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The Murder That Nearly Toppled Mussolini
On August 16, 1924, the battered body of the Italian Socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti was found buried in a wood on the outskirts of Rome. He had been missing since June 10, when a group of fascists assaulted and kidnapped him. At the end of May, Giacomo Matteotti, an early opponent of Mussolini’s Fascist Party, denounced the violence and irregularities that took place during the national elections that led to the establishment of the first fascist government. While Giacomo Matteotti’s assassination initially threatened to overthrow Mussolini, the Duce overcame the crisis. In postwar Italy, Matteotti was celebrated as a symbol of anti-fascism.
Giacomo Matteotti: The Early Years
The house in Fratta Polesine where Giacomo Matteotti was born. Source: Finestre sull’Arte
Giacomo Matteotti was born in Fratta Polesine, a rural town in the Po Valley of Emilia-Romagna, the Italian region where Predappio, the birthplace of Benito Mussolini, is also located. Giacomo Matteotti was the second youngest of seven children. Four of his siblings did not survive childhood. His remaining two brothers, Matteo and Silvio, died of tuberculosis at a young age. His father, Girolamo Matteotti, was a wealthy landowner.
At the time of Matteotti’s birth, Polesine was a predominantly agricultural area where farm workers lived in grueling conditions, and pellagra, a disease caused by vitamin B3 deficiency, was endemic. According to the Jacini Report, a parliamentary survey of the economic and social situation in the rural areas of the Italian peninsula, the Po Valley was one of the most impoverished zones of the country. The abject poverty led many residents to immigrate overseas, especially to South America. As young Matteotti became increasingly aware of the farm workers’ struggles, he decided to join the youth section of the Italian Socialist Party. In 1904, he became a party member and began collaborating with its magazine, La Lotta (The Struggle).
After graduating from the University of Bologna with a degree in Law, Matteotti was briefly undecided whether to pursue an academic career or devote himself to politics. In 1907, he became a member of the Fratta city council. Then, two years later, Matteotti published his first book on legal matters. However, he ultimately opted to follow his passion for politics. In 1912, he was elected mayor of Villamarzana, a small town near his birthplace. In 1914, he attended the XIV Congress of the Italian Social Party, or PSI.
From left to right: Matteotti’s children, his wife Velia Ruffo, and a signed photograph of Giacomo Matteotti. Source: Il Bo Live – Università di Padova
During the years spent as an administrator in Polesine, Matteotti helped coordinate the local laborers’ organizations. In particular, the socialist leader sought to improve the economic and social conditions of the land workers, promoting a mass literacy campaign and access to higher education.
Meanwhile, Matteotti had met Velia Titta, the sister of celebrated opera singer Ruffo Titta. The couple married in a civil ceremony and had three children: Giancarlo, Matteo, and Isabella.
At the outbreak of World War I, Matteotti opposed Italy’s involvement in the conflict, criticizing fellow socialist Benito Mussolini’s call for intervention. His pacifist stand caused him to face a trial for defeatism. After the Kingdom of Italy joined the war effort alongside the Allied powers, Matteotti was drafted into the army. As he was declared unfit for duty due to his weak lungs, Matteotti remained in a military base in Sicily until the war’s end.
Bienno Rosso & Bienno Nero: Between Internal Struggles & Squadrismo
Guardie Rosse (Red Guards) in Turin, 1920. Source: Fatti per la Storia
In 1919, Matteotti returned to Polesine and resumed his political career. In the general elections held the same year, the Italian Socialist Party secured 70 percent of the vote, becoming the largest party in the country. Matteotti, who had run for parliament the first time, was elected at the Chamber of Deputies as representative for the voting precinct of Rovigo-Ferrara.
When Giacomo Matteotti joined the Italian parliament, the liberal state was experiencing a period of intense political and social upheaval. The cost of World War I had worsened the country’s financial situation, leading to rising inflation and widespread unemployment. Between 1919 and 1920, during the so-called Biennio Rosso (The Two Red Years), the left-wing parties mobilized factory workers and peasants, organizing thousands of strikes and mass demonstrations. While the left political groups increased their memberships, internal conflicts weakened the movement. In particular, the PSI was divided between the maximalists, who sought to upset the existing order through a revolution, and the reformists, who opposed the revolutionary rhetoric.
