italian partisans shot the leader of the Italian fascists, Benito Mussolini. The same fate befell his mistress Clara Petacci. Clara became the last woman in the life of the Duce, but she cannot be called “the one and only”: Mussolini never suffered from a lack of female attention.
This story began as a romantic tale. On a beautiful spring day in Rome in April 1932, stunning 20-year-old heiress Claretta Petacci and her brilliant army lieutenant fiancé took a chauffeured limousine for a day at the beach. In the backseat between them, Claretta's nine-year-old sister Miriam laughed merrily, keeping the young couple company.
The road to the coast was a marvel of engineering at the time: it was built on the orders of the Italian dictator, Prime Minister Benito Mussolini. He was 49 years old and in the prime of his life: Italians adored him and called him “Il Duce,” and leaders around the world treated him with respect. Winston Churchill called him a “Roman genius,” and even Mahatma Gandhi praised him for his passionate love for his people.
That day, Il Duce also went for a walk along sunny Via del Mar in a bright red Alfa Romeo 8C. Near Ostia, Mussolini's car easily overtook the limousine, hitting the horn as usual. The girl in the back seat smiled and waved. For a moment, Mussolini met her gaze - and fell in love. The dictator braked and signaled for the limousine to stop. Claretta immediately recognized Mussolini and jumped out of the car.
“I need to greet him. I’ve been waiting for this for a very long time,” said the young lady.
Claretta Petacci idolized Mussolini and was crazy about him since the assassination attempt on him in 1926.
That fateful meeting and the passionate but doomed romance that followed between Claretta and her "Ben" are detailed in historian Richard Bosworth's new biography of Petacci.
Claretta had been head over heels in love with Mussolini for many years, ever since the assassination attempt on him in 1926, when the crazed Irish aristocrat Violet Gibson shot him with a revolver. The bullet only slightly grazed the bridge of the nose. Claretta was then a 14-year-old schoolgirl. She was shocked by the news and wrote an emotional letter to Mussolini: “Oh, Duce, why wasn’t I with you? Wouldn’t I strangle this deadly woman?” She wrote that she dreams of laying her head on his chest “to hear your great heart beat.” “Duce, I live for you,” the girl added. And so her teenage fantasies gradually became reality.
Of course, Claretta was not the only girl in love with Mussolini. Many women found him extremely attractive. In 1926, Winston Churchill's wife Clementine wrote to Duce that he was “extremely personable: very majestic, with a charming smile and very beautiful golden-brown piercing eyes that can be seen, but cannot be looked into. It brings a kind of pleasant excitement.”
Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler are driving in a car through the streets of Florence.
Despite this, Mussolini treated women in a horrific manner. He was born in 1883 in the town of Predappio near Forli in northern Italy in the family of a blacksmith with socialist views. By adolescence, he became a regular guest at the local brothel and later repeatedly admitted that to get excited he needed to imagine that the woman in his bed was a prostitute.
The only way to have sex that he understood was rape, and his sexual appetite was terrifying. He needed up to four women a day, and sometimes up to a dozen random call-call lovers. After he came to power in 1922, his subordinates had to sort through letters from fans, among whom there were many married women, and select the most suitable candidates to be invited to bed with the Duce. He received many such letters every day. A few selected women were invited to Mussolini's office for a brief and one-sided meeting. Sex with the dictator rarely lasted more than five minutes, and he was not at all interested in his partner's pleasure.
Mussolini preferred women of lower birth. Influential women humiliated his dignity. When Princess Marie Josée of Belgium tried to seduce him in the bathing cabin of an outdoor pool in Rome, throwing off her dress to reveal very short shorts and two pieces of fabric covering her breasts, he admitted that he did not experience any sexual arousal.
Only women who resisted him aroused the strongest desire in him. In one of his letters, he talked about how he raped a young virgin:
“I grabbed her on the stairs, threw her in the corner behind the door and made her mine. She stood up in tears and humiliated, and through her tears she insulted me. She didn’t sulk at me for long - for three months we loved each other, not with our minds, but with our flesh.”
Claretta was not the only one who fell madly in love with the Italian dictator. Many women found him irresistible.
Claretta Petacci, from a respectable and well-connected Roman family, was a completely different kind of candidate. A young woman who idolized Mussolini, but was not ready to go to bed with him at the first call. For Duce this was something new. Mussolini was married to the mother of his five children, Raquela Guidi. He invited Claretta to his official residence - Palazzo Venezia - through the back door. Her younger sister Miriam was again a companion. The dictator and Claretta talked about sports and poetry. Claretta told him that she wanted to become a spy or a film actress.
Then he started calling her on the phone ten times a day. He called her mother, the formidable Giuseppina Petacci, who was called “godmother,” into his office.
“Is your daughter clean? Keep her under surveillance... Those who enjoy the privilege of being close to Mussolini cannot have suitors,” he told her.
The dictator asked Giuseppina for permission to become Claretta's lover. She gave her consent, adding that the very thought that her daughter would be next to such a man was very reassuring to her.
Claretta Petacci was from a well-connected Roman family. A woman who idolizes him, but is not available for sex at a moment's notice - this was something new for Mussolini.
Giuseppina became Mussolini's accomplice, inviting him to spend the night at the family's 32-room Art Nouveau mansion in a suburb north of Rome, directly into her daughter's pink-decorated bedroom. Even the telephone was pink to match the color of her favorite silk negligees. The girl’s mother placed mirrors on the walls and ceiling so that the Duce would get even more pleasure from sex with her daughter. Claretta was an unmarried virgin in the eyes of Roman society, so her “friendship” with a married man was not subject to publicity due to possible scandal.
It was in order to please Mussolini that in 1934 Claretta married her fiancé, Lieutenant Federici. After a honeymoon in Venice, she returned to Rome, into the arms of her lover. They made love with animal passion. One day Mussolini sank his teeth into her shoulder, leaving deep marks, and another time he tore her ear by biting.
“I'm losing control. I want to spank you, hurt you, be cruel to you. Why does my love manifest itself with such cruelty, with a desire to destroy and break? I am a wild animal,” wrote Mussolini.
