TOTALITARIANISM AND THE STREET

I N FASCIST ROME
David Atkinson

INTRODUCTION
Between 1922 and 1943, under the Fascist regime of Benito MussoUni, the city o f
Rome was transformed. Its population grew f r o m around 660,000 when Mussolini
seized power to a figure o f 1,500,000 when he finally l e f t Rome (Agnew, 1995;
Fried, 1973). To accommodate this g r o w t h , the city's perimeter witnessed the relentless construction o f new residential districts. The centre o f the city was subjected to
radical surgery as the regime re-planned and r e b u i l t the Eternal City i n a sustained
attempt to articulate its political, c u l t u r a l and social agenda through the f o r m and
use o f the cityscape. Indeed, so politicised was this programme of urban interventions
and so crucial were public spaces to the regime that Diane Ghirardo argues:
I n fascist Italy, much of the battle for hearts and minds of Italians took
place i n the public arena, i n the streets and squares o f the peninsula's cities.
Propaganda campaigns carried out i n newspapers, books, conferences and
parliamentary speeches, and even radio broadcasts, paled i n comparison w i t h
fascist activities i n the streets. Mass civic events became a fascist trope, a
means of forging a new, post-democratic collectivity and o f inscribing the
public character of the new p o l i t i c a l f o r m a t i o n into the urban realm.
(Ghirardo, 1996: 347)
Many commentators have discussed the merits of individual examples o f Fascist
architecture, whilst an increasing number have expanded the scale of analysis to ident i f y the importance the regime accorded to p l a n n i n g and urban landscapes ( A t k i n s o n
and Cosgrove, 1998; Cederna, 1979; Ernesti, 1988; Fuller, 1996; Ghirardo, 1990;
Kostof, 1973). However, despite their frequent references to the Fascist street and

DAVID ATKINSON

public space, seldom have these studies concentrated i n a sustained fashion upon
the role of the street under totalitarianism (although see Ghirardo, 1988, 1990). B y
contrast, we know that I t a l i a n cities nurture long-standing traditions whereby the
piazza and the street f u n c t i o n as a locus of political, civic and social life (Calabi,
1993; Cosgrove 1982, 1984; M u i r , 1 9 8 1 ; M u i r and Weissman, 1989), and L u i g i
Barzini (1964) and Mario Isnenghi (1994) b o t h a f f i r m that streets and piazzas have
remained a central site o f I t a l i a n life t h r o u g h into the twentieth century Given that
other writers have mentioned the ways i n w h i c h the Classical and Renaissance notions
of ceremonial entrances to the city were reworked i n the Fascist period ( A t k i n s o n ,
1997, Fogu, 1996; Ghirardo, 1996), i t is no surprise to find that the street became
a focus of the Fascist regime's attention.
This essay considers some o f the ways i n w h i c h the long-standing importance
of streets and public spaces i n I t a l y was renegotiated and reworked by the regime
as part of its gradual appropriation of the public sphere. From the early days of a r b i - ^
trary violence i n the city's streets and piazzas, through the efforts to police andr
exclude certain individuals, via the d e m o l i t i o n and re-planning of Roman streets
" and thoroughfares, to the f o r m a l ceremonies, parades and processions w h i c h were
characteristic of the regime, I w i l l argue that a focus upon the street lends us a
f r u i t f u l insight i n t o the m a k i n g o f totalitarian urban space. I do this by exploring
the general processes t h r o u g h w h i c h the streets were transformed and - eventually
- controlled by the regime towards its totalitarian ends.

EARLY FASCISM AND PUBLIC SPACES

I n its earliest f o r m , I t a l i a n Fascism was not so m u c h a recognisable political party as
a violent and essentially public expression o f political disaffection at the Government's
failure to reward wartime sacrifices w i t h the promised employment, land-reform, extension o f t h e franchise, and economic well-being. I t reacted against the o l d , t i r e d Liberal
governments w h i c h seemed unable to cope w i t h the instabilities and uncertainties o f
the post-war w o r l d . I n contrast, the Fascisti imagined themselves capable of b u i l d i n g
a revived, modern Italy for the new era. Yet, rather than debate political ideas and ideologies i n closed rooms or h o l d orthodox public demonstrations, Benito Mussolini and
the motley collection o f demobilised soldiers and ahenated young men w h o constituted the Squadristi

(the fighting squads) o f early Fascism, roamed their local city, t o w n

or district v i s i t i n g p u n i t i v e and random i n t i m i d a t i o n upon their p o l i t i c a l opponents

and demonstrating a ready penchant for brutal public violence. As Mario Isnenghi
(1994) comments, the Fascisti

understood very clearly the political and symbolic

significance of such p u b l i c confrontations. One Tuscan Squadrista

wrote i n his diary:

t l } n the heart of those o f us who take to the streets, is the conviction that
to conquer the old w o r l d o f the fogeys and the new w o r l d of the Asiatic
hordes, we must occupy w i t h b o t h the spirit and the body the squares and
the streets o f the city and h o l d on to t h e m w i t h fortitude.
(Isnenghi, 1994: 287)

