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Florence Newspaper Report: The Exploitation of the Myth of Youth by the Fascist Regime
Florence Newspaper publishes this excellent essay written by Lauren Sturner on the exploitation of the myth of youth by the Fascist regime. Lauren studied History of Modern Italy with Professor Adriano Boncompagni at the Richmond University in Florence.
While the Fascist movement worked to control all aspects of Italian society, its efforts to control young Italians were exceptionally expansive.
The regime expected its young citizens to give life and vibrancy to the movement, and used a mixed approach ranging from educational restriction to exceptional cases of free thought in order to garner their support for the regime. Mussolini understood the needs of the young and deliberately addressed their issues in order to gain initial support.
The Fascists took control of educational institutions and formed youth groups in order to begin developing support for the regime among the youngest of citizens. The youth organizations targeted young Italians of all ages and socioeconomic backgrounds in order to achieve the widest following.
The take over of youth organizations additionally allowed for the development of future Fascist leaders. Beyond the use of young people, the regime used the symbolic power of youth to project an image of power, thus bolstering the strength of the regime.
The Duce worked to develop a religious following in order to further ensure the allegiance of young Italians. The manipulation of youth, in all of its forms, was critical to the Fascists. Through this control of the young, the Fascist regime was able to reach greater levels of dominance, ultimately achieving a critical state of totalitarian rule.
Mussolini was quick to realize the importance of youth, making efforts at close ties with the younger generation from the beginning of his regime’s development. Mussolini understood the impact that WWI had on Italian youth and knew that such a traumatic event would have an impact on the political and psychological state of former soldiers.
The Fascist movement worked with students after the war to gain power, presenting itself as an organization trying to help younger generations fight against the power of older generations. From the very beginning, the Fascist regime utilized and manipulated the young to increase its power and gain support.
During the beginning phases of the regime, those involved in the Fascist party leadership were generally very young. In 1922, the average age of local Fascist leaders was 31.8 years of age and out of all of the Fascist candidates in the 1924 elections 35.9 percent were under the age of 30.
Once Mussolini himself came to power, the initial freedom given to the young was removed. The students’ disorder and demands, once supported and manipulated by the regime, were quickly quelled. Mussolini harnessed the students, forcing them to return to a state of discipline. This marked a transition in the type of people who would come to power in the regime.
From this point on, regime leaders would be more educated and carefully selected, coming out of Fascist schools. Mussolini was skilled at finding the vulnerable societal populations, using them to his advantage, and then discarding them quickly according to his needs.
The Fascist regime wanted complete control over the population of young Italians. The young, still developing their opinions and ways of thinking were most susceptible to Fascist propaganda and its all-encompassing teachings. For those growing up after 1925, there were not many other philosophical options; Fascism was the only way of life that they knew.
These children lacked memories of a time before the regime. As historian Philip Morgan states, “the Fascist regime was the only permissible outlet for and source of youthful idealism, political ambition and activity, career opportunities and more mundanely, services and facilities from sport to welfare.” The Italian youth was specifically targeted by Mussolini as a tool for building up and controlling the new regime, which was formed in the image of the young.
The Fascists began the indoctrination process at an early age, forcing children to join fascist youth organizations. The regime hoped to manipulate youth development and ultimately produce loyal members of the Fascist party, reserving party leadership positions for those who had entered the party through these youth organizations.
In the beginning stages of this policy of youth control the National Balilla Agency (ONB) was formed (April 1926) with the specific objective of “fascistising” Italian children and adolescents, turning them into loyal members of the fascist regime. Targeting eight to seventeen year-olds, the organization was initially dependent on the Interior Ministry and was lead by Renato Ricci. It allowed for Mussolini and his regime to monopolize an additional sector of society. In order to enter the organization, it was necessary for students to swear their allegiance to the Duce and agree to carry out all of his orders unquestioningly.
There were groups of each age, as well as groups that were made specifically for young girls.
The organizations were often pre-military training bodies. They were so pervasive that it was difficult to avoid joining them, especially in the Northern parts of Italy, where the regime was strongest. As the organization developed and expanded it became more all-inclusive and even added another group, the pre-Balilla, which specifically targeted boys who were younger than six.
This group took advantage of the formative state of the young Italians, exposing them to weaponry early, so as to develop an unavoidable militaristic mindset.
The need to control Italian youth was a controversial issue for some. It created problems in the relationship between the Fascists and the Catholic Church. In addition to forming its own organizations, the regime felt that it was necessary to eliminate all outside forces that could potentially compete for control of the young. As a result, the Catholic Boy Scouts were dismantled in early 1927 and the formation of other youth organizations was banned. Sporting and athletic groups could only be established by the National Balilla Agency.
This encroachment on traditional Church territory engendered tension between the Fascists and the Church. As a result, there was a break in the negotiations that had been taking place at that time between the two regarding the Church’s place in the new Fascist state. The regime ultimately made some concessions for certain Catholic youth clubs, after which negotiations continued.
