How successful were Mussolini's attempts to control the Italian population?

Question 1

Indoctrination of education and youth - before Mussolini established the dictatorship

Answer 1

• Dec 1921 = formed the Fascist Youth Front for boys.
• GUF formed after his appointment as PM in 1923.
• Created the ONB for children aged 8-14.
• Limitation = poorly structured and competed with other youth organisations of other political parties - by 1924, only 3000 formally joined.

Question 2

Indoctrination of education and youth - after Mussolini established the dictatorship

Answer 2

• Formalised through the ONB on 3rd April 1926. to provide for the ‘physical and moral benefit of youth’, through the education of boys aged 8-18.
• Banned all other youth organisations, apart from those provided by the Catholic Church.
• Restructured the ONB in 1934 = three separate categories for each gender from ages 6 to 17.

Question 3

Indoctrination of education and Youth - what was their major purpose and its link to the education system?

Answer 3

• Controlled by the Party to oversee education and physical training of youths to create a loyal and strong generation of Fascists.
• Linked to education - compulsory for 6-11 years but it was extended to 11+ from 1939.
• Non-membership meant: difficult to enrol into further education, barred from civil service employment and was deemed suspicious of anti-fascism.

Question 4

Indoctrination of youth and education - what did they learn with these programmes.

Answer 4

Boys programmes aimed to produce young, fascist soldiers, while girls focused on ensuring they were able to bear healthy children and educate them to love Italy and Mussolini.

Question 5

Indoctrination of youth and education - what did they learn at school

Answer 5

• No major changes but increased the emphasis on the study of Italian history and culture, learning that Italy was the cradle of European civilisation and that many great figures like Columbus was Italian. More control in the 1930s.
• Appointed Fascist supporters to key posts such as headmaster, removed anti-fascists teachers in the 1920s and made teachers to join the PNF from 1933.
• Edited textbooks and banned ‘unpatriotic’ books.
• GUF ran national student games involving cultural and debate competitions centred on fascist themes (1934-1940).
• Less focus on fascist education or military training at uni.

Question 6

Limitations of the indoctrination of youth and education

Answer 6

Hampered by demographic differences:

• North-South divide = rural, southern children didn’t study beyond the compulsory age of 11 and the nature of agricultural work made participation more difficult.
• Gender divide = girls less likely to continue schooling beyond 11 and they disliked their dull activities of motherhood.

Failed to make loyalists:

• Soley joined bc they enjoyed the social aspect.
• Majority of the anti-fascist forces were made up of young people, often brought up in the same educational system.

Question 7

Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro (OND)

Answer 7

• Replaced the banned socialist organisations in 1925.
• Provided workers with social and sporting opportunities (plays, films and concerts) and consumer benefits (rail ticket discounts) with each section typically having a clubhouse.
• Acted as a welfare organisation providing relief for workers and social insurance = first example of popular mass leisure in Italy provided and subsidied by the Fascists.
• 80% all state/private workers and 40% of industrial workers.

Question 8

OND’s effectiveness

Answer 8

• Popular aspect of the regime as people were grateful for the benefits it provided, reflecting on Mussolini’s leadership and contributed to his popular appeal.
• However, workers could benefit without any real commitment. M believed that participation with fascism by the mass than direct ideological indoctrination (discourage membership) - more important as a form of control.
• Gap between popular policy and creating a Fascist-believing nation was difficult to bridge - questionable if he wanted to pursue this goal.

Question 9

Press control and censorship

Answer 9

• After his speech, M increased censorship laws (stronger with Press Law in Dec 1925).
• Prefects could confiscate whole edition, suspend publication and replace editors which produced unfavourable material about the Fascist regime.
• Incorporated journalists into a fascist union, controlling access to jobs and promotions = a form of self-censorship and press officers were sent specific instructions (unable to print stories on crime or accidents which disturbed Italy’s image).
• Denied opposition parties sympathetic press coverage (e.g the Aventine Succession). Impactful as although the Communists returned, other deputies didn’t after the ban of parties/trade unions.

