To what extent is it legitimate to describe Mussolini as a 'popular dictator' between 1925 and 1943?

Answer 1

I would say that that term is entirely appropriate during the 1920s and 30s but as WWII went on people became entirely disenchanted with him. By 1943 he had no poular support at all. What you might try doing is finding books on Italian history during that period rather than specific biographies of the man himself. They might give you more of the information you are looking for. The slogan was "Mussolini, the man who made the Trains Run on Time." It was simple, if the train was late... the engineer was arrested or tortured, along with the conductor and ticket clerk. The reason that the year 1943 is so pivotal with regard to Il Duce, is that summer was when the Allies invaded Sicily, and on into southern Italy. The Italian Army surrended in their hundreds of thousands, only too glad to become POWs. They had very little taste for actual fighting, because it might mean getting hurt, or getting their uniforms dirty. It is not quite true that the Italian armoured vehicles had one forward gear but four reverse gears to get away more quickly. Eventually, Mussolini was attacked and killed and his body was hung from a lamp post along with his mistress, who was also killed. Treachery is an old Italian tradition, and they invented the term, vendetta, the blood curse. In summation, Mussolini was a buffoon, who liked to strike heroic poses on his balcony, but when it seemed that the Italians were beaten, they quickly turned on him. A dictator whose realm was built on shifting sands, and staffed by cowards. To some he's still popular today...

In the beginning, many people let the fascists do as they pleased with public officials, etc. There was initially a fear of communism (since Russia's revolution in 1917), and violent conservative nationalists after the borders of 1918/19. When Mussolini asked for governmental powers, he simply got it. As a dictator he had complete control of the media, and any critisism of him would have been construed as a crime against the Fascist state. Therefore his exact popularity is difficult to guage, but he certainly became less popular after Italy entered the war as a German ally; a war ahich proved costly. By the time of Operation Husky (the invasion of Sicily), even the higher-ups in the Italian government had had enough of him, and he was arrested. Although thousands of hardcore Fascist Party members remained loyal to him, it never enough to allow him to return to Rome. Incidentally, the remark about the surrendering Italian army does not pertain to the question, and is a stereotype based on mostly-British Allied Propaganda of the time. Two million Italians died in the war, many of them bravely, although they were hampered by a lot of poor equipment, bad organization, logistical and supply problems, and a leader more interested in show of force than real strength.