Mussolini founds the Fascist movement

March 23, 1919

In a Milan hall next to a piazza, a former socialist newspaper editor and decorated WWI veteran founded the Fasci di Combattimento, a paramilitary movement that fused nationalism, anti-Bolshevism, and a cult of violence and action. Benito Mussolini had about a hundred followers. Within four years his Blackshirts were marching on Rome, and he would rule Italy for two decades.