Benito Mussolini

:For other people called Mussolini, see Mussolini (disambiguation).

Early years

Mussolini was born in a small village named Predappio in the province of Forlì, in Emilia-Romagna. His father, Alessandro, was a blacksmith. His mother, Rosa Maltoni, was a teacher who believed education was extremely important. He was named Benito after Mexican reformist President Benito Juárez. Like his father, Benito became a socialist. By age eight, he was banned from his mother's church, and a few years later he was expelled from school, due to stabbing a fellow student and throwing an ink pot at a teacher. He did, however, receive good grades, and he qualified as an elementary schoolmaster in 1901. In 1902 he emigrated to Switzerland. Unable to find a permanent job there and arrested for vagrancy, he was expelled and returned to Italy to do his military service. After further trouble with the police, he joined the staff of a newspaper in the Austrian town of Trento in 1908. At this time he wrote a novel, subsequently translated into English as The Cardinal's Mistress. Mussolini had a brother, Arnaldo, who would later become the editor of Il Popolo d'Italia, the official newspaper of Benito Mussolini's regime.

Related Topics:
Forlì - Emilia-Romagna - Blacksmith - Teacher - Benito Juárez - Socialist - Switzerland - Vagrancy - Austrian - Trento - Editor

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