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Alessandro Pavolini (27 September 1903 – 28 April 1945) was an Italian politician, journalist, and essayist. He was notable for his involvement in the Italian fascist government, during World War II, and, as the leader and founder of the Black Brigades, also for his cruelty against the opponents of fascism.
Alessandro Pavolini | |
---|---|
Secretary of the Republican Fascist Party | |
In office 15 November 1943 – 28 April 1945 | |
Leader | Benito Mussolini |
Preceded by | Office established |
Succeeded by | Office abolished |
Minister of Popular Culture | |
In office 31 October 1939 – 6 February 1943 | |
Prime Minister | Benito Mussolini |
Preceded by | Dino Alfieri |
Succeeded by | Gaetano Polverelli |
Member of the Chamber of Deputies / Chamber of Fasces and Corporations | |
In office 28 April 1934 – 25 July 1943 | |
President | Giovanni Giuriati Costanzo Ciano Dino Grandi |
Constituency | Florence |
Personal details | |
Born | Florence, Kingdom of Italy | 27 September 1903
Died | 28 April 1945 Dongo, Italian Social Republic | (aged 41)
Political party | FIC (1920–1921) PNF (1921–1943) PFR (1943–1945) |
Height | 1.72 m (5 ft 8 in) |
Spouse |
Teresa Franzi (m. 1929) |
Domestic partner | Doris Duranti (1940–1945) |
Children | Ferruccio (1930) Maria Vittoria (1931) Vanni (1938) |
Alma mater | University of Florence, Sapienza University of Rome |
Profession | Lawyer, journalist |
Early life and career
editA native of Florence, Pavolini was the son of Paolo Emilio Pavolini , a major scholar of Sanskrit and other Indo-European languages. A brilliant student, he earned a law degree at the University of Florence and a political science degree at La Sapienza in Rome, travelling to and from between the two cities. His brother was the writer Corrado Pavolini.
After joining Benito Mussolini's movement in Florence, he took part in several actions of the Blackshirts, and led a squad during the 1922 March on Rome – the moment when Fascism took over in Italy. Pavolini was assigned tasks in the cultural field (including youth programs launched by the fascists), while contributing to fascist publications such as Battaglie fasciste, Rivoluzione fascista, and Critica fascista. Thanks to his acquaintance with Florentine fascist leader Luigi Ridolfi Vay da Verrazzano, he broke into active politics, becoming Ridolfi's deputy in 1927. From 1929 to 1934, he was local leader of the National Fascist Party (PNF) in Florence, as well as editor of the fascist publication Il Bargello (named after a military rank of the Middle Ages), which urged all intellectuals to contribute; Pavolini aimed for an image of Fascism as cultural and aristocratic – he initiated a series of cultural events that survived both Fascism and his death, including the yearly costumed re-enactment of the Italian Renaissance-era sport Calcio Fiorentino, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino music festival and the Ponte Vecchio Artisans' Exhibit. Between 1934 and 1942, he was a regular contributor to Corriere della Sera as a "special guest".
Prominence
editAfter becoming a member of the national PNF leadership in 1932, he moved on from local politics to become the president of the Fascist Confederation of Professionals and Artists, which propelled him to a leadership position in the Council of Corporations. He took part in the Second Italo-Abyssinian War as a lieutenant inspecting the squadron led by Galeazzo Ciano (a group nicknamed La Disperata), and as a correspondent for Corriere della Sera. Throughout his political career, Pavolini published cultural and literary essays, such as Disperata ("The Desperate"; 1937) and Scomparsa d'Angela ("Angela's Disappearance"; 1940). In 1939, he was appointed by Mussolini Minister of Popular Culture, and served until January 1943.
Minister of Popular Culture (Minculpop in short) meant in fact Ministry of Propaganda and Pavolini had an iron grip on what the press could or could not publish. The written instructions to the press (including radio broadcasts and "Luce" cinema newsreels) were dubbed veline (tissue paper) by the newsmen and covered an amazing variety of domains (from forbidding to publish photos of boxer Primo Carnera knocked out and lying unconscious to the obligation of publishing flattering propaganda photos of Mussolini on a brand new Fiat tractor or forbidding to publish photos of Naples under the snow, fearing it would damage the tourism industry).
Minculpop also tackled the cinema industry (the famous and very creative Cinecitta studios in Rome were created by Mussolini's will to act as a counter against Hollywood productions; the Venice film festival is also a creation of the fascist period).
Pavolini was deeply involved in the cinema industry (either on the propaganda or on the entertainment sides of it) and famously had a much publicized affair with Doris Duranti, a film actress of the period who starred in the Telefoni Bianchi subgenre of light comedy films and prominently featured in the very first bare-bosomed scene in Italian cinema.
The Allied invasion of Sicily and the ousting of Mussolini in Rome brought Nazi intervention and the proclamation of a new fascist puppet state, the northern Italian Social Republic. Pavolini was integrated into the Republic's administration under Mussolini, and was immediately promoted head of the successor of the PNF, the Republican Fascist Party (PFR) (the only person to occupy that post); he took part in the drafting of major documents, including the Verona manifesto that called for the execution of former Grand Council of Fascism members who had voted against Mussolini in April, and was behind the creation of the paramilitary Black Brigades.
Capture and death
editPavolini was captured after a desperate escape attempt which saw him swimming across Lake Como and then trapped in a Mexican standoff over a half submerged rock. When Pavolini ran out of bullets, he was finally apprehended and executed only under Italian law by the partisans in Dongo.[1] Before burial, his body was hung upside down in public, along with Mussolini, Mussolini's mistress Clara Petacci, the former Party Secretary Achille Starace, Nicola Bombacci and others in Piazzale Loreto, Milan.[2]
References
edit- ^ Roy Palmer Domenico (1991). Italian Fascists on Trial, 1943-1948. University of North Carolina Press. p. 35-36. ISBN 0-8078-2006-7.
Italian-on-Italian crimes were not war crimes nor pursued as crimes against humanity under the Nuremberg statute and Allied Control Council Law No. 10. American and British authorities did not see Italian fascism as nearly as objectionable as German nazism and also feared the Italian Communist Party. They did not request extradition of Italian nationals accused of such crimes and left the prosecution up to the Italian government.
- ^ Steve Cole (5 August 2009). "The Execution of Mussolini".
External links
edit- Teodori, Giovanni (2014). "PAVOLINI, Alessandro". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 81: Pansini–Pazienza (in Italian). Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. ISBN 978-8-81200032-6.
- Italian Government (Archived 2009-10-25) at www.geocities.com
- Newspaper clippings about Alessandro Pavolini in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW