The Permanent Revolution Lives On! - Trotskyist AAR

[ThaHoward]

Sorry for the delay, here's another chapter on the inter-war. Have one in the works on Ireland-England-France, aim to have it out today, or tommorow. Also working on a chapter on Italy and the United Opposition, uncertain s of yet which one I will post first. We'll see, I must admit I enjoy posting the inter-war chapters!

This is probably the closest the stab in the back myth comes to being correct. The german miltiary absolutely could blame Austria for not only starting the war in the first place but then being so rubbish at it that they lost to Italians, having first been bailed out of being defeated by Russia.

Good chapter. Gets the chaos of the reich in the twenties very well. The rise of Hitler is relatively well know I think, but not what occurred between 1929 and 1933, that is, the years immediately before the nazis suddenly got into power.

That is an interesting take. At first I thought at including the whole Balkan theater in the fall of Germany, but concluded it would derail the chapter too much. Anyway, my take on it is that it proved that the Germans did get beaten in the field, i.e in the Balkans. If it continued for a little longer it would only be a complete disaster. But indeed, Austria was too eager to go to war, and then quite rubbish. I remember I read somewhere that Austria many times mobilzid, threatened Serbia, demobilized, then next crisis it repeated itself. In 1914 the Austrians had already decided they had to go to war instead of demobilize, not only to end the Serbian "problem" once and for all, but also since mobilization cost them too much money, a short war was better as not to ruin the prestige and Austian economy. Laughs in hindsight 20/20. Another interesting note with Germany, they did many errors that led to war, but Wilhelm II. it seems actually believed that Austria would accept Serbia's reply to their ultimatum, freely translating (from German->-Norwegian->English, some might be lost in translation) from when he came to Berlin and listened to the Serbian reply, it appears he was impressed as he wrote himself: "An excellent achievement considering it revolved around a time limit on 48 hours (...) this is much more than anyone could have expected. A great moral victory for Vienna. With this any reason for war falls away. Even the one who formulated Austria's ultimatum (Musulin) said regarding the ultimatum was "the most brilliant example of diplomatic aptitude". We all know how the Austrians recieved it.

Indeed Germany was very chaotic, and in this chapter just a little bit more chaotic than OTL. We can also see it in the former states of Austria/Ottoman Empire/Russia Empire in Europe, that the situation in Europe was far from secure and stable. I also find it kinda poetic that many of the leaders described passed, or retired, away in 1935, right before game start. In a way it represent a new era and clean(-ish) sheets for these nations to forge their destiny.

 

[ThaHoward]

Book Three: Chapter Three

Mussolini and Fascism

The World War of 1914-1918 was fought, as the saying went, to safeguard democracy across the world. When it ended, one could get the impression this goal was met. The great democracies of the West remained victorious, the old autocratic regimes - the German, the Austro-Hungarian, the Russian, the Ottoman - were crushed, and everywhere after the war new republics with modern constitutions emerged, that was - on paper - the purest templates on democratic constitutions. It would, however, show that most of this democratization was a mirage. Quite early was it apparent the Russian people had gone from one absolute system to another; From the Tsar's to the Proletariat's Dictatorship, i.e the Communist Party's dictatorship, that again led to Stalin's despotism. In several of the eastern European states, this development also had a dead end in authoritarian regimes, regardless of whether the state form was monarchist or republican.

Territory promised to Italy in 1915 by the Entente in light green. Instead, Northern Dalmatia went to Yugoslavia.

Still, it was one southern European country, Italy, that demonstrated for the world the first modern dictatorship of the Fascist blend, an absolute rule with a new ideology and a new technique of rule, a rule that not merely continued an old authoritarian tradition of the age of absolute monarchies, but also relieved a modern parliamentarian democracy of western European blend - which meant that the development had been reversed. During the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century most had taken it for granted and nature given that the democratization of the civilized world continued. And at the time it was natural to view it like that. Considering the victorious inroads of the parliamentary system, considering the increased public enlightenment, the expanded freedom of speech, the strengthened due process of law, etc. Now the development in country after country suddenly took a 180 turn; ideas of people's rule equality and the Rechtsstaat, ideas of humanism and peace between nations as well as classes, all this was discarded, as old garbage, that was outdated, false, harmful and ridiculous doctrines.

