Comparative Fascism; Intellectual Origins of