TOTALITARIANISM AND THE STREET

A n d this sense of mastering pubhc spaces f o r the redemption of the nation was later
echoed by Mussolini himself, who wrote i n his autobiography:
I could not forget that I was also C h i e f o f that Party that for three years
had f o u g h t i n the squares and streets o f Italy - not only to gain power, but
above all for the supreme task and the supreme necessity of infusing into
the nation a new national spirit.
(Mussolini, 1936: 195)
However, the m a i n victims o f their k i l l i n g , beatings and arson attacks -

the

perceived threat to the redemption o f Italy - were usually the l e f t - w i n g working-class

organisations w h i c h themselves had mobilised i n the hope of fermenting revolution
amidst the chaotic aftermath o f the post-war period (Lyttelton, 1973). Particularly i n
the N o r t h and centre of the peninsula, the years 1 9 2 1 - 2 were marked by violent
confrontations between the left and the Fascists, w i t h the latter usually victorious
thanks to the tacit support o f the police and the land-owning and industrial elites
who feared international Bolshevism s t i l l more than the domestic phenomenon w h i c h
was Fascism. B y the A u t u m n of 1922, the l e f t was largely defeated and, despite its
lawlessness. Fascism was established as a significant political force, although one w h i c h
could s t i l l have been defeated easily by the A r m y (Lyttelton, 1973). However, when
Mussolini threatened to 'March on Rome' w i t h his m i l i t i a and seize control to 'save'
Italy f r o m anarchy, i n an attempt to absorb Fascism i n t o the Italian political system
and to 'normalise' its energies, the government acceded to a role for the Fascists and
K i n g V i t t o r i o Emmanuele I I I invited Mussolini to f o r m the next government.
I n keeping w i t h their emphasis upon p u b l i c shows o f strength, the future dictator
insisted that his self-styled and Black-shirted 'Legionnaires' f u l f i l their threat to
'March on Rome' and by so doing to demonstrate the transfer o f power i n a very
public fashion. The city of Rome enjoyed a significant m y t h i c a l importance for the
infant Fascist movement and the notion o f romanita (The Roman Spirit) was a central
element of their conservative-nationalism

(Visser, 1992). Thus, when the Fascist

columns marched into the ancient city t h r o u g h its historical gateways to congregate
i n the centre, the symbolism of this performance was not lost on their opponents.
I n order to avoid the violent scuffles w h i c h attended the Blackshirt advance, Mussolini
himself arrived by train and hurried to meet the k i n g . However, these formalities
concluded, Mussolini headed immediately to Piazza

Yenezia where he climbed the

steps of the National Monument and, before the assembled Blackshirts, made his
first speech as Prime minister (Munro, 1933). I n the earliest acts of Fascism, therefore,
a direct and immediate concern w i t h the p u b l i c urban spaces of the city and the
need to appropriate these areas for Fascism i n a very p u b l i c and visible manner had
already been revealed.
This concern to appropriate Rome's p u b l i c spaces - i n c l u d i n g the streets where
everyday Roman life continued - was to become a significant element of Fascist
government. Just as two years previously the Fascist squadristi

had fought to 'tame

the red piazzas' (Isnenghi, 1994: 302), such violence was frequently translated directly
onto the streets of the capital. I n his 1926 book entitled Through Fascism to World

15

16

DAVID ATKINSON

Power I o n M u n r o , a B r i t i s h journahst based i n Italy, described a typical Roman streetscene i n the early days o f Mussolini's premiership:
{y}ou w o u l d as l i k e l y as not meet a bunch of Fascists - w i t h clubs i n their
hands that w o u l d make Irishmen's shillelaghs look like toothpicks, and more
pistols i n their belts than i n a wild-west film bearing down on some newspaper kiosk. There y o u w o u l d see t h e m seizing and m a k i n g a street bonfire of
some Opposition p u b l i c a t i o n - the unfortunate vendor wisely keeping his
thoughts to himself i n a sidestreet. O r you w o u l d see a mob w i t h banners pouring by, singing Giovanezza

(a Fascist marching song} and knocking the hats

off the heads of those who were not bareheaded before the blackshirt emblems.
Then you m i g h t see tens o f thousands of people pouring into Piazza

