Abstract
Violence was a key factor in the Fascist conquest of power. It undercut the response of the forces opposing Fascism and at the same time created new alliances and fostered participation in and support for the Fascist political project. Although violence has always been a fundamental part of the historical narrative of the Fascist seizure of power in 1922, only in the last few years have historians actually focused their attention on its significance. Recent work has, for example, considered in greater detail how the experience of the First World War led to a brutalization of politics, how the repertoire of Fascist violence changed over time, and how this violence was decisive in the defeat of Fascism’s political enemies, both locally and nationally.1
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Notes
On the role of violence in Fascism, see Alberto Aquarone, “Violenza e consenso nel fascismo italiano,” Storia contemporanea 10, no. 1 (1979): 145–55;
Adrian Lyttelton, “Cause e caratteristiche della violenza fascista: Fattori costanti e fattori congiunturali,” Storia contemporanea 13 no. 6 (1982): 965–83;
Jens Petersen, “Il problema della violenza nel fascismo italiano,” Storia contemporanea 13 no. 6 (1982): 985–1007;
Marco Fincardi, “I riti della conquista,” in Regime e società civile a Reggio Emilia (Modena: Mucchi, 1987), 7–137;
Emilio Gentile, Storia del partito fascista 1919–1922: Movimento e milizia (Rome: Laterza, 1989);
Giulia Albanese, Alle origini del fascismo: La violenza politica a Venezia (Padova: Il Poligrafo, 2001);
Mimmo Franzinelli, Squadristi: Protagonisti e tecniche della violenza squadrista 1919–1922 (Milan: Mondadori, 2003);
MacGregor Knox, To the Threshold of Power 1922–33, vol. 1, Origins and Dynamics of the Fascist and National Socialist Dictatorship (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007);
Fabio Fabbri, Le origini della guerra civile: L’Italia dalla Grande Guerra al Fascismo, 1918–1921 (Turin: UTET, 2009); and
Sven Reichardt, Camicie nere, camicie brune: Milizie fasciste in Italia e in Germania, trans. Umberto Gandini (orig. 2002; Bologna: Il Mulino, 2009). Of course, violence formed a central part of anti-Fascist historiography on the origins of Fascism from the very beginning; see
Gaetano Salvemini, The Fascist Dictatorship in Italy: I. Origins and Practices (London: J. Cape, 1928), 60–238 and
Angelo Tasca, Nascita e avve nto del fascismo (1938; repr., Rome: Laterza, 1972). For a broader focus on Fascist violence, including the violence perpetrated by Fascists upon other Fascists and the meaning many of these episodes had within the internal politics of the Fascist Party; see, in particular,
Adrian Lyttelton, The Seizure of Power: Fascism in Italy 1919–1929 (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1973);
Renzo De Felice, Mussolini il fascista: La conquista del potere (1921–1925) (Turin: Einaudi, 1995), 413–49; and
Salvatore Lupo, Il fascismo: La politica in un regime totalitario (Rome: Donzelli, 2000), 154–66. The theme of intra-Fascist violence, although addressed in many contemporary interpretations, has been scantly researched until now and needs to be completely rethought. My article focuses on the effect of violence outside the party against anti-Fascists and non-Fascists.
Among the most recent studies, see Fabbri, Le origini della guerra civile, 32–38, 60–69, 81–96; Roberto Bianchi, Pace, pane, terra: Il 1919 in Italia (Rome: Odradek, 2006); and
Roberto Vivarelli, Storia delle origini del fascismo: L’Italia dalla Grande Guerra alla Marcia su Roma (Bologna: Il Mulino, 1991), 1: 436–89 and 1:491–587. The general context and meaning of Socialist violence has been clearly outlined by
Gaetano Arfé, Storia del socialismo italiano (1892–1926) (Turin: Einaudi, 1965), 205.
Gentile, Storia del partito fascista, 52–59; Vivarelli, Storia delle origini del fascismo, 1:160–92; Maria S. Piretti, Le elezioni politiche in Italia dal 1848 ad oggi (Rome: Laterza, 1996), 215–25.
