As I always like to point out, especially on the anniversary of the Georgian BDSM master’s death, life in Fascist Italy was nicer, more predictable, and several orders of magnitude safer than in the 1930s USSR.
Even for Communists. And Jews.
Just nine people executed for political crimes from 1922-43 under Mussolini. That’s a rounding error by the NKVD’s standards.
Back this Jan/Feb, I was surprised to learn, thanks to liberal journalists and Navalny, that Vladimir Solovyov (nee Shapiro) – Russia’s most well-known conservative/Putinist TV talk show host, who loves fast, expensive cars and has eight children – also appears to be a fan of Il Duce.
Back in 2013, Solovyov made a documentary film about the last days of Mussolini (“Zakat”), where he expressed some powerful thoughts on the Italian leader:
Who is Benito Mussolini. A coward? No. Very brave person. A scoundrel? Murderer? Anti-Semite? Sadist? No. From what has been written about him, he was a man who was deeply disrespectful to women, but so far as clearly expressed failings go, that was the last of them.
More recently, Solovyov re-posted his friend Igor Molotov’s positive review of his own film on his Telegram channel, creating a small furore amongst the liberal pro-Western opposition:
Vladimir Solovyov made a very necessary film. Foremost, because amongst us, the Duce is considered a maniac, and people don’t understand that fascism and bastard Nazism are two different things.
Mussolini was a brilliant character, who gave the world a third path, which Russia, partially, is treading along today.
Solovyov, too, was evidently reading my blog – even time traveling six years into the future just to do so.
Anyhow, in an obvious response to the mini-scandal, RT’s Russian language website published an article by Dmitry Petrovsky, under the wonderfully trollish title “The Duche Scared the Liberals“:
The facts outlaid [in Solovyov’s film] are well-known; until 1941, there really were no concentration camps, Mussolini was not an anti-Semite, treated Hitler with contempt, did not execute his political opponents…
But we are not the neoliberal sect, which doesn’t tolerance dissident. We are honest conservatives, and since we are being called to discussion – let’s have it. Let’s remember Benito Mussolini, who he really was and what legacy he left behind. And let’s begin with the main mistake we inherited from Stalinist propaganda – calling both the Italian, and the German dictators “Germano-fascist invaders.”
Mussolini really was a fascist. Fascism is an Italian word, coming from fascio – a bundle, a fagot… the symbol of imperial power in Ancient Rome, and of the high magistrates during the Republic. Mussolini used this word as a symbol of unity for the recently divided and up until then still weak Italy. Meanwhile, Adolf Hitler never called himself a fascist. He was a National Socialist, his party was the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, and there were no Roman bundles in either its symbology or its lexicon.
And our military propagandists were well aware of that – the problem is that, had they called a spade a spade, it would have emerges that the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was fighting those same socialists – just slightly different ones. “Fascism” struck more of a contrast, it fit better, and under wartime conditions, this rhetorical ploy was entirely justified.
It is very nice to discover that such a prominent media figure in the putative PutlerReich is so based, and to read the anguished wailing of sovoks and liberals under this article, and in response to Navalny’s video. Indeed, so triggered were the Navalnyites, they sent an official complaint to the Investigations Committee to check Solovyov’s comments for extremism and rehabilitation of fascism.
Incidentally, what makes this entire spectacle of a Mussolini-loving Russian Jewish journalist even funnier is that RT English pretends that Navalny is a fascist and/or nationalist, which leftist Western Russophiles eagerly lap up.
Please keep off topic posts to the current Open Thread.
If you are new to my work, start here.
So, how successful were the Navalyites in pursuing their complaints with the Investigation Committee* of “extremism and rehabilitation of fascism?”
*Sounds like something out of Orwell’s lexicon. 🙂
I won’t comment on the merits and demerits of Mussolini until I have read Göran Hägg’s Mussolini: en studie i makt, waiting for me on my mother’s bookshelf, but Solovyov, to me, embodies much of what is best with Russia: intellect mixed with humor, outspokeness and common sense. Unlike the hosts of 60 Minutes, whose shows often turns into shouting matches, he is also good at making up well-balanced guest lists for his shows. I only wish Vesti News would translate more of them.
Proof that not only Putin, but the entire Russian elite – past, present, and future – reads your blog.
I think the demonology or morality tale version of history has been hugely destructive.
