MUSSOLINI SHOT AT END OF WWII
Today is April 28, and on this date in history, in 1945, in northern Italy, Benito Mussolini and his mistress were shot by a firing squad of Communist partisans. Mussolini and his girl friend were attempting to escape to Germany with retreating German troops.
After shooting them, Mussolini and Clara Petacci, his mistress, were ignominiously hung upside down in a square in Milan, Italy.
Mussolini came to power in Italy in the early 1920's and although his fascist economic policies had varying degrees of success, as a general rule Italy benefited by his programs.
His fascism was widely admired and copied by other countries especially after the Great Depression started. Fascism is essentially the symbiotic co-operation of government and business in the economic area, at least, and parts of F. D. Roosevelt's New Deal were copied directly from Mussolini.
Mussolini's downfall began with the rise of Hitler in Germany in 1933. At first Mussolini was more important than Hitler, but the greater military power of Germany soon dominated the growing partnership of Germany and Italy.
Still Mussolini was the strongman in the Mediterranean area in 1940, but WWII wore Italy down, and with the USA joining the struggle after the end of 1941, Mussolini was doomed.
After the allies invaded mainland Italy in 1943, Mussolini was overthrown as Italy changed sides in the war. Imprisoned by the new Italian government, Mussolini was rescued by the Germans and ruled a puppet state in northern Italy known as the Italian Social Republic. He remained in that position until the final collapse at the end of the war in 1945.
He is an interesting figure in history, and as sometimes happens in politics, migrated easily from the Marxist socialism of his youth to the fascism of his mature years. At the start of WWI he was the secretary of the Italian Socialist Party, but split from socialism because of its pacifism in WWI.
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