In her article about the TV series Mussolini: Son of the Century, about the rise to power of Benito Mussolini in Italy, Caroline Moorehead writes: “The March on Rome was, in fact, concluded not in widespread bloodshed, as the series suggests, but remarkably peacefully. In Milan, Turin and Parma, where opposition was expected, the fascists took control quietly and smoothly” (As the far right surges around the globe, what can a new TV series about Mussolini teach us?, 26 February).
Try telling that to the people of the neighbourhood of San Lorenzo in Rome, where numerous residents were killed by armed blackshirts during the March on Rome in October 1922. Argos Secondari was a well-known anti-fascist in Rome. He was attacked in his home by numerous fascists and savagely beaten, never recovering from his head injuries and ending his life in a psychiatric hospital. Giuseppe Lemmi, a communist, was kidnapped from the street by hundreds of blackshirts. His hair and beard were shaved, he was forced to drink castor oil, and he was paraded through the streets with humiliating signs around his neck. Many ordinary people were murdered in Rome and in other cities at that time, while private homes were raided and sacked.
This, of course, came after a full two years of armed blackshirt violence across Italy, which saw thousands killed, many others threatened or injured, and numerous buildings linked to individuals, the trade unions or the left burned to the ground. In the summer of 1922, the blackshirts acted as a kind of occupying army, marching on entire cities like Ravenna and Bolzano, destroying buildings and murdering whoever got in their way.
Far from exaggerating the violence of Italian fascism, it could be argued that Joe Wright’s series plays it down. The idea that the March on Rome was peaceful or bloodless has been comprehensively debunked by historians such as Giulia Albanese and others over the last 20 years. Yet these powerful myths about Mussolini as a buffoon, and his squadristi as a bit of a joke, survive. These are dangerous myths because they underplay the centrality of violence to Italian fascism and to its seizure of power. It might be reassuring to think that those blackshirts took over Rome “quietly”, but that is not what happened in 1922.
John Foot
Professor of modern Italian history, Bristol University
• This article was amended on 5 March 2025 to correct the spelling of Caroline Moorehead’s surname.
