ABSTRACT This paper analyses the anti-partisan war waged by the rebel forces during the Spanish Civil War and later by Franco’s dictatorship between 1936 and 1952. It argues that Spain constituted the earliest and longest-lasting case of anti-fascist armed resistance in twentieth-century Europe and, correspondingly, one of the first sites of modern counterinsurgency conducted by a fascist regime. Drawing on military orders, judicial records and internal security documentation, the article examines the main pillars of Francoist counterinsurgency, including the refusal to take prisoners, indiscriminate reprisals against civilian populations, hostage-taking, forced evacuations, deportation to concentration camps and the deliberate destruction of forests. By comparing the Spanish case with the anti-partisan wars waged by Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and other Axis or collaborationist regimes during the Second World War, the article challenges interpretations of Spanish exceptionalism and instead places the Francoist experience within a shared European repertoire of counterinsurgency.

This article traces the ideological and geopolitical reorientation of the Italian far right—from the Fascist regime of Benito Mussolini to its postwar successors—through the intertwined politics of the Mediterranean and the Middle East. It argues that the shift from Fascism’s pro-Islamic Mediterranean project, directed primarily against British and French dominance in the region, to the Cold War’s pro-Israeli and Atlanticist realignment represents a profound transformation. Drawing on archival, parliamentary, and judicial sources, the study examines how both parliamentary (Movimento Sociale Italiano, MSI) and extraparliamentary (Ordine Nuovo, ON) actors recalibrated Fascist legacies to serve Western Cold War strategies. By analyzing ON’s collaboration with NATO and Israeli intelligence within the Strategy of Tension, the article reveals the instrumentalization of far-right networks as agents of transnational security policy. The Italian case illustrates how post-Fascist movements adapted their ideological vocabularies to new global hierarchies of power, translating nationalist and civilizational discourses into the epistemic order of Western hegemony. This long-term Mediterranean realignment—from Mussolini’s Sword of Islam to the Cold War Shield of the West—illuminates the convergence of extremism, geopolitics, and identity in the making of Europe’s contemporary far-right foreign policy.

ABSTRACT This essay examines the rhetoric of peace as a central communicative strategy in authoritarian and fascist regimes, arguing that peace is repeatedly redefined to legitimize violence, territorial expansion, and political domination. Drawing on rhetorical theory, critical cultural studies, and intercultural communication, the analysis compares fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, and contemporary Russia to show how leaders from Mussolini and Hitler to Putin frame aggression as protection, conquest as restoration, and war as moral necessity. Through concepts such as spazio vitale, Lebensraum, and Russia’s “special military operation,” peace becomes not the absence of violence but its rhetorical twin. The paper further introduces the Br/Other dynamic to explain how affective intimacy and Othering enable coercion to appear benevolent, particularly in Russia’s discourse on Ukraine. By tracing historical continuities and contemporary adaptations, this study demonstrates how language functions as a second front of authoritarian power and calls for reclaiming peace as an ethical, dialogic, and communicative practice.

Abstract What is negara kesatuan ? Literally, it is “unitary state.” Beyond that, there is not much to know. There is no body of scholarship to explicate the discursive significance technical aspects of the concept. Indeed, there has been no effort to clarify, let alone systematize, the concept. The prevailing interpretation of the concept is more about dismissing it as a second-rate appropriation of the German or Japanese theory of the fascist state. Instead of looking at foreign sources, I turn to the nation’s folk religious sensibility in which kawulo manunggaling gu sti , the metaphor of the mystical oneness between God and humans, serves as its controlling idea. Thus, one can discern the rationale behind the significant symbolic and emotional resonance of negara kesatuan among many Indonesians. For that reason, the concept of negara kesatuan is rooted in a theological assumption derived from the nation’s folk religious sensibility. Given its embeddedness in the nation’s primordial religious impulse, it is highly unlikely that Indonesia will abandon its infatuation with negara kesatuan anytime soon.

Given the current rise of right-wing authoritarian and fascist movements and political parties all around the world, not to mention the recent success of the AfD in Germany, there is a renewed debate about the form, causes, and effects of fascism. This article discusses fascism as a response to and driver of surplus crisis. Taking its cue from Marx’s analysis of the importance of relative surplus populations for the functioning of capital, it explores how being rendered superfluous prepares certain populations for being subjected to forms of excessive violence like being excluded from political participation or even the realm of the livable. Based on examples from contemporary German discourses, including the border crisis and the criminalization of the Palestine solidarity movement, and utilizing the conceptual tools offered by various critical theories, the article interprets the affective structure of the fascist subject as a punitive reaction to the affront that the presence of the surplus poses to a self-entitled subject.

