Fasci Italiani di Combattimento

History

Benito Mussolini fought in the Royal Italian Army during World War I until wounded in February 1917 and discharged after six months in hospital. Returning to Milan, he resumed his role as chief editor of Il Popolo d'Italia, the newspaper he had founded in November 1914 to advocate for Italian entry into the war. The paper's readership had declined during his absence, but Mussolini revived it with a focus on war commentary. He aimed to appeal to former members of the Fasci d'Azione Rivoluzionaria, who had been pro-war activists under his leadership in 1915. Mussolini envisioned a movement led by war veterans, arguing that only those who had fought were fit to govern, and called for a new ruling class of 'men in the trenches'. During 1917 and 1918, Il Popolo d'Italia received substantial funding from major arms manufacturers and businessmen in Milan. Historian Denis Mack Smith notes that this inflow of money may not have affected the paper's politics, but Mussolini's enemies questioned why such firms would support a small newspaper unless for services rendered. The Arditi, Italian special forces, were angry about Italy's problems; Mussolini sympathised, claiming shared war experiences, and they joined his movement, eventually forming the Squadrismo. In 1919, Mussolini used his newspaper to espouse an eclectic mix of proposals from across the political spectrum, appearing successively as champion of the League and then nationalist, as socialist and then conservative, as monarchist and then republican, keeping his options open.