Document Based Question (DBQ) on Fascism from the 2024 AP European History Exam (copy)

Source: Benito Mussolini, speech announcing the formation of the Fascist fighting squads in Milan, 1919

We declare war against socialism, not because it is socialism but because it opposes nationalism. Although we can discuss the question of what socialism is, what is its program, and what are its tactics, one thing is obvious: the official Italian Socialist party has actually been reactionary and absolutely conservative. If its views had prevailed, our survival in the world of today would be impossible. It is clear that the Socialist party will not be able to assume leadership of a program of renewal and reconstruction.

We shall fight against technological and moral backwardness. There are even industrialists who reject both technological and moral innovations. If they don’t find the strength to transform themselves, they will be swept aside. We must impress upon the workers, however, that it is one thing to destroy and quite another to build. Destruction can be the work of an hour, but construction may take years or centuries.

Source: Enrico Corradini, senator and member of the Fascist Party, editorial in a political journal, 1925

The fascist spirit has the terrifying revolutionary dynamic. We recognize it, this terrifying dynamic, by the historical knowledge of the major European revolutions. . . . The fascist program consists in overcoming the old liberalism, the old democratism, the old socialism, to reach a regime in which the sovereignty of the State, the active organ of the living unity of national society, returns to prevail over the parliamentary parties. Here is the essence of the program. Benito Mussolini’s government is in the present period and must be and could not fail to be the greatest architect of the fascist revolution. . . . The government, acting with resolute energy, carrying out the revolutionary program, and being the strong builder of the strong State, unites the party to itself in perfect communion.

Source: Edoardo Persico, architect and art critic, magazine article on the exhibition commemorating the tenth anniversary of the Fascist takeover, 1932

The support of the national government for the forms of the avant-garde [new artistic and architectural styles] is another sign of the exceptional atmosphere that is developing in Italy: all other so-called official art that the other governments of the world adopt for events of this type are usually as backward and bourgeois as can possibly be imagined.

Source: Achille Starace, politician and secretary of the Italian Fascist Party, book on the National Recreational Clubs organized by the Fascist Party, 1933

From all these various types of excursions, from the simple day trip to the challenging alpine hike, the working masses gain the invaluable benefit of knowing more and better their country in all its qualities, in its varied beauty, in its charms, which are countless. And therefore, workers get to know, study, and appreciate the rich life outside of their factories and their offices. Millions of workers, who once sat in the dull stupor of a limited and monotonous environment, now wait anxiously for Saturday to come and to spend a calm and relaxing Sunday outdoors; they have become excursionists, tourists, skiers in winter, who on Monday come back with discipline to their work and with the joy of feeling better, stronger, even spiritually, because contact with the beauty and the majesty of Nature opened their souls to new understandings, to a new serenity, to a new happiness, with a more refined sense of their individuality, with a greater faith in life.

Source: Article on Mother and Child Day, in Motherhood and Childhood, Fascist party magazine for women, 1935

What is the significance of this national ritual? The intention of Il Duce [“the Leader” in Italian—title used for Mussolini as head of the Fascist Party] in instituting it was that the Italian people should once a year solemnly honor motherhood, joyfully celebrate childhood, because, as he said in an incisive and eloquent phrase, they represent “the supreme values of the race.” It is a fact that a nation without mothers and without cradles—or even with few mothers and few cradles—is condemned to moral, political, and economic decline and is certainly headed for slavery. It is no accident that Mussolini wanted this solemn celebration to coincide with Christmas Eve.

Source: Alba Pochino, official in an Italian Fascist women’s organization, magazine article discussing the organization’s uniform, 1938

The finest things are represented in our fascist scarf: the black of the glorious Blackshirts, sanctified by the blood of our Martyrs, the symbol of the power of the imperial Rome of yesterday, of today, tomorrow, and always, and the word DUCE, repeated many times, like the acclaim of the Leader, the Leader who has returned Italy to its imperial heights.