The Fascist State (1925- 40)

Question 1

Youth Organisations

Answer 1

Fascist Youth Front - 1921 - Boys 14-17
Gruppi Universitari Fascisti (GUF) - 1923
By 1924 - only 3,000 children involved
1925 - Opera Nazionale Ballia (ONB) created
1929 - Ministry of National Education

Question 2

Youth Organisation Policy

Answer 2

ONB was compulsory for all elementary children
All youth organisations (except fascist + catholic) were banned.
At 18y/o, all able-bodied men had to undergo military service
1939 - all boys >11 y/o membership was compulsory

Question 3

Why were youth organisations popular ?

Answer 3

ONB membership helped career prospects
Dream Ballia - Loyal to Mussolini, fights/dies for Italy
1937 (pre-compulsory) - 7 million memebers.
Support was due to outdoor activity enjoyment rather than belief in fascist ideology.

Question 4

Education Policies

Answer 4

All anti-fascist teachers removed (1920s)
All teachers had to be part of PNF (1933)

Question 5

Fascist ideas at University

Answer 5

Less focus on formal fascist military training
GUF ran ‘littoriali’ (1934-40) - national debates competitions about culture.

Question 6

Evidence of N/S divide in education

Answer 6

Most in the South did not stay in education beyond 11
Agricultural work in the south often replaced ONB appeal.

Question 7

Failures of Youth Policy

Answer 7

N/S Divide
Male / female divide - Girls usually left >11y/o
Majority of anti-fascists were young people
Did not indoctrinate - popularity due to sport / careers

Question 8

Key Features of the Opera Nazionale Dopolavro (OND)

Answer 8

Est. 1925
Welfare Organisation for workers
Variety of social / sporting opportunities, eg. bars, football teams + libraries.
OND gave rail discounts
Subsidised holidays

Question 9

Evidence of support for the OND

Answer 9

1939 - 4 million members
80% of all state + private sector workers
40% of all workers
Career prospects / Sports > Fascist Ideology

Question 10

Press Censorship

Answer 10

1923+1925 - Restrictions on the freedom of the press.
Prefects could confiscate newspapers if it was viewed as unfavourable to the fascist regime.
Left wing newspapers were closed down - eg. Avanti!
Journalists joined the fascist union

Question 11

Fascists Press

Answer 11

Popolo d’italia - only 100,000 copies compared to Corriere della Sera 600,000.
Only 10% of all newspapers were fascist produced.
Subsidies for pro-fascist newspapers

Question 12

Aims of Fascist Propaganda

Answer 12

Celebrate Fascist Regime
Gain support for Mussolini’s policies
Turn italians into ‘true’ fascists
Promote Anicient Rome
Unite Italy
Uphold Cult of il Duce

Question 13

Examples of Propaganda

Answer 13

1937 - Augustus Caesar’s 2,000th anniversary celebration - 1,000,000 attendees
1934+38 - Italy win world cup
1933-35 - Carnera (italian) world boxing champion

Cult of il Duce = 30 million pics of Mussolini

Question 14

Failures of Propaganda

Answer 14

Ministry of Pop Culture - only est. 1935, ineffecient
South lacked mass media - difficulties uniting Italy
Struggled to gain support for Fascism

Question 15

What was the Cult of il Duce ?

Answer 15

Propaganda campaign
Potrayed Mussolini as a leader of immense ability, leading Italy to greatness
‘Mussolini is always right’
30 million pictures of Mussolini were circulated
Mussolinism had greater support than Fascism
Support peaked in 1936

Question 16

Fascist Cultural Policy

Answer 16

1925-26 - Policies for artists + intellectuals
All art should serve the goals of the state / sustain myths
National Institute of Fascist Culture (1926)
PNF funded Italian film-making
Exhibition of the Fascist Revolution (1932) - 4 million attendees
Fascist Buildings = Neo-Classical Roman style
Popular films glorified fascism - eg. ‘The siege of Alcazar’ (1940)
87% of all box-office taking were due to showing hollywood films.

