By 1919 a radically changed Mussolini had founded the fascist movement, which would later become the Fascist Party.ģ. But he was expelled from the party two years later over his support for World War I. In 1912 he became editor of Avanti! (Forward!), the official daily newspaper of Italy’s Socialist Party. In his articles and speeches, Mussolini preached violent revolution, praised famed communist thinker Karl Marx and criticized patriotism. He then served in the Italian army for nearly two years before resuming his career as a teacher and journalist. While living in Switzerland from 1902 to 1904, he cultivated an intellectual image and wrote for socialist periodicals such as L’Avvenire del Lavoratore (The Worker’s Future). Early in Mussolini’s life, for instance, those names seemed appropriate. His two middle names, Amilcare and Andrea, came from Italian socialists Amilcare Cipriani and Andrea Costa. Mussolini was a socialist before becoming a fascist.īorn to a socialist father, Mussolini was named after leftist Mexican President Benito Juárez.
