O X F O R D H IS T O R IC A L M O N O G R APH S Editors BARBARA H A R V E Y A. D. M A C IN T Y R E R. W. SO U TH E R N A. F. TH O M PSO N H. R. T R E V O R -R O P E R FASCISM IN FERRARA 1915 - 1925 BY P A U L C O R N E R O X F O R D U N I V E R S I T Y P R E S S J975 Oxford University Press, Ely House, London W .i OLASGOW NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE WELLINGTON CAPE TOWN IBADAN NAIROBI DAR ES SALAAM LUSAKA ADDIS ABABA DELHI BOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS KARACHI LAHORE DACCA KUALA LUMPUR SINGAPORE HONG KONO TOKYO ISBN O I9 821857 5 © Oxford University Press 1975 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproducedy stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press Printed in Great Britain by Richard Clay (The Chaucer Press), Ltd. Bungay, Suffolk PREFACE T his study is a revised version of a thesis submitted for the degree of D.Phil. in the University of Oxford during 1971. My first thanks are due, therefore, to Mr. Christopher Seton- Watson who acted as supervisor for the thesis; his criticisms and encouragement were at all times much appreciated. I should also like to express my gratitude to Mr. Adrian Lyttelton who advised me on the revision of the original manuscript; to Dr. Stuart Woolf who helped me at the outset of this study; to Professor Renzo De Felice for his many valuable indications about source material; and to Professor Giuliano Procacci for reading the final draft and suggesting certain changes. I am also indebted to Giovanna Procacci and Mario Missori for their continued interest and assistance. Much of the research was carried out in the Archivio Centrale dello Stato in Rome and I wish to thank the Director and his staff for their persistent patience and courtesy when faced with what seemed innumerable requests for material. The same thanks must also go to the Director and staff of the Biblioteca Ariostea of Ferrara, to the Camera di Commercio of Ferrara, and to the Cassa di Risparmio of Ferrara. I should also like to acknowledge my debt to the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the award of an Italian Govern­ ment Scholarship, to the Fondazione Luigi Einaudi of Turin for a one year research fellowship, and to the Master and Fellows of Balliol College for a generous travel grant which permitted the further researching of many essential points during the course of one summer vacation. St. Antony's College, Oxford. ' Paul C orner CO N TEN TS Page Abbreviations viii Introduction ix 1. From Unification to Intervention, 1870-1915 1 2. The Widening of the Divisions 1915-1918 28 3. The Defeat of the Interventionists, January-November 1919 48 4. Middle-class Attitudes and Socialist Administration 76 5. Triumph and Uncertainty: Provincial Socialism from November 1919 to September 1920 85 6. The Beginnings of Reaction, September 1920-February 1921 104 7. The Rank and File of Fascism 137 8. Crisis and Consolidation: Provincial Fascism during 1921 170 9. Towards the Control of the State, February 1922 to the March on Rome 209 10. The First Year of Fascist Government, November 1922- December 1923 233 11. From the Elections of 1924 to the Stabilization of the Fascist Regime 261 Bibliography 289 Map of the Province of Ferrara 296 Index 297 ABBREVIATIONS ACS Archivio Centrale dello Stato Min. Int. Ministero dellTntemo DGPS Direzione Generale di Pubblica Sicurezza AGR Affari Generali e Riservati Seg. Part, del Duce Segreteria Particolare del Duce GO Carteggio Ordinario CR Carteggio Riservato MRF Mostra della Rivoluzione Fascista Presidenza Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri INTRODUCTION When, in late October 1922, Mussolini formed his first government, the fascist squads were permitted a victory parade through the streets of Rome. Thus passed into fascist myth- ology the legend that it was the march on Rome and the display of armed force that had secured the so-called ‘fascist revo­ lution*. In reality, of course, the victory of the fascists was political rather than military. The failure of the governing class to find any solution to the threat of fascism other than complete capitulation to Mussolini was a clear indication of the advanced stage of political atrophy that had already gripped the liberal Italian state. By late 1922 in fact, much of northern Italy was already under fascist control. The two years prior to the march on Rome had witnessed a progressive abdication of the authority of the state in province after province and its replacement with the authority of the fascists. This book is a study of the growth of fascism in one such province— Ferrara. It is an attempt to chart the course of the local movement and to examine the circumstances that gave rise to, and permitted the survival of, that movement. It aims to discover who became fascist, why they became fascist, and why they remained fascist. Given the way in which fascism came to government, the provincial fascist organizations assume particular importance. In effect they provided the basis for the affirmation of fascism at a national level. Without a strong provincial base, Mussolini could never have come to power, much less remained there. Moreover, the provincial movement also exerted a profound influence on the formation of the ideology and the political programme of fascism, helping to determine the characteristics of the party which did even­ tually achieve success. Yet a detailed examination of a pro­ vincial fascist organization may also be of more general interest. The question of the nature of fascism continues to generate debate, and what follows is a case study against which normally accepted generalizations about fascism can be measured and assessed. The province of Ferrara was, for crucial months of 1921, INTRODUCTION X the most vigorous element in the developing national fascist movement. It was Ferrara that formed die spearhead of the extremely rapid expansion of agrarian fascism which— at the beginning of 1921— effectively rescued the town-based fascism of Mussolini from political extinction. Although never to assume quite the same degree of importance in later years, the province none the less remained one of the principal strong­ holds of the Italian fascist movement. In addition, it was in Ferrara that one of the most prominent of fascist leaders, Italo Balbo, made his name and established his political base. Many of the themes central to the problem of the rise and subsequent stabilization of fascism as a whole are represented, therefore, in a study of Ferrara. Certain of them relate to the methods and organization of fascism— to the systematic employment of violence by the squads, to the establishment of the fascist syndicates as a means of controlling the agricultural labourers, and to the structure and decision-making machinery of the local fascist federation. Others are concerned with the divisions that developed within the fascist movement itself and with the growing tendency for fascism to be totally intolerant of criticism or opposition, whether from fascist or non-fascist sources. To a great extent, these divisions reflect the diversity of social origin which existed between fascists, particularly between those of the town and those of the rural areas, while the methods by which dissidence was resolved are extremely indicative of the influence the more ruthless agrarian fascism exerted over the whole movement. Yet the main focus of this study remains that of the origins of the movement, of the reasons for, and the extent of, the initial adhesion to fascism in early 1921. Ferrara was remarkable for the speed with which fascism asserted its control. Although in 1920 the province had been one of the bastions of revolutionary socialism, it took only weeks for the entire socialist organization to be brought to submission. This extremely sudden transition is in many ways the main problem in accounting for the rise of fascism in Ferrara. Violence obviously played its part, as many interpretations have stressed, yet in provinces where the squads mounted an offensive just as violent, the results were less impressive. Certain clues about the other factors involved can be sought in the political background to the fascist onslaught— particularly in the impact of the First World War on provincial