On April 27, 1945, Italian partisans captured Mussolini and his retinue, who had fled in a hurry.
The next day, April 28, 1945, Mussolini was shot at Mezzegra. His body was transported to Milan and hung upside down at a gas station in Piazza loreto.
Mussolini climbed from a small man to the pinnacle of power, and finally became the ruler of Italy for more than 20 years, he felt that he was Caesar, and he wanted to restore the glory of Rome in Italy.
The reality is harsh, Mussolini is not Caesar, Italy is not Rome.
Restless youth
Mussolini was born on July 29, 1883, in a village called Vídoja in northern Italy. His father was a blacksmith, but he was politically active, a socialist and an atheist. His mother, on the other hand, was a devout Catholic. Mussolini grew up in such a divided family environment, his enthusiasm for politics came from his father, and his obedient personality was likely influenced by his mother.
Mussolini's full name is Benito Amircaré Andrea Mussolini. His name contains his father's homage to revolutionaries. Benito was taken from Mexican President Benito Juarez, who rebelled against the Mexican Emperor, while Amicar and Andrea paid tribute to two outstanding local socialists, Amicar Cipljani and Andrea Costa, both of whom were key figures in the development of socialism in Italy and both of whom were radical pragmatists. Mussolini's name seems to imply that he will not be lonely after that, and will stir up the path of life.
At the age of 9, Mussolini was sent to a church to study. The school has 200 students, but the age span is very large, the youngest is only 6 years old, the oldest is 20 years old.
Mussolini had a bad time at the school, having "struggled two years among Catholic priests". He didn't like religion, but the influence of religion was everywhere. And here, Mussolini is classified in the lowest third class, and Mussolini is "humiliated" in terms of class accommodation and food arrangements.
Mussolini is not a rebellious person, he naturally wants to rebel. In a fight with a classmate, he used a knife to cut the arm of the classmate. A priest thunderously scolded him, "Your soul is as black as coal."
After this incident, Mussolini was transferred to another public school. In this school, Mussolini was a success. Here he got his first chance to be famous in front of the public.
In 1901, Mussolini represented the school to attend a commemorative event. During this speech, Mussolini's eloquence won so much applause that the socialist's organ newspaper, The Forward, called him "Student Comrade Mussolini."
Mussolini became increasingly interested in politics and continued to give speeches. Mussolini's political position at the time was undoubtedly that of his father, close to socialism. So much so that his classmates called him a "Socialist."
Mussolini, who graduated from high school, is young, intelligent, and ambitious, is not accustomed to many things in the world, and his heart is always full of anger.
Mussolini, who left school, worked as a primary school teacher for a while, but the position was clearly not enough to satisfy the young man. He spends most of his time drinking and finding women. Mussolini soon lost his teaching job because of his affair with a married woman.
Mussolini, who did not want to be a teacher, simply left Italy and went to Switzerland. In Switzerland, Mussolini met Zanini, the secretary of the Swiss branch of the Italian Socialist Party, and became a Socialist. He wrote for the newspaper The Future of the Laborer and was passionate about anarchist activities, which can be seen as the beginning of Mussolini's political career.
Mussolini was very active among the Italian immigrants in Switzerland, he was firmly opposed to reformism within the Religious and Socialist Party, and he became a prominent figure in the Swiss branch of the Italian Socialist Party.
In 1904, he engaged in a heated public debate with a Protestant pastor. After his speech, Mussolini also jumped on the table and asked God to appear to punish himself.
In 1908, Mussolini became the head of the Socialist Party publication File in the Onellia region of Italy. From this point on, Mussolini established himself the political goal of seizing greater power. In an article commemorating the 25th anniversary of Marx's death, he said that a class will never give up its privileges unless it is compelled to do so.
The son of a former blacksmith, the young man of the town, Benito Amircaré Andrea Mussolini, began his quest for power.
The road to power
The war became a turning point in Mussolini's life, and Mussolini constantly jumped on the question of support or opposition to the battlefield, but each time grabbed the greatest benefit for himself.
In September 1910, Italy invaded Libya. There was an anti-war movement in Italy, and Mussolini was particularly active in this anti-war movement, becoming the "anti-war hero" in people's hearts, which also allowed him to rapidly improve his leadership position in the Socialist Party.
When World War I broke out, Mussolini first supported the anti-war, but soon he changed his position and turned to italy in favor of the war.
Using his position as editor-in-chief of The Forward, he published an article in the newspaper Forward, the organ of the Italian Socialist Party, "From Absolute Neutrality to Active Neutrality." The article openly contradicted the Socialist Central Committee, in which Mussolini attacked the Socialist Party's policies as "comfortable and negativity", mussolini arguing that the rest of Europe had entered the war and that it would be ridiculous for Italy to stay out of it. Mussolini said that "a political party, if it wants to make history famous, or to make history when circumstances permit, it cannot allow itself to be bound by policies derived from indisputable dogmas or eternal rules."