ABSTRACT After the fall of the fascist regime, efforts to erase the signs of fascist ideology often coincided with the preservation of material legacies. Within this transition, artists become pivotal figures bridging fascist ideology and defascistization efforts. They were called upon to make decisions and to carry out demands for the removal of regime symbols. Yet, at the same time, they were most invested in safeguarding these works, often their own, and in ensuring their visibility and survival. This article seeks to broaden the understanding of the network of actors actively engaged in reimagining democratic Italy’s public spaces and institutional settings. With the dual aim of examining both the management of fascist legacies in the early decades of the Republic and the role played by artists in this process, this study focuses on the Monument to the Legionnaire (1938–1968) by Romano Romanelli, an unfinished project of Fascist colonial propaganda entangled with hesitant efforts at defascistization.

Fascism ended on the 25th of April 1945: the title of the book repeats a sentence used to state the fact that fascism in Italy ceased to exist on the day of Liberation from nazifascist occupation, a date which is also a national holiday.But is that really so? Could it rather be a clich, comfortable to believe in instead of acknowledging a hard truth?The author Mimmo Franzinelli, specialized in studies on fascism and the Italian postwar Republic, in five chapters presents us with a series of events, examples and witnesses that show how fascism never really left and continued to exert its influence at multiple levels: political, legislative, bureaucratic, moral, ideological, customary.Franzinelli begins his discourse with an unpopular opinion: the majority of the Italians has been an accomplice of fascism, and not a mere victim, as claimed by "versions that respond to political needs and identity strategies, which have for too long shaped historiographical research and still find strong supporters today".According to him, the "antifascist paradigm" has amplified the Resistance traits, while diminishing the mass consensus of the regime (pp.6-7).After a brief resume of the birth and rise of the fascist movement, the author explains how deep the fascistization of Italy went, producing a corrupt system that was incredibly hard to change, after twenty years of habit of obedience (p. 7).Even more so, as just shortly after the war countless officials, which were ideologically formed or started a career under fascism (even those responsible for major crimes) were pardoned and released from prison.One may find it truly astonishing to uncover a continuity of the state between the dictatorship and the democratic republic, which is the central point of this monography.In the first chapter, for example, the author illustrates the case of the Special court for the defence of the State (Tribunale speciale per la difesa dello Stato), established in 1926: many condemned by the court didn't see their sentence annulled at the fall of the regime; instead, they had to wait many years after the war to be free of all accusations.In some cases, they even continued to serve a sentence given to them because they complained about the war and offended the head of State (which was, at the time, no one other than the dictator Benito Mussolini) (pp.9-11).A reversed situation occured, for which anti-fascists were persecuted for past sentences and common crimes, while Blackshirts 1 leaders, secretaries and ministers of the National fascist party, informers, persecutors of the Jews, collaborators of the Nazis and war criminals, were all released.This is largely due to the 1946 amnesty, 2 where the legislative interpretations

Abstract After introducing the topic of antifascism on the internet and the issues that scientific publications encounter when facing the web, the first part of this contribution in Contexts and Debates examined the first of three digital history projects connected to this topic, the Atlante delle stragi naziste e fasciste . In this following section, the attention is focused on two more publications: IF – Intellettuali in fuga dall’Italia fascista , a project tied to the issue of mobility for people persecuted by the Fascist regime; and Memorie in Cammino , a project that approaches its content and the user’s interaction with it in an entirely non-linear manner, reconstructing the lives and actions of those who resisted the regime.

