We publish below an open letter by John Foot, Professor of Modern Italian History at the Bristol University:
In her article about the TV series Mussolini: Son of the Century, about the rise to power of Benito Mussolini in Italy, Caroline Moorehead writes: “The March on Rome was, in fact, concluded not in widespread bloodshed, as the series suggests, but remarkably peacefully. In Milan, Turin and Parma, where opposition was expected, the fascists took control quietly and smoothly”.
Try telling that to the people of the neighbourhood of San Lorenzo in Rome, where numerous residents were killed by armed blackshirts during the March on Rome in October 1922. Argos Secondari was a well-known anti-fascist in Rome. He was attacked in his home by numerous fascists and savagely beaten, never recovering from his head injuries and ending his life in a psychiatric hospital. Giuseppe Lemmi, a communist, was kidnapped from the street by hundreds of blackshirts. His hair and beard were shaved, he was forced to drink castor oil, and he was paraded through the streets with humiliating signs around his neck. Many ordinary people were murdered in Rome and in other cities at that time, while private homes were raided and sacked.
This, of course, came after a full two years of armed blackshirt violence across Italy, which saw thousands killed, many others threatened or injured, and numerous buildings linked to individuals, the trade unions or the left burned to the ground. In the summer of 1922, the blackshirts acted as a kind of occupying army, marching on entire cities like Ravenna and Bolzano, destroying buildings and murdering whoever got in their way.
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