Mussolini and Hitler grew out of Communism and Socialism, not Conservatism

The British GCSE history curriculum contains a lot of coverage of Nazism. This is intended as "a warning from history". On close inspection it contains shocking omissions and errors. The most important omission is that it fails to stress that Mussolini was a revolutionary socialist.

In 1914 Mussolini was a revolutionary socialist who had been a leader of the Italian socialist party (the PSI) and had financed the Socialist International meetings in Switzerland that led to the communist uprisings at the end of WWI.

It was Mussolini who led the split in socialism that resulted in the appearance of Internationalist Socialism in Russia and Nationalist Socialism in Italy and Germany. A split that was healed to some extent when Russia and Germany formed a pact to launch the Second World War.

Benito Mussolini

Adolf Hitler

Hitler co-opted a socialist party. He joined the German Workers' Party (DAP) in 1919 as a government agent but was so impressed with its Socialist ideals that he became a very active member and the party leader.
The manifesto of the party can be seen at The Socialist Manifesto.

Hitler was an admirer of Mussolini's new, nationalist socialists, the Fascists, he wrote:

"At that time--I admit it openly--I conceived a profound admiration for the great man beyond the Alps, whose ardent love for his people inspired him not to bargain with Italy's internal enemies but to use all possible ways and means in an effort to wipe them out. What places Mussolini in the ranks of the world's great men is his decision not to share Italy with the Marxists but to redeem his country from Marxism by destroying internationalism." - Adolph Hitler, Mein Kampf

The school history curriculum attempts to draw a lesson from history but draws the wrong lesson. It is extreme socialism that gave rise to National Socialism and Communism, not conservatism or democratic nationalism.

The GCSE curriculum also stresses how reparations were pivotal in the rise of Nazism and by implication fascism but Italy was an ally of the UK in World War I and paid no reparations. Fascism arose independently of reparations (Spain is another example of fascism without reparations). The "reparations causes Hitler" story is a deliberate avoidance of the truth.

British schools even neglect to tell their children that the leader of the British Fascists, Oswald Mosley, was a Labour Government Minister. How will our children ever learn the real lesson from history?

See also:

When will governments react to discrimination in Sociology departments?

Origins of the EU

The Socialist Manifesto

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