Benito Mussolini Dbq

In a fascist state, there is a one party authoritarian dictatorship that attempts to control every aspect of the lives of its citizens. Benito Mussolini and his Fascist National Party were relatively successful in establishing fascism within Italy from 1924 to 1943. With the help of Mussolini’s “secret police” (the OVRA), the Fascist National Party-- the “black shirts”-- controlled the economic, political, and social aspects of society in Italy. One of the many social aspects that was controlled was the size of the population. Through the use of legislations, speeches, and media the italian fascists attempted to eliminate the liberal evolution of women and create a class of women that were subordinate to men and eager to produce a new generation of fascist youth. Even though there was support for this new population policy, there was resistance from some women along with statistics and economic realities making their population policy a failure. The italian fascists
A letter to Mussolini’s daughter, Edda Mussolini Ciano, from L.D.B. tells of a “mother who gave birth to 11 children” in a large family that was “poor and needy” and requests immediate help to “alleviate the disastrous and pitiful conditions that this family endures.” (Doc. 10). The letter was most likely written by a member of the lower class who expected support from the state. She was probably brought into the fascist call for extreme nationalism due to her husband being in the military and a 12 member family. Another success in the population policy was sent in the form of a photograph that depicted an urban middle class family with twelve children (Doc. 11). Since the upper and middle class wanted to protect their property from communism, they would obviously throw their support in favor of fascism. Therefore, they would support this fascist population