Claretta answered tenderly:
“My great big love, you were so beautiful tonight. You were as aggressive as a lion, cruel and domineering.”
What Mussolini’s hot-tempered but patient wife Raquela knew about this affair is unknown. In 1910, she gave birth to a daughter, Edda, out of wedlock. Four years later, he left her and married beautician Ida Dalser, who was three years older than him. The following year, she and Mussolini had a son, but the marriage broke down, and Ida threatened to ruin Benito's ambitious political career by revealing his financial fraud. Mussolini had Ida declared insane and imprisoned in a psychiatric hospital, where she remained until her death twenty years later. Their young son Benito was also under police surveillance.
Having annulled his marriage to Ida, Mussolini returned to Raquela and married her in December 1915. She was well aware of her husband’s thirst for cruel and brutal sex with crowds of different women. He showed her mountains of letters from women begging for a date with him, and Rakel just chuckled. But Claretta could not be dismissed so easily.
At the end of 1939, Mussolini sent Claretta's husband to Tokyo as an air attaché. Now his mistress was completely his, but he was haunted by thoughts of her sleeping with other men. When he suspected her of being too intimate with a family friend, he flew into a rage and threatened to cut her throat or send her to an insane asylum. At the same time, nothing prevented the Duce from having other mistresses, including the Frenchwoman Magda Fontanier, an extravagant journalist who wore a silver fox fur coat with antelope skin shoes.
Claretta loved hearing the details of his sexual relationships with other women. Mussolini told Claretta that the false princess, whose real name was Madeleine Corabeuf, was one of those terrible women who spread rumors about homosexuality or a man's impotence if he refused her. According to Benito, he had no choice but to rape her. Twice. Mussolini also told Claretta that this discouraged him from having sex with foreign women. Meanwhile, the “princess” published a description of their date in the French newspaper Le Matin, noting that Mussolini was in such a hurry to remove her underwear that he tore it, and the sexual intercourse was so fast that she did not even realize when it ended. The report caused such a scandal that she was fired from the editorial office.
King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy (right), Adolf Hitler (center) and Benito Mussolini (left) watch a military parade in Rome in 1941. A still from a television newsreel.
Europe was teetering on the brink of war, and sex ceased to be the driving force in Duce's life. The rise of the Third Reich led to changes in relations with Hitler. Mussolini was once the all-powerful supreme ruler of the state. War between Italy and Germany was narrowly avoided in 1934 when Hitler ignored Mussolini's wishes and attempted to annex Austria (a goal he achieved in 1938). Now Mussolini was only thinking about how to please the German Fuhrer.
The Italian dictator began to persecute local Jews. In June 1940, with France nearly surrendering, Italy entered World War II on the side of Nazi Germany. It was only with the entry of the United States into the war in 1941 that the Duce's position began to deteriorate. Italy was in the throes of famine due to the Allied blockade, and Italian troops, outnumbering British and Commonwealth forces in North Africa, were driven back.
When the Allied forces began their offensive in Europe through Sicily in July 1943, Mussolini held a meeting with the King of Italy, Victor Emmanuel, with whom he met once every two weeks. “My dear Duce, this is not good at all. Italy is torn to pieces. You are the most hated man in Italy,” the king told him.
The next day, Mussolini was overthrown and placed under house arrest with armed guards. And in September, his flirtation with Hitler bore fruit: a specially appointed Waffen SS detachment was sent to Italy to save Mussolini. He met them with tears in his eyes: “I knew that my friend Adolf would not leave me.”
Hitler installed Mussolini as the puppet head of Northern Italy, which was under occupation by German troops. Benito brought his mistress from Rome, but in April 1945 the Allies launched another offensive, and Mussolini and Claretta decided to flee to neutral Switzerland. Near Lake Como, Italian partisans stopped a truck in which Mussolini, dressed in a Luftwaffe uniform and carrying a suitcase of cash, was hiding under a mountain of blankets. In the next truck they found a terrified Claretta.
The lovers were taken to the commune of Medzegra, where on April 27, 1945, two days before Hitler's suicide, they were sentenced to death. As the partisan commander cocked his gun, faithful Claretta threw her arms around her lover and cried out: “No! He shouldn't die! The first bullet killed her instantly. The gun jammed, and the second bullet only wounded Mussolini. He tore his shirt and demanded that his captors finish the job. They shot him in the chest.
The bodies of Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci, hanging by their feet in Milan on April 29, 1945, after they were executed by Italian partisans
The bodies were taken to a gas station in Piazza Loreto in Milan, where they were hung by their feet and beaten. Claretta was not wearing any underwear when she was shot, and to keep up appearances, an older woman in the crowd tied her skirt between her legs before her corpse was hung by her feet next to her lover's.
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 as a blacksmith, occasionally “giving a hand” in raising his first-born (later Benito had another brother and sister), his 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 a 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, a clerk and a 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! - the central newspaper of the party. At the age of 29, Mussolini, still little known a year ago, received one of the most important 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 during working hours or during lunch breaks. 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 people with the existing order, the renunciation of attempts 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 absolutely loved watching 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 the opposite direction in this respect too. 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 supported financially for many years.
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 seven, did his exercises, drank a glass of orange juice and took a horseback ride through the park. When he returned, he took a shower and had breakfast: fruit, milk, wholemeal bread, 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 had almost no control over the colossal state 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 highest military rank was awarded only to the Duce and the king and thereby, as it were, 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 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 people. 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.
Fascist leader Benito Mussolini ruled Italy for 21 years as a dictatorial prime minister. A difficult child from early childhood, he grew up disobedient and hot-tempered. Buche, as Mussolini was nicknamed, made a career for himself in the Italian Socialist Party. He was later expelled from this organization for supporting the World War. He then formed a fascist party to rebuild Italy with a strong European power.
After the March on Rome in October 1922, Benito becomes prime minister and gradually destroys all political opposition. He strengthened his position through a series of laws and turned Italy into a one-party power. Remained in power until 1943, when he was overthrown. He later became the leader of the Italian Social Republic, which was founded in the northern part of the state, which was fully supported by Hitler. He held his post until 1945.