Colonna

for a mere glimpse o f Mussolini to give h i m an ovation. A n d then again you

m i g h t see, later, the same squadristi that you had seen surging like lion-tamers
among the citizens, kneeling i m m o b i l e and i n dedicatory homage before the
tomb of the u n k n o w n warrior and the Ara Patria [the National Monument},
(Munro, 1933: 2 0 9 - 1 0 )
Munro's narrative tallies w i t h other accounts o f the period when the regime had s t i l l
to establish itself unequivocally and opposition parties posed a threat, albeit a d i m i n ishing one, to Mussolini's government. The streets remained a political battleground
as the Fascists continued to provoke brutal public violence - even leading to the
blatant i n t i m i d a t i o n o f voters outside p o l l i n g booths i n the A p r i l 1924 elections.
Giacomo M a t t e o t t i , a Socialist deputy i n the Italian parliament and the most vocal
and unrelenting critic o f Fascist rule, attacked the government's election victory as
worthless because of this unabashed i n t i m i d a t i o n . I n return, on 10th June, 1924,
M a t t e o t t i was kidnapped, beaten and k i l l e d by a group of Fascist thugs on his way
to Parliament. Mussolini's evident complicity i n the crime was condemned by a series
o f significant figures i n Italian society and Rome's streets and piazzas were filled by
demonstrations against this blatant p o l i t i c a l assassination.
Many historians i d e n t i f y the M a t t e o t t i crisis as a crucial watershed i n the Fascist
period; had a p o w e r f u l constituency such as the Monarchy, the Church, the A r m y
or Parliament moved against Mussolini effectively at this point, i t is argued. Fascism
w o u l d probably not have survived. However, the K i n g , the Pope and the generals
failed to act against the Fascists, w h i l s t the strategy o f the opposition deputies who
w i t h d r e w f r o m parliament i n protest at the political assassination, proved to be an
ineffectual democratic response to a new genre of undemocratic politics. Mussolini
refused to resign and managed to retain his office. Indeed, whilst the political manoeuv r i n g continued behind closed doors, Mussolini continued to use the streets to r e m i n d
ordinary Romans who m i g h t protest against h i m of the violent capacity o f Fascism:
I ordered the Florentine legions o f the [Fascist} M i l i t i a to parade i n the
streets of the capital. The armed M i l i t i a w i t h its war-songs is an element
of great persuasion. I t is an argument.
(Mussolini, 1936: 210)

TOTALITARIANISM AND THE STREET

Even at the height o f t h e M a t t e o t t i crisis, then, M u s s o l i n i maintained a Fascist presence

i n the streets. Yet at this stage, perhaps not even his most ardent supporters imagined
that his influence over these spaces w o u l d last for the next eighteen years. They reckoned w i t h o u t the development o f the Fascist dictatorship. Towards the end o f 1925,
under increasing pressure f r o m extremists i n his o w n movement to push the Fascist
'revolution' forward apace, Mussohni took the crucial decision to step beyond the
democratic frameworks he had inherited as premier. O n 3 January 1925, he addressed
parliament and took f u l l responsibility for a l l the actions of the Fascist squads over
the past three years - abandoning any pretence towards democracy I t was effectively
a coup d'tat and i n the days w h i c h followed, M u s s o l i n i and his Gerarchia (hierarchy)
began systematically to dismantle the democratic Italian state and to establish a
dictatorship and the world's first self-consciously labelled 'Totalitarian' state.

TOTALITARIAN FASCISM A N D THE STREETS

Mussolini first coined the term 'TotaUtarianism' i n the aftermath o f his 1925 declaration o f dictatorship, d u r i n g a speech i n w h i c h he declared that all of Italy was to
be 'Fascistized' (Morgan, 1995). I n retrospect i t has become clear that the Tascistisation' of Italy never attained the degree o f social, cultural and political control w h i c h
the regime hoped for and w h i c h was briefly threatened i n 1925 (Aquarone, 1965;
De Grand, 1991). For as Forgacs (1986) points out, this 'flawed' totalitarianism was
compromised by the relative independence enjoyed by the industrial and

financial

elites and national institutions such as the monarchy, the A r m y , and, most significantly, the Catholic Church. The state failed to intervene systematically i n the realms
of culture and education u n t i l the mid-1930s and likewise, the judiciary and the
police retained m u c h o f their autonomy I n a d d i t i o n , the project was compromised
by the uneven impact of the regime's use o f communications technologies,

the

differing socio-economic contexts upon w h i c h Fascism attempted to graft its totalitarianism and the backwardness of various regions, especially the south (Ponziani,
X995; Steinberg, 1986). I n relative terms, one commentator recently conceded that:
'As major t w e n t i e t h century dictatorships go, the Mussolini regime was neither especially sanguinary nor particularly repressive' (Payne, 1995:

122).

However, having said all of this, i t is clear that the inter-war period witnessed
the widespread attempts by the regime to crush a l l p o l i t i c a l opposition and tb control
the mass cultures and everyday lives o f ordinary Italians i n its attempt to forge a new,
'fascistised' I t a l y (Gentile, 1995). The impacts and resuks of this programme may
seldom have been as effective as the Fascists intended, b u t they nevertheless impacted
significantly upon Italian cultural and social life. They certainly transformed democratic politics. I n early 1925, elected local government was abolished and the

fledgling

regime foisted its own mayors upon towns and cities. Opposition political parties
were banned i n 1926 and the chamber of deputies was abolished two years later
(Payne, 1995). Censorship was introduced and unsympathetic newspapers were closed.
Laws against secret societies were enacted w i t h the Mafia and Freemasonry as the
intended targets.

