Fascism Research Articles

Men and boys from the Ilirska Bistrica area in Italian military uniform

Between 1922 and 1943, after the Treaty of Rapallo came into force, men enlisted in the Italian armed forces and boys forcibly incorporated into special battalions of the Italian army left the Ilirska Bistrica area as Italian citizens, joining the military structures of a state that was not their homeland. Having their names Italianized and coming from an environment that the fascist regime had stripped of its national identity, they risked their lives for the military interests of the Kingdom of Italy. The contribution sets forth selected topics, focusing on conscripts deserting in 1935, before and after the war in Ethiopia, on survivors’ personal experiences during the interwar period and the Second World War as well as on dead and missing soldiers and war captives. The author draws primarily on Italian archival sources, victimology sources, and oral sources obtained through conducting field research. To avoid generalizations, the article aims to highlight the different dimensions of enlistments and personalize the narrative by using the concrete names of deserters and dead soldiers as well as survivors’ testimonies.

Sociocultural Context, Reference Scholars and Contradictions in the Origin and Development of Sociology in Italy

AbstractThe beginnings of sociology in Italy correspond more or less to those of the birth of sociology as an autonomous science in France by Durkheim (considered the founding father of the discipline except for the term that, as is well known, was coined by Comte). Its origins, therefore, can be traced back to the second half of the 19th century and its development substantially follows the socio-political development of Italy, which can be substantially divided into three historical phases (the Savoy monarchy between 1861 and 1922; the authoritarian fascist regime with totalitarian characteristics between 1922 and 1943, and the period of the democratic republic from 1946 onwards can be considered as the “rebirth” not only of Italy but also of sociology). This article aims to outline these phases through an in-depth examination of some of the Italian sociologists who, in the different phases (up to our contemporary times), have had greater relevance and influence, even outside the Italian context.

Popular culture and totalitarianism: Accounting for propaganda in Italy under the Fascist regime (1934–1945)

Throughout history both democratic and totalitarian States have sought to take advantage of the possible political contributions of art and culture. This study presents the first in-depth historical study of the relationship between accounting and culture in a totalitarian State; the Fascist State in Italy between 1934 and 1945. Accounting documents in the form of budgets and reports provided by the Fascist government, along with other accounts prepared by the Fascists, were used to build a narrative that identified the ways in which the Fascist regime sought to win the committed allegiance of the Italian people in unseen ways. Accounting documents and the cultural activities to which they relate show the ways in which the Fascists developed their own conception of popular culture and sought control of cultural organisations and intellectuals in spreading their values and beliefs through cultural artefacts. The study documents the importance of accounting records as a less obvious, often underscored source for social history. It also adds to the growing literature that has explored the place of accounting in totalitarian regimes by focusing on the unexplored context of Fascist popular culture and identifying the contributions of accounting to the management of propaganda activities.

Fascist Cultural Diplomacy and Italian Foreign Policy in Norway from the 1930s until the Second World War

This article aims to highlight the diplomatic relations between Italy and Norway during the fascist period, until the regime collapsed at the end of the Second World War. In particular, the paper seeks to reconstruct the main features of Mussolini’s foreign policy, how it was perceived in Norway, how and how the propaganda machine of the Italian authorities tried to influence the image of fascism in Norway. The analysis of the relations between these two states will follow the constraints of foreign policy, which was characterized by alternating phases of openness and secrecy. Consequently, rather than a single phase, there were many stages in the diplomatic relations between the two countries. Cultural diplomacy played a significant role in the two countries’ relations; these included numerous events and trips to Italy, organized by the fascist regime, for Norwegian intellectuals. These served to overcome the geographical distance, and showed a new face for Italy, which was more cultured and linked to its cultural heritage.

The Gentile Reform of 1923 and Italian Higher Education

This article focuses on how Italian higher education was organized and managed in the early years of fascism. The main reasons why the fascist government of Italy initiated a national educational reform in 1923 are considered. The objective problems in education that Italian society faced during this period are analyzed. Special attention is given to the ideological goals that Giovanni Gentile, the Minister of Education, pursued with this reform. The reform led to fundamental changes in the traditional educational system of the Kingdom of Italy. Some radical innovations were also spurred in its higher education, such as the division of universities into different types (depending on state funding), the enhancement of the role of the rector in university life, the valorization of humanities education over that in technical and natural sciences, etc. The Gentile reform was received with mixed feelings by Italian society, including part of the leadership of the fascist party. The contradictions inherent in the reform ideology affected its results. The attempt to improve the quality of university education by standardizing academic requirements and introducing a system of uniform state examinations, contrary to the idealistic goals declared by G. Gentile himself, was the first step toward greater interference by the fascist regime in university activities, reflecting the general trend to the establishment of full state control over society.