Let's find out more about such an eccentric and mysterious person as Mussolini, whose biography is quite interesting.
early years
Amilcare Andrea was born in 1883 in the village of Varano di Costa (province of Forli-Cisena, Italy). Named after Benito Juarez, his middle name and patronymic were given to him in recognition of the Italian socialists Andrea Costa and Amilcare Cipriani. His father, Alessandro, was a blacksmith and a passionate socialist who devoted most of his free time to politics and spent the money he earned on mistresses. His mother, Rose, was a devout Catholic and teacher.
Benito is the eldest son of the family's three children. Despite the fact that he will become the twentieth century, he began to talk very late. In his youth, he amazed many people with his mental abilities, but at the same time he was terribly disobedient and capricious. His father instilled in him a passion for socialist politics and defiance of authority. Mussolini was expelled from schools several times, ignoring all demands for discipline and order. Once he stabbed an older boy, Mussolini, with a knife (his biography shows that he would show violence towards people more than once). However, he managed to obtain a teacher's certificate in 1901, after which he worked in his specialty for some time.
Mussolini's passion for socialism. Biography and life
In 1902, Benito moved to Switzerland to develop the socialist movement. He quickly gained a reputation as a wonderful rhetorician. Learned English and German. His participation in political demonstrations attracted the attention of Swiss authorities, which led to his expulsion from the country.
In 1904, Benito returned to Italy, where he continued to promote the Socialist Party. He was imprisoned for several months to find out who Mussolini was ideologically. After his release, he became editor of the newspaper Avanti (which means “forward”). This position allowed him to increase his influence on Italian society. In 1915 he married Rachel Gaidi. After some time, she gave birth to Benito five children.
Break with socialism
Mussolini condemned the participation but soon realized that this was a great opportunity for his country to become a great power. Differences of opinion caused Benito to quarrel with other socialists, and he was soon expelled from the organization.
In 1915 he joined the ranks of the Italian troops and fought on the front line. With the rank of corporal, he was dismissed from the army.
After the war, Mussolini resumed his political activities, criticizing the Italian government for showing weakness during the signing. He created his own newspaper in Milan - Il Popolo d'Italia. And in 1919 he formed a fascist party, which was aimed at fighting against social class discrimination and supporting nationalistic sentiments.His main intention was to win the trust of the army and the monarchy.In this way, he hoped to raise Italy to the level of its great Roman past.
Mussolini's rise to power
At a time of collective disillusionment after the useless casualties of the Great War, the discredit of parliament amid economic crisis and high social conflict, Mussolini organized a military bloc known as the "Black Shirts" who terrorized political opponents and helped increase fascist influence. In 1922, Italy plunged into political chaos. Mussolini said that he could restore order in the country if he were given power.
King Victor Emmanuel III invited Benito to form a government. And already in October 1922 he became the youngest prime minister in the history of the Italian state. He gradually dismantled all democratic institutions. And in 1925 he made himself a dictator, taking the title Duce, which means “leader”.
Politics of the Duce
He implemented an extensive public works program and lowered the unemployment rate. Therefore, Mussolini's reforms were a great success. He also changed the country's political regime to a totalitarian one, ruled by a Fascist Grand Council backed by national security.
After the removal of the parliament, Benito founded the Chamber of Fasces and Corporations with simplified consultation. Under the framework, employers and workers were organized into controlled parties representing various sectors of the economy. The scope of social services expanded significantly, but the right to strike was abolished.
Mussolini's regime reduces the influence of the judiciary, tightly controls the free press, and arrests political opponents. After a series of attempts on his life (in 1925 and 1926), Benito bans opposition parties, expels more than 100 members of parliament, reinstates the death penalty for political crimes, abolishes local elections and increases the influence of the secret police. This is how Mussolini's fascism consolidated power.
In 1929, he signed the Lateran Pact with the Vatican, which ended the conflict between the church and the Italian state.
Military exploits
In 1935, determined to demonstrate the power and strength of his regime, Mussolini invaded Ethiopia, violating the recommendations of the League of Nations. The poorly armed Ethiopians were no match for Italy's modern tanks and aircraft, and the capital Addis Ababa was quickly conquered. Benito founded the New Italian Empire in Ethiopia.
In 1939, he sends troops to Spain to support Francisco Franco and the local fascists during the civil war. In this way he wanted to expand his influence.
Union with Germany
Impressed by Italy's military successes, Adolf Hitler (dictator of Germany) sought to establish friendly relations with Mussolini. Benito, in turn, was amazed by Hitler's brilliant political activity and his recent political victories. By 1939, the two countries had signed a military alliance known as the Pact of Steel.
Mussolini and Hitler carried out a purge in Italy, repressing all Jews. And since the beginning of World War II, in 1940, Italian troops invaded Greece. Then join the Germans in dividing Yugoslavia, invading the Soviet Union, and declaring war on America.
Many Italians did not support an alliance with Germany. But Hitler’s entry into Poland and the conflict with England and France forced Italy to take part in hostilities and thereby reveal all the shortcomings of its army. Greece and North Africa soon rebuffed Italy. And only the German intervention of 1941 saved Mussolini from a military coup.
Defeat of Italy and decline of Mussolini
In 1942, at the Casablanca Conference, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt develop a plan to take Italy out of the war and force Germany to move its army to the Eastern Front against Russia. Allied forces secured a bridgehead in Sicily and began to advance to the Apennine Peninsula.
Growing pressure forced Mussolini to resign. After this he was arrested, but German special forces soon rescued Benito. He then moves to northern Italy, which was still occupied by the Germans, in the hope of regaining his former power.
Public execution
On June 4, 1944, Rome was liberated by the Allied forces, who took control of the entire state. Mussolini and his mistress tried to flee to Switzerland, but were captured on April 27, 1945. They were executed the next day near the city of Dongo. Their bodies were hung in a square in Milan. Italian society did not express any regret at Benito's death. After all, he promised the people “Roman glory,” but his delusions of grandeur overcame common sense, which led the state to war and poverty.
Mussolini was originally buried in the Musocco cemetery in Milan. But in August 1957 he was re-interred in a crypt near Varano di Costa.
