THE DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION OF IQIQ 21
famous for its heroism were seen cheering on the invaders,
who were wearing their war medals.' (Nitti.) During
August the movement grew in the Rome district and spread
over the south. The Socialist Party, its eyes still turned
towards Russia (where, however, the peasants' hunger for
the land had been the deciding factor of the revolutionary
victory), remained aloof from this thrust made by the rustic
mob, which belonged to no party or union and sometimes
took the field behind a tricolour flag.
In November the general election revealed the new Italy.
It was, thanks to Nitti, the first really free election since
the unification of the kingdom. Proportional representation,
which had just been adopted, favoured the increase of the
big parties, socialist and Popolare (catholic). The second,
barely a year old, had already attained an important
position in Italian political life. In spite of the Roman
question, Catholics were permitted by the Vatican to vote
and play their part in national life under a united state.
It was a revolution within the revolution. The year 1919
was in fact the year of the Italian democratic revolution.
The masses had begun their struggle for bread, land and
freedom. The ties with the past seemed finally broken ;
from this revolution a true nation, a popular state, must at
last emerge. All signs pointed clearly to the Fourth Italy.