Though, one quibble I have with Mussolini is that he declared war on America. Colossally dumb move if you were leading Japan or Germany, but Italy? I know he was adding up all the numbers of the Axis domains and probably overestimating them or something, and I’m not saying today’s leaders would have been any wiser in the context, but still… I mean, what did he think that he’d get out of it?
As an occasional watcher of Russian TV (with English subtitles), I do like it when the Jew Zhirinovsky yells at the Jew Solovyov. It’s amusing. So he’s useful for that.
Zhirinovsky is a half-Jew (his mom was Russian). Russian television is a joke.
If only it had more emotive Muslim victim claiming – wailing in the street, jabbing fingers in the air and bizarre extreme threats of blood blood blood. Then it’d be great TV.
Islam the religion of toxic INFJs.
Agree.
Yes, Il Duce was great.
Putin will never be like Il Duce.
Putin will never jump to war at first opportunity, and persevere at the losing side to the very end, till one and half millions of Russians are dead and all of Russia is devastated and occupied by enemy.
Putin will never be as great as Il Duce was.
Sad!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_of_Italy_during_World_War_II#Casualties
https://www.wisefamousquotes.com/images/james-tomkins-quotes-by-benito-mussolini-2021306.jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Db3F62DWkAAMidN.jpg
Seconded.
History as tale of success and failure is much more useful. As the saying goes about learning from history.
And fascism was one of the greatest failures in history.
https://medium.com/nonzerosum/umberto-eco-ur-facism-9d9cc1e9f317
I think people shouldn’t discount Mussolini’s work in Ethiopia when weighing his goodness. Sure, he’s not as bad as Stalin. But this soft rehabilitation attempt is silly.
When Jews Praised Mussolini and Supported Nazis: Meet Israel’s First Fascists
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-when-jews-praised-mussolini-and-supported-nazis-meet-israel-s-first-fascists-1.7538589
The Mussolini-Jabotinsky Connection: The Hidden Roots of Israel Fascist Past
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200127-the-mussolini-jabotinsky-connection-the-hidden-roots-of-israel-fascist-past/
The Historical Zionist Case for Fascism
https://www.richardsilverstein.com/2017/10/20/jabotinsky-zionist-case-fascism/
When Jews backed a fascist
https://www.thejc.com/news/world/when-jews-backed-a-fascist-mussolini-king-victor-emmanel-1.451099
Bygone Days: Chaim Weizmann’s tea with Mussolini
https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Bygone-Days-Chaim-Weizmanns-tea-with-Mussolini
If you focus on the statements, the accusations against Navalny have grounds
Example of Navalny’s statement:
” We can’t live normally with some ethnic groups if these people themselves declare that they want to live like animals.
The question of coexistence with these peoples is ripe and overripe. ”
There are many such statements – here you can see in russian
https://anti-navalny.livejournal.com/6076.html
But remember… I’m the only true fascist.
Mussolini also wanted to exterminate Slavs living under him so for any Russian to be a fan of his he would have to be profoundly ignorant or a (((Russian))).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rab_concentration_camp
“According to historians James Walston[1] and Carlo Spartaco Capogeco,[2] at 18%, the annual mortality rate in the camp was higher than the average mortality rate in the Nazi concentration camp of Buchenwald (15%).”
Slovenians were in fact worse off under Fascists than under Nazis who only wanted to Germanize Slovenians (similarly to Czechs and unlike Poles and even more backward Slavs)
But hey, at least Jews were better off under Mussolini’s scum.
“Historian Franc Potočnik, also an inmate in the Slavic section of the camp, described the much better conditions in the Jewish section:
“The [Slavic] internees in Camp I could watch through the double barriers of barbed wire what took place in the Jewish camp. The Jewish internees were living under conditions of true internment for their ‘protection’, whereas the Slovenes and Croats were in a regime of ‘repression’. . . . They brought a lot of baggage with them. Italian soldiers carried their luggage into little houses of brick destined for them. Almost every family had its own little house…. They were reasonably well dressed; in comparison, of course, to other internees.”
Solovyov owns a villa on lake Como and holds residency in Italy, so the whole thing must be a bit more than a passing intellectual interest.
Also, his sartorial choices seem to be rather totalitarian: with outfits like his, he could run for office in North Korea or teach Wing Tsun classes.
Finally RE: “nee” Shapiro; it is “né” for someone male and “née” for someone female, as long as both categories persist; subsequently “néx” can substitute both.
AK: Thanks, didn’t know that male/female distinction. I was aware of the diacritic but I don’t know what it’s shortcut is, so I generally avoid them.