The resulting Lateran agreements of February 1929 reconciled the Church to the Italian state. Attached to the agreement was the Concordat regulating Church-state relations, allowing for the continuation of some Church power over Italian children. According to the Concordat, religious education taught by priests was to be implemented in primary schools and secondary schools, a change from the previous primary school only policy. Catholic Action (a youth organization) was permitted to remain intact, serving as the only non-Fascist organization functioning legally under the regime.
This fascist confrontation with the Church over youth control demonstrates how important the issue was to all in the Italian state. The power to control the young granted the power to control the future, thus it was much desired.
In 1929 the Fascist regime heightened its efforts to control the development of its youth, in an attempt to minimize the effects of the regimes recent concessions to the Church.
In Mussolini’s speech on the ratification of the Lateran agreements, he made an effort to emphasize the regime’s exclusive right to “mould the mind and character of the young through an ‘education for war’.” As a part of the regime’s attempt to increase control over the Italian youth, Mussolini made additional changes in the structure of his educational mechanisms, which had remained unsuccessful despite previous efforts for reform. The title of the Ministry of Public Instruction was changed to the Ministry of National Education (September 1929).
The National Balilla Agency became a branch of the Ministry and Ricci was made Under-Secretary for youth and physical education. The ONB provided preliminary physical education which included drilling, callisthenic exercises, and sports activities. The ONB was integrated into school curriculum, specifically in the realm of physical fitness. Further, school teachers were supposed to become ONB organizers and instructors.
The ONB directly ran many schools during the time between 1928 and 1935 which provided for increased membership in the organization, especially among adolescents at the school leaving age. The ONB’s close ties to the schools also resulted in increased party devotion on the part of the teachers, who were required to take an oath of loyalty to the party starting in 1929. Later, they were even required to join the National Fascist Party (PNF) as public employees if they wished to join the teaching profession. Starting in 1930, the regime also produced its own text books which were meant to further the Fascist agenda. Although membership was widespread, it is also important to note that not everyone joined the youth organizations.
There were groups of children who failed to join ONB at all, and membership often dropped once children left school. Often working-class, female teenagers were not involved in ONB affairs. Despite these pockets of non-membership, overall, the Fascists made great efforts to indoctrinate all young Italians into the regime.
In general, the regime found success in its efforts to indoctrinate its young, but the level of success depended on the different age groups. It was fairly easy to control the younger children who were still very impressionable. The situation was slightly different for older students who were generally less receptive to the ideas of Fascism.
The secondary school teachers were more resistant to the regime’s desire to lower educational standards in order to increase control and the subject matters taught at the secondary level tended to emphasize free thought rather than conformity. Although headmasters were mostly Fascists, it was not easy to implement full indoctrination of the older age groups. Students did not necessarily reject the Fascist ideas, but were less likely to fully adopt them.
The university students were even less likely to completely accept the Fascist principles. The regime created Faculties of Political Science, but they were not well received by students. University students were targeted as the new generation of regime elite. They were given intellectual and political training and were allowed more leeway in regards to “free” thought and debating abilities. They attended the annual intellectual competition, the Littoriali, or student games, where limited tolerance of thought was accepted so as to best develop a future generation of Fascist leaders. Those who performed well in these competitions were placed on the track to acquire a job in the bureaucracy of the party. This was an important mechanism for the Fascists, who were constantly looking to develop a new generation of leaders to carry on the work of the regime.
Although they were united in their ultimate goals for Fascist youth, those in the regime did debate the methods that would be best to use in order to achieve their objectives and some questioned whether it was best to allow even minimal freedom of thought. A few believed that it was best to allow students to participate in limited debate and even criticism of the regime, supporting activities such as the Littoriali.
Those who subscribed to this school of thought believed that by encouraging this type of thinking, future elites would develop a high level of commitment to the regime. However, there were others who argued for more of a blind faith approach, hoping to develop an army of followers.
This debate was never fully resolved. Ultimately, the Fascists did not succeed in their goal of creating a true Fascist elite group through their work with higher education. This was a significant failure for the regime, as it meant that the regime had also failed to create a new generation of Fascist intelligencia.
Within the Fascist regime there were disputes regarding which organization was rightly responsible for the development of proper Fascist youth. The PNF was not pleased with the special role given to the ONB and believed that the party, not a state body, should be charged with imposing the Fascist mentality on the young population. As a result of this conflict over jurisdiction, the PNF established the Young Fascists’ organization in October 1930.
This group was designed to bridge the gap in ONB and PNF efforts to develop young men suitable for the regime. It targeted eighteen to twenty-one year olds who were not in universities, but could still be used by the regime as members of the PNF and lower level cadres. They were trained primarily in the Militia and through special courses in politics, and often committed acts of aggression. The regime worked to expand its influence over young people from many sectors of society so as to once again increase its abilities to control Italian society.