17

DAVID ATKINSON

I n the workplace, the union-breaking days of early Fascism were reprised by the
legal suppression o f labour organisations and unions w h i c h were replaced by 'Fascist
Corporate Councils' (Abse, 1996). Beyond the workplace, leisure activities and
numerous aspects o f social and cultural life were increasingly the focus o f the regime's
strident attempts to order society. I n 1929 accommodation was made w i t h the church
w h i c h had been at loggerheads w i t h the secular state since the incorporation o f the
papal city into Italy i n 1870. A n d although disputes between church and state
continued, especially over the 'moral' t r a i n i n g of young minds, the schism between
the spiritual realm of Catholicism and the c i v i l domain o f the state was not the
problem i t had been for previous Italian governments (Pollard, 1985). The regime
made increasing demands on the remaining leisure t i m e of Italians. A range of neomilitaristic y o u t h organisations and the Opera Nazionale

Dopolavoro ( O N D ) (National

A f t e r w o r k Organisation) were designed to occupy Italians w i t h a huge range of

'suitable' activities d u r i n g the evenings and the specially instituted Sabato

fascista

(Saturday afternoon holidays) (De Grazia, 1981). The development of radio, cinema,
exhibitions and mass theatre also attempted to draw the masses i n t o the cultures o f
Fascism (Brunetta, 1975; Hay, 1987; Schnapp, 1996; Stone,

1993; Monteleone,

1976). Likewise, the exploitation of communications and media technologies was a

key feature of the regime's totalitarianism (Thompson, 1991).
Finally, i n domestic spaces, legislation reinforced the existing patriarchal cultures
of Italy and insisted u p o n conservative maternal and domestic roles for Italian women
(De Grazia, 1992). Despite tokenistic organisations to occupy middle-class w o m e n
and the spare t i m e of domestic servants and rural housewives (Willson, 1996), Fascist
women were p r i m a r i l y supposed to provide a home for the Fascist male and to nurture
their brood of young Fascists to fight i n f u t u r e imperial campaigns (Caldwell, 1991).
She w o u l d contribute to the nation t h r o u g h c h i l d b i r t h , and 'devote herself to
maximising her o u t p u t o f children i n order to qualify as one o f the t r u l y heroic
figure o f t h e Fascist age - the "proHfic mother"'(Willson, 1996: 80). She was certainly
not supposed to enjoy the freedom o f the streets (Saraceno, 1991). B y contrast,, the
public spaces already marked by the p u b l i c violence of Fascism became the domain
o f the alternative gender p e r m i t t e d b y the regime - the idealised Fascist male. This
heroic, strong, disciplined and virile i n d i v i d u a l became one o f the central symbolic
figures of the state and one w h o was intended to forge Italy's new place i n the w o r l d
(Spackman, 1990). H e occupied the political spaces denied to women and was central
to Fascist cultures, as one Fascist admitted:
Fascist culture must be l i f e and the expression o f life; i t must create a species
of man, a new man, a whole man, one who is the same man i n his family,
i n society, and i n the state.
(Gentile, 1996: 97)
A n d although commentators are agreed that the regime failed to realise the creation
o f the 'I'uomo nuovo fascista

(the new Fascist man) (Corner, 1983; De Grazia, 1981),

the streets of Italy were increasingly reworked as the spaces where these Fascist males
performed their ascribed roles. As we have seen, public spaces were scarred by political

TOTALITARIANISM AND THE STREET

violence d u r i n g the emergence of Fascism. However flawed Fascist totalitarianism

was i n practice, the extent to which the p u r s u i t o f this idealised, male. Fascist citizen
impacted upon the streets o f Rome is w o r t h f u r t h e r consideration.

Making Totalitarian streets order and surveillance

The p u b l i c violence of squadrismo was finally curtailed by Mussolini i n late 1925
after a particularly lethal fight i n Florence l e f t eight Fascist opponents dead (Payne,
1995). By this stage though, the regime was increasingly ensconced i n the structures
of the state, and w h i l s t no longer the site o f frequent political brutality, the street
became no less masculine and oppressive as the preserve o f 'The N e w Fascist M a n ' .
Fascism sought to exercise its authority and to discipline and order Italian life i n
such public spaces. W i t h opposition parties, unions, and newspapers defeated, the
regime began to focus on individuals. N e w legislation p e r m i t t e d a series o f 'subversive' figures to be removed f r o m the p u b l i c realm. The Public Security decrees
of N o v e m b e r 1926 allowed local authorities to arrest and punish individuals
'singled out by p u b l i c rumour as being dangerous to the national order o f the state'
(Morgan, 1995: 83). Other such 'delinquents' were also targeted, as were the 'wrong'
kinds of women for the new Italy. I n 1923, prostitutes had been subjected to
a programme o f regulation which sought to control sexualities w h i c h lay beyond
the f a m i l i a l units advocated by Fascism. Three years later, under the nascent dictatorship, the new Public Security laws legislated f o r the eviction o f all prostitutes
f r o m the streets (De Grazia, 1992). So although violent beatings were less frequent,
the moral geographies of Fascism were increasingly marked i n the public thoroughfares o f Fascist society. Even at the most mundane levels, jaywalking was outlawed
and the police enforced a one-way system u p o n the narrow pavements of central
Rome -