Why on earth would they ever want to use Roman symbols? German nationalism has its roots all the way back to Hermann (aka Arminius) who saved Germans from the dismal Roman empire. Having said that, the Germans were still tolerant towards Mussolini even with him being a jew lover, his heart was in the right place despite his many faulty ideas.
It’s still far and away better than American TV. Which is not saying much, I admit.
The nature of television has always lent itself towards becoming a breeding ground for imbecility, though.
According to even mainstream historians, Hitler was convinced by late 1941 that war with America was inevitable. In fact, he was supposedly afraid that America would officially declare war on him as soon as the latter was at war with Japan. Some suggest he wanted, therefore, to beat America to the punch in the the field of declarations.
Keep in mind that Franklin Roosevelt, the war-monger par excellence, had violated both international law and the U.S. Constitution (not to mention the opinion of the American people) when he ordered his Navy to shoot at German U-Boats at least a year before hostilities formally began.
As for Mussolini, I admit I haven’t read much about his declaration of war against the U.S. I’ll look into it at some point.
I get that the idea of these pieces is to nudge things towards showing the wider public that Mussolini wasn’t so ‘bad’, but with regards to the likes of Gramasci wouldn’t it have been better for all of us if Benito did have a little more Adi or Joe about him in dealing with them?
It’s also interesting to consider what would have become of the word ‘Fascist’ itself if Mussolini hadn’t allied with Hitler (or even allied against him, as he tried at one point) and his regime had lived beyond the war (and possibly even been backed by the US-led west as an anti-communist state). Presumably it would have a lot less negative, and maybe even some positive value in general discourse, and the kinds of ideas that go along with it would too. And that could have changed a lot with regard to how the public were allowed to think and what they were allowed to choose over the last 50 years. All just over the image of a word…
Don’t understand the optics of this.
Solovyov is already propagandized as a Gray Cardinal of the Putlerreich by the opposition and ukrainians. So the solution is to make a documentary where you prove that Mussolini wasn’t that racist actually. Of course that won’t give them more ideological ammunition as if they weren’t grasping at straws by googling shoe brands.
Not to mention western media eager to prove Putin’s global fascist conspiracy.
Normalfags won’t watch the documentary and be redpilled on Solovyov’s views, they’ll just think he’s a fascist because he said he wants Benidimiro Puttisollini.
And people on his side will have another internationally controversial 20th century dictator whose name they need to defend. This time one that fought against their people for added schizophrenia points.
I’d understand if he collected pictures and busts. Or sponsored an arthouse biopic. But he made a documentary about it, who does he want to document and inform?
He’s a tv show host for years, I’d expect him to be at least a little aware about how this shit works. Where’s that famous high ashkenazi IQ?
Yes, we all know those allegations were well-founded a decade ago and earlier.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVNJiO10SWw
It also happens to be the case that people’s political views change over time and since 2014-15 Navalny’s become just another GloboHomo NPC.
It’s people who change their views. But chameleons only change colors, these creatures do not have any views.
Mussolini had numerous Jewish followers (including a mistress) before his ill-fated alliance with Hitler.
I do get slightly annoyed by the incursions into Ethiopia. Primarily because I think it would have been more desirable to keep it in isolation and thus have a pure model of what non-intervention in Africa looks like, for rhetorical purposes.
Secondly, because we can see the end result which is no Italian presence there. In hindsight, what Europeans did in Africa and fighting among themselves seems pretty stupid. They should have taken all these colonists, all these men they sent to die in war, and settled them in South Africa, while keeping the Bantu out of the Western Cape.
That said, it is desirable to rehabilitate Mussolini. You don’t need to write a hagiography of him to do so, you just need to remove him from the demonology, which obscures the true lessons of history. Right now, the narrative is “Hitler was evil. Mussolini was evil. Therefore, Europeans are evil, and European nationalism is evil.” That is untenable and has to go. A better construction would be “Hitler and Mussolini were hubristic, and this led to problems for Europe, just as Macron and Merkel are hubristic, in accepting migrants, which will lead to problems for Europeans.”
It was absolutely crazy of Hitler to fight a war against the US and Russia at the same time. He may have had rational reasons for fighting against the US, like trying to strangle Britain, but it was still crazy for him to declare war.
But Italy seems to have had no rational reasons at all. I am sure Britain would have given them a separate peace. So, why did Mussolini do it? Was he afraid of the Germans invading? Or the Soviets? Did Hitler promise him something? Did he think there would be 100 million Italians living in Africa, by now? His motivation seems to be very unclear.