Armed workers occupying a factory in Milano.

It was no coincidence this teaching first got its breakthrough in Italy; there was neediness, discontentment, and chaotic conditions in political life. The country had become depleted during the war and the many senseless and incompetent offensives, and even if they had a seat among the table of victors, a malcontent of the results of the war was widespread. "Won the war, lost the peace" - the "mutilated victory". Indeed Italy had achieved quite a substantial expansion of its territory, but not to the extent it had hoped. After the peace a serious economical crisis followed, that unleashed great labor struggles, and the social unrest was intensified with the labor movement for a time swearing allegiance to the Bolshevik tenets, for a time the danger of a communist revolution not only loomed but seemed probable - Italy descended into the Bienno Rosso. The Italian bourgeois felt especially threatened when the socialist movement from the spring of 1919 started to use the occupation of factories as a weapon in the trade disputes, in place of strikes; the strike was an ineffective tool in a time when prices fell and it was difficult to find outlets for production. Instead, workers tried to directly assume control of the companies; they remained at their working places and continued with business as usual, with production and sales. Italian Marxists and Anarcho-Syndicalists experimented with workers' self-management, and peasants in the south struck with one million farming hands in solidarity. July 1919 saw a general strike in solidarity with the Russian Revolution. Membership of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) counted 250.000, the major trade union reached over 2.000.000 members, and the anarcho-syndicalist union reached 300-500.000 affiliates. The factory occupation reached its peak in the summer and autumn of 1920, but they ended in failure; in the long run, it was impossible for the workers to maintain production; they lacked the technical and skilled leadership, they did not receive credits, they could not deposit their production. It was a serious blow to the worker's movement, and consequently was an inner conflict that largely impaired them. In this nation founded on the sand of discontent and social unrest was where Fascism reared its head, and when it could become such a potent force, it was also a consequence of the parliamentary democracy of Italy being so weak, engraved in bitter partisanship, without any meaningful leader figure, and without any solid foundation among a people where literacy and political schooling was meager.

Benito Mussolini and the twenty years elder popular theater writer Gabriele d'Annuzio, that like Mussolini, dreamed of making Italy a new Roman empire. This photograph is from the beginning of the 1920s when Mussolini listens attentively to the visions of the writer.

The man who went to the front of the new movement was Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini. He was born in 1883 in a small village in Romagna. His father was a blacksmith and an innholder, and his mother a teacher. Benito was educated as a teacher, but he led a restless life. He went to, among other places, Switzerland, where he became a manual laborer, at the same time he studied, wrote, and organized radical political organizations. He came from a radical, even revolutionary, environment, and joined the labor movement, where he functioned as both a journalist and an orator. He had a substantial talent as an agitator and directed fierce attacks against bourgeois society, the church, and against religion. In 1911 he was sentenced to jail for propaganda against the Italo-Turkish War; the year after he was a member of PSI's leadership, and editor-in-chief of its main organ "Avanti". From the onset on he emerged as a rebel; he showed little interest in practical reform work, and he despised the parliamentary system and its compromises. He worshipped action and the use of force; his speeches and articles were less suited to convince through a logical train of thought, they stimulated revolutionary action.

It was thus not really much of a surprise that he right after the declaration of war went against the party's neutrality policy, and advocated that Italy should plunge itself into the war; it should, however, only be the prelude to tomorrow's social revolution. The party fired him from his position in "Avanti", but he created a new circulation, "Popolo d'Italia", and led his own political guerilla many years ago, while he preached both the gospels of nationalism and revolution. It was a mix of ideologies that would prove to have a strong appeal, not only in Italy but also later in Germany, where an affiliated movement appropriated the name of National Socialism. In reality, Mussolini himself was not bound to any idea, creed, or doctrine; those were only means to an end. The goal was to gain power and utilize power. Everything else was subordinate.