Faith and Hobbies
As a young man, Mussolini admitted to being an atheist and even tried several times to shock the public by calling on God to kill him instantly. He condemned socialists who were tolerant of religion. He believed that science had proven that there is no God, and religion is a mental illness, and accused Christianity of betrayal and cowardice. Mussolini's ideology mainly consisted of condemnation of the Catholic Church.
Benito was an admirer of Friedrich Nietzsche. Denis Mack Smith stated that in it he found justification for his "crusade" against Christian virtues, mercy and goodness. He highly valued his concept of the superman. On his 60th birthday, he received a gift from Hitler - a complete collection of Nietzsche's works.
Personal life
Benito first married Ida Dalser in Trento in 1914. A year later, the couple had a son, who was named Benito Albino Mussolini. It is important to note that all information about his first marriage was destroyed and his wife and son were soon subjected to severe persecution.
In December 1915 he married Rachel Gaidi, who had been his mistress since 1910. In their marriage they had two daughters and three sons: Edda (1910-1995) and Anna Maria (1929-1968), Vittorio (1916-1997), Bruno (1918-1941) and Romano (1927-2006).
Mussolini also had several mistresses, among them Margherita Sarfatti and his last lover, Clara Petacci.
Heritage
Mussolini's third son, Bruno, died in a plane crash during a P.108 bomber flight on a test mission on August 7, 1941.
Sophia Loren's sister, Anna Maria Scicolone, married Romano Mussolini. His granddaughter, Alessandra Mussolini, was a member of the European Parliament and currently serves in the Chamber of Deputies as a member of the People of Freedom.
Mussolini's National Fascist Party was banned in the post-war Italian Constitution. Nevertheless, several neo-fascist organizations emerged to continue Benito's activities. The strongest of them is the Italian Social Movement, which existed until 1995. But it soon changed its name to the National Alliance and radically separated from fascism.
So, we can say: Benito Mussolini was strong, determined to win, crazy and fanatical. His biography amazes with brilliant ups and merciless downs. He was head of the Italian government from 1922 to 1943. Became the founder of fascism in Italy. During his dictatorial rule, he treated his citizens harshly. He led the state into three wars, during the last of which he was overthrown.
Based on the above information, now everyone can find out who Mussolini is in ideology and what kind of person he was.
psto from uv. humus - HIS PSTO:
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Below the cut there is a photo 18+ !!!
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Mussolini committed one unforgivable sin for a dictator: he was losing the war. The Italian people reacted to this as any other nation in similar circumstances. The Italians praised him when he won, despite sanctions imposed on him by Britain and the League of Nations, and when he gave them the Ethiopian Empire, but they also turned on him when Ethiopia was lost, Libya was lost when more than 150,000 Italian soldiers fell captured when Italian cities were brutally bombed, when Sicily was captured by the enemy and when an Allied invasion of the Italian mainland seemed imminent.
Celebrating the anniversary of the seventeenth fascist militia in Italy. Benito Mussolini hosts a fascist parade
Today, as in 1943, Mussolini's supporters are convinced that the coup to overthrow Mussolini was organized by the Freemasons, which included prominent fascists who remained Freemasons in secret, despite the fact that members of the Fascist Party were prohibited from maintaining contact with them. However, not only the “free masons” understood that Mussolini was losing the war. Some of the fascist leaders, including Ciano, Mussolini's foreign minister and his son-in-law, established secret contacts with the British embassy in the Vatican.
On July 19, Mussolini, at the controls of his own plane, flew to Treviso to meet with Hitler in a country house located near Trento. He asked Hitler if he could send German troops to reinforce the defenders of Sicily. Hitler's armies were engaged at Kursk, south of Moscow, in the world's greatest tank battle. Hitler threw all his forces there to try to break the Red Army at the very beginning of the summer campaign. After two weeks of fierce fighting, the Germans advanced 13 miles. Then the Red Army launched a counteroffensive and put the Germans to flight.
Mussolini in front of German soldiers
Benito Mussolini checks the fortified turret position of the Panzer V Panther on a solid base under camouflage mesh, 1944
The meeting of the Supreme Fascist Council was to take place at the Palazzo Venezia at 5 o'clock in the afternoon on Saturday 24 July. Mussolini had no idea what was in store for him, although rumors about it circulated everywhere. They also reached Rachel. When Mussolini left Villa Torlonia for a meeting, she called him, begging him to arrest everyone. He thought she was joking and did not take her words seriously.
At the meeting, Grundy proposed a resolution. His resolution, after celebrating the valor displayed by all the soldiers and officers of the Italian army, navy and air force, made a respectful request to His Majesty the King to assume personal leadership of all armed forces and government. This meant that the king would have to relieve Mussolini from the posts of commander-in-chief and prime minister.
Grundy's resolution was discussed from 5 pm until midnight, with a break for a light dinner. The discussion was conducted in a restrained, almost friendly tone, and both Mussolini and his opponents remained completely calm. Farinacci and other members of the Supreme Council proposed amendments to the resolution that supported Mussolini, but it was decided to vote in favor of Grandi's resolution first. It passed by 19 votes to seven, with one abstention, except Farinacci, who supported Mussolini and refused to vote in protest against the resolution. The 19 who voted for her included: Grandi, two former quadrumvirs De Bono and De Vecchi, Marinelli, who organized the murder of Matteotti, Bottai, Federzoni, Acerbo and three of the closest people whom Mussolini especially trusted - Umberto Albini, Giuseppe Bastianini and Ciano.
Mussolini with a group of miners
Mussolini noted that since Grandi's resolution had passed, there was no point in voting for other resolutions, and declared the meeting closed. He was then taken from Palazzo Venezia to Villa Torlonia. Arriving home, he did not say anything to his family, he only repeated from time to time: “Ciano, Albini and Bastianini too!”
He still hasn't fully realized what happened. The next morning, Sunday July 25, he went to his office at the Palazzo Venezia, where he was to receive the Japanese Ambassador Shinrokura Hidaka. He congratulated Hidaka on the Japanese victories in the war. Mussolini then visited the area of San Lorenzo, which had been damaged during the raid on 19 July. Returning home, he received an invitation from the king to immediately come to his residence at the Villa Savoy. Rachelle suspected something was wrong and urged him not to go, but he went. Victor Emmanuel personally came to the front door of the villa to meet Mussolini. He was friendly and sympathetic. He said that Mussolini had done great service to Italy, but now it was time to resign.