A month after the article was published, Mussolini was expelled from the Socialist Party. Expelled from the Socialist Party, Mussolini became more active. He gave speeches everywhere, encouraging all strata of Italy to unite to fight the war, openly demanding the immediate introduction of a dictatorship and the establishment of a strong government.
After the end of the First World War, although Italy was the victorious power, italy's economy almost collapsed, domestic contradictions were rife, and the people complained. The Italian government at the time was helpless to come up with an effective solution.
In March 1919, Mussolini took advantage of the dissatisfaction with the Treaty of Versailles and the fear of the October Revolution to rally a large number of veterans and form the "Fighting Fascists". The "fighting fascists" soon had more than 100 local branches in Italy, totaling more than 9,000 people, and most importantly they were armed. Instigated by Mussolini, fascist members across Italy began to attack the Socialist Party and the left. Mussolini finally tore off his disguise and used the fascist forces as a lever for his further seizure of power.
In May 1921, Mussolini and 35 other fascist members were elected to the Parliament, and Mussolini began to enter the Italian state power circle. By November, Mussolini had embarked on a radical reform and reorganization of fascism, reorganizing the previously loose organization into the "National Fascist Party.". Making it more rigorous and organized, Mussolini became the leader of the party. Under Mussolini's painstaking arrangement, this nascent party exuded a strong militarist ideology from the inside out. Mussolini's ambitions were further inflated, and the parliamentarians could no longer satisfy his ambitions.
Mussolini wanted the supreme power of the state, and he wanted to be Caesar.
Mussolini first attacked the left and the trade unions, and under his instructions, fascist militants everywhere attacked the local authorities and the left-wing masses, while the Italian military and police stood idly by and even went directly to help the fascists.
By 1922, Mussolini's National Fascist Party had grown to more than 300,000 people. Mussolini and his fascist party were able to grow rapidly in Italy for a reason.
Italy is a "poor imperialism", its national strength is already fragile, and after the First World War, the economic situation is even more fragile, and the whole of Italy is in turmoil. The bourgeois government of the time did not have any effective means to deal with the crisis. Workers and peasants were confused about the future, and Mussolini keenly grasped this. He declared an 8-hour working day, a share of the company for workers, land for peasants, and a lower voter age. Mussolini's rhetoric deceived the support of the workers and peasants, which also built a mass base for Mussolini.
In the face of domestic turmoil, the Italian bourgeois forces are not satisfied with the weakness of the current government, they are eager to establish a "strong government capable of ensuring social order", and Mussolini's series of statements just meet their demands.
After World War I, although Italy was a victorious power, Italy's demands at the Paris Peace Conference were not met. The news came back home, and Italy was very dissatisfied with it. "The resulting disappointment and hurt self-esteem create a situation of imminent eruption", and nationalism is at an all-time high in Italy. Mussolini proposed "either amending the Treaty of Versailles or waging a new war". Ostensibly Italy's rising nationalism, it secretly provided a hotbed for fascism to grow rapidly, and became the emotional basis for Mussolini to come to power.
The Kingdom and Government of Italy at that time were weak and adopted a laissez-faire mentality towards Mussolini and the fascist movement. This made Mussolini even more fearless. On November 7, 1921, the Fascist Party held its Third National Congress in Rome and adopted a programme for the establishment of a fascist regime. Mussolini reorganized the fascist combat brigades into regiments and established a chain of command according to the region.
In May 1922, the fascists began a full-scale seizure of power, to which the Italian government was slow to respond. Seeing that the seizure of power at the local level was quite smooth, Mussolini let go of his hands and feet and prepared to do a big job. He publicly declared at a rally in Naples that "if we are not allowed to take power, we will march on Rome"
At the end of October, Mussolini ordered the Fascists to march on Rome in four directions. On 29 October, the King of Italy asked Mussolini to form a cabinet. Mussolini became prime minister that night, with 10 ministers in his own right, half of the cabinet seats controlled by the fascist party.
Mussolini was 39 years old and Hitler was 33 years old. Mussolini's successful seizure of power inspired Hitler, who was far away in Germany, and he decided to regard Mussolini as his spiritual idol and wanted to engage in a "march to Berlin".
Mussolini has finally reached the pinnacle of Italian state power, and he will rule Italy for 21 years. Mussolini was ambitious, and he was ready to lead Italy to expand outwards to achieve what he called glory.
But it will be a long time before the Italians know that the man on the stage is not Caesar, and Italy is not Rome. They will eventually lose in the face of reality, and the price will be their own.
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