See Knox, To the Threshold of Power, 310–11; Fabbri, Le origini della guerra civile, 245–47; Amerigo Apollonio, Dagli Asburgo a Mussolini 1918–1922 (Gorizia: Libreria Editrice Goriziana, 2001), esp. 279–312; and
Anna Maria Vinci, Sentinelle della patria: Il fascismo al confine orientale 1918–1941 (Rome: Laterza, 2011). On the importance of the Fascist movement in Trieste in 1920 in comparison with other regions, see
Marco Palla, “I fascisti toscani,” in Storia d’Italia. Le regioni dall’Unità ad oggi. La Toscana, ed. Giorgio Mori (Turin: Einaudi, 1986), 458–63.
Brunella Dalla Casa, “La Bologna di Palazzo d’Accursio,” in Gli italiani in guerra: Conflitti, identità, memorie dal Risorgimento ai giorni nostri, ed. Mario Isnenghi and Giulia Albanese, vol. 4, bk.1 Il Ventennio fascista: Dall’impresa di Fiume alla Seconda guerra mondiale (1919–1940) (Turin: UTET, 2008), 332–38;
Maria Malatesta, Il Resto del Carlino: Potere politico ed economico a Bologna dal 1885 al 1922 (Milan: Guanda, 1978), 328–34;
Nazario Sauro Onofri, La strage di Palazzo d’Accursio: Origine e nascita del fascismo bolognese 1919–1920 (Milan: Feltrinelli, 1980), 84–85;
Jonathan Dunnage, The Italian Police and the Rise of Fascism: A Case Study of the Province of Bologna 1897–1925 (London: Praeger, 1997), 104–8. More recently, Fabbri provided a new reconstruction of these events, demonstrating the responsibility of the questura, as well as the premeditation of the Fascists; see Fabbri, Le origini della guerra civile, 337–91. On the punitive expeditions, see Gentile, Storia del partito fascista, 158–62; Tasca, Nascita e avvento del fascismo, 163–94.
Beyond general studies on the origins of Fascism in Italy, see the classic monograph of Guido Neppi Modona, Sciopero, potere politico e magistratura 1870–1922 (Rome: Laterza, 1973), 250–73; and Marcello Saija, I prefetti italiani nella crisi dello Stato liberale (Milan: Giuffré, 2001). The importance of the relationship between the police and Fascism can be appreciated in the research on Bologna of Dunnage, The Italian Police and the Rise of Fascism. 9. On the changing balance of power in the Po Valley, see Pier Paolo D’Attorre, Novecento padano: Universo rurale ela “grande trasfor mazione” (Rome: Donzelli, 1998), esp. 18–65. On the change in local administrations during this period, see Fabbri, Le origini della guerra civile, 318–25; and Albanese, “L’occupazione delle amministrazioni pubbliche,” in Il Ventennio fascista, 318–24.
Fascismo: Inchiesta socialista sulle gesta dei fascisti in Italia (Milan: Società editrice L’Avanti!, 1921), 475. On the destruction of the leghe bianche, in particular between 1921 and 1922, see Mario G. Rossi, “La chiesa e le organizzazioni religiose,” in La Toscana nel regime fascista (1922–1939) (Florence: Olschki, 1971), 1:343–44.
On the growth of the Fascists’ ranks, see Fabbri, Le origini della guerra civile, 530–37. On the differentiated development of local Fascism, see in particular the two important articles by Marco Palla: “I fascisti toscani,” and Palla, “Il fascismo,” in L’Emilia Romagna. Storia d’Italia. Le regioni dall’Unità ad oggi, ed. Roberto Finzi (Turin: Einaudi, 1997), 579–96.
Andrea Baravelli, La vittoria smarrita: Legittimità e rappresentazioni della Grande Guerra nella crisi del sistema liberale (1919–1924) (Rome: Carocci, 2006), in particular 197–208.
Albanese, La marcia su Roma (Rome: Laterza, 2006), 110–28.
De Felice reflected on this very clearly in De Felice, Intervista sul fascismo, ed. Michael Leeden (1975; repr., Milan: Laterza-Mondadori, 1992), 38. See also
De Felice, Mussolini il Duce: Gli anni del consenso (1929–1936) (1974; repr., Turin: Einaudi, 1996), 3–18. which opens with these same problems. Recently Mauro Canali reflected on the development of historiography contesting this interpretation: see Canali, “Repressione e consenso nell’esperimento fascista,” in Modernità totalitaria: Il fascismo italiano, ed. Gentile (Rome: Laterza, 2008), 56–81.