And Italy’s strategic situation seems to have been very bad. Japan could delude itself that it was protected by the Pacific. Germany might believe that it was Fortress Europe, but Italy is just a giant peninsula, full of attack vectors. I could perhaps understand, if the Axis had fully controlled the Mediterranean at that point.
Are these television opinionators, and people in Russia generally, aware that Mussolini began as a Marxist and operated in leftist circles as a labor leader and journalist for many years? This isn’t a wild unfounded assertion; it’s been described and documented by many writers. One example:
Given that it was a Komintern directive from 1929 that led to subsuming “everything (((they))) don´t like” under “fascism” (and is strictly adhered to to this day), what´s this backpedaling now?
The Germans were in Yugoslavia, only because Mussolini went into Greece, ignoring Hitler’s request, and got his ass kicked. They were there to bail Mussolini out. Germany wanted no part of the Balkans, understanding that any aggression there would give the Soviets an excuse.
I would suggest that any invading force is hostile to some extent. It has to be in order to be successful.
I think you miss the point. The US had been at war with Germany for years, it just wasn’t declared. It went beyond U-boats. The US was reporting German merchant shipping to Britain, making it easier for them to sink. The “lend/lease” scam while refusing German access to certain US products is an act of war.
Hitler never wanted a war on two fronts. He fully understood that the threat to Europe was the USSR, and had made many peace offers to Britain and France, on very favourable terms. He implored Mussolini not to go into Greece, despite British actions, as it would give an excuse for another front.
WWII was going to happen, irrespective of what Italy, Japan, and Germany did. The three represented economic models that challenged finance capitalism. Soviet Marxism if the flip side of that coin.
There is a massive qualitative difference between a declared war and an undeclared war, and that is not accounting for Japan having attacked the US, and drawn attention away from Europe.
Anyway, the question is about Italy, not Germany.
Navalny’s views are on a nationalist spectrum.
So if there is a difference between Orban/Salvini’s views on immigration on one side, and then Putin/Merkel open-borders policy.
Navalny would be in the Orban/Salvini side and I don’t think he has changed on those views in relation to immigration.
Also you call him “racist” for that.
https://www.unz.com/akarlin/navalny-petty-racist/
In relation to American liberal media, it’s just a sign of how they are biased, that they don’t report on Navalny’s views where those views inconsistent with their own ideology.
I would not view him as particularly interesting, as he is an employee, and he works to please or satisfy his employers (or his employers’ employer).
Perhaps, there is some personal creativity involved – for example, he focuses on immigration problems in Europe. But the reason, is he thinks it is a good way distract peoples’ attention away from problems in Russia.
Also, I imagine his kind of job allows space for plenty personal views, but where they do not contradict totally your employer’s views. E.g. His personal view is pro-Israel, so he is pro-Israel in his show. But this is not unique, as Russian television is the most pro-Israel one in Europe and it also hires people from Israeli television to work there. There is some reflection of where his own views, but they are not totally inconsistent with the attitudes or sympathies of their employers – so he feels he can give personal expression of those views in his job without annoying anyone.
Mussolini will be something similar. Currently, people don’t have such strong views about Mussolini, so he feels he can express his own without annoying people too much.
You neglect to mention that post is from 2012, when I was a Putinist normie with sovok tendencies. As I wrote, people’s politics chance.
Here is what Navalny is writing about immigration as of 2019:
https://twitter.com/akarlin88/status/1120332059862601729
Google Translate:
The most that could be said for his migration policy now is that it is cognitively elitist. But given how he has moved towards the GloboHomo position on virtually all other vectors, even this is no doubt just a temporary stand before inviting in massive hordes of Ghanan doctors and engineers.
So what’s with the pedo shit you got going on here?
https://www.unz.com/article/u-k-s-repulsive-reality-reflections-on-leftist-witch-hunting-and-the-andrew-sabisky-affair/#comment-3751455
https://www.unz.com/article/u-k-s-repulsive-reality-reflections-on-leftist-witch-hunting-and-the-andrew-sabisky-affair/#comment-3752642
I agree that hysteria over any word is ridiculous, and that the typical hysterical reaction to “Fascist” in regards to its Italian manifestation (it’s only real manifestation) is little more than Pavlovian training by history’s falsifiers.
My family lived through the Fascist period in Italy. My grandfather was 14 when Benito came to power. Benito sent him to Yugoslavia and he was lucky to come home alive; yet he admired Benito his entire life.
