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Handwritten manuscript in Italian by Benito Mussolini, signed "Quadrumvirato," three pages, 8.75 x 11, [October 27, 1922]. Mussolini's handwritten draft of his 'Proclamation of the Revolution,' issued in the name of the Quadrumvirato and printed in his paper the Popolo d'ltalia on the evening of the October 27, 1922, the day before the March on Rome, which marked the ascent of the National Fascist Party to power in Italy.
Headed, "Il proclama ai fascisti! e agli italiani [The proclamation to the Fascists—and to the Italians]," the proclamation begins with an address to "Fascisti di tutta Italia! [Fascists of all Italy!]. In part (translated): "The hour of the decisive battle has struck. Four years ago, at this very time, the national army launched the supreme offensive that led it to victory; today, the army of the Blackshirts reaffirms that 'mutilated victory' and, pushing desperately toward Rome, restores it to the glory of the Capitoline…The martial law of Fascism comes into full effect. By order of the Duce, the military, political, and administrative powers of the Party Directorate are assumed by a secret Quadrumvirate of Action, vested with dictatorial authority. The secret Quadrumvirate of Action declares the current government deposed; the Chamber of Deputies is dissolved, and the Senate is adjourned. The army is confined to its barracks; it must take no part in the struggle."
The proclamation then seeks to define what Fascist rule would mean for Italian society: "Let the agents of public order know that Fascism does not march against them, but against a political class of weaklings and incompetents who, for four years, have failed to provide the Nation with a government. The working people—those in the fields and the factories, in transport and in administration—have nothing to fear from Fascist power. Their legitimate rights will be sincerely upheld. We shall be generous toward unarmed adversaries; we shall be inexorable toward all others. Fascism unsheathes its shining sword to cut through the many Gordian knots that ensnare and stifle Italian life."
It concludes: "We call upon the Almighty and the spirits of our 500,000 dead to bear witness that a single impulse drives us, a single will unites us, and a single passion inflames us: to contribute to the salvation and the greatness of the Fatherland. Fascists of all Italy! Steel your spirits and your strength in the Roman manner. We must win. We shall win! Long live Italy! Long live Fascism!" In very good to fine condition, with tack holes to the corners, and minor paper loss to the left edge of the first page, affecting a few words of text.
Written in preparation for the March on Rome, Mussolini's proclamation stands at a pivotal moment in modern Italian history, as the Fascist movement moved to seize national power. Composed around October 22, 1922, and revised in the days preceding its publication, the declaration was issued in the name of the Quadrumvirate—Emilio De Bono, Italo Balbo, Cesare Maria De Vecchi, and Michele Bianchi—the four leaders charged with directing the Fascist mobilization. The present manuscript is especially significant for its differences from the published text, most notably Mussolini's declaration that the existing government was deposed, the Chamber of Deputies dissolved, and the Senate adjourned—a sweeping assertion of authority omitted from the final proclamation. Conversely, the published version included an additional appeal to Italy's productive bourgeoisie, illustrating Mussolini's efforts to balance revolutionary threats with reassurances to influential segments of Italian society.
Issued on the eve of the March on Rome, the proclamation helped signal the Fascists' decisive challenge to Italy's parliamentary government. On October 28, as Blackshirt forces mobilized, King Victor Emmanuel III refused to authorize a state of siege that might have suppressed the uprising, ultimately inviting Mussolini to form a government. Mussolini arrived in Rome on October 30, beginning a political transformation that would culminate in more than two decades of Fascist dictatorship. Described by Mussolini himself in his 1928 autobiography as his 'proclamation of revolution,' this original handwritten draft represents an extraordinary primary document of the Fascist seizure of power, preserving the words and revisions behind one of the defining political upheavals of the twentieth century.
Provenance: Lot 397, Sotheby's, London, April 14–15, 1982.
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