Purpose This article aims to analyse Italian governmental policies on primary school history textbooks between 1923 and 1928, positioning them within the broader international discourse on cosmopolitan history teaching post-First World War. It investigates how an initial focus on pedagogical quality under the Gentile reform progressively shifted, with the Fascist regime transforming textbook selection into a tool for nationalist and ideological indoctrination. The study highlights Italy’s divergence from internationalist ideals and the co-option of educational quality control mechanisms for political ends. Design/methodology/approach This study employs a historical analysis, examining primary sources such as Italian governmental decrees and reports from the Central Textbook Examination Commissions. It also integrates Italy’s engagement with international forums, including the League of Nations, the Third International Congress of Moral Education, the Carnegie Endowment’s investigation, and the 1928 Report on Nationalism in History Textbooks. The methodology involves comparing Italian policy developments with international initiatives to reveal their contrasting trajectories regarding history education. Findings The findings reveal that while early Fascist educational reforms initially emphasised pedagogical quality, the regime swiftly instrumentalised textbook selection and approval processes to propagate nationalist and Fascist ideology. Italy increasingly diverged from international efforts advocating for cosmopolitan and peaceful history teaching, exemplified by critical reports from Italian textbook commissions contrasting with international ideals. This culminated in the adoption of state-mandated textbooks, ensuring complete ideological conformity and demonstrating the regime’s co-option of educational control. Research limitations/implications A limitation is the specific focus on primary school history textbooks and a defined timeframe (1923–1928), which may limit broader generalisations about the entire Italian education system or longer historical periods. Future research could extend this analysis to secondary education or examine the long-term impact of these policies. The implications include highlighting how political shifts can rapidly commandeer educational systems, underscoring the constant need for vigilance against ideological manipulation in curriculum development. Practical implications This research offers practical insights for contemporary educational policymakers and curriculum developers. It demonstrates the critical importance of safeguarding educational autonomy and pedagogical integrity against political interference. Understanding historical instances where education was co-opted for ideological purposes can inform strategies to ensure that history teaching fosters critical thinking, balanced perspectives, and international understanding rather than narrow nationalism or partisan indoctrination. It reinforces the need for transparent and academically driven textbook review processes. Social implications The article underscores the profound social implications of history education, particularly its capacity to shape national identity and inter-group relations. The Fascist regime’s use of textbooks to instil nationalist and militaristic values showcases how education can be leveraged to foster division and prejudice. Conversely, the international efforts for cosmopolitan history teaching highlight education’s potential to promote peace, solidarity and mutual understanding among diverse populations, emphasising its crucial role in societal cohesion and global citizenship. Originality/value The originality of this article lies in its dual focus: it reconstructs the internal evolution of Italian educational policies – moving from the pedagogical concerns of the Gentile Reform to Fascist ideological indoctrination – while simultaneously placing these events within the broader international debate on 'cosmopolitan' history teaching. By analyzing the reports of the Central Textbook Examination Commissions alongside the activities of international bodies like the Carnegie Endowment and the Foreningen Norden, the study reveals how the Fascist regime strategically co-opted quality-control mechanisms to serve political ends. This comparative approach provides a unique perspective on the failure of transnational educational reforms to influence domestic policy during the 1920s.

This essay highlights the critical nature of the current moment in the US, defining fascism and describing the ways in which fascist tendencies are at work today. I characterize microfascism and the way it precedes and sustains fascist movements, and identify some of the ways microfascisms are present in early childhood education, highlighting the undervaluing of care work, neoliberal trends in education, and cruelties in schools. I draw from critical and revolutionary theories in calling for pedagogies in early childhood education teacher preparation programs that might identify and challenge fascist tendencies, and for a praxis that moves us to respond to the current moment with the urgency it requires of us.

The article was written as part of a scientific discussion with N. I. Gerasimov on the problems of the “dialogue of ideas”, interaction between the organs of the Russian language periodical press of anarchists in the USA in the USA in the 1920s and 1930s. The purpose of the article is to analyze the possibility of applying historical and philosophical analysis to this study. The topic of the history of the anarchist periodical press of the Russian Diaspora in the 1920s and the 1930s has not yet been the subject of comprehensive study. It is important to refer about several of the most influential currents of emigration (traditional anarcho-communism, united anarchism, platformism, anarcho-syndicalism, svobodnichestvo), whose supporters were united in anarchist and cultural-educational workers’ organizations. These organizational structures were the actual founders of such publications as Amerikanskiye Izvestiya (American News), Volna (The Wave), Rassvet (The Dawn), Delo Truda (The Cause of Labor), and Probuzhdeniye (The Awakening). The attempt to adapt the sociopolitical ideas of anarchism to the changing socioeconomic and sociocultural conditions of the 1920s and 1930s led to the creation of the programmatic projects advocated by their ideologists. Their goal was to transform anarchism into a mass movement capable of implementing its own programmatic principles. The defeat of the anarchists in the Russian Revolution of 1917–1922, the economic crisis of the late 1920s and early 1930s, the rise of fascist regimes, and the growing prerequisites for World War II gave a special intensity to the ideological and political struggle within the anarchist movement.