On the PPI congress and the subsequent violence against the party, see the classic book of De Rosa, Il Partito popolare italiano (Bari: Laterza, 1958), 203–30.
On the debates and violence linked to the Acerbo law, see De Rosa, Il Partito popolare, 246–53; Lyttelton, The Seizure of Power, 121–35; and Giovanni Sabbatucci, “Il ‘suicidio’ della classe dirigente liberale: La legge Acerbo 1923–24,” Italia contemporanea 174 (1989): 57–80.
See Mauro Forno, La stampa del ventennio: Strutture e trasformazioni nello Stato totalitario (Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino, 2005), 15–26. On the press during the origins of the regime, see also
Brunello Vigezzi, ed., 1919–1925. Dopoguerra e fascismo. Politica e stampa in Italia (Bari: Laterza, 1965); and
Nicola Tranfaglia, “La stampa quotidiana e l’avvento del regime (1922–1925),” in La stampa italiana nell’età fascista, ed. Nicola Tranfaglia, Massimo Legnani, and Paolo Murialdi (Rome: Laterza, 1980), 1–18.
Ibid. On Amendola in this period, see also Antonio Sarubbi, Il “mondo” di Amendola e Cianca e il crollo delle istituzioni liberali 1922–26 (Milan: Franco Angeli, 1998).
Giovanni Sale, Fascismo e Vaticano prima della Conciliazione (Milan: Jaca Books, 2007), 122.
On the murder see Mauro Canali, “The Matteotti Murder and the Origins of Mussolini’s Totalitarian Fascist Regime in Italy,” Journal of Modern Italian Studies 14, no. 2 (2009): 143–67; and
Mauro Canali, Il delitto Matteotti: Affarismo e politica nel primo governo Mussolini (Bologna: Il Mulino, 1997). See also De Felice, Mussolini il fascista, 619–730.
Roberto Cantagalli, Storia del fascismo fiorentino 1919–1925 (Florence: Vallec chi, 1972), 409–16; De Felice, Mussolini il fascista, 715–16.
An important analysis of Mussolini’s speech of January 3, 1925 can be found in Barbara Spackman, Fascist Virilities: Rhetoric, Ideology, and Social Fantasy in Italy (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996), 134–43.
On the role of Tacchi Venturi, see Francesco Margiotta Broglio, Italia e Santa Sede dalla Grande Guerra alla conciliazione (Bari: Laterza, 1966), 110. See also Vatican Secret Archives, Affari Ecclesiastici Straordinari (AES), Italia, 4 Periodo, pos. 630a, fasc. 63.
Roberto Pertici, Chiesa e Stato in Italia: Dalla Grande Guerra al nuovo Concordato (1914–1984) (Bologna: Senato della Repubblica–Il Mulino, 2009), 107. His is also the quotation in the previous line. See also Sale, Fascismo e Vaticano, 71.
See Arturo Carlo Jemolo, Chiesa e Stato in Italia: Dalla unificazione ai giorni nostri (1955; repr., Turin: Einaudi, 1977), 221.
See Ornella Stevellato, “La nascita dell’Opera nazionale Balilla,” Mondo contemporaneo 5, no. 2 (2009): 5–81. The conciliation and the first negotiations between the Italian state and Catholic Church have been the object of much research; among the most complete accounts are Pertici, Chiesa e Stato in Italia; Jemolo, Chiesa e Stato in Italia;
Pietro Scoppola, ed., Chiesa e Stato nella storia d’Italia: Storia documentaria dall’Unità alla Repubblica (Bari: Laterza, 1967), 555–663; and Broglio, Italia e Santa Sede. See also Sale, Fascismo e Vaticano, 212–21.
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© 2012 Giulia Albanese and Roberta Pergher
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Albanese, G. (2012). Violence and Political Participation during the Rise of Fascism (1919–1926). In: Albanese, G., Pergher, R. (eds) In the Society of Fascists. Italian and Italian American Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230392939_3
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