Early members of what was to become the Blackshirts. Often clashing violently with Red Guards and occupying factories of their own.

On the 23rd of March 1919, Mussolini gathered a group of men in Milano to form a political parliamentary group - the Squadrismo later morphed into the Blackshirts. The 145 persons present, came from the most diverse of social strata and represented all kinds of political persuasions, from the most conservative to the socialist and the anarchist. What primarily bound these men together, was the nationalist sentiments, they had pushed for Italian war participation, and most of them were former combat veterans. After a proposal from Mussolini, they formed a "fascio di combattimento". The word fascio, which gave the name to Fascism, actually means bundle, translated: as union or group, and had been used prior by other political groups. As Mussolini in his nationalist propaganda looked back to Roman traditions, the connection with the fasces was underlined - the designation of that bundle with an ax put into it, that was carried in front of the highest of civil servants as a sign of their authority to extort punishment; therefore fasces also became a symbol for authority, discipline, and unity. Notions of high value among the fascists. They also resumed the ancient Roman greeting of raising their arm, and the movement's battle character was underlined by the members being uniformed in black shirts. The program that the summer of 1919 was in the works for the new party, was very radical, with demands for a new constitution, increased taxation of the wealthy, with wide-reaching social reforms. Mussolini attempted, in covenant with his revolutionary past in the syndicalist movement, to win the masses in a violent competition with the socialists, and it is characteristic that he supported the workers during the factory occupations - at the same time he demanded a far more chauvinistic foreign policy. In regards to the Church, a Crown the movement was initially very hostile.

Red Guards manning factories.

The attempts on winning the toiling masses were, however, no success. Mussolini himself fell through during the election in the fall of 1919. The PSI became the strongest party; the next greatest party in the Chamber of Deputies became the Italian Popular Party (PPI), a Catholic populist party under the leadership of prelate Luigi Sturzo. After the factory occupations of 1920, a new situation was created; Mussolini adapted smoothly and unscrupulously to it, and Fascism was in a short time a mass movement. An army without a leader met a leader without an army. The Duce was the ambitious Mussolini, the army was the Italian middle class. It had been gravely affected by the economical crisis, and feared the revolution; it had been frightened of both the communist victory in Russia and the occupations in Italy, and it was squeezed between the organized workers and the old upper class. In addition, came a strong nationalism that became dominating within the middle classes, just as many irritated themself over parliamentarians' lack of skill and vigor.

After the failed occupations weakened the labor movement, and it was fractured into a communist and - three times the larger - social democratic party, the middle class was now on the offensive, and calls for "the strong man" echoed with greater strength throughout Italy. The strong man was at hand in Mussolini's figure. This was a task for his power-hungry and ruthless nature. That he had to make a total readjustment, mattered none. It was the lust for power and the will to rule that was at the core of his personality. The question of what politics he led, and what ideas he put into life, was subordinated. Great parts of the middle class, primarily functionaries, small business owners, farmers, students, and other youths streamed to the Fascist party; they also later got support amongst many in the upper class, industrial lords, and others who after the occupations wanted to "put the socialists in their place", and in Mussolini, they saw a man who could do this after the parliamentarians had proved impotent to enforce the state's authority.

Giovanni Giolitti (1842-1928) was Italy's prime minister in five periods, the first time 1892-93, then; 1903-05, 1906-09, 1911-14, and 1920-21.