Although the Fascist movement started largely as a youth movement, there were points during which the Italian youth began to experience frustration with the regime. By the 1930’s young Italians were feeling particularly removed from the regime. The renewal of the elite had slowed down and the regime seemed less in touch with the needs of its younger members.
Italian students were often found to lack dedication to the regime, and were strongly under the influence of the anti-fascist teachers. At this point the regime made extra efforts to convince those who were becoming less committed that the party was still looking out for their interest. Initiatives were made to appeal specifically to disaffected youth. Fascist Student Groups (GUF) were given money from the party in order to offer students more cultural and athletic opportunities.
These activities were designed to make students feel as though they were a part of the elite. Students became further imbedded in the regime when issues of corporatism and a challenged economy came to the fore. Students tried to present a ‘leftist’ version of fascism, showing the differences between corporatism and capitalism, but more importantly, emphasized the value of young Fascists taking part in the construction of a new model of society.
The battle cry to rise up and construct a new societal model was particularly encouraged by Mussolini because it tied the young closely to the regime. The burden fell to the students to keep the revolution alive, protecting it from the increasingly prominent bourgeois population. Even the military campaign in Ethiopia was portrayed as something the young could connect to and support. Mussolini wanted to make every effort to keep the young involved in the regime.
In the years between 1936 and 1940, the Fascists increased efforts to ‘fascistise’ the population. The party was able to achieve complete and integral control of youth organizations after a great deal of dispute with both the Ministry of Education and the ONB. In 1937 The ONB merged with the Young Fascists to form Gioventù Italiana del Littorio, or Italian Youth of the Lictors (GIL). This overarching group organized the Italian youth of both sexes from ages six to twenty-one. GIL changed the education system, providing a ‘Fascist’ education of the young.
The ONB felt that women teachers were a hindrance to its efforts to form children in the Fascist image, thus the responsibility of educating the young fell to the men. These male instructors were young Fascists, graduates of Fascists academies, who were skilled in physical education. The establishment of GIL marks a transition in curriculum for the Fascist schools. GIL training manuals dealt with racial themes, as did school curricula and text-books. Schools placed increasing focus on developing the physical skills of students. Some party leaders wanted to bring elements of military training into the schools, providing an all-encompassing educational experience.
The Fascists had very specific ideas about the type of Fascist men they hoped to develop through their regimented educational system and youth organizations. As historian Philip Morgan states, “the Fascists wanted to create an Italy made in their own image, a nation of ready-made warriors, physically fit, mentally agile, disciplined, courageous and obedient, committed believers and fighters in the cause of the nation.”
The regime used the educational system in conjunction with a thorough propaganda campaign to project ideas about the ideal Italian, modeled on the image of previous Italian heroes or Mussolini himself. In order to develop the idea of the Duce as an object of worship, youth organizations were given basic fascist doctrine in the form of “The Ten Commandments of the New Italian”. By the 1930s the cult of the Duce reached large proportions, greatly effecting the development of young Italians.
The young were taught to live by Mussolini’s mantra created specifically for the young: “believe, obey, fight.” The regime put a lot of emphasis on sport and recreation, which falls into line with the regime’s focus on physical fitness and its efforts to develop the “cult of youth”. In order to best establish this “cult” the Fascists put up many posters and created movies which depicted young heroes.
Not only did the Fascists want to control young Italians, they wanted complete control over the image and symbolic value of youth. The Fascists worked to utilize the image and aesthetic of youth in order to gain power through public perception. The regime consistently presented itself as being youthful in order to bolster its strength.
It created a civic religion, using symbols to find life and vibrancy; primary among these was the image of the strong, young Italian male, with a perfect body.
Projected throughout the state, this image symbolized the Italian future, which involved state power and a wide variety of possibilities. Through its portrayal of youth, the regime was able to project and image of a powerful future. As historian George Mosse asserts, “The aesthetics of the human body and of colour and form were used in order to nationalize the masses, to shape and control the mass meetings which were an essential part of fascist politics […] and the youth (and even those not so young) who marched and saluted were supposed to be ideal types who represented the movement and the nation.”
Although it was not as successful as it had initially hoped, the Fascists did succeed in manipulating Italian youth to its own advantage. The regime was able to infiltrate the school system and gain increased levels of control through these efforts. It was able to utilize the image of youth to its own advantage, projecting an image of power that worked to support the regime and allow for it to maintain its strength and support.
The regime fell short in its efforts to create a completely new elite ruling class, but it did manage to produce many citizens with strong allegiance to the regime. It employed the image of youth, consistently projecting an image of vibrancy. Ultimately, the Fascists were able to use youth to aggrandize power and propel the regime forward through the development of a young generation indoctrinated in the Fascist ways.
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