Mussolini: The First Fascist

First Air Date: 2022-10-23

Overview - Mussolini seized power in Italy in 1922, after his March on Rome. He would hold it in his grasp until his death in 1945, establishing a dictatorship that lasted more than 20 years. Long considered a buffoon and a second-rate dictator, Il Duce invented fascism that was imitated by Hitler, who viewed the Italian as his political master. He wanted to transform his country into a warrior nation and promised Italians a return to the grandeur of the Roman Empire. He governed by violence and trickery and was one of the first populist leaders of modern times, leading his country into the catastrophe of the World War II. But who was Mussolini, this former teacher who came from the extreme left to become a newspaper editor and creator of the Fascist Party? Why did he ally himself with Hitler? Were the Italians really behind him? With archives and interviews with the last-surviving witnesses of the era, this portrait takes a look back at one of the most notorious dictators of the 20th century.