When Mussolini left the king, the captain of the royal guard approached him in the reception room and said that he had received orders from the king to take him home in a military ambulance for his safety. Mussolini refused, arguing that he had arrived at the Villa Savoye in his own car, that the driver was waiting for him and could take him home. But the captain insisted that it was better for Mussolini to ride on a military nurse, and finally said: “Duce, this is an order!” They arrived at the army barracks, where they had to wait three quarters of an hour. He was moved from one barracks to another, and eventually a letter from Marshal Badoglio was given to him, informing him that the king had appointed Badoglio Prime Minister and that Mussolini would be taken to a place where he would be kept in safe custody for his own protection.
On July 28, he was taken by sea from Ponza to the island of La Maddalena, near Sardinia. The island has long been used as a prison. One of his captives was Zaniboni, a former Socialist MP sentenced to 30 years in prison for attempting to assassinate Mussolini in 1925. He was released a few days before Mussolini's arrival.
The king appointed Marshal Badoglio as prime minister, who formed a cabinet of civilian officials. Guariglia, who was at that time ambassador to Turkey, was recalled and appointed minister of foreign affairs. Badoglio's government announced that Italy would continue the war on the side of Germany, its ally. Hitler was upset that Mussolini had been removed and was suspicious of Badoglio, but did not want to resort to force against Italy and drive Badoglio into the arms of the Allies. Therefore, he stated that he did not interfere in the internal affairs of Italy, but believed that the Badoglio government would fulfill its treaty obligations with Germany. Badoglio retained all fascist laws, including racial ones, but many anti-fascists and Jews were released from prisons and camps, although communists were not released.
On July 29, four days after his arrest, Mussolini turned 60 years old. He received a congratulatory telegram from Goering, which was delivered to him in prison. Goering wrote that he had hoped to visit Mussolini on his birthday, but events had made this impossible. One of the conditions of the peace treaty that the Allies insisted on was the handover of Mussolini to them. Badoglio's government was aware that when peace terms were announced, the Italian fascists or the Germans would try to save Mussolini from falling into the hands of the Anglo-Americans. On August 28, they suddenly, in great secrecy, without warning, took him from La Maddalena and, after several days of travel, placed him in a safer prison: an uninhabited hotel at the highest point of the Gran Sasso mountain range, near L'Aquila, north of Rome .
Badoglio's government accepted the terms of the peace treaty proposed by the Allies, and on August 8 it was publicly announced that the armistice had been signed. Hitler immediately ordered German troops to occupy Italy. The Allies also landed on the Apennine Peninsula, but did not have time to prevent the German occupation of Rome and the territories north of the Volturno River. The king and the government of Badoglio hastily left Rome and settled in Brindisi. The Allies held Naples and the entire south, but most of Italy was occupied by the Germans.
However, Hitler hoped to save his friend Mussolini. This task was to be carried out by the commander of the paratroopers, Otto Skorzeny.
SS Standartenführer Otto Skorzeny
Skorzeny discovered that Mussolini was being held at the Gran Sasso and decided to drop paratroopers onto the mountain peak.
A group of paratroopers under the command of O. Skorzeny
By that time, the German army occupied all of Italy north of Rome, including the territory of Gran Sasso. Therefore, it was said that Skorzeny's rescue of Mussolini was a propaganda stunt staged on Hitler's orders. After all, it was possible to free Mussolini without the risk of destroying the plane while landing on the top of the mountain. But Hitler had good reason to fear that British paratroopers might reach Mussolini and capture him before Skorzeny. When the terms of the truce were announced on the radio, Mussolini became terribly worried, fearing that he would be handed over to the British, and shared his fears with the officer guarding him. This officer replied that he himself had been a prisoner of the British at Tobruk, where he had been treated horribly, and that he would never hand over a single Italian to the British.
Funicular in Gran Sasso during the operation to free Benito Mussolini
On September 12, Skorzeny and his team landed on Gran Sasso. They were accompanied by General Stoleti of the Italian police. Skorzeny believed that his presence could be useful.
Liberation of Benito Mussolini. German paratroopers and Italian soldiers in the foreground
They ran up to the hotel with light machine guns at the ready. Skorzeny ran ahead, with General Stoleti next to him. Mussolini's guards were already preparing to shoot at them when Mussolini looked out the window.
Liberation of Benito Mussolini. General Ferdinando Stoleti, Benito Mussolini, General Guieri, Waffen-SS soldier with machine gun (MP)
At first he decided that the British had come for him. But, seeing the German uniform of Skorzeny’s men and recognizing Stoleti in an Italian uniform, he ordered the guards not to shoot, because there was an Italian general there. The security offered no resistance.
Benito Mussolini near the Hotel Campo Imperatore with German paratroopers and Italian soldiers
Skorzeny entered the hotel and addressed Mussolini. “Duce, the Fuhrer sent me to save you.” Mussolini replied: “I always knew that my friend Adolf Hitler would not leave me in trouble.”
Benito Mussolini leaves the Campo Imperatore Hotel. Next to him, General Ferdinando Stoleti
They immediately flew away, although it was very difficult to take off from the mountain top.
Otto Skorzeny, Mussolini. General Ferdinando Stoleti with German paratroopers and SS men on the way to the plane
Storch light aircraft with liberated Mussolini
Skorzeny took Mussolini to Pratica di Mare airport near Rome, and from there to Vienna.
Benito Mussolini on his way to the plane with German paratroopers
From Vienna, Mussolini traveled by train to Munich, and then flew to Rastenburg to thank Hitler for the rescue.
