Mortara

Mortara is presented through two sharply contrasting political roles: a town Benito Mussolini had visited as a socialist editor, and, by 1922, the place from which a large force of fascist squadristi was brought to Milan. Its significance lies in that reversal, traced through a campaign appearance and the movement’s use of local armed manpower.

A Place Revisited

In the spring of 1914, Benito Mussolini had come to Mortara as editor of Avanti! to inaugurate the Casa del Popolo. By the time he returned, the building had been destroyed by his squadristi. The book sets the two visits against each other: the earlier appearance belongs to his socialist political career; the later one takes place amid the fascist movement’s assault on the political world associated with that past.

Mussolini’s 1921 Campaign Visit

On Sunday, May 8, one week before election day, Benito Mussolini arrived in Mortara with his brother Arnaldo Mussolini and Michele Bianchi. The town hall piazza was crowded with blackshirts, and Mussolini said he was moved by the reception. Although he initially intended to return to Milan after a banquet held in his honor, the celebrations changed his plans. The Countess Brambilla presented him with a medal, and he stayed for the night-long Italian Tricolor Veglione, where the two danced before leaving for room number 5 at the Albergo dei Tre Re.

Mortara as a Source of Squadristi

In August 1922, Cesare Forni brought 700 men from Mortara to Milan to crush a strike in the stronghold of the subversives. The book places this mobilization within Forni’s broader campaign of squadrist violence: after returning to his father’s house, he led the destruction of peasant leagues in the surrounding area and across southern Lombardy, then imposed fascist unions on farmers and demanded their subordination to the party. Mortara thus figures not only as a stop on Mussolini’s campaign trail but also as the point of departure for a force used in an assault on Milan’s municipal government.

A Reversal in Political Meaning

The contrast between Mussolini’s 1914 and 1921 visits gives Mortara a compact history of political realignment. A Casa del Popolo once inaugurated by the socialist editor had been destroyed by fascist squads; seven years later, the town’s blackshirts welcomed him during an election campaign. The later movement’s reliance on men brought from Mortara to confront a strike in Milan extends that transformation from symbolic reversal to organized force.