ABSTRACT During the Fascist era, the Trentino-South Tyrol border region (annexed to Italy after the First World War) became a laboratory for Italianisation and propaganda. Alpine tourism – formerly the preserve of the Austro–Hungarian elite – was transformed into an instrument of social control and ideological outreach. Through the construction of new roads, mountain huts, and ski resorts, alongside national and patriotic events, the regime both reinforced its presence and projected an image of a vigorous, modern nation. Tourism in Trentino thus shifted from an elite pastime to a mass activity for the emerging middle classes, advancing the Fascist programme of mass nationalisation. This study examines tourism’s dual role in Fascist Trentino: as a vehicle for economic integration and as a mechanism of cultural and political propaganda. Focusing on advertising rhetoric and sporting events that emphasised physical strength, patriotism, and national belonging, it draws on official documents, journalistic and specialised magazines, multimedia archives, and a comprehensive bibliography to show how mountain tourism reshaped the region’s economy and fostered a Fascist ‘national and patriotic consciousness’.

ABSTRACT Italian foreign policy during the interwar years is often reduced to the ‘road to war’ that characterised relations between Italy and its former wartime allies after the invasion of Abyssinia in 1935. It is surprising how little scholarly attention has been dedicated to examining Italian foreign policy prior to this point of rupture. This article aims to explain how and why Fascist Italy cooperated in the post-war order for as long as it did by situating early Fascist diplomacy within the context of the Greater War. Benito Mussolini rose to power preoccupied with rectifying the so-called ‘mutilated victory’ while the post-war order was still deeply in flux. The ‘unfinished peace’ resulting from the Treaty of Versailles (1919) offered significant opportunity for the young Fascist regime to pursue further negotiations with the British to bring to fruition the unfulfilled programme of its Liberal predecessors. This article narrows in on negotiations over one outstanding item on the agenda – the Jubaland transfer – to demonstrate that it was precisely these discussions with the British about Italy’s unresolved imperial claims that drew the intrinsically revisionist regime into a range of diplomatic exchanges and gave the young Fascist regime a stake in the future post-war order. In practice, Fascist Italy’s determination to secure the transfer of Jubaland from British Kenya to Italian Somaliland deeply entangled the new revisionist regime in broader multilateral initiatives concerned with European security, economic reconstruction, and the nature the post-war order as a whole.

Reforestation efforts have sought to counteract deforestation and to provide a nature-based solution against climate change. However, they often involve monoculture plantations of non-native species, which may have unintended ecological consequences. Yet, the long-term ecological impacts of planting trees have been poorly estimated. Leveraging historical reforestation conducted in northern Italy during the 1930s by the fascist regime, we assessed the long-term impacts of Norway spruce (Picea abies) monoculture plantations on biodiversity of plants and soil fauna along with soil properties. We found that plant diversity in tree plantations was 50.3% lower than in native forests and 74.5% lower than in grasslands. Ecological indicator values for temperature and light were reduced in tree plantations. Additionally, functional evenness was reduced by 30% in spruce plantations, suggesting lower ecological stability. In tree plantations, organic carbon content was 25% higher due to litter deposition and slower decomposition rates. Soil fauna diversity was marginally less affected, suggesting a faster recovery over the last one-hundred years of arthropods as compared to plants. These findings highlight the need for monitoring reforestation interventions, suggesting strategies that incorporate diverse tree species rather than planting tree monoculture to support functionally and resilient ecosystems.

ABSTRACT; During the Italian occupation of Albania (1939–1943), the Fascist regime launched a broad project of Italianization that involved both tourism and vocational education. Within this framework, the founding of the Shkolla Bujtinore në Shqipni in Tirana in 1942 exemplifies how vocational training were shaped by political and ideological aims. Officially meant to train local elites and workers, the school pursued a wider goal: producing disciplined individuals, laborers taught also the daily performance of the empire’s symbolic order. Drawing on unpublished archival sources and Michel Foucault’s theoretical insights (1975, 1979), this article examines an overlooked dimension of Italian colonial history: the role of service labor in sustaining colonial domination as a system of power and social control. Special focus is given to the Albanian model, inspired by the Hospitality School in Merano, a city in former South Tyrol subjected to a coercive Italianization campaign. The Tirana case highlights continuities between strategies applied in internal frontier regions and those imposed in colonial territories, showing how labor was framed not merely as economic but also as symbolic and ideological. Although active for little more than a year 81942-1943), the school represented a revealing laboratory of Fascist pedagogies of service.