How the Croatian Elites Switched over from the Habsburg Empire to the South Slav Kingdom in a Drunken Night in November 1918

AbstractIn his slightly fictionalized autobiographical essay A Drunken November Night 1918 (written in 1942, first published in 1952), Miroslav Krleža attempts to reconstruct a scandal to whose creation he himself contributed to a large extent. In November 1918, in the interregnum from the collapse of the Habsburg monarchy to the foundation of the South Slav kingdom, the then young author felt compelled at a reception held in Zagreb in honor of the Serbian officers to protest loudly against the speech of the former high Habsburg officer Slavko Kvaternik. The scandal retrospectively reinforced Krleža's conviction of the misery of the contemporary Croatian elite, a circumstance whose reasons, in his opinion, lay not only in political opportunism and moral corruption, but also in unreflected utopianism and the underlying political naivety. His hope that after the dissolution of the compromised Habsburg rule the South Slav peoples could advance towards national and social emancipation was soon replaced by the sober insight that imperial Austro-Hungary was followed by a small-sized, Serb dominated post-imperial structure. By describing the period when the text was written, the Second World War and the Ustashe reign of terror in contemporary Croatia, and in doing so particularly referring to the conversion of many former Habsburg officers to the side of fascist movements, Krleža also emphatically reveals his own conception of history, according to which historical events appear to be an eternal recurrence in which human stupidity is coupled with an excessive use of power and violence.

Loss of place, loss of self: musical heterotopias in Franco’s prisons (1938–1945)

ABSTRACT At the end of the Spanish Civil War, the Fascist Government led by General Franco implemented a regime of extensive suppression over the population. As a result, prisons became overcrowded with thousands of political opponents. From 1938—a year before the end of the armed conflict—to 1943, musical practices were considered a crucial component of the propaganda programmes implemented in prisons to control and re-educate the inmates. In response to this official sonic environment, prisoners also cultivated their own musical practices as a means of preserving their self-identities. The initial section of the article offers a brief overview of the living conditions experienced in Spanish prisons during Franco’s regime. In the subsequent part, I delve into the significance of the unofficial musical practices developed by detainees, examining their relationship to concepts such as space, place, heterotopia, and the ‘construction of the self’. Due to the state’s ability to exert epistemic violence by suppressing individuals and groups’ capacity to speak or be heard, these unofficial musical practices can be regarded as cultural artefacts that emerged as a means of resistance against the propaganda enforced by the Franco government.

The Price of Isolation: Fascism, Vichy and the Holocaust in French History

The historiographical debate about France during the Second World War has long been dominated by two foreign historians. On the one hand, the Israeli intellectual Zeev Sternhell notoriously placed the origin of fascism in France's Belle Epoque and saw Vichy France as the paradigmatic example of a fascist regime in his book,Neither Right nor Left, four decades ago. Year after year, Sternhell, who had studied in Paris, made criticisms of the Parisian intellectual milieu and denounced its egocentrism and provincialism. On the other hand, American historian Robert Paxton reigned over the history of French collaboration with Nazi Germany. Although it raised certain controversies when it was translated into French in 1973, hisVichy Francehas been since accepted as the key reference on the subject, as well as an indispensable pedagogical tool against apologetic views of Marshall Pétain's regime, which enjoy periodic revivals in the country. Despite their age – Sternhell died in 2020 and Paxton is ninety years old – these two historians have remained the unavoidable cornerstones in the discussion on French attitudes during the Second World War – the first as a competitor, the second as a paternal figure.