His brothers, on the other hand, were loyal members of the PCI to the end, and were the Italian counterparts to the Yugoslavs that shot at my grandfather.
After the war, they managed to come home, become a family again, and live the rest of their lives together in peace and happiness.
Now, Benito sent Gramsci to rot and die in prison.
So, I have to ask: how should my grandfather have dealt with his brothers?
Since you clicked “Agree” you are welcome to answer too Mr. Karlin.
Fascist!! 😉
Fascism is fully meaningful – it is belief that might makes right, belief that life is war and war is life, belief that war is great and glorious.
Fascism is stupid and leads any nation that embraces it straight to garbage dump of history.
https://i.redd.it/9z7ov6kxq7x21.jpg
Smart leaders had no time for fascism.
This is why Francisco Franco sent his fascists to Eastern front to die.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Division
This is why Ben Gurion shot his fascists like dogs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altalena_Affair
Learn from winners, not from losers, if you want to live long and prosper.
In his book “In Europe”, the Dutch author Geert Mak says that Italian Army officers saved many Jews from the Germans. He also says Mussolini personally gave orders to his Army to save as many Jews as possible in southern France.
So it’s not surprising this Russian Jew may like Mussolini.
LMAO Slovenians and Croats LARPing as “Slavic” victims of “evil Italians”, as opposed to “almost good Germans”.
The Habsburg serf/servant cries out in pain as it strikes you.
Cursed be the day we prevented the Austrians, Italians and Hungarians from extinguishing you.
Underhanded, opportunistic lying scum and unscrupulous to the extreme. Fought fanatically for Habsburgs in WW1, sang praises to Serbs when they were rushing towards Carinthia and liberating, then greeted Axis/Nazis with flowers, non-existant resistance, followed by Taqqiyah in Yugoslavia only to backstab again in 1991 and bow down to Germans.
Don’t forget the bs about how Slovenia and Croatia were being bled dry by the Serbian SR, which is why they came out of the 90s as the richest republics by far
It’s astonishing how many of them don’t even know about the transfering of industry from places like Rakovica
And for all their economic genius, the tiny nation of Slovenia somehow has a larger public debt then Serbia
Fascism is whatever you want it to be
Anyone you don’t like is fascistic, everything you don’t want has a secret fascist nature that only you can detect
Georgian Mario was a fascist, Bernie Sanders is a fascist and Joe “Malarkey” Biden too will probably be a fascist when he invades some random Middle Eastern country
Fascism as a term is such a joke at this point
And they wonder why nationalist internationals never take off.
Alliance of peoples/Volks is possible.
Alliance of political nations as artificial, XIX and XX century constructs with arbitrary borders is impossible.
Why?
Because those borders were drawn at the expense of someone else and to harm the enemy of those who drew them.
It worked for them, it worked very well for them.
They survived and thrived despite being a fairly small nation next to several bigger ones.
That actually is an excellent point, and holds both inside and outside of Europe.
My point was more that nationalist movements tend to start getting hung up on the country’s old conflicts and it’s counterproductive, especially in smaller European countries where everyone’s been someone else’s enemy sometime recently. You all have a common interest in keeping Muslim refugees out.
Because it is a retarded idea at it’s core?
Russians at least would have to be utter retards to fall for it, what “nationalist internationals” hope for is for Russians to use themselves as cannon fodder for some Pan-Europeanist or Anti-Zionist fantasies
Even Western liberals consider Slavs to be subhumans (they just use more polite terms)
Serbs do this shit too, theres loads fake Russophiles (not talking about folks here on Unz) who, after getting burned by France and England, now hope for Russia to fight their battles
Russians threw away their Empire trying to save Serbia in 1914 and even after that there were White Russians in Belgrade (at one point they were 1/6th of the citys population) helping to rebuild it after the war
And the Serb “intelligentsia” still argues that Serbia has never gotten anything for it’s friendship with Russia and should distance itself from it asap
Thankfully the current leadership in Moscow is not naive enough to fall for it, there was no Russo-Iranian crusade against Israel in Syria and Russians are just simply giving Serbs weapons to fight their own wars (we’re more then capable of fighting any regional rival 1 on 1), perhaps one day this will lead to a Balkan Tartus and Khmeimim if US influence continues to decline and if it doesn’t then it’s much easier to write that off as a loss compared to the 1917 catastrophe
This is the best depiction of Fascism of all:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsTqJjDG2Xo
https://youtu.be/JYWRu8uT8z8
I’m not a Navalny supporter and have always disliked his personality, but his comment here is intelligent.