In this article, I analyse how Italian fascism aimed to perpetuate itself through the use of sound media, especially phonography. I examine how propaganda expressed and was shaped by the articulation between fascism’s regime of historicity - its relationship to time - and the regimes of temporality of phonography and radio - the temporal framework in which they frame the actions that mobilise them. To do so, I have chosen to investigate, after presenting a brief political history of Italian phonography, two practical and social fields crucial to the perpetuation of fascism: education and war. The former prepared the way for the latter, and both were tasked with propagating the ideal of national regeneration placed at the heart of this political project, thereby offering an ideal field of investigation to better understand how the regime of historicity determined its manifestation in the field of propaganda and the dissemination of its imaginary. I shall refer to sources from state archives, the general and specialist press, and a discography of around 900 propaganda records produced for a research project concerning the recorded sound propaganda of the Italian fascist regime.

The experiments and discoveries of early 20th-century architecture yielded particularly significant results even in Italy's provincial contexts. The social and economic growth recorded in Alba led the fascist regime in the 1930s to build several youth-oriented buildings, including a boarding school and a gymnasium. Despite having very different architectural backgrounds, these two buildings represent the most important examples of the Modern movement in the city. They also stand as a testament to two important public works designed for education. After almost a century, the city's socioeconomic dynamics and the need for new functionalities in these two buildings required new projects. In light of the design choices made and based on the methodological guidelines of the scientific restoration community, this work aims to critically evaluate the two restoration projects, highlighting the decisions that were undertaken.

Starting in the 1920s, part of Italian architectural culture brought Italy closer to the most advanced European experiences: in its early stages, the Fascist regime embraced Italian Rationalism, entrusting its most important exponents with significant public commissions. This was the context in which the Case del Balilla were built, clearly representing the physical education and sports training of young fascists, under the direction of the Opera Nazionale Balilla. In the Marche region, the O.N.B. commissioned the construction of two Case, one in Macerata, designed by architect Mario Ridolfi, and the other in Civitanova Marche, a contemporary project by architect Adalberto Libera. Starting from the restoration work carried out on the second complex, this article aims to investigate a broader theoretical and critical reflection on the current debate concerning the conservation of modern architecture and future restoration work.

ABSTRACT This article examines the activities of the undercover fascist agent who ran the Confidential Office at the Italian Consulate General in New York between 1926 and 1941. Umberto Caradossi, who held the formal title of vice-consul, spent sixteen years surveilling thousands of Italian American anti-fascists in the United States. He could rely on a vast network of informants, as well as on the support of the Italian Ministry of Interior and Italian diplomatic authorities operating in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston and Tampa. The article focuses on several operations that Caradossi carried out in several cities of the East Coast and the Midwest during his early years as chief of the Confidential Office. Through an extensive examination of documents kept in Italian archives, the article addresses the following research question: where, when and how did an undercover fascist agent operate in the United States?

ABSTRACT In September 1951, the newspaper La Stampa published an article entitled ‘Modern Ruins’. In this piece, Mario Praz led readers on an imaginary tour of Rome, reflecting on several urban planning projects from the Ventennio. In these spaces, Praz observed a persistent ‘fabrication of the past’, the production of styles endowed with ‘a strong evocative power’. Despite its proximity, the Fascist legacy appeared as a set of distant ‘fictitious ruins’. Perhaps, he concluded, ‘tomorrow the construction will be completed … but in the meantime I seem to feel the bite of the past more closely here than among the ruins of the Via Sacra’. During the 1950s, intellectuals advocated for a break with the past not only in sociopolitical but also in architectural and urban planning discourse. However, Rome still faced a difficult issue: the unfinished buildings and urban spaces left by the Fascist regime. Drawing on Praz’s reflections, this paper examines the perceived caesura between Fascist and Republican Rome, the marginal role of iconoclasm, the choice of preservation, and the persistence of architects and engineers who survived the collapse of the regime.