The ''Fascio d'Azione Rivoluzionaria'' (translatable into

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

as ''"

Fasces Fasces ( ; ; a ''plurale tantum'', from the Latin word ''fascis'', meaning "bundle"; it, fascio littorio) is a bound bundle of wooden rods, sometimes including an axe (occasionally two axes) with its blade emerging. The fasces is an Italian symbo ...

of Revolutionary Action"''; figuratively ''"League of Revolutionary Action"'') was an Italian political movement founded in 1914 by

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...

, and active mainly in 1915. Sponsored by

Alceste De Ambris Alceste De Ambris (15 September 1874 – 9 December 1934) was an Italian syndicalist, the brother of fascist politician Amilcare De Ambris. He had a major part to play in the agrarian strike actions of 1908 in Parma. Life De Ambris was born ...

, Mussolini, and

Angelo Oliviero Olivetti Angelo Oliviero Olivetti (21 June 1874 – 17 November 1931) was an Italian lawyer, journalist, and political activist. Olivetti was born in Ravenna, Italy. In 1892 while a student at the University of Bologna he joined the Italian Sociali ...

, it was a pro-war movement aiming to promote Italian entry into

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. It was connected to the world of revolutionary interventionists and inspired by the programmatic manifesto of the '' Fascio Rivoluzionario d'Azione Internazionalista'', dated 5 October 1914. The movement achieved its primary goal when Italy declared war on

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

in May 1915, and most of the movement's members joined the army. After the war, almost all of them met in 1919 in

Piazza San Sepolcro The Piazza San Sepolcro () is a piazza in the center of Milan not far from the Piazza del Duomo. During the Roman period the piazza was the forum at the intersection of the cardo and the decumanus. In 1030 the Church of San Sepolcro was foun ...

for the foundation of the ''

Fasci Italiani di Combattimento The ''Fasci Italiani di Combattimento'' ( en, Italian Fasces of Combat, link=yes, also translatable as ''"Italian Fighting Bands"'' or ''"Italian Fighting Leagues"'') was an Italian Fascism, Italian Fascist organization created by Benito Mussolin ...

'', which preceded the

National Fascist Party The National Fascist Party ( it, Partito Nazionale Fascista, PNF) was a political party in Italy, created by Benito Mussolini as the political expression of Italian Fascism and as a reorganization of the previous Italian Fasces of Combat. The ...

founded in 1921.

History

The ''Fascio d'Azione Rivoluzionaria'' was founded on 11 December 1914Zeev Sternhell (1994). ''The Birth of Fascist Ideology''.

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial su ...

. ISBN 0691044864. p. 303. and held its first meeting on 24 January 1915.O'Brien, Paul (2005). ''Mussolini in the First World War: The Journalist, The Soldier, The Fascist''.

Berg Publishers Berg Publishers was an academic publishing company based in Oxford, Oxfordshire, England and Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It was founded in the United Kingdom in 1983 by Marion Berghahn. Berg published monographs, textbooks, referen ...

. ISBN 1845200519. The

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

had begun in July 1914, but Italy remained neutral, and public opinion as well as the political majority in

parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

supported continued neutrality and non-involvement in the war.

Denis Mack Smith Denis Mack Smith CBE FBA FRSL (3 March 1920 – 11 July 2017) was an English historian who specialized in the history of Italy from the Risorgimento onwards. He is best known for his biographies of Garibaldi, Cavour and Mussolini, and for his ...

(1983). ''Mussolini: A Biography''. New York:

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

. ISBN 0394716582. In this context, the ''Fascio d'Azione Rivoluzionaria'' was created as an umbrella organization for pro-war activists led by

, who were called ''interventionists'' because they wished for Italy to intervene in the war. At the meeting in January 1915, a motion was passed which stated that national problems - including the issue of national borders - needed to be resolved in Italy and elsewhere "for the ideals of justice and liberty for which oppressed peoples must acquire the right to belong to those national communities from which they descended." Mussolini asserted on this occasion that Italy should join the war "for the liberation of the unredeemed peoples of Trentino and Istria", which implied territorial claims over regions inhabited by ethnic Italians. The ''Fascio d'Azione Rivoluzionaria'' committed itself to Italian

irredentism Irredentism is usually understood as a desire that one state annexes a territory of a neighboring state. This desire is motivated by ethnic reasons (because the population of the territory is ethnically similar to the population of the parent sta ...

- the desire to expand the borders of Italy to encompass all ethnic Italians - while also wishing to annex some strategically important territories without an Italian majority, such as

South Tyrol it, Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano – Alto Adige lld, Provinzia Autonoma de Balsan/Bulsan – Südtirol , settlement_type = Autonomous province , image_skyline = , image_alt ...

. Due to Mussolini's support of Italian intervention in the then-ongoing

, he received financial support from Ansaldo (an armaments firm) and other companies, especially from the sugar and electrical industries.