Except you cut off half his comment, and it becomes without context more like he is supporting mass immigration, when he was writing the opposite.
https://www.facebook.com/navalny/posts/2433464690005933?comment_id=2433745876644481
He is writing a response to people opposing him for being an anti-immigrant.
So, his proposal is an immigration system should filter for educated specialists, open borders with wealthy Western countries (which will never immigrate to Russia without a high salary, as we all know – almost all migrants only go from lower to higher income countries), and then he will close borders with Central Asia and Caucasus. He knows that the result of such a policy will be a massive reduction in migration of non-Russians to Russia.
Also by the way, how is this different to Salvini/Orban? Orban just uses rhetoric aimed at IQ 70-80 people, which is his voting base in Hungary, and Navalny is targetting or wants support of IQ 100-110 people, which is nowadays his supporting base. End result is the same – i.e. anti mass-immigration policies.
Isn’t your argument precisely, that there are not massive hordes of Ghanan doctors and engineers, and that is the problem. If such “massive hordes” of educated specialists were in Ghana, perhaps Ghana would be something more like Wakanda, and they would be worried about how to stop mass immigration to Ghana from Russia.
Anyway, it’s just rhetorical, as currently quite unfiltered African students are not just invited by the current government, but their tuition and housing is often subsidized. They just leave after completing studies, because their career prospects are worse in Russia than they would have in the Western countries (if they don’t like their Africa and don’t return home).
One of Wodehouse’s flaws. Funny how it didn’t prevent him from being called a Nazi. But, if he were alive today, I’d like to think that he wouldn’t be one of these globalist scoundrels like John le Carre, who is anyway a much inferior writer.
Thanks for the clip. Looks like an entertaining movie
Beoadly speaking, despite all the talk about ‘corporatism’ in regards to Fascism, it seems more than anything to have been simply a rehash of the old king/emperor system, but, with modern trappings.
http://www.losanjealous.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/rome_wide.jpg
Didn’t Wodehouse made good fun of everyone– tories, commies, fascists, and liberals alike?
He wasn’t particularly political, apparently. The Germans did get him to make a few broadcasts where he gently made fun of them (which they then used as propaganda to claim they weren’t mistreating people), but there’s no evidence he was ever a Nazi.
I always thought it showed the national character, like everything else. The Germans built a huge and brutal industrial war machine. The Italians weren’t awfully competent (or brutal) at fascism, but the home of Fendi, Prada, Versace, etc. looked great doing it.
Yes, I suppose that is true.
You’re questions are all valid ones, and I think a lot of people have always wondered what was going through Benito’s head.
The fact that an honest assessment of WWII is effectively a career killer for any scholar makes getting at the true story even more difficult.
It is even more bewildering as Benito probably could have ruled for much longer, like Franco, had he been smart and stayed neutral. If I had been the German Chancellor I would have strongly encouraged Benito to stay out. After all, it was Benito’s failed attempts at expanding his African empire at British expense that ultimately led to the invasion of Sicily and allied troops approaching Germany up the boot. Had Benito remained neutral, while maintaining a defensive position at home, the allies would have been forced to declare war on Italy in order to open up the Italian front, making them look like aggressors. But the course of events didn’t permit such a discussion to happen.
Here is my assessment of what might have been going on.
Benito came to power in 1922 much earlier than his counterparts in Germany and Spain. His nationalist/corporatist economics, basically FDRism plus dictatorship, helped Italy progress economically in the midst of the roaring ‘20s.
By the 1930s the world was in a depression and his economic policies might have exhausted their potential to generate economic growth and keep the Italian people excited about him.
This put Benito in a bind. As a 20th century Caesar, there was no way for him to move aside and allow for a smooth transition to another squad. As a result, he needed to manufacture reasons for the Italian people to maintain enthusiasm for him and his regime, and increasingly turned towards a militaristic and confrontational nationalism to do so.
The regime’s propaganda, which promoted an unrealistic self-image to the Italian people, based on nostalgia for ancient greatness and dreams of Mare Nostrum, eventually went to his head, and he was unable to understand that than under-industrialized Italy could not fight the kind of industry-intensive war that was coming. Perhaps this was in part due to the fact that he had been in the military during WWI, when Italy actually beat the Austrians (barely). But WWI was essentially just the US Civil plus machine guns and better artillery, nothing like what was to come.
