Thematic sites - Municipality of Milan

FOUNDATION
Anna Kuliscioff

presents

28 October 1922 – The march on Rome

"The collapse of democracy in Italy”

Documentary exhibition 19 October 2022 – 11 December 2022

In collaboration with Palazzo Moriggia|Museo del Risorgimento

As part of the schedule Milan is Memory

In the ninth edition of Milansifastory

On the occasion of the anniversary of the March on Rome, a historical episode in which fascism began the unstoppable path towards the violent and totalitarian conquest of power, it is necessary to ask ourselves how this could happen in a country where, despite the presence of serious social tensions , the institutions guaranteed fundamental democratic freedoms, the mass parties representing the less wealthy classes enjoyed vast consensus outside and inside Parliament, the trade unions and cooperative organizations had an enormous number of members and important resources. The moderate political forces themselves, almost entirely, had never pursued authoritarian tendencies after the bloody events of 1898.

A documentary exhibition that wants to illustrate to the general public, and in particular to the new generations, the historical moment in which, with the King's assignment to Mussolini to form the new government, the first act of the fascist "revolution" took place. 

The display of explanatory panels, pages of newspapers of the time and the insertion in special showcases of images, documents and original publications, produced both by the fascist regime and by the opposition forces, chronologically define the evolution of the episode of the march on Rome, identifying the most relevant moments and aspects which constitute as many sections of the exhibition.

18 October 2022 – 17.00 pm

Presentation and Inauguration  

Conference Room, Palazzo Moriggia | Museum of the Risorgimento, Via Borgonuovo 23 – Milan

Institutional greetings

Tommaso Sacchi Councilor for Culture of the Municipality of Milan

Claudius Salsi Director of the Sforzesco Castle, Archaeological Museums and Historical Museums Area

Speakers

Barbara Bracco, University of Milan Bicocca

Mauro Canali, University of Camerino

Marco Cuzzi, University of Milan State

Pietro Neglie, University of Trieste

Giovanni Scirocco, University of Bergamo

Coordinator:

Walter Galbusera, President of the Anna Kuliscioff Foundation

Free entry while places last. The use of a mask is recommended

26 October 2022 17,00 hours

Conference Room Palazzo Moriggia|Museum of the Risorgimento

Book presentation

Mussolini Psychology of a Dictator by Camillo Berneri

Reprint by Edizioni Fondazione Anna Kuliscioff

Institutional greetings

Ilaria Torelli, Conservator of cultural heritage Palazzo Moriggia|Museum of the Risorgimento

Speakers:

Maurizio Antonioli, Scientific Director Anna Kuliscioff Foundation

Nicola Del Corno, University of Milan State

Enzo di Brango Book editor “Against the State Articles (1935-36)” by Camillo Berneri and Carlo Rosselli

Martino Seniga Rai journalist, son of the first editor

Coordinator:

Walter Galbusera, President of the Anna Kuliscioff Foundation

Free entry while places last. The use of a mask is recommended

EXHIBITION SHEET

Anna Kuliscioff Foundation                                               

Description of sections shows:

Initial part – From the Great War, to the nationalist demands, up to the foundation of the Fasci di Combattimento in Milan in 1919. Una march on Rome it is an idea first hoped for by Gabriele d'Annunzio during the Fiume campaign. A characterizing element of fascism is aggression and violence, which broke out for the first time in April 1919 in Milano, where the fascists besieged and set fire to the headquarters of «Avanti!», the newspaper that Mussolini had directed a few years earlier

The political and historical path of Benito Mussolini, as a revolutionary socialist and Director ofAfter you!.

Part Two - The Biennio Rosso (1919-1920) characterized by struggles that were often accompanied by strikes, pickets and clashes and had their culmination and conclusion with the occupation of the factories in September 1920. The expression "two red years" was also used to underline the great fear aroused in the propertied classes, and therefore to justify the reaction fascist that followed.

The Black Biennium (1921-1922), one scenario of very serious violence, among which the March on Rome marked a fundamental passage, in which essential parts of the State of the time were absent, if not conniving, while the political forces that could have given life to a democratic alternative, capable of stop the spreading fascism, they failed in their task.

A dramatic scenario that also involved the city of Milan. If Rome was power, Milan had been the cradle of fascism. In fact, it was still the city where the movement had been born a few years earlier and where it was based in the "den" of Via Paolo da Cannobio its propaganda organ: the People of Italy, founded by Mussolini after the break with theCome on!. Milan was also the city where the future Duce lived for many years.

Part Three - The March on Rome (28-30 October 1922) it occurred after months of squad violence in a democratic context compromised by a succession of weak governments. Today the main historical texts speak of great success rather than the March on Rome bluff played by Mussolini, who did not march on Rome himself living that day in Milan. Mussolini arrived in Rome the night of the following day, leaving in the late afternoon of October 29th with a train from the "old" central station, thus witnessing the evolution of the situation from his city.

Even in Milan, as in many other cities, there were provocations, violence, attempted occupations of public buildings which culminated in the destruction and burning of the headquarters of theCome on! in Via Settala 22.

Fourth part - The fascist “myth”.: the use of the anniversary of the march on Rome that fascism made for propaganda and celebratory purposes. The March on Rome has always represented a myth for the Duce's loyalists: the moment that marked the overcoming of parliamentary democracy in the name of what they defined as a vigorous fascist revolution. The regime wanted to give this event a strong symbolic value: 28 October 1922 became year zero, the beginning of the Fascist Era. A strong symbolic value used for the purposes of a continuous search for consensus, as demonstrated in particular by the events on the occasion of the tenth anniversary. A use of propaganda that the opposition forces, with offices and newspapers destroyed, and later with the "very fascist" laws of 1926 which suppressed freedom of the press, will only be able to counteract in the foreign press.

The itinerary is completed by a section dedicated to the Civic Historical Collections and to the memory of the March on Rome through archival and bibliographic funds preserved in Palazzo Moriggia | Museum of the Risorgimento, from the first acquisitions in 1923 until the end of the XNUMXs

A catalog guide to the exhibition is available to visitors free of charge, and can also be downloaded from the site www.fondazioneannakuliscioff.it, Publishing/Publications section.

Guided tours by reservation info@fondazioneannakuliscioff.it                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

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