Question 10

More detail on Mussolini on press control

Answer 10

• Apart from the left-wing political newspapers, Mussolini was more interested in press control than banning, allowing independent newspapers to exist but only under strict guidance (increased subsidies for newspapers that printed positive stories about Italy.)
• Fascist newspapers only accounted for 10% of entire sales (e.g Popolo d’Italia only had a circulation of 100,000 compared to Corriere della Sera’s 600,000 and the Vatican newspaper’s 250,000).
• Successfully controlled the image of Italian society, the PNF, and particularly Mussolini - difficult for the population to view any alternative narratives.

Question 11

Propaganda

Answer 11

Aimed to manufacture a consensus for Mussolini’s policies, helping to transform the Italians to ‘true fascists’ through unifying ideals of patriotism and the rebirth of Italy.

• Symbol of Ancient Rome grew important - in 1937, a large celebration to commemorate the 2000th anniversary of Caesar was held in Rome, and over 1M visited the exhibitions where propaganda intricately linked M as Ceasar’s heir.
• Disseminated: newspapers, radios, posters, mass rallies and sport (won World Cup in 1934 and 1938).

Question 12

Evaluation of propaganda

Answer 12

• No specific ministry to organise propaganda until the formation of the Ministry of the Press in 1935, renamed the Ministry of Popular Culture in 1937.
• Effective = whilst the PNF still practised censorship, it was difficult for the majority to hold views that opposed Fascism.
• Not a sophisticated organisation and it struggled to exploit modern mediums like film. Additionally, the lack of mass media in the south meant the national integration of Italians to support fascism was difficult and it’s debatable to what extent it transformed Italian attitudes.

Question 13

The Cult of il Duce

Answer 13

• Spread the image that Mussolini was a leader of immense ability through posters, cinema and radio.
• 30 million pictures of il Duce in 2,500 different poses circulated - portrayed as a modern, dynamic leader who was a brilliant sportsman and globally respected statesman.
• Photographed shirtless, portraying a leader of physical strength and attractive to the opposite sex, and a family man = contradictions strengthened the cult as he appealed to everybody.

Question 14

Mussolini’s image upon strengthening his dictatorship

Answer 14

• His image as a lone leader, above party and nation, became more pronounced = without friends to distract him from his work.
• Represented the hopes and desires of the Italian people - leading Italy to greatness.

Question 15

Evaluation of the Cult of il Duce

Answer 15

• Mussolini’s image was much more popular than the PNF and fascist ideology.
• If fascism’s true goal was to transform the Italians into a more militaristic society, then the cult did not achieve this. Instead it focused on the worship of one leader - not a sustainable ideology after M’s death.
• Difficult as Mussolini aged to sustain the image of a youthful, active and dynamic leader. Possible to argue that as the 1930s progressed, Mussolini became less inclined to see the cult as a propaganda myth and instead came to believe it himself, explaining his more radical and aggressive policy direction from 1935.

Question 16

Influence of fascist culture - what did Mussolini use to create a ‘cultural revolution’

Answer 16

• Used the PNF to make a cultural revolution that perpetuated fascist ideals.
• Created the National Institute of Fascist Culture in 1926 that organised cultural events, free concerts and publications that would encourage mass Italian participation in fascist cultural propaganda.

Question 17

Influence of fascist culture - producing policies for artists and intellectuals

Answer 17

• All art were to serve the goals of the fascist state and help create and sustain fascism myths and images. However, Mussolini never attempted to control artistic style.
• Organised into particular associations like the Fascist syndicate of artists led by Antonio Maraini.
• 1932 = the Exhibition of the Fascist Revolution celebrated one decade of fascist rule - commissioned artists to produce artworks that represented this achievement and 4M visited.

Question 18

Evaluation of the influence of fascist culture

Answer 18

• Efficent organisation to control what was produced to help boost Mussolini and the PNF’s image, but it never focused in a coherent manner with a key message that would resonate with the Italians to turn them into loyal fascists.
• Lacked an intellectual giant, like the poet d’Annunzio, who could inspire the population in a popular appeal to fascism and its goals.
• Did not control art style and allowed American movies to be shown in Italy - dominating box office.