The role of land use and land cover changes in triggering soil losses in the SE Alentejo, Portugal

AbstractThis study analyses and interprets the effects of historical and contemporary land use and cover changes (LULC) on soil erosion in the Serra de Mértola region, Portugal, by using the 58 years of measurements in 8 × 22 m erosion plots at the Vale Formoso Erosion Centre and employing methodologies including field observations, aerial image analysis and Landsat NDVI trend assessment. Land cover and management changes, influenced by agricultural policies since the early 20th century, notably during the wheat campaigns of the fascist regime, have exacerbated soil erosion, with the highest rates observed in vertical fallow (964 g m−2 yr−1), wheat (90 g m−2 yr−1) and horizontal fallow (66 g m−2 yr−1). These practices continue to be somewhat relevant today, as cereal production is still being subsidized. However, Quercus, Pines—introduced since agrarian reforms and Portugal's entry into the common agricultural policy (CAP)—and spontaneous vegetation from CAP's set‐aside policies and recent land abandonment trends show lower erosion rates, underlining vegetation's role in erosion protection. Using NDVI trend analysis, we distinguish between natural fluctuations and land cover changes impacts. Understanding these changes and how they relate to slope and valley floor dynamics, such as incision, aggradation or stabilization, is crucial for recognizing human influences on the earth's surface. Our research highlights sustainable land management's role in reducing soil erosion in desertification‐prone areas.

A Study On Japanese Mingei’s Birth In Taisho Era And Alienation In Showa Era

Yanagi Sōetsu put forward the word "Mingei (Folk Craft)" in 1925 and jointly published the "Purport Book on the Establishment of Japan Mingei Museum" with Tomimoto Kenkichi, Kawai Kanjiro, and Hamada Shoji the following year, so as to launch Japan’s "Mingei movement". Some scholars have noticed that during World War II, Mingei was related to "life culture" with fascist ideology, and there was a historical phenomenon that Mingei served politics. This paper attempts to interpret the first-hand texts of Yanagi Sōetsu, Kunio Kishida, and Kiyoshi Miki, discuss how Mingei with a "healthy" original intention came into being, and how it gradually became a tool for Japanese fascist aggression and expansion. Mingei originated in the period of "Taisho Democracy," with a strong left-wing flavor in Japanese history. It contains a beautiful vision of making society "healthy". It has gained influence with the support of elites, and the Mingei movement has progressed well in rural and urban society. Later, Mingei gradually attracted the attention of the Showa fascist government and was absorbed by the concept of "life culture" advocated by the new system in 1940, which was alienated and became a tool for the mobilization of the Japanese fascist war.

The Italian Olimpiadi Universitarie of 1922: at the origins of the Fascist ideology of sport

AbstractUniversity sport was less developed in Italy than in other European countries in the first decades of the twentieth century. Nevertheless, in April 1922, students from the University of Rome organised a national multi-sport event, which they called the Olimpiadi Universitarie (University Olympic Games). Many eminent figures of the ruling class supported the initiative and thousands of undergraduates participated in the competitions. The Olimpiadi Universitarie also had an important international impact and facilitated the establishment of the International University Games, which were held from 1924 to 1939. The Olimpiadi Universitarie were based on a patriotic-educational concept of sport and played a significant role in spreading physical activities in Italian universities. Additionally, they promoted the idea of sport that in the following years would be accepted by the Fascist regime. The regime developed university sport enormously, but replaced the autonomous initiative of students with control from above.

Pandemic preparedness and the road to international fascism

AbstractThe World Health Organization's broad definition of health embraces physical, mental and social well‐being. Expressed in its 1946 constitution alongside concepts of community participation and national sovereignty, it reflected an understanding of a world emerging from centuries of colonialist oppression and the public health industry's shameful facilitation of fascism. Health policy would be people‐centered, closely tied to human rights and self‐determination. The COVID‐19 response has demonstrated how these ideals have been undone. Decades of increasing funding within public‐private partnerships have corroded the basis of global public health. The COVID‐19 response, intended for a virus that overwhelmingly targeted the elderly, ignored norms of epidemic management and human rights to institute a regime of suppression, censorship, and coercion reminiscent of the power systems and governance that were previously condemned. Without pausing to examine the costs, the public health industry is developing international instruments and processes that will entrench these destructive practices in international law. Public health, presented as a series of health emergencies, is being used once again to facilitate a fascist approach to societal management. The beneficiaries will be the corporations and investors whom the COVID‐19 response served well. Human rights and individual freedom, as under previous fascist regimes, will lose. The public health industry must urgently awaken to the changing world in which it works, if it is to adopt a role in saving public health rather than contributing to its degradation.