In Rastenburg the Duce meets his liberator Adolf Hitler
Liberation of Benito Mussolini
Liberator Duce as guest of honor at the Berlin Sports Palace
Honoring Otto Skorzeny
Reward
The Germans occupied the area around Forli and Rocca delle Caminate. The German officer released the Italian police guarding Rachel. Hitler sent a plane on which Rachel, Romano and Anna Maria flew to Munich to see Mussolini. Rachel was very grateful to Hitler. 5 years later, in her memoirs, she thanked him for his kindness. She was very simple-minded and took everything from a personal point of view.
Many of the Nazi leaders, including some generals, wanted to treat the Italians as enemies and Italy as an enemy country. But Hitler trusted Mussolini and decided to restore him at the head of the Italian fascist state as a counterweight to the Badoglio government. He gave instructions that Mussolini address the country by radio from a broadcasting station in Munich, and that same evening, September 18, Mussolini delivered his address to all of Italy. His conversion was regarded by friends and supporters as highly successful. He said that the king and Badoglio had betrayed Italy and that he would now lead the Italian Socialist Republic and continue the war on the side of the German allies.
Mussolini had to create his government in the far north of Italy, in Salo on Lake Garda. His residence and office were located at the Villa Feltrinelli in Gargnano, a few miles from Salò.
Villa Feltrinelli in Gargnano. Contemporary photography
He called on the Parliament of the Republic to meet him in Verona. Before Mussolini and Rachel left Munich, Ciano arrived there in mid-September.
Anti-fascists began to seize the south of Italy, which was under the rule of the Badoglio government and the Allied occupation. At the same time, Ciano discovered that his vote against Mussolini at the meeting of the Supreme Fascist Council on July 24 was not enough to make anti-fascists forget his long past as a prominent fascist and Mussolini's foreign minister. Therefore he decided to join Mussolini. It was a very awkward family meeting, and the atmosphere at dinner remained tense and cold.
When Mussolini and Rachel went to Rocca delle Caminate and then to Gargnano, Ciano remained in Munich. Five more members of the Supreme Fascist Council who voted against Mussolini on July 24 also arrived in German-occupied territory: De Bono, Marinelli, Luciano Gottardi, Carlo Paresci and Gianetti. Others remained in the south or, like Grandi, went to Spain, where Franco granted them political asylum. Extremely fanatical fascists like Farinacci believed that Ciano and other traitors who defected from Mussolini should be brought to justice. The Germans supported their demands. Mussolini's government in Salo created a Special Tribunal to try these traitors.
Benito Mussolini visits a children's play pavilion in a town built by the Fascist Party
On October 7, German authorities in Munich informed Ciano that he was being handed over to the government of the Italian Socialist Republic for trial. Two days later he was flown in custody to Verona, where he was placed in prison along with De Bono, Marinelli, Gottardi, Pareschi and Gianetti to await trial on charges of treason.
In November 1943, a fascist congress met in Verona. He abolished the monarchy and adopted the constitution of the Italian Socialist Republic. In his propaganda, Mussolini emphasized the fact that the Italian Socialist Republic rejected the monarchy of the bourgeoisie. Some began to believe that he had returned to his old socialism.
In the south, socialists and liberals were unhappy with Badoglio as prime minister, believing that Badoglio, with his fascist past and war crimes in Ethiopia, could not be a suitable leader for the new anti-fascist Italy, which was fighting in alliance with Western democracies against Hitler and Mussolini. They demanded that Badoglio be replaced by the liberal philosopher Benedetto Croce. The Italian Communist Party did not support these demands. At Stalin's direction, the Communists became Badoglio's supporters because Stalin wanted political stability in Southern Italy and, as a leader, a competent general who could assist in the military victory over Germany and Mussolini's fascists.
The Italian Socialist Republic intensified its campaign against Jews, officially declaring them "hostile foreigners." For the first time, Italian Jews were deported from German-occupied territory to Poland, to camps. But it was very difficult for the Germans from Himmler’s special units to carry out this task.
On Saturday, October 16, 1943, they attempted to arrest all the Jews of Rome. Herbert Keppler, the German head of the Roman police, and his assistant Theodor Dannecker, who had experience in deporting Jews in Paris and Sofia, expected local anti-Semites to appear with voluntary information about where the Jews were hiding. But no local anti-Semites in Rome helped him. On the contrary, many of the Romans helped the Jews escape. Keppler and Dannecker were only able to arrest 1,007 Jews in Rome. They reported to Himmler that for every Jew captured, 11 escaped. Subsequently, 6,000 Jews were arrested in Northern Italy, but during the 20 months of German occupation, only 7,000 Italian and foreign Jews in Italy died in the gas chambers of Poland, that is, 15% of all Jews in Italy. A much lower percentage than in any other German-occupied country in Europe, with the exception of Denmark.
Many Catholics urged the Pope to make a radio statement condemning the deportation and extermination of Jews, believing that his influence on Hitler's Catholic soldiers would force the Nazis to abandon the extermination program. The Pope refused this offer, believing that if he publicly condemned the extermination of the Jews, Hitler would send troops to the Vatican, arrest him and kill those Jews hiding there. There were a lot of Jews hiding in the monasteries of Rome.
Edda Ciano hoped that her father would save her husband's life. Mussolini found himself in a difficult position. He adored Edda, as well as the rest of his children, but felt that he had to fulfill his duty, like Brutus in Ancient Rome, who 2500 years ago killed his son who betrayed the city. How could Mussolini spare a traitor and not fulfill his duty, sternly and impartially, just because the traitor was his son-in-law? Edda tried to save her husband. She fled to Switzerland, taking with her diaries in which Ciano wrote down Mussolini's frank remarks over several years, which could be very unpleasant for the Duce and the Germans. Contacting Himmler, she offered to hand over these diaries to him if Ciano escaped to Switzerland. But Hitler said: “No deal.”
The trial of Ciano and others took place on January 8–9, 1944. Ciano, De Bono, Marinelli, Gottardi and Pareschi were sentenced to death. Gianetti, who at one time, the morning after the significant meeting of the Supreme Fascist Council, changed his mind and withdrew his vote, was sentenced to 30 years in prison. After the verdict was pronounced, Marinelli, who was awaiting death, confirmed that Mussolini did not know about the plan to assassinate Matteotti, which Marinelli himself organized without the knowledge of the Duce.