m u c h to the admiration o f National

Geographic^

roving

correspondent

(Roberts, 1936).
Finally, despite the efforts of the O N D and the gradual encroachment o f the
regime into leisure t i m e , street-cafes and bars remained the hub of Italian social and
cultural life. Consequently, they too became sites to be appropriated by the regime.
Most of the remaining working-class bars were closed d o w n by the police i n 1927
alongside the suppression o f other potential opposition meeting places (De Grazia,
1992). A t the same t i m e , the Fascist presence became gradually more marked i n the
more up-market cafes which were untouched by the police crackdown. Their most
prestigious, streetside tables became the places w h i c h Fascist officialdom occupied to
'show their movement's capacity to occupy a l l the spaces originally associated w i t h
the construction o f bourgeoise sociability . . , (and} to display their prowess as men'
(De Grazia, 1992: 202). The public spectacle foreshadowed by the March on Rome
was an increasingly important aspect of life under Fascism. A n d Fascist ambitions
to enforce its moral geographies and clear the streets o f 'unwanted' elements d i d not
end w i t h prostitutes and delinquents. The pathologies o f the city were rooted much
more deeply than this and resulted i n the redesign and reconstruction of entire
quarters o f Rome.

19

20

DAVID ATKINSON

Planning Fascist Streets pathologies of the city

I n May 1927 / / Popolo d'ltalia

(a leading Milanese newspaper) complained that cities

were the 'breeding grounds o f a l l the moral - b u t not only moral - infections o f the
people' ( H o r n , 1994: 104). These sentiments struck a common chord. Italian social
scientists of the 1920s frequently interpreted cities as unhygienic harbours of disease
and degeneracy b u t also, when beset by overcrowding and unemployment, as potential
sources o f political resistance or even hotbeds o f bolshevism. Furthermore, Mussolini
had declared cities to be a demographic problem. Despite the pro-natalism of the regime,
the b i r t h rate failed to match Fascist expectations and increasing urbanisation and
especially rural-urban m i g r a t i o n were blamed (Ipsen, 1996; Treves, 1976):
CN}ationalists saw the city as threatening the v i r i l i t y and {virtue} o f the
predominantly rural Italian population by reducing its overall f e r t i l i t y . . .
doctors and social scientists identified the city as w o r k i n g to subvert or
invert the 'natural' gender distinctions and hierarchies that prevailed i n the
countryside.

( H o r n , 1.994: 99)

As David H o r n (1994) suggests, the regime responded w i t h a dual strategy. 'Negative

Urbanism' prompted laws designed to curb rural-urban m i g r a t i o n and to restrict
Italians to their 'natural' rural environments where their f e r t i l i t y was assured. The
only city exempted f r o m the anti-urban rhetoric o f the regime was Rome, the capital,
where Mussolini aimed for a population o f 20 m i l l i o n by the late t w e n t i e t h century
(Kostof, 1973). Yet Rome was not exempt f r o m 'Positive Urbanism' - a response to
the infertility, diseases and potential p o l i t i c a l resistance of the Romans. U s i n g a host
of bodily metaphors, the planners and sociologists who constituted the new discourse
o f urbanism talked o f treating the city and 'correcting' its maladies; theirs' were
'medico-social therapies targeting urban spaces, the home, and the reproductive body'
( H o r n , 1994: 96). Even to the extent o f sventramento (disembowelling, or ' g u t t i n g '
the city) (Cederna, 1979) they wanted to excise the 'dangerous' elements f r o m the
metropolis to leave a 'healthy', ordered, disciplined and fertile Fascist city.
The heart o f Rome was subjected to perhaps the most spectacular and remarkable clearances o f the period. Swathes o f the centre were demolished and replaced
by broad, modern, monumental avenues w h i c h became the sites for Fascist parades
and spectacles, as well as the Roman traffic (Kostof, 1973). I n tandem w i t h the
violent and legislative appropriation o f Rome's p u b l i c spaces, therefore, the regime
set about physically remaking parts o f central Rome to create streets w h i c h w o u l d
b o t h express the ideological agenda of Fascism and stage the rituals and performances
of the regime, whilst guaranteeing a more ordered, fertile population. The first major
intervention i n the city follows as a brief example.
W o r k began on the Yia del Mare - the Road to the Sea - i n 1926 (Insolera,
1971; Munoz, 1932). Departing f r o m Piazza

Yenezia, the kernel o f the city's road

network and sweeping along the n o r t h and western flanks of the Capitoline h i l l ,
beyond the suburbs the broad, modern avenue eventually became Italy's first autostrada

