Zusammenfassung der Ressource
To what extent was Mussolini in
control of Italy by 1928?
- Society and
Leisure
- Dopolavoro - controlled leisure
activities, influenced workers towards a
Fascist way of life; soccer clubs, 1,350
theatres, 2,000 dramatic societies
- OND - national after work group, aimed
to raise living standards and aimed to
'brainwash' Italians - set up on Labour
day in order to rival socialists
- controlled the Ministry of
Economics until 1927
- It had a lot of control -
300,000 members in the
first year and 4,000,000
by 1939
- They didn't focus too much
on Fascist ideology
- Attempts to control
behaviour didn't work -
greeting wasn't changed
- Personal Rule
- Mussolini made laws
by decree
- the King lost the right to
select the Prime Minister
- Mussolini purged people who
disagreed with him out of the
Fascist Party - or sent them away
e.g. Italo Balbo was sent to Libya
- the Fascist Grand
Council was created -
later replaced the Cabinet
- Officials were promoted to
high positions - people
joined the Fascist Party to
get better careers
- Mussolini controlled the judges by
blackmailing them into being
sympathetic towards Fascism
- The King was still able to sack
Mussolini - he didn't until 1943
- People were suspicious
towards the government
- People in the South didn't
understand messages from Rome -
illiteracy was still a problem
- Removal of
Opposition
- They had prison
camps on islands
- People were arrested with
charges of conspiracy
- Censorship - anti-Fascist
propaganda was treason,
journalists had to register
with the government
- OVRA - secret police,
2,000 actions weekly, had
informants and agents
- 10,000 people in
internal exile 'confino'
- 50,000 armed militia;
squadristi violence
reduced after 1925
- Comparison with Hitler and Stalin
- less prisoners than
Nazis (5,000 compared
to 100,000s)
- not systematic
- make opponents conform
instead of being brutal
- 400 killed by legal means
- didn't repress as much
as Stalin and Hitler
- Control of the
Media
- Mussolini was glorified
with photography and his
visual image
- Heavy censorship - mostly
done by newspaper editors
- LUCE - set up to produce
documentaries and newsreels
- The government
intervened with the film
industry - part of Autarky
policy
- Newspapers were
attacked by squaristi -
some journalists and
editors were arrested
- The only press agency
was run by a Fascist
- Fascist newspaper only had
10% of circulation
- The amount of official broadcasts
increased in the 1930s
- Propaganda and the
Cult of Personality
- Mussolini was portrayed as
heroic and fit (he wasn't)
- Most people were sceptical of the 'Cult of
Ducismo', but it did help to convince people
there was no alternative to Fascism
- Italians were told that
foreigners liked
Mussolini - they didn't
- Fascism and the
Catholic Church
- Improved relations
- Pope withdrew from politics
- Popoolari - Catholic party formed in 1923
- Lateran agreements - 1929
- Support for invasion of Ethiopia - 1936
- Catholicism recognised
as state religion
- Dsiputes over Catholic action
youth group (1931)
- Papal opposition to
anti-Semitism (1938)
- Fascism and
anti-Semitism
- 1938 - Italian Fascism
became closer to Nazi
Regime
- lots of members of
anti-Fascist group 'Justice
and Liberty' were Jewish
- July 1938 - Jews
declared as
non-Italians
- August 1938 - Jews
banned from state
schools
- October 1938 - banned
from Fascist Party
- November 1938 - banned from
marrying non-Jews - however
this law was inconsistent
- November 1943 -
7,500 Jews sent to
concentration camp