A group of Socialists in front of Teatro Goldoni, where the XVII Socialist Nationalist Congress took place. Source: Fondazione Gramsci Emilia-Romagna
The friction among the different currents led to a formal split at the 1921 XVII Congress of the PSI held in Livorno. After days of intense confrontations, the left-wing group left the proceedings and founded the Italian Communist Party, or PCI. The reformists, who opposed the Bolshevik model, responded by gathering in a new political group, the United Socialist Party (or PSU), created a few days after the Fascist March on Rome. Filippo Turati, the leader of the moderate current, appointed Matteotti as secretary of the PSU.
Matteotti, a long-time supporter of the social-reformist wing, had always promoted the idea of a “democratic and parliamentary way to Socialism.” At the same time, he criticized his fellow party members who saw the introduction of gradual reforms as the ultimate goal. As Benito Mussolini’s fascist movement began to gain momentum, gradually winning the support of northern Italy’s landowners and industrialists, Matteotti urged the socialists to put aside their ideological differences and coordinate unified actions against the common threat of fascist violence.
Giacomo Matteotti Against Fascism
Blackshirts lit a bonfire during the March on Rome. Source: Focus.it
In Polesine, Matteotti witnessed the violent methods of the fascist squadrismo from its origins. Indeed, the Po Valley was one of the first regions of the Italian peninsula where the squadristi, clad in their black shirts, carried out countless attacks and raids against the opponents of Mussolini’s movement. In the so-called Biennio Nero (The Two Black Years), the Blackshirts usually targeted socialists and union leaders, beating and publicly humiliating them. During their punitive expeditions, the fascists would often force their victims to swallow large quantities of castor oil, a liquid known for its laxative effects.
In Polesine, where a large portion of the population supported the Socialist Party, the squadrismo was particularly violent. As the undisputed left-wing leader of the region, Giacomo Matteotti was a target of Mussolini’s men. In 1921, for example, a group of fascists attacked and beat him in Ferrara, where he was attempting to assist the local mayor arrested by the Blackshirts.
In May 1922, faced with the mounting fascist brutality and the left’s inability to form a common front, Matteotti wrote in a letter to his wife that he was considering resigning from the Chamber of Deputies. During the final two years of his life, the socialist leader felt increasingly isolated within his own party.
As a direct witness of the Fascist movement’s campaign of terror in the Po Valley, Matteotti fiercely opposed the group of PSU members who advocated the need to collaborate with Mussolini’s government. Even though the fascist leader initially pursued a “legality” course in his administration, Matteotti was convinced that the reactionary nature of the fascist movement was mutually exclusive with democracy.
The March on Rome, October 1922. Source: Fatti per la Storia
Until his death, Matteotti denounced the crimes perpetrated by Mussolini’s Blackshirts in Italy and abroad, warning the PSU and other European left-wing parties of the dangers of fascism. On the first anniversary of the founding of the fascist movement, Matteotti published the pamphlet Un anno di dominazione fascista (A Year of Fascist Domination), emphasizing the violence at the earth of the movement and disproving Mussolini’s boasting of the party’s achievements. The PSU members advocating a policy of collaboration with Mussolini’s government opposed the publication of Matteotti’s work.
“The Fascist Government,” remarked Matteotti in an essay published posthumously, “justifies its armed conquest of political power, its use of violence … by the plea of the urgent necessity of restoring the authority of law and State.” However, continued the socialist leader, “never as in this last year [1923], during which Fascism has been in power, has the law been so thrust aside in favour of arbitrary action.”
June 10, 1924: The Matteotti Crisis
The car used to kidnap Giacomo Matteotti on June 10, 1924. Source: Rai Cultura
During the national elections held in the spring of 1924, Giacomo Matteotti was re-elected to the Chamber of Deputies. While the Fascist National Party won 65 percent of the vote, the PSU managed to secure a substantial number of ballots. In many polling places, the squadristi disrupted the electoral proceedings, harassing and intimidating the opposition parties’ candidates. On May 30, 1924, during the opening session of the newly elected Chamber of Deputies, Giacomo Mattetti denounced the violence that had marred the election. In his speech, frequently interrupted by shouted threats from the fascist representatives, Matteotti challenged the legitimacy of the election, calling for the annulment of the electoral proceedings.
The June 14, 1924 edition of Il Popolo. The headline reads: “The Honourable Matteotti Victim of a Hideous Political Murder.” Source: LAIC
As he exited the Chamber, Matteotti allegedly commented, “Now you can prepare my funeral oration.” In the following days, as he waited for the Chamber of Deputies to resume its sessions, Matteotti spent his afternoons in the Chamber’s library, routinely leaving his home at 3:30 pm.