The court's verdict had to be confirmed by a state judge, and the prosecution rushed to find one who would quickly do this and allow them to execute Ciano before Mussolini pardoned him. After several judges, under various plausible pretexts, refused to do this, one was found ready to oblige. The next morning all five were shot. When Mussolini was told this news, he said that for him Ciano had died a long time ago. But Rachel knew what a personal tragedy this death was for him because of the impact it would have on his relationship with Edda.
A few months later he wrote to Edda in Switzerland that he had always loved her and would always love her. But she looked at him not as a loving father, but as a murderer of her husband. She told him that she was proud to be Ciano's wife, the wife of a traitor, and let him tell his German masters about this. He sent a priest to her in Switzerland, but she rejected all attempts at reconciliation. Only 10 years after Mussolini’s death she agreed to make peace with her mother and visited her father’s grave with her.
The differences between the German and Italian administrations were very serious. Thus, conflicts arose when the Germans arrested Mussolini's police chief, and Mussolini's police arrested an official who was supported by the Germans. True, these disputes were quickly settled. But there was one question that caused sharp protest from Mussolini. These are the actions of the German military authorities. Members of the anti-fascist movement in occupied Italy killed German soldiers at every opportunity. The Germans responded to this as in any country they occupied: they took hostages and announced that they would shoot 50 or 100 people for each German killed. Hostages were seized from among the local population. 50 local residents were shot for one German soldier killed by the Resistance in the area. Mussolini was outraged. The shooting of 50 Italians for one German meant that Germany considered Italy a hostile nation. Mussolini insisted that the Italians were loyal allies of the Germans, and that it was traitors who were killing German soldiers. He believed that the Germans should punish only partisans and their political supporters.
Benito Mussolini reviews Italian troops 1944
Despite all the differences with the Germans, Mussolini had no doubt that the Italian Socialist Republic should remain an ally of Germany. He was confident that if the Allies won the war, Europe and the world would be ruled by the United States and the Soviet Union, and Italy would be finished as an independent power. British and American air forces increased the number and intensity of air raids on Italian cities. Mussolini, who had applauded Italian air raids over the skies of Ethiopia and Spain, now indignantly denounced the murderers of Italian women and children. He wrote that the incessant bombing was causing such heavy civilian casualties that it amounted to a daily holocaust.
Benito Mussolini inspecting heavy mortars on the Adriatic coast 1944
The activity of anti-fascist partisans increased sharply. In May 1944, they tied down almost 16,000 German soldiers in northern Italy, as well as many of Mussolini's fascist units. In addition, they committed acts of sabotage on the territory of the Italian Socialist Republic. They killed several prominent fascist figures. Professor Gentile, the first minister of education in the Mussolini government, publisher of the Encyclopedia Italiana, continued to support him after the armistice of September 8, 1943. In April 1944, four partisans on motorcycles waylaid Gentile on a street corner in Florence and shot him. Mussolini angrily condemned the murder of this outstanding intellectual and loyal fascist.
Bad news came from all over. The military situation worsened, the Allies managed to invade France across the English Channel. They occupied Rome on June 5 and landed in Normandy the next day. Mussolini took the fall of Rome hard. He vowed to bring it back and revived Garibaldi's old slogan of 1862: "Rome or death!" He was especially outraged that there were many black American soldiers in the troops that took Rome. Blacks marched through the streets and under arches built in honor of Rome, ancient and modern. His propaganda emphasized the horror of the "black invasion" of Italy.
On July 9, 1944, Mussolini went by train to visit Hitler in Rastenburg. On July 20, Hitler met him at the station with his arm in a sling. He was slightly injured a few hours before the meeting when a bomb exploded in a meeting room in Rustenburg. It was carried by Major Claus von Stauffenberg, who was trying to kill the Fuhrer. However, no one was killed, and although the four officers in the room were seriously wounded, Hitler himself was only slightly wounded.
Italian dictator Benito Mussolini (left) together with Adolf Hitler and a group of officers inspect the consequences of the explosion at the Fuhrer's headquarters "Wolfschanze" (Wolf's Lair)
Mussolini congratulated Hitler on his happy escape and said that this proved that Hitler was under the special protection of Providence.
The last meeting of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. 1944
Hitler felt well enough to discuss the military situation with Mussolini on July 20. The next day Mussolini returned to Gargnano. They never met with Hitler again.
Mussolini refused to consider the possibility of the Axis defeat in the war. In March 1944, he summarily rejected the proposal of his police chief, Tullio Tamburini, to keep a submarine ready in Trieste in which he could escape if the Allied armies occupied all of Italy.
In the fall of 1944, the Allies advanced. By November, before winter stopped their advance, they took Forlì. Mussolini could no longer travel to the Rocca delle Caminate. The Germans prepared for a stubborn defense of Florence. They were helped by the Voluntary National Security Police, including a fascist unit. Mussolini warmly welcomed their patriotism and military training.
Benito Mussolini in conversation with an Italian Blackshirt, 1944
On December 16, 1944, Mussolini spoke at a rally at the Teatro Lirico in Milan. The rally had been announced just a few hours earlier over loudspeakers. In this way they sought to reduce the chances of an Anglo-American air raid that might interfere with the meeting. However, the theater hall quickly filled up. Thousands of people unlucky enough to get inside stood in the square in front of the theater, listening to Mussolini's speech via broadcast. At the end of the day, Mussolini spoke at another rally in Piazza San Sepolcro in Milan. The crowd cheered him enthusiastically. A crowd that was not embarrassed by any bombs: neither those from Allied aircraft, nor those thrown by communist partisans.
Benito Mussolini inspects Panzer V fortified turrets under camouflage netting, 1944
In January 1945, Mussolini left Gargnano with its mild climate and joined his troops in the Apennines, where there were severe frosts. He was again in good health, 61 years old, and seemed to be happily walking through the snow with his soldiers.
On April 12, President Roosevelt died. Mussolini wrote that proof of God's justice is that he died cursed by the mothers of the whole world, including the United States.