Calcio, antifascismo e resistenza in Italia

At the beginning of the twentieth century the attitude of the Socialist Party towards football wash hostile but after the publication of the famous article by Antonio Gramsci “Il football e lo scopone” (1918), the Left directed its criticism at the political exploitation the fascist Regime made of football. This led to many valuable players participating in the Resistance movement. Among them: Antonio Bacchetti, Bruno Ballacci, Dino Ballacci, Severino Feruglio, etc.

The monarchy and the Fascist regime in Italy

ABSTRACT Controversy has long surrounded the complex relationship between King Victor Emmanuel III and the dictator Benito Mussolini in Fascist Italy. It is clear that the king played decisive roles in bringing Mussolini to power in 1922 and in removing him in 1943. In between, the two coexisted as Italy became a ‘dyarchy’, with two foci of power. The presence of the monarchy at once checked Fascist radicalism and persuaded many conservatives to adhere to the regime. Thanks especially to the monarchy, the innovative thrust of Fascism was channelled in certain delimited directions, toward a statist economy, for example. Still, the relationship between the crown and Mussolini was often rocky, though the king’s reluctance did not prevent alliance with Nazi Germany, anti-Semitism, and war. Tensions were largely papered over by rhetoric and myth-making, as if the elements of Fascism fit together neatly. Despite his opposition to certain particulars, Victor Emmanuel identified with the overall Fascist project to some extent, and he worried that outright opposition to the regime would jeopardize the monarchy. But as the Second World War went badly for Italy, the king finally deposed Mussolini. Nevertheless, Italy soon voted to eliminate the monarchy, discredited by its association with fascism.

Sustainable Development, Globalization, Non-antagonistic Development, Philosophical Environmentalism and Endangered Democracy

In this paper, one discusses the conditions favourable for sustainable development, limitations of it in the social reality and the sense of implementing it everywhere. The author points out that sustainable development has always taken place in nature thanks to the mechanisms of self-regulation and the laws of nature. However, what is new is the idea of sustainable development in the social reality. Balancing inequalities to the end, i.e. until the state of permanent equilibrium of social systems is achieved, leads to stagnation. Because the source of sustainable development is throwing off equilibrium, and stabilization kills development. He also indicates that the idea of sustainable development was not born out of ecological, but economic reasons, and still serves mainly economic, not ecological purposes. It works best in the sphere of the economy. Nevertheless, it is implemented everywhere with a better or worse result, because the world fashion for sustainable development and its mythologization has prevailed. One sees in it a panacea for all social problems. In fact, it is a tool of self-regulation in social systems that ensure the survival of them. There is a feedback loop between sustainable development and globalization. Sustainable development contributes to globalization, and globalization promotes sustainable development. However, only until one reaches some critical moment. Then, globalization begins to hinder sustainable development and eventually makes it unfeasible. The condition for the implementation of sustainable development is the freedom provided by the democratic system. Therefore, it works best in a liberal democracy. Unfortunately, this democracy is already collapsing. It has taken on a caricature form that makes difficult for people to live and for governments to exercise power. Therefore, one replaces it by totalitarian or fascist regimes, which for different reasons gives greater hope for a better functioning of the state. However, totalitarianism limits freedom significantly and fascism, in addition, raises legitimate fear due to negative historical experiences. There is no place for sustainable development in these regimes. That is why many researchers and politicians want to stop fascism and bring about sanitation of democracy with New Enlightenment, New Metanoia, and New Humanism. In such way, they want to enable further sustainable development.

The Italian Neo-Idealists and Federigo Enriques

The controversy that between 1908 and 1912 saw Benedetto Croce and Giovanni Gentile opposed on one side and Federigo Enriques on the other did not actually have a conclusive episode, but its end was perceived, for its results on culture, on society and teaching in Italy, as a "defeat" of Enriques. A more careful examination of the events and of the historical context in which it took place seems, however, to clearly demonstrate that we can speak not of a personal defeat of the great mathematician from Livorno, but rather of a defeat of the commendable attempts at cultural and social modernization of Italy in an international perspective, of which Enriques was not the only actor but certainly the most exposed. Such intentions were crushed by the myopic provincial conservatism of Italian neo-idealism, favored by the fascist regime, concerned only with affirming in the world an alleged autarkic national cultural superiority, based on the traditional literary-humanistic culture, ignoring the progress of the new technical-scientific thought, due to its nature instead placed in an international context.