Now, when Italy actually declared war on Britain and France, he did so at the tail end of the Battle of France, when France had already effectively succumbed to Germany. This seems consistent with the hypothesis that his motivations were based on domestic political/popularity considerations. He didn’t really want to fight, but just have a “victory” to sell to his people.
He probably should have stopped, but he made the decision to bring the fight to the British in Egypt from Italian Libya. What might have been some elements of the calculation?
1) France is out and Britain is alone, being bombed by Germany. Now is a good time.
2) I have already declared war and joined Germany, so being neutral is not an option, and the British might choose to attack me first, if I don’t.
Of course, his attempt against Britain was a miserable failure and the rest is history.
It’s sad that at the end of the day it was the misguided actions of an Italian nationalist that first led to his country’s occupation by Germans, then by America and its military bases, its “culture,” and essentially the erasure of Italy and its uniqueness.
Interestingly, I see a parallel with a former leader of a once functioning Iraq. Lesson for nationalists: stick to your own country; build up your people; don’t let delusions of superiority lead you astray; and stay out of the imperial agendas of country’s that just want to use you.
Ghanaian doctors have a good reputation. It was the first British African country to receive independence as it was well developed by the standards of the time. Like most ex colonies, other than Dominions, it went backwards under a decade or so of socialism imosed by returning graduates of the LSE. (Lee Kuan Yu being an exception – he acheived progress).
A perfectly rational position to hold. After living in Israel for five years I also became anti-Palestinian and pro-Zionist. I wouldn’t make fun of people or insult a group publicly, but I can understand general frustrations with barbarians, and I’m not a TV host who thrives on controversy. Of course I’ve never seen this person’s show and don’t watch Russian TV.
Still, saying all that, these days I’d rather have a beer with the average Palestinian than the average American.
This post has actually taught me quite a few things about Mussolini (and also who this Solovyev person is). Before I thought he was basically like Hitler, but it turns out he was very different.
You sure this had nothing to do with Jewish blood in you? Cause this is how you get to live in Israel for 5 years. Race-based immigration system. I hear they’ll soon be checking immigrants for “Jewish DNA”.
I worked for five years in my profession on a work visa. My initial contract was for three years but I liked it so much that I stayed for more. We actually tried staying for longer, but it’s true that Israel doesn’t give away citizenship so easily and you can’t stay for longer than five years if you’re not a citizen. Me and the wife, who was also working there in her specialty, tried getting citizenship or some sort of permanent residency because sometimes there are exceptions (for example, if you get offered a professor job), and there was some Jewish ancestry, but ultimately they told us to screw off after half a year of going every week to the dysfunctional Ministry of the Interior office. Maybe with the “Jewish DNA” we’ll try it again, but last time it didn’t look good, as informally one woman clerk who took pity on us told us they maybe would give citizenship to only one of us and not the other, and that’s a deal breaker.
But yes, definitely one of the best countries for making friends and having BBQ parties on the beach and the balcony with them. Great open culture for that.
Really?
I’m not sure about this part, but I completely agree with the rest of your comment.
Anyway, when our time comes, it would be a crime not to take revenge (should ideally be in the form of Red Army occupation of Germany in late WW2) upon these Slovenian trash whores for WW1, Marko Natlacen’s “Hang the Serbs from Willow trees”, both Yugoslavia’s, stolen ancient Serb industry and 1990’s separatism, especially the Serb victims of Holmec …
What is it with you and sex fantasies?
Anyway
https://countryeconomy.com/national-debt/slovenia
https://countryeconomy.com/national-debt/serbia
https://countryeconomy.com/national-debt/croatia
I guess I should have written a longer post.
To a Russophile like me obviously the Nazis were far worse than Fascists, I just wanted to point out Fascists were hard-core anti-Slavic racists which is not as widely known, partially due to British activities post WW2.
Due to geographic proximity Slovenians and Croatians suffered more than other Slavs, but it would have been anyone (Fascists anyhow didn’t differentiate — they never mentioned Slovenians or Croatian, but always used generic “Slavs” in their speeches etc)
And I agree about Slovenian Germanophilic slavishness. It’s embarrassing and still persists, but it is also understandable since it’s the Austrian influence that has made Slovenian progress much easier before and after WW2 (alongside taking advantage of Titoist policies).