TOTAUTARIANISM AND THE STREET

F I G U R E 2.1 A Roman courtyard (and some of its residents) of the kind Fascism cleared to make
way for the Yia del Mare. Source: Kostof (1994: 9)

connecting the capital w i t h the Tyhrennian coast some t w e n t y miles distant (Atkinson
and Cosgrove, 1998; Vandone, 1929). M u c h was made o f this connection to the
coast and Romans were urged to escape the city at the weekend to breath the clean,
restorative sea-airs. B u t i n the centre of the city, the creation o f a suitably healthy.
Fascist environment was also addressed (Ciacci, 1941). The Roman terminus of the
Via del Mare had previously been one o f the most r u n - d o w n parts o f the city. Figure
2.1 shows a block w h i c h was part o f one o f the districts cleared by the Fascists i n
the 1930s; the regime associated the poorest, working-class Romans who resided
there, and the dark maze of narrow streets and small piazzas, w i t h overcrowding and
unhygienic conditions (Mul, 1932). Such streets were clearly at odds w i t h the
regime's insistence on the healthy, fertile city:
According to Fascist theory, straight and w i d e avenues were indispensable.
You could not reconcile tortuous, narrow streets w i t h active traffic and sufficient l i g h t and air. . . . The street responded to a principle o f public morality
of w h i c h the state was the interpreter.
(Kostof, 1973: 18)

DAVID ATKINSON

(Fot.

BrCigiuT, C

Rorna - La Via clol Maro

2.2 The completed Via del Mare, looking towards the Theatre of Marcellus. Source: Conte
(1934: 640)

FIGURE

Consequently, the regime's agenda, the rhetoric of slum clearance and the need to
p l a n a modern city ensured t h a t the piazzas and streets o f the d i s t r i c t were
razed to the ground to make way for the broad, airy Road to the Sea. Figure 2.2, for
example, views the avenue f r o m its city-centre terminus (marked by a Roman-style
milepost), after the s l u m clearance. The road can be seen approaching the ancient
Theatre o f Marcellus, w h i c h had been restored especially The route then swings to
the left through a series of newly restored ancient monuments w h i c h were isolated
and exhibited amidst the k i n d o f manicured parkland w h i c h can be seen to the l e f t
of the image, at the foot o f the Capitoline H i l l (Mul, 1932; M u n o z , 1932). The
map reproduced i n Figure 2.3 clearly indicates the breadth o f the avenue after i t
departs f r o m the piazza i n f r o n t of the N a t i o n a l M o n u m e n t (at the top l e f t o f the
image), through the newly demolished slum districts (the dense street-patterns o f
w h i c h can also be identified) and past the Classical Roman Theatre. A s t i l l more
spectacular avenue, the Via deU'Impero (The Avenue of Empire) was carved between
the National M o n u m e n t and the Colosseum i n 1932. This can be seen at the top of
Figure 2.3.
The w o r k i n g classes o f the inner city were affected i n various ways. Some f o u n d
w o r k on the projects, as the alleviation o f unemployment and high-profile p u b l i c -

TOTALITARIANISM AND THE STREET

Roma -

L a zona dsl Campidoglio

a sistemazione. ultimata

2.3 Map of the Via del Mare and the Yia deU'Impero cutting through the urban fabric of
central Rome. Source: Albertini (1934: 511)

FIGURE

works programmes proved valuable p u b l i c relations material f o r the regime. However,

the rapid d e m o l i t i o n o f their residential quarter impacted upon all of them. Most
of those displaced were relocated to the eastern outskirts o f the city, to the Borgate
- literally the 'scraps' o f the city w h i c h were hastily b u i l t settlements at first often
lacking basic amenities and infrastructure (Agnew, 1995; Clementi and Perego, 1983;
Fried, 1973). Once removed to these supposedly 'rural' Borgate, the Romans w o u l d
be more susceptible to the control o f the regime; they w o u l d become more fertile
and disciplined citizens away f r o m the environment i n w h i c h they had been vulnerable to disease, vice or Bolshevism. Some residents resisted their evictions briefly
(Ridley, 1986), b u t this was the last opposition the regime w o u l d encounter f r o m
this district - having cleared i t o f the 'unhealthy', 'dangerous' classes through the
destruction of their urban environment.
The historic monuments w h i c h flanked the Via del Mare and had been isolated
and cleared o f the accretions of centuries were central to the regime's cult o f romanita.
This 'symbolic archaeology' (Gentile, 1990) was intended to suggest that the glories
and the pre-eminence o f the ancient Roman empire w o u l d be revived under Fascism
(Visser, 1992). Sizeable quarters of the city were re-planned and designed to foster
this ideology. However, o f more material significance to the Romans forced to move

DAVID ATKINSON

some ten miles to the outskirts o f Rome, was the obHteration of their homes, the
dissolution of their communities and their difficulties retaining or finding work. I n
creating these model totalitarian streets, the regime destroyed districts w h i c h had
developed over the preceding centuries and w h i c h hosted long-established c o m m u nities. The requirements

o f 'Positive Urbanism', the pursuit o f romanita,

and the

drive towards the modern city had all intersected to spell the end o f many Roman
streets. I n their place stood enormous, t r i u m p h a l avenues, intended to articulate
the Romanita

of Fascist I t a l y and to host the public spectacle of the regime.