Question 19

Repression and terror

Answer 19

• Nov 1926 = banned all other political parties and suppressed any Italians that protest against the dictatorship. Reintroduced death penalty for anyone who tried to assassinate the King, Mussolini or threatened state security.
• Special Tribunals sent political dissidents into exile for an unspecified amount of time, often the south = typicaly ‘potentially dangerous’ Italian anti-fascists. Appeared not a considerable punishment but it was financially and socially devastating for those exiled and their families.
• Used Concentration Camps to reform opponents but they weren’t known for mass murder of detainees like in Germany.
• Italian secret police (OVRA) formed in 1927 to spy and stamp down on any domestic anti-fascist sentiment or activities. Estimated 5,000 informers operated = infiltrating unis, businesses and fascist unions.

Question 20

Evaluation: Success of repression and terror

Answer 20

• Special Tribunals prosecuted 13,547 cases and imposed around 27,742 years of jail time.
• Sent 10K to Confino and hundreds were arrested weekly for anti-fascist activities = caused prominent socialist and communist leaders to flee, often to Paris.
• Clearly effective - only nine death sentences before WWII.
• Blackshirt’s old practices no longer necessary as the public generally complied - created a society where it was difficult to disobey, especially as people were rewarded if they obeyed (promotions).
• More concerned with the national movements among the Slovenes who lived in Italy’s borders.

Question 21

Evaluation: Negatives of repression and terror

Answer 21

• Difficult to judge the extent to which fascism relied on repression.
• Anti-fascist activities and organisations were suppressed successfully, but the numbers arrested and sent to jail make it difficult to judge the extent of anti-fascist feeling within Italy.
• Could have relied on repression, popular police or the cult of Il Duce to sustain his regime - or a combination of all three.

Question 22

Anti-Semitic decrees

Why did the regime’s unpopularity fall?

Answer 22

• Mussolini’s popularity reached its height in 1936, suggesting the dictatorship was in a slow decline.
• Discontent existed because of the economic issues, relations with Germany and Mussolini failing to fulfil his promises to the Italians.
• Also, anti-semtic decrees increased resentment because previously not much anti-Jew rhetoric in fascism and only 45,000 Jews lived in Italy, with many joining the PNF and even M who appointed a Jewish finance minister in 1932.

Question 23

What were some of the anti-Semitic legislation?

Answer 23

• 1938 = forbade Jews from marrying ‘Pure’ Italians, holding public office jobs like teaching, owning more than 50 hectares of land, running any businesses with over 100 employees. Foreign Jews were simply to be deported.
• Over the next three years, 6,000 Jews left the country. Jewish businesses closed down, Jewish students were expelled from Italian schools and Jewish university lecturers lost their jobs.

Question 24

Why did Mussolini introduce this anti-Semitic legislation?

Answer 24

• Occured simultaneously as the Nazis were pursuing a harder line on German Jews - no evidence Hitler pressured him to implement anti-Jewish policy, but rather the policy of other countries right-wing dictatorships.
• A harsher policy towards the Jews in Italy would help create a militaristic, radicalised society that would be united in their hatred for enemies, mirroring Germany’s totalitarian state.
• Italians needed to develop a ‘racial mentality’ that gave them a greater sense of superiority over foreign race and can conquer and rule over other nations.
• Policies came alongside the ‘reform of customs’ - an ideological campaign that forced all civil servants to wear uniforms and the army to adopt the passo romano like M experienced in Germany.

Question 25

Negatives of the use of anti-Semitic decrees

Answer 25

• ‘Reform of customs’ ridiculed - deemed a pointless, irrelevant and ridiculous exercise, copied off the Germans - majority ignored.
• Majority resented the anti-Semitic policies as they had little to no history of anti-Semitism.
• Failed to unite the Italian people into a more radical fashion = lost support from the conservative elite of the Church, business and judiciary which Mussolini relied on.
• Many questioned the direction of fascist policy as the PNF appeared to be pursuing a more radical policy that pushED Italy into a dangerous and concerning direction = viewed as a sign of Italy’s growing weakness and subordination to German policy.