You also have to understand that due to a tiny population Slovenia never had a chance to be free from this influence as a successful revolt was not doable (and anyway after you’ve been ruled by foreigners for centuries a sort of Stockholm syndrome mentality develops – I’ve seen it in Indians and a few other long-term occupied/colonised peoples)
I will desist from commenting on one or two more rabid comments here as they’re too emotionally based (understandable in the Balkans, but not really productive)…
lol?
I was referring to de-industrializing Slovenia by transferring stolen Serb industry back to Serbia just as much about the other things in the Red Army treatment of East Germany in WW2.
More importantly, I can’t access the links you’ve sent but I think it’s well known that Slovenians are financial tricksters and not to be trusted with money. This case of Slovenians defrauding Croats and “Bosnians” during the 1990’s makes me lol.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ljubljana_Bank
I’m not sure if I buy an economic explanation. There is at least one version offered for Germany (to avoid people noticing inflation) and Japan (lack of oil). In those cases, I really don’t think either explanation makes sense. That said, it seems obvious that there were some incentives and disincentives involved. What were their exact nature is the $10,000 question. Maybe, they were almost purely social, or involved deep-rooted psychology.
Is it possible for a regime to change paths, once they get on an active course? (like globalization) Or does it require the regime to be replaced? I think the questions involving WW2 (and not just of the Axis) are very relevant for today. I think you’re tight, a serious analysis of this is avoided due to the way that it is turned into a morality tale.
Of course, it depends on how much they were willing to cooperate, but I think that Hitler and Mussolini may have been able to pivot towards space, and that would have bought them at least another twenty years in power. There was an incredible amount of space-related optimism in the US starting in the 1950s. I don’t know, if it was a side effect of other things or not. One of the reasons modern Germany never really got into space was more than the way that German talent was vacuumed up. It had to do with the political impossibility of launching rockets from Germany.
I don’t think this creep Navalny has ever been relevant, but I thought this became 100% established when his daughter got accepted into Stanford University.
She could easily have just got onto a degree course and enjoyed a luxury lifestyle in some other part of the US or even still in California, and it still would have smelled of corruption, but would have been not as blatant as it is her getting into Stanford- a CIA/Gosdep hive and currently rated one of top 3 Universities in the world.
How dumb do Stanford have to be to have offered this, clearly not on merit? It stinks of CIA or Gosdep favouritism and deflates liberasts in Russia who would dream of a similar offer, ironically being a victim of extreme nepotism in an institution where ex US Ambassador to Russia, Mcfaul, is a lecturer .
How dumb are the Navalny’s ( or disinterested) when they could have got a similar thing without getting negative attention?
BTW do you know if his kids were educated in Russia?( If so, unlimited laughs for the Russian authorities)
Or were his kids educated abroad? (also unlimited laughter)
But there are armies of Tajik doctors in Kazan and Moscow which quite a few people aren’t happy with already. Navalny is just being disingenuous – much like this idiot was on the pension age issue.
What you are missing is that he isn’t too happy with the Internal migration from the N. Kavkaz . I am sure there has been negativity towards Armenians/Gruzian also lumped in with central Asians.
It’s a big target for this prick- after all VVP has an Estonian Chief of Staff, Shoigu, Tatars now controlling the 2 branches of government responsible for construction ( 1 of them was largely responsible for most developments in Moscow in the last few years), Surkov until recently, numerous prominent Lith… , Azer.. , Armenians in prominent positions in State media, numerous non-russian governors appointed by VVP in ethnic republics where Russians are either majority or nearly 50/50, Tatar head of Central Bank, plus stability in the Northern Caucasus – all things in collective that he would want to undermine.
Navalny’s children?
They were educated in Russia – they just go to English language summer schools, in England, in the summer. This is the cheaper way to get the same result – i.e. good IELTs exam, access to Western universities. In addition, the daughter had been in a school where she could study international baccalaureate.
I’ve written about some time in the past, in the time before she was going to Stanford: I’ll copypaste the old comments
https://www.unz.com/akarlin/russianness/#comment-2603657
https://www.unz.com/akarlin/navalnys-krysha/#comment-3036699
So who’s paying the Stanford tuition, which is probably almost roughly equal to Navalny’s annual income?
That would be stupid because Solovyov was making the obvious point that the likes of Franco and Mussolini are non- comparable in the evil category to fascists such as Hitler, Bandera, Shukhyevich, Zelensky and that bitch Vera Famiga.
Plus there was a huge contingent of Italians who fought on Russian land during Great Patriotic war and they fought relatively “clean” compared to others….. so the collaboration aspect is less damming for Mussolini