Giampaolo Pansa and his contribution to the collective memory of Italians

The article examines the contribution of the Italian journalist and historian Giampaolo Pansa to the Italian collective memory. The definition of the concept of "collective trauma", as well as "structural violence" is given. The work also deals with the consequences of the fascist regime on Italian identity, expressed in cultural trauma. A historiographical review of two books by J. Pansa, who made a great impression on the Italians, as he was the first to decide to tell about the mutual two-sided arbitrariness of winners and losers that took place in Italy during the civil War of 1943–1945. For a long time it was forbidden to talk about this conflict in Italy about what the traumatized consciousness did not allow to remember. The silence that Italy was struck by eventually played a bad role for the Italians. Having abruptly left the fascist worldview, having abruptly changed their identity from totalitarian to democratic, the Italians were afraid to work through this trauma, not wanting to remember the lynching and arbitrariness committed by many of those who were considered and rightfully considered heroes. Moreover, many families who were associated with fascism or simply adhered to these views were afraid to talk about them because of the risk of retaliation.

Sguardo sul mondo della Fiera Letteraria

"La Fiera Letteraria" is one of the most popular literary journals of the fascist era. It is not addressed to specialists or professional readers. It has a very eclectic setting. It gives place to different tendencies. It offers a wide and various limelight of the literary landscape. “La Fiera” tends to inform more than to form, to represent rather than elaborate. It is mainly a gazette, a chronicle of what moves and happens in the literary world, reflecting all different positions. This paper investigates the link between “La fiera” and the fascist regime, starting at that time its cultural politics. This was based on the role that intellectuals could play as creators and diffusers of a popular Italian culture, both at home and abroad, through journal, conferences, expositions and all sorts of cultural events. This policy was driven by a dual mission: the internal conquest (the creation of a new fascist Italian); the external conquest, also called "spiritual imperialism" (the use of myths and ideas, disseminated abroad, to promote Italian cultural identity, interests, influence, and hegemony). This involved the problem of the relationship between the Italian and the world culture, a huge topic that fell fully within the perimeter beaten by the "Fiera", which was very attentive to various foreign cultures, particularly to literature.

We Will Set You Free: Representations of the ‘Antislavery Argument’ in British and Italian Missionary Films (1925–1939)

ABSTRACT By comparing two missionary films, the British Livingstone (1925) and the Italian Abuna Messias (1939), this study identifies a striking similarity and some differences between the British and the Italian colonial agendas. These two visual narratives are distant in time and belong to two different imperial histories and imaginations; however, one scene in the earlier British film is reproduced almost identically in the later Italian one. This study argues that the shared content underlines not only the Italian fascist government’s political aim to explain colonialism and warfare with the justification of fighting human trafficking, but also the intent to create an image of anti-slavery struggle on the British model. This work sheds new light on how Abuna Messias furthered the role of the Catholic Church and the missionary agenda in Italian fascist colonialism.

Imperial Remnants of a Contested Alpine Border Region: Encountering Bolzano’s Ambiguous Monuments

Italian cities are full of public inscriptions and monuments that praise not only fascism but also its brutal expansionist wars. This situation is especially true in Bolzano, the capital of a formerly contested border region in the north of the country, where such symbols were crucial to claim political and cultural domination over conquered territories – not only in the Mediterranean and Africa, but also within Italy’s own national borders. This essay examines monuments, street names and other material legacies of fascist imperialism in Bolzano and reflects on the meaning given to them by the fascist regime at the time of their erection. It reveals why these symbols were placed at specific points in the city as imperial landmarks and questions the regime’s representative intentions behind it. This essay intends to provide a historical starting point for an overall examination of imperial monuments in Bolzano and, based on this, to enable research on their reception history in further studies. To this end, it examines articles from fascist South Tyrolean newspapers reporting on the inauguration ceremonies of the monuments. In addition, fascist laws and city government protocols provide information about the political ethos under which the regime erected them. Finally, the imperial remnant’s symbolic content will be analysed and compared with the research literature on Italian colonialism and its wars of aggression.