On June 10, 1924, as he was walking on the Lungotevere Arnaldo da Brescia, a group of men waiting in a Lancia car assaulted and kidnapped him. His body was found only on August 15, buried in a wood near the Via Flaminia. The police later identified and arrested five men for the murder of Matteotti. They were members of the Ceka, a Fascist group notorious for its punitive expedition against political opponents.
The funeral of Giacomo Matteotti at Fratta Polesine on August 21, 1924. Source: Casa Museo Giacomo Matteotti
The assassination of Giacomo Matteotti shocked the country. On August 21, 1924, a huge crowd joined the funeral procession held in Fratta. Benito Mussolini, considered by many to be implicated in the crime, feared for the future of his party and government. As the fascists lost public favor, a group of opposition deputies left the Chamber in protest in the so-called Aventine Secession, hoping to persuade King Victor Emmanuel III to ask for Mussolini’s resignation.
The strategy, however, proved to be ineffective. Indeed, in the virtual absence of his opponents, the fascist leader managed to regain control of the situation. In January 1925, he boldly declared that he assumed “full political, moral, and historical responsibility for all that has happened.” In the following months, the Duce transformed the liberal state into an authoritarian regime.
Giacomo Matteotti, Sinclair Oil, & Corruption: The “Oil Trail”
Cartoon of the Teapot Dome Scandal by W.T. Enright, February 23, 1924. Source: Levin Center
In 1924, some opposition newspapers criticized the agreement between the Mussolini government and Sinclair Oil, the American company involved in the Teapot Dome Scandal, a corruption case revolving around the illegal leasing of federal oil reserves. Similarly to what happened in the United States, Sinclair Oil paid bribes to Mussolini’s cabinet to secure the exclusive exploitation of areas of Sicily and the northeastern region of the Italian peninsula.
In May 1924, after a trip to England to meet with the Labor Party officials, Matteotti wrote an article on the Sinclair Oil case. Titled “Machiavelli, Mussolini, and Fascism,” the piece was published by English Life only after his death. “We are already aware,” declared the Socialist leader, “of many grave irregularities concerning this concession. High officials can be charged with treasonable corruption or of the most disgraceful jobbery.”
Giacomo Matteotti. Source: Blog Fondazione Nenni
After Matteotti’s kidnapping, a rumor soon began to circulate, claiming that his death was linked to his investigation into the corruption surrounding the agreement between the fascist government and the American oil company. The fact that Matteotti intended to hold a statement during the June 11 session of the Chamber of Deputies seemed to substantiate the suspicion.
“From the moment I began investigating this murder,” remarked Epifanio Pennetta, the Chief of the judiciary police, “I had the impression, concerning the motive, that aside from the political motives, there were other motives of a financial nature.”
An Anti-Fascist Martyr: Giacomo Matteotti & His Legacy
A group of Socialist deputies commemorate Matteotti on his kidnapping at Lungotevere Arnaldo da Brescia. Source: Rai Cultura
In days following his kidnap, many residents of the Italian capital passed by the site where the socialist leader was last seen, leaving red wreaths and flowers. The Blackshirts hovering nearby usually taunted the mourners, chanting, “Con la carne di Matteotti ci faremo i salsicciotti” (we will make mincemeat of Matteotti’s flesh).
As Mussolini managed to overcome the so-called “Matteotti Crisis,” the regime forbade the commemoration of Matteotti and his memory in any form. Even saying his name could lead to an arrest. His widow, Velia Ruffo, who returned to Polesine with his children, was placed under constant police supervision for the remaining forty years of Mussolini’s dictatorship.
As the regime forbade them from honoring Matteotti in the open, the opponents of the fascist regime continued to mourn him in the privacy of their homes. In July 1944, Daily Herald reporter Maurice Fagence observed, “The spirit of Matteotti which lived throughout Italy’s years of shame still lives in Northern Italy. The dead Matteotti is an army on his own. He lives. He fights.”
Soon, myths began to form around his final moments of life. According to the most famous rumor, Matteotti had said to his attackers, “You may kill me, but you will never kill the idea in me.”
In the postwar years, Matteotti and his “sacrifice” became one of the founding myths of the new Italian democratic republican state. In June 1945, people from all northern Italy gathered in Fratta Polesine to participate in a march organized on the anniversary of the socialist leader’s death. As an early opponent of fascism, Matteotti came to represent the Italian population’s supposedly fundamental dislike for Mussolini’s regime, thus reaffirming the self-exonerating narrative known as the myth of the “Good Italian.”
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