On 25 April, Mussolini and Graziani met with Cadorna and other members of the National Council of the Resistance at Cardinal Schuster's palace in Milan. Mussolini asked whether the Resistance and the Allied command could guarantee the lives of him, his ministers and their families if they all surrendered. Cadorna responded that the British Commander-in-Chief, Field Marshal Sir Harold Alexander, had already announced to his soldiers that the soldiers of Mussolini's Italian Socialist Republic were to be treated as prisoners of war if they surrendered. However, those responsible for war crimes will be brought to justice. Cadorna could only promise Mussolini that the trial would be fair.
Mussolini headed to Como, and on April 27, along with Bombacci and other members of his government, he joined a group of two hundred German soldiers who were going to travel by truck to the Swiss border. Mussolini got into the last truck, wearing a German flight helmet for camouflage.
They drove up to the western tip of Lake Como, where near Musso they were stopped by a large detachment of partisans. The partisan commander said that he would allow the Germans to travel to Switzerland, but not the Italians who were traveling with them. After searching the trucks for Italians, the partisans found Mussolini. One of them identified him. There were shouts: “We took Mussolini!” They took him and other Italians to Dongo.
Before leaving Como, Mussolini wrote to Claretta Petacci that he would try to move to Switzerland with German soldiers, and persuaded her to try to escape too. She convinced her brother Marcello to drive her in his Alfa Romeo after the German column in which Mussolini was riding. Marcello and Claretta were stopped by the partisans, identified and taken to Dongo, joining Mussolini and his employees captured with him.
Murdered Clara Petacci
At Dongo, Mussolini was separated from the rest of the prisoners. Claretta refused to leave him, so they were both taken to Giugliano di Mezzegra and placed under guard in a farmhouse. Bombacci, Marcello Petacci and other prisoners were shot right there, near the lake in Dongo. Bombacci's last words were: “Long live Mussolini! Long live socialism!” Other prominent fascists, including Farinacci, were also captured and shot on the spot by the partisans. Preziosi and his wife jumped out of a fifth-floor window to avoid being captured and handed over to the Jews for execution.
After the execution
Accounts of what happened to Mussolini in the last hours of his life are very contradictory. The most reliable, perhaps, is the official version. The National Council of the Resistance decided that Mussolini, based on the totality of his crimes, should be executed. When Tolyatti, who was in Rome, heard that the partisans had captured Mussolini, he radioed the order to the communist members of the National Resistance Council not to allow him to fall alive into the hands of the British or Americans. As soon as his identity is established, he must be executed immediately. Togliatti's attitude is understandable: too many British and American politicians in the past praised Mussolini for his zeal in the fight against communism.
For many years it was believed that the communist leader in the National Council of the Resistance, Luigi Longo, ordered Mussolini's immediate execution without the consent of the council's chairman, General Cadorna. However, recently an order to execute Mussolini was found, and it was signed by Cadorna. It is quite possible that in 1945 the Communists had little difficulty in persuading Cadorna to do what they wanted.
The Communist guerrilla commander, whose nom de guerre was Colonel Valerio, commanded the execution. His real name was Walter Audisio. He subsequently became a communist deputy in the Chamber of Deputies in Rome.
On the afternoon of April 28, he went to the house where Mussolini and Claretta had spent the previous night, and led Mussolini to a crossroads near the house. Once again Claretta refused to leave him, so they took her with them. Colonel Valerio read out the death sentence of the National Council of the Resistance and, together with his comrades, shot Mussolini and Claretta. After the first shot, Mussolini was only wounded, and the submachine gun jammed. But they finished him off with another pistol. Claretta was killed by the first shot. This happened at 4.30 pm.
The bodies of Mussolini, Claretta and other members of the government, shot at the lake in Dongo, are brought to a large square, Piazzale Loreto, near the Central Station in Milan. This place was chosen because several months earlier several partisans had been executed there by the Nazis.
14 corpses were hung by their feet on an iron fence in front of a gas station, and a huge crowd gathered in the square attacked them, hurling insults and kicking them. They were kicked and spat on mostly by old and elderly women, mothers of young partisans captured and shot by the Germans or Mussolini's fascist militia. Mussolini's body was later removed and buried in the family crypt in the San Cassiano cemetery in Predappio.
Benito Mussolini lies next to Clara Petacci in the morgue in Milan, Italy, April 29, 1945
Rachel, Romano and Anna Maria were arrested by partisans in Como, but were taken under the protection of the American army. They were interned in the camp for several months and then released.
Rachelle in the internment camp
Vittorio fled to Switzerland. Mussolini's papers, including his correspondence and diaries, disappeared. Before fleeing to Switzerland, he handed them over to the Japanese ambassador Hidaka, who also reached Switzerland and returned them there to Vittorio. Vittorio entrusted them to some Catholic priest with instructions not to give them to anyone without his permission. But the priest gave them to a man who forged a letter from Rachel asking him to give the documents to the bearer of the letter. Today Vittorio claims to know who has these documents, but will not reveal the name and can only say that it is not English. Whoever kept them hasn't published them for 50 years.
Rachel's greatest grief was that it was not she, but Claretta Petacci, who was with Mussolini when he died. But she has no doubt that his last thoughts were about her, his lawful wife, and their children. Vittorio sees this differently than his mother. For him, the unforgivable crime of the partisans is that they shot such a beautiful young woman as Claretta.
The official story of Mussolini's death is much more likely. So, unless new facts come to light to refute it, we can believe that he was killed by Colonel Valerio and the Communist partisans under his command at the crossroads of Giugliano di Mezzegra at 4.30 pm on Saturday 28 April 1945 .
19 years earlier, when Mori was conducting his long trial of the mafia in Sicily, Mussolini wrote to him, urging him to quickly end the arrests, since this was more in keeping with the spirit of the times, that is, more fascist. Colonel Valerio and his partisans put an end to Mussolini very quickly, also in the spirit of the times, very fascist. They shot him, as many times over the past 25 years the fascists had shot communists on his orders.
Photos not included in issues
Romano, the young son of Benito Mussolini, feeds antelopes with his schoolmates during a visit to the zoo. 1935
Mussolini greets George 5 during his arrival in Rome on May 10, 1921
Benito Mussolini skiing with his son Romano on Mount Terminillo. 1935