In the course of a few years, 1920-22, Fascism completely changed its character. The radical and revolutionary program faded out completely to the background - it resulted in a ban on publicizing the original fascist program. What remained, was primarily nationalism, glorification of vigor, and the cultivation of the Duce. The offensive was at first directed against the labor movement and its class struggle doctrine, but also partly against liberalism and the parliamentary system they found corrupt and rotten; in the end, it was directed against democracy itself. Most importantly was that this struggle descended into brawls, streetfights, and indeed at the time civil war-like conflict between the fascist squadrons and red guards and socialist organizations. Political meetings were blown up by firebrands, political adversaries were assaulted, even assassinated, editorial offices and printing presses were destroyed, etc. Meanwhile, an increasingly hysterical cult of Mussolini as "il Duce", the leader, was in development.

The government, which in the beginning of this period was under the leadership of the 78-year-old liberal Giovanni Giolitti (PLI), remained passive. The politicians of old were confronted with forces they did not understand and could not master; they believed they could outmaneuver the fascists once they had run their course, that they would give up their terrorist methodology when the nation calmed down and they could get co-responsibility for rulership. It was also calming that during the election of 1921 the fascists only got 36 of 535 mandates, but the terror continued and the membership of the fascist black shirts grew; fall of 1922 the organization had a total of 800.000 members, and demanded violent mass demonstrations governmental power; did they not get this they would march on Rome and do as see fit.

Four of the leading figures of fascism, from left Italo Balbo, Benito Mussolini, de Vecchi, and Emilio de Bono. Mussolini himself did not participate in the infamous "March on Rome", but was summoned from Milano during the crisis to form a government. Here he march with the Blackshirts in a parade after being appointed prime minister at the end of October 1922.

The old governance, the government, and the chamber was paralyzed by division and fear. The Ministry of Luigi Facta was overthrown, but no foundation of a new government succeeded. Everyone was clueless and indecisive, and everyone knew that the army - or rather its officer corps - was not to trust. The Fascists gathered their paramilitary forces - around 50.000 men - around Rome, and on the morning of the 28th of October they were on the move, toward the capital under the leadership of Mussolini's four closest associates; il Duce himself was in an editorial staff in Milano, where he late during the evening got the proposal to form a government. Meanwhile, the Blackshirts had entered Rome without facing any resistance; Mussolini took the night train. In a few days, the new government was formed, with il Duce as its head; it numbered in total only four fascists, and the remaining members came from the PPI, PLI, PDSI, and ANI - populists, liberals, social democrats, and nationalists. Thus Mussolini was in minority both within the cabinet and within parliament. The old politicians meant they could now tame the Fascist Party now they were in charge of responsible governance. They were wrong. The decisive factor was no longer the position in parliament. The decisive factor was that the fascists controlled the streets. The jungle laws ruled Italy, the power was squarely in the hands of the Blackshirts. As Mussolini said when he first introduced himself to the Chamber of Deputies as Prime Minister: "I could turn this chamber into a barracks for my soldiers..."

The Italian King Victor Emmanuel III., greet the newly appointed prime minister, Benito Mussolini. They met solemnly at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

The dictatorship Mussolini sought, was not established right away, but it was gradually pressured into the state and people. The government first ruled on extraordinary powers, so-called decreet laws, something that had also happened before in Italy. It became some sort of legal governmental dictatorship through 1923 - meanwhile, the Fascist militias became a semi-official police force, that continued in their war against the labor movement and entrenched themself in strategic positions within the state apparatus and the civil service. Mussolini also pushed through a new electoral law, a "national list" that was dominated by fascists, and got 2/3rds of the seats in the chamber in 1924, among other things thanks to political violence and electoral cheating. The socialist deputy Giacomo Matteotti proved this in a grand speech, and not long after he was found murdered; the perpetrators were members of the Blackshirts. The resentment the murder caused, created a serious crisis for the regime, but Mussolini rode the storm off, and as the year passed from '24 to '25 a full-on dictatorship was declared after a coup. The oppositional press was stopped, political opponents' meetings were banned, all guarantees for the due process of law were suspended, every organization was under fascist leadership, etc. Those who did not obediently bow their head to the dictatorship was arrested, deported, or murdered. The Fascists became the state party; the real power lay with them, which in reality meant Mussolini, il Duce, the leader; his will was law in Italy, and extensive secret police made sure no one would oppose it.