Celebrating Fascist streets performance and spectacle

By the mid-1930s, on the rare occasions when protesters d i d take to the streets, they
w o u l d be met by force and the newspapers ( w i t h editorial policies prescribed by the
regime) w o u l d publicise the latent a b i l i t y o f the regime to quash opposition w i t h
violence. The Daily

Telegraph'^ Rome correspondent recorded one such incident:

The p u b l i c i t y given i n the I t a l i a n press to a small riot w h i c h took place i n

the province of A q u i l a . . . when one man was k i l l e d and several wounded
by the police, was meant as a t i m e l y w a r n i n g that the law against p u b l i c
meetings w i l l be rigorously enforced.
(Salvemini, 1936: 400)
I n the face of this appropriation o f the streets, the t r a d i t i o n of workers' sovversivismo
(subversion) retreated to the interior spaces o f factories and homes rather than risk
the streets (Abse, 1996; N e r i Serneri, 1995; Passerini, 1991). A n d given the lack o f
any opposition on the streets, the regime celebrated its o w n triumphs w i t h an unrelenting programme of parades, ceremonies and public spectacles i n b o t h the older
thoroughfares and newer, monumental avenues. W r i t i n g i n 1928, the exiled former
Prime-minister Francesco N i t t i complained that:
Fascism has not bent its efforts to obtaining results, b u t to producing [ p u b l i c
spectacles}. A l l over the country there are celebrations, parades, and processions of Blackshirts.
( N i t t i , ' 1928: 420)
Yet these spectacles were more inclusive than N i t t i claimed. I t is true that the Blackshirted M i l i t i a and the m i l i t a r y and Fascist heroes o f the regime - such as its aviators
or successful armed forces - regularly paraded through the capital (Segr, 1987).
However, when huge public-works programmes such as the Via del Mare were opened
- inevitably by Mussolini and usually on the anniversary of the March on Rome,
Fascism's first success on Rome's streets - the parade w o u l d often be formed o f a
selected group f r o m w i t h i n Fascist society, such as war veterans, the y o u t h movements,
or athletes.
Ordinary Italians w o u l d not merely watch these spectacles, but w o u l d be included
i n the pageantry and allowed to parade t h r o u g h the great stage set w h i c h was
the rebuilt Fascist Rome. Participation was extended far and wide. For example, the

TOTALITARIANISM AND THE STREET

1932 Mostra della Rimluzione

Fascista was a hugely successful exhibition w h i c h cele-

brated the tenth anniversary o f t h e regime and the modern political, social, cultural
and economic system that was Fascism ( A n d r e o t t i , 1992; Schnapp, 1992; Stone,
1993)

Encouraged by the hyperbolic propaganda

o f the regime and specially

discounted train-fares, Italians travelled f r o m a l l over the peninsula to attend the

exhibition B u t as they exited the central station and filed d o w n the Vta

Naztonale

towards the N a t i o n a l E x h i b i t i o n hall, they w o u l d encounter t w o sights. First, the

enormous, temporary facade of red, black and silver steel featuring 25-metre-high
Lictor Fasces (the symbol of the regime, on the r i g h t o f Figure 2.4) w h i c h inasked
the f r o n t o f t h e nineteenth-century beaux arts e x h i b i t i o n hall. Second, positioned upon
the broad steps o f t h e b u i l d i n g , they w o u l d come across a guard of honour, selected
f r o m various volunteer groups f r o m a l l over Italy w h o vied for the privilege of
standing before the ultra-modernist facade. As E m i l i o Gentile records:
I n the t w o years i t stayed open, there was a r i t u a l changing of the guard
several times daily This was executed not just by the m i U t i a b u t also by
f a m i l y members of the fallen, by mutilees, fighting forces, the Sansepolcrtstt
[those present at the first ever Fascist meeting}, and organisations of manu
facturers and professionals. As [a contemporary w r i t e r } pointed out, this
demonstrated, 'through a profoundly symbolic act, the closest possible spiritual bond between the citizens and Fascism, the citizen and his government,
between each Italian and the consciousness o f his welfare and that of the
Fatherland'.

