Honestly reading about and hearing other people talk about Mussolini - one would think he was a complete and total idiot. What were his strengths and virtues and are there any sources which describe him on a more personal level?
>>386521
>Honestly reading about and hearing other people talk about Mussolini - one would think he was a complete and total idiot
It sure sounds like that if you're reading the propaganda of both germs and yanks.
He managed to earn the admiration of Gandhi, of all fucking people:
http://www.ibtimes.com/mussolini-gandhi-strange-bedfellows-214200
The letter quoted was to Romain Rolland.
Speaking of letters, a young Hitler wrote one to Mussolini, asking for an authographed photo, the latter never replied, in other words, senpai didn't notice Hitler-chan that one time. Much of Hitler's fascism and party structure was modeled after its originator.
Half of /his/ seems to love this guy while the other half hate him, whats the real verdict?
>>386592
that's actually pretty neat
what do you imagine would have happened with italy if someone less unstable had been in power in germany?
>>386592
He also managed to impress Lenin. He thought it was shame that they "lost" Mussolini, and that he was a "first rate individual."
It's weird, you throw in Churchill and pretty much every one of his contemporaries thought Mussolini was an exceptional individual and leader. It's hard to think of a figure that was held in such esteem during their lifetime, and brought down so low.
>>386602
He was a polarizing figure.
>>386616
Didn't all of his Economic policies fail miserably?
>>386620
No. They petered along with mediocre success. Land reclamation was probably his best policy. He also had some success stamping out corruption (which in Italy is like bailing water out of the Titanic). His policies of pursuing autarchy helped during the depression, but slowed things down and raised food prices and reducing the quality of some goods available. But it was never miserable failure, or a resounding success. There's definitely been worse prime ministers, and there's been few better ones.
But he never lived up to his rhetoric either.
>>386521
Out of all of the 20th century power dictators, Mussolini had the most intellectual firepower in his skull. If he had kept to himself, he might have been like Franco and survived the post WWII purge of all of the other fascists.
But he went all MUH NEW ROME and thought that he could reform the Italian military. (protip: You can't.)
>>386643
>Most intellectual firepower
Prove it
>>386603
The most important thing is whether Italy enters in WW2 as part of the Axis or not. Challenging (all) the world powers to a fight is kind of a big deal.
Fascism lasting over 20 years means Italy might undergo a revolution later, maybe when the USSR isn't as relevant; socialist values would be less present in the Constitution and overall culture (Italy had the biggest communist party of all "sufficiently Western Europe...').
Alternatively, fascism continues all the way to the '00s and Italy is somewhat like a Latin American dictatorship.
>>386615
Even Lenin? That means Mussolini was basically the man that taught Europe how to authoritarianism. The "upside" of his bad reputation today is that he doesn't get the blame you'd think he'd deserve.
>>387148
Lenin had already authoritarianed at this point, and Mussolini had not yet (he hadn't even gotten power yet, and people forget the Moose took a couple years to seize dictatorial power, and basically didn't plan for it).
Lenin just thought Mussolini was the only individual in Italy who could make revolution like he did. He was right, in a way.
>>386642
>But he never lived up to his rhetoric either.
That's probably a good thing. People taking the Leader's rhetoric oo seriously in Germany and Japan was what made their empires so fucked up. Mussolini wasn't everything he yelled about and everyone knew it, but Italians were fine with nationalism and he was a nice face for the brutal state that they all knew they were living under to begin with. They probably weren't as enthusiastic about the war in general as the Germans for the same reason: they knew Italy wasn't really anything like a New Rome and wasn't destined to be. They just ended up with Hitler instead of joining the Allies or staying out of the war, which kind of fucked them over.
>>387266
Well, in Japan it was more the Army and society in general being too afraid of losing face to end the war, bt in Germany it definitely was Hitler.