Mussolini took great pride in his masculine appearance - that he looked like a Roman gladiator - and was more than happy to hold his speeches barechested.

It was first now a systematic ideology for the movement was created. Until then, there had only been a "doctrine of action" and they did not want to be hampered by ideas and principles: "Our program is simple: we wish to govern Italy." Action superseded any norm; it was typical for the movement's irrational, anti-intellectual character. The ideology they acquired after the seizure of power was not really a logically crafted idea, but "myths" that would foster vigor and energy. A dominating trait of the doctrine was nationalism, an aggressive, war-like, imperialistic nationalism. Another trait was the worship of the state. The individual was an infinitely inconsequential and random part of society; "society is the end, individuals the means"; "everything in the state, nothing against the state, nothing outside the state; the state alone gives the people its power". Internally an unbreakable discipline had to be maintained, and everyone had to be subservient to the leader, who represented the will of the nation, and externally the state would assert itself would any means necessary, also in war, to achieve a greater part of the goods of the world; all pacifist ideas was denounced: "war is human kind's eternal law". In accordance with this and by association with the traditions of the Roman Empire old Mussolini ushered into a new, aggressive foreign policy.

As every other authoritarian and totalitarian movement Fascism was aware that the earlier one could start to influence the mind, the stronger they could form it. Pictured is of the child soldier organization "Balilla", where the foundation of conformity was laid, and where they sought to develop discipline and other military virtues.

The national assembly became only a shadow figure and was in the end abolished. Instead, they organized the corporative state, built on guilds, cooperatives, and trade unions, in agriculture, industry, commerce, and so on. A development that in theory was in agreement with syndicalist ideas. But the Corporations naturally had no possibility to become a force on their own; it was under fascist leadership and in reality, only a cog in the regime apparatus to master the people and rule it. The system was authoritarian: power came from the leader, and propagated down through the ranks of the Fascist Party. The system was also totalitarian: the state limited itself not to head the administration, but also wanted to decide every other field: organizational life, raising of children, cultural life, and so on, not only to force the individual its own will, but also form their mind, and their thought processes and their emotional life. Therefore the Italian dictatorship, as in every other modern dictatorship, put so much effort into propaganda in all its forms, with constant pressure on the individual from childhood on, through schools, organizations, the press, the radio, literature, and so on. The doctrine they engraved into their citizens was taken together from many different fronts, with a little bit of Machiavelli and a little bit of Nietzsche, a sprinkle of syndicalism, and a lot of nationalism. The most important was not its content and logical reasoning, but if it could serve as a mythos, e.g. through action-inspiring faith, fill the void that was in many minds after the old religious worldview had been hollowed. They sought back something more primitive and original, something more exciting and risky; it was like an echo of Nietsche's song to the predator in man, his call to live dangerously.

 

[ThaHoward]

New chapter up, changed it a little bit around, on Italy and the rise of fascism. Next will be on France-UK before we go back to Book Two and Soviet politics. The end of the Great War and natural development of democracy also remind me of "End of History", same with Mussolini picturing himself bare-chested without meaning to delve this into modern politics, or making this a commentary on it.

 

[ShadorEM]

How many chapter do you plan Book 3 to have?

 

[ThaHoward]

How many chapter do you plan Book 3 to have?

As of now I am writing one chapter on Ireland-Britain-France. For other chapters I assume 4-5 in addition, they might be split up into more chapters, or consolidated to fewer chapters.

Alas, I have been busy this week and last week, and will be gone for the the rest of the week. I wished to, but unfortunately I am not able to get it out this week. The current chapter I am writing will come out next week, and will try to get out another soviet chapter too!