(1997)

979 Year 979 ( CMLXXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * March 24 – Second Battle of Pankaleia: An Ibero-Byzantine expeditionary ...

''Modern Italy: A Political History''. Ann Arbor:

University of Michigan Press The University of Michigan Press is part of Michigan Publishing at the University of Michigan Library. It publishes 170 new titles each year in the humanities and social sciences. Titles from the press have earned numerous awards, including L ...

. ISBN 0300043422. He received additional support from government-backed sources in France. Later, in 1917, Mussolini was allegedly also supported by the British Directorate of Military Intelligence, who are claimed to have paid him a £100 weekly wage; this help is said to have been authorised by Sir Samuel Hoare. However, regardless of the financial support he accepted for his pro-interventionist stance, Mussolini's socialist critics noted that Mussolini was free to write whatever he wished in his newspaper ''Il Popolo d'Italia'', without prior sanctioning by his financial backers. In March 1915, Mussolini declared the movement's irredentist stance towards

Trieste Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into provi ...

, in which he stated that Trieste "must be, and will be Italian through war against the Austrians and, if necessary, against the Slavs." In an article on 6 April 1915, Mussolini addressed the movement's irredentist stance towards

Dalmatia Dalmatia (; hr, Dalmacija ; it, Dalmazia; see #Name, names in other languages) is one of the four historical region, historical regions of Croatia, alongside Croatia proper, Slavonia, and Istria. Dalmatia is a narrow belt of the east shore of ...

, arguing that Italy should not annex all of Dalmatia because claims that it had a majority of Italian speakers were "not a good enough reason to claim exclusive possession of ''all'' of Dalmatia." However, he did support Italy annexing a vast section of Dalmatia including its entire

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Archi ...

. The ''Fascio d'Azione Rivoluzionaria'' also received ideological influence from members other than Mussolini, such as

Giuseppe Prezzolini Giuseppe Prezzolini (27 January 1882 – 16 July 1982) was an Italian literary critic, journalist, editor and writer. He later became an American citizen. Biography Prezzolini was born in Perugia in January 1882, to Tuscan parents from Siena, Luig ...

, who had previously been a member of the

Italian Nationalist Association The Italian Nationalist Association (''Associazione Nazionalista Italiana'', ANI) was Italy's first nationalist political movement founded in 1910, under the influence of Italian nationalists such as Enrico Corradini and Giovanni Papini. Upon it ...

. Prezzolini was impressed by Mussolini, and in late 1914 began to write for Mussolini's newspaper ''Il Popolo d'Italia''. During an interventionist demonstration on 11 April 1915 that was confronted by neutralist

PSI Psi, PSI or Ψ may refer to: Alphabetic letters * Psi (Greek) (Ψ, ψ), the 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet * Psi (Cyrillic) (Ѱ, ѱ), letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet, adopted from Greek Arts and entertainment * "Psi" as an abbreviatio ...

members, Italian state police killed one man, an electrician named Innocente Marcora. Both interventionists and neutralists were outraged by the man's death. The ''Fascio d'Azione Rivoluzionaria'' took part in a joint neutralist-interventionist work stoppage for one day on 14 April. In writing about these events, Mussolini referred to his supporters for the first time as "fascists", although he put the word in inverted commas at this time. Also in April 1915, Mussolini accused Italy's

King Victor Emmanuel III King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

of being a pro-German "

Philistine The Philistines ( he, פְּלִשְׁתִּים, Pəlīštīm; Koine Greek (LXX): Φυλιστιείμ, romanized: ''Phulistieím'') were an ancient people who lived on the south coast of Canaan from the 12th century BC until 604 BC, when ...

", charging him of being "foreign" and allegedly a "

neutralist A neutral country is a state that is neutral towards belligerents in a specific war or holds itself as permanently neutral in all future conflicts (including avoiding entering into military alliances such as NATO, CSTO or the SCO). As a type of ...

." However, the Italian government was already secretly negotiating the Treaty of London to join the war on the side of the Entente, and in May 1915 the king signed the declaration of war. Most of the members of the ''Fascio d'Azione Rivoluzionaria'' quickly volunteered to join the army and left for the front lines, but Mussolini himself waited until he was conscripted in September 1915; he remained in the army until he was wounded during a training exercise and discharged because of his injuries in June 1917.

References

Bibliography

* Mauro Canali, ''Cesare Rossi. Da rivoluzionario a eminenza grigia del fascismo'', Il Mulino, Bologna, 1991. *Luca Leonello Rimbotti, ''Fascismo rivoluzionario. Il fascismo di sinistra dal sansepolcrismo alla Repubblica Sociale'', Passaggio Al Bosco, 2018.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fascio d'Azione Rivoluzionaria National syndicalism Organizations established in 1915 Organizations disestablished in 1919 Benito Mussolini Defunct nationalist parties in Italy Fascist parties 1915 establishments in Italy 1919 disestablishments in Italy