^
(Gentile, 1996: 119)

From children to University students, f r o m teachers to doctors, f r o m dock workers

to electricians, at different times almost 11,500 people 'guarded' the b u i l d i n g . A n d
this was i n addition to the huge processions w h i c h included the haU on their parade
routes (see Figures 2.4 and 2.5). As Schnapp observes: 'the exhibition immediately
became a site for the elaboration of rituals' (Schnapp, 1992: 17).
By the t i m e the Mostra closed i n October 1934 (its r u n was extended three times)
attendance figures totalled almost 4 m i l l i o n (Schnapp, 1992; Stone, 1993). To provide
a suitable setting for this phenomenon, the huge, modernistic facade of the E x h i b i t i o n o f t h e Fascist Revolution and the constant ceremonials o f Fascism had transformed
the Vta Nazionale

f r o m a street redolent o f t h e nineteenth-century Liberal government

under w h i c h i t had been constructed, to a site of Fascist pilgrimage. O n 15 A p r i l

1934 as Figure 2.5 shows, three regimented lines o f road sweepers pedalled their
official tricycles t h r o u g h Rome to the Mostra,

demonstrating, i n the eyes of one

contemporary Italian, 'the almost m i l i t a r y character o f [their organisation and} the

admirable discipUne and zeal o f its personnel' (Vandone, 1935: 72). They also demonstrated the extent to w h i c h the streets of Rome had become a stage set for the
performance of Fascist rituals and the performances o f idealised. Fascist figures.
M y interest revolves around the inclusion of the masses i n such rituals and the
role of the street as the site where a l l this occurred. E m i l i o Gentile (1996) claims
that Itahan Fascism can be conceptualised as a modern political religion, a national

25

26

DAVID ATKINSON

2.4 A parade along the Yia Nazionale, past the exhibition of the Fascist Revolution,
12 September 1933. Source: Gentile (1996: between 52-53)

FIGURE

f a i t h replete w i t h myths, rituals and monuments. Other writers confirm that the
observance by the masses of: 'the symbols, myths and rituals [ o f the regime} was
meant to signify the populace's acknowledgement of their fascist identity' (FalascaZamponi, 1992: 83). Yet, all o f this r i t u a l had to take place somewhere - and i t
seems to me that the streets o f Rome played a key role here. Whether temporarily
appropriated like the Via Nazionale,

or permanently transformed, l i k e the Via del

Mare, i t seems that the long-standing traditions o f Italian civic, social and cultural
life being enacted i n the p u b l i c sphere was renegotiated by Fascism to such an extent
that the streets o f Italy became some of the key sites wherein the regime articulated
its authority, control and - t h r o u g h inclusive spectacles - sought the consensus o f
the Italian population.

TOTALITARIANISM AND THE STREET

CONCLUSION
I n eariy Marcii 1943, factory workers i n T u r i n went on strike, thus i n i t i a t i n g the
first significant acts of mass pubhc opposition to the Fascist regime. Remarkable
because they were unprompted by allied actions b u t were apparently a spontaneous
expression of mass dissent, the strikes were of enormous significance i n announcing
the downfall o f t h e regime (Abse, 1996; Mason, 1995). However, the strike leaders
decided that they w o u l d confine their resistance to industrial action within the walls
of the T u r i n factories. To demonstrate on the street or i n the piazzas of the city was
deemed too dangerous - 'pure suicide' i n the words of one of the strike's leaders
(Mason, 1995: 293). I n t u r n , the m a i n concern o f the local police chief was to confine
the strikers to the private spaces o f t h e factories, and above ah, to prevent ^ny public
demonstrations

o f dissent. H e concentrated

'on m a i n t a i n i n g p u b l i c order and

preventing the strikers f r o m getting out onto the streets' (Mason, 1995: 291). I n
Turin, at least, i t is clear that by the final months o f the regime, the street and other
public spaces were recognised by the local authorities and their opponents alike as
the incontrovertible sphere of a dictatorship w h i c h 'treated rule over the piazza as a
chief symbol o f its public power' (De Grazia, 1992: 203).

28

DAVID ATKINSON

I n Fascist Rome, lilce T u r i n , the totalitarian appropriation of the streets was

regarded as a central element of Fascist social control and the regime's attempts to
enforce the Tascistisation' o f Italy. As I have mentioned, the Italian strain o f totalitarianism failed to meet the standards i t set for itself and, i n many respects, i t was
crucially 'flawed'. Nevertheless, despite these shortcomings, the regime endured for
over twenty years and elements o f its intended repression and social control d i d
impact significantly on the streets. For the citizens of Rome, particularly those beaten
by Squadristi,

those expelled because they transgressed Fascist moral codes, or those

evicted f r o m their homes due to the perceived i n f e r t i l i t y of the city and the need
for monumental avenues, the Fascist concern w i t h Roman thoroughfares must have
seemed coherent and effective enough. Moreover, Thompson (1991) argues that,
although seldom applied as efficiently as planned, the techniques o f totalitarian
control first developed by Fascism proved to be both a model and a yardstick for
later authoritarian and totalitarian states. Given all this, i t seems that any reconceptualisation o f the street w o u l d be w e l l advised to take into account the roles o f
such public spaces i n twentieth-century totalitarian cultures.

NOTE
Unless credited to others, the translations are my own. Unfortunately, the mistakes are all
mine as well.

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