Vlil THE RISE OF ITALIAN FASCISM
title as he to reveal the nature of fascism by the investigation
and recording of its genetic years. He was born in Piedmont
In 1892^ the son of an artisan, the metallurgical worker to
whose memory the book is dedicated. He progressed,
through years of bitter poverty as a child and youth, up
the educational ladder, by scholarships. His doctorate at
the University was obtained for a thesis on Leopardi and
French Philosophy of the Eighteenth Century. As was naturally
to be expected, he began an active participation in politics
in early youth. In 1913 he was an active socialist with
Mussolini—i.e. when Mussolini had arrived at the editorship
of the Avanti, and was an extremist in his demands, and
violently revolutionary in tactics. This was in the days
when Mussolini was an utter pacifist, anti-imperialist,
anti-militarist, and an applauder of regicide.
When Italy was faced with Europe at war, Rossi broke
with Mussolini in order to continue his deeply felt and
sincerely held repudiation of war. Mussolini, it is inter-
Sesting to remember in the era of the Rome-Berlin axis,
advocated the participation of Italy on the side of France
iand England, and especially on the side of France (Mother
jof Revolutions for Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity !)
ibecause, he declared, if there were to be a little more liberty
jin Europe after the war, that supreme good was to be
Sobtained only by laying Germany low. Rossi, who preached
Jthe gospel of goodwill among men, served at the Front
from May 1915 to August 1918, that is to say for nearly
three years longer than his former colleague, Mussolini.
The war over, Rossi settled in Turin and there founded an
advanced Left political group and a journal called Ordine
Nuovo. In 1920 he was appointed director of the Turin
Co-operative Alliance, the largest co-operative society in
Italy. This post he held till the autumn of 1922. At the
same time he was political secretary of the Socialist Party
of Turin and leader of the socialist minority on the
Municipal Council. It was from this position that Rossi
was able to understand fascism and to contest its advent.
Perplexed, and wishing to learn, he paid a visit to Russia
in October 1922 and met Lenin, Trotsky, and, after them,
the lesser of the first generation of bolshevik leaders. On