Abstract
Mussolini was no anti-intellectual; he was actually widely read and a brilliant polemical newspaper writer. During the last months of his reign, he tried to turn the tables on a general economic decline by seeking the advice of economic reformers. Without hesitation they urged him to spread the Fascist net to cover believers ranging from moderate to radical. Important “innovative” writers persuaded him to take up novel, almost “anti-Fascist” solutions that aimed at compromise. In the end, however, Pavolini prevailed on Mussolini to swat down reconciliation proposed by these “bridge builders.” Falling in with this advice, Mussolini remained at heart an incorrigible Fascist.
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Notes
- 1.
Cited in Perticone, La repubblica di Salò, p. 268.
- 2.
OO, XXXII: 120–25.
- 3.
Cione , Storia della Repubblica Sociale Italiana, pp. 191–92.
- 4.
ACS, SPD, RSI, b. 57.
- 5.
Cuzzi, “Gli ultimi mesi della R.S.I.,” p. 115.
- 6.
Fabei, I neri e i rossi, passim; Deakin , The Six Hundred Days of Mussolini, p. 273.
- 7.
Cione, Storia della repubblica italiana, p. 394.
- 8.
D’Angeli, Storia Del Partito Fascista Repubblicano, pp. 225–26.
- 9.
Fabei, I neri e i rossi, p. 224; D’Angeli, Storia Del Partito Fascista Repubblicano, pp. 226–27.
- 10.
Fabei, I neri e i rossi. pp. 100–01
- 11.
Cuzzi, “Gli ultimi mesi della R.S.I.,” p. 118, and Cione, Storia della repubblica italiana, p. 305.
- 12.
Bocca , La repubblica di Mussolini, pp. 308–09.
- 13.
Ibid.
- 14.
Osti Guerrazzi, Storia della repubblica italiana, p. 192.
- 15.
Fabei, I neri e i rossi, p. 30.
- 16.
Dolfin, Con Mussolini nella tragedia, p. 54.
- 17.
Corrispondenza Repubblicana , of 3 January 1945. The article, “Palmiro, ovverosia il paladino della corona,” is attributed to Mussolini. For the quote, see Cuzzi, “Gli ultimi mesi della R.S.I.,” p. 120, and OO, XXXII: 444.
- 18.
Cited in Fabei, I neri e i rossi, pp. 234–35.
- 19.
Cited in Ibid., pp. 226–27. “As long as the war lasts, if one side invokes concord and manifests the desire of exiting from the war, he is actually surrendering to the enemy.”
- 20.
Costa , L’ultimo federale, pp. 195–96. On 5 March 1945 Costa spoke to the Fascists of Sesto San Giovanni, saying that “ Cione and Sollazzo look to put the stick between the wheels, but we Fascists will stop at nothing in overwhelming everyone.” ACS, RSI, Prefettura di Milano, b. 1, “Appunto per il Duce,” 5 marzo 1945.
- 21.
Cited in Perticone, La repubblica di Salò, p. 295.
- 22.
Ibid.
- 23.
Bertoldi, Salò, pp. 254–56; Fabei, I neri e i rossi, pp. 22–25, 224–35.
- 24.
ACS, RSI, Prefettura di Milano, b. 1, “Appunto per il Ministro dell’Interno,” 21 marzo 1945.
- 25.
Fabei, I neri e i rossi, p. XI.
- 26.
Tamaro , Due anni di storia, III: 525.
- 27.
Fabei, I neri e i rossi, pp. 100–01.
- 28.
Cited in Deakin , The Six Hundred Days of Mussolini, p. 275.
- 29.
Ibid., p. 291.
- 30.
Gloria Gabrielli, Carlo Silvestri socialista, antifascista, mussoliniano (Milan: Franco Angeli, 1992), pp. 294–95; Cuzzi, “Gli ultimi mesi della R.S.I.,” p. 121.
- 31.
Cuzzi, “Gli ultimi mesi della R.S.I.,” p. 121.
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Burgwyn, H.J. (2018). Mussolini Woos the Intellectuals. In: Mussolini and the Salò Republic, 1943–1945. Italian and Italian American Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76189-3_16
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