Question 17

Fascist Repression Policies

Answer 17

1926 - banned all other political parties
Death penalty reintroduced - treason (King + Mussolini)
Special tribunals could send political dissidents into exile, usually in the south - known as confino.
Political police divisions - 1926 - Bocchini
Secret police (OVRA) - 1927 - Bocchini
Italian Mail was examined / phone calls monitored by the Special Reserve Service

Question 18

Fascist Repression Effects

Answer 18

Bocchini held files on 130,000 Italians
c. 5000 informers in Italy
OVRA spies infiltrated Uni, Business + fascist unions
Special tribunals = 13,000 cases prosecuted
10,000 sent into confino
Hundreds arrested weekly for anti-fascist behaviour
Socialist / Communist leaders left Italy, often Paris
Only 9 death penalties prior to WW2.

Question 19

Anti-Semetic Decrees

Answer 19

c. 45,000 Jews (<1% of the population)
Mussolini had a jewish mistress + appointed Jewish finance minister (1932)
1938 - Jews could not marry ‘pure’ Italians, hold public office jobs, hold more than 50 acres, run a business with more than 100 employees.
Foreign Jews were deported
1938-41 - 6,000 jews left Italy
Jewish children expelled from schools lewish lecturers dismissed

Question 20

Reasons for Anti-Semetism

Answer 20

Rise of Nazis
M believed harsh punishment of jews would help create a militaristic, radicalised Italy
Mirrors the totalitarian state of Nazi Germany
Italians needed to develop their ideas of ‘racial superiority’
Part of the reform of customs
Antisemetism called for my Farinacci

Question 21

How did the fascists limit the power of the King ?

Answer 21

Threatened to replace him with Duke of Aosta (1922)
1928 - limited king’s ability to nominate future PM + royal successor.
1938 - Title of First Marshal of the Empire shared with Mussolini.
1940 - Mussolini takes complete control of the army.
The King played a subservient role to Mussolini - eg. did not oppose the anti-semetic decrees (1938)

But
The King retained the power to remove Mussolini

Question 22

Mussolini + Institutions

Answer 22

Judiciary - did not HAVE to join the PNF, many did
Army - Left independent, despite M as Min. of War, operations left to generals,
Civil Service - remained as existing people, some anti-fascists removed, highest state authority = prefect, conservative elites could be made podestas.

Question 23

How did Mussolini change the structure of Govt. ?

Answer 23

1925 - M = Head of Govt. = able to initate legislation / choose debate topics
1928 (MAY) - Parliament = 400 deputies elected by the Fascist Grand Council.
1928 (DEC) - Fascist Grand Council’s role was formalised as the most important legal body in the state.

Question 24

Role of Prefects

Answer 24

Organised Police
Ensuring Censorship
Suppression of Anti-Fascists
Reported to local fascist branches
Appointed by M - not always fascists but loyal to M’s goals
Appointed Podestas

Question 25

Why did squad violence continue until 1926

Answer 25

Farinacci (PNF Secretary - 1925-26) purged the PNF, however was a radical who encouraged squad violence.
In Oct 1925, fascist squads killed 8 liberals in Florence.
Squad violence was unpopular and harmed M’s political stability.

Question 26

How did M reduce squad violence 1925-6 ?

Answer 26

Purged the Florence Fascio
Dismissed Farinacci - replaced with Turati

Question 27

Mussolini + the PNF

Answer 27

Turati - mass explusion of older / radical fascists
50-60,000 removed from the party + 110,000 voluntarily left the PNF by 1929
Guiriati - oversaw the purge of 120,000 more.
800,000 new fascists joined the PNF
1933 - PNF membership became compulsory for all workers.

Question 28

Mussolini + Nationalists

Answer 28

ANI merge with PNF in 1923
Federzoni (former ANI) - Min. of Interior -1924
ANI memebers tended to follow PNF policy, more so than radical PNF members
Much of Mussolini’s aggressive nationalistic foreign policy was due to the influnce of ex-ANI members.