MUSSOLINI Benito (1883 - 1945)

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Lot n° 82
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MUSSOLINI Benito (1883 - 1945)
Autograph MANUSCRIT, Segnalazione [Signaling], [1934]; 5 1/4 pages small in-4 mounted on tabs (with partial typed translation opposite) in one volume bound in half donut cloth Bradel style; in Italian. Mussolini's reflections on the unfortunate conduct of the First World War. Mussolini reports on the book by Aldo VALORI (1882 - 1965), La Condotta politica della guerra, (Milan, Corbaccio, 1934). Valori's book, the 13th volume of the Storia della guerra italiana collection, is 450 pages long and "will be read with intense and growing interest even by those who had the great privilege of having been in some way protagonists of the historical events that took place from 1915 to 1918, from the declaration of war to victory. Who was not a protagonist then? All of them, because the entire Italian people was involved in the drama, but not all the actors were up to the task, and the chorus itself, that is to say the masses, experienced moments of serious uncertainty due to the lack of guidance for the actions, and to the exceptional duration and scope of the sacrifices demanded. The examination that Valori makes of the political conduct of the war, that is to say of the work of the governments that prepared it, directed it and concluded it (Salandra, Biselli, Orlando), is very severe, but also objective and just. Valori places himself on the historical level, beyond the contingent polemics, and recognizes certain mitigating circumstances to the very men who committed very serious errors, which could have proved fatal". They were "politicians of the liberal-democratic world, all of them sick of parliamentarianism and resistant to the use of the 'strong manner', so necessary in times of peace and war. [...] there could be no other result than a conduct of the war that can be qualified, even if one is excessively indulgent, as "inadequate and unfortunate". There was no treason, but rather a terrible inadequacy. "The conduct of the war was unfortunate in all aspects - diplomatic, military, financial, internal, spiritual - and Valori demonstrates this with documented analysis and irrefutable evidence. Victory came about because - after October 1917 - the nation's vital forces had the upper hand and imposed on the government a better conduct of the war than the previous one. Valori's book is instructive because it gives a great number of data and facts perhaps forgotten in the whirlwind of the successive events, and it is also educational, especially for the present political class, I mean the fascist generations, that must know and learn from yesterday's history, what to do and not to do, facing tomorrow's eventuality". The manuscript is bound with five clippings from French newspapers about the Duce: Jean Fayard, "Un entretien avec Mussolini" (Candide, February 24, 1927); Léon Daudet, review of Mussolini's book Le Fascisme (Candide, July 6, 1933), and of Mussolini's OEuvres et discours de Mussolini (Candide, March 14, 1935); Jacques Bainville, "Un mot de Mussolini" (L'Action française, January 14, 1933), and "Mussolini et l'exemple de Sylla" (L'Action française, January 5, 1925). PROVENANCE Former Dominique de VILLEPIN collection (II, November 29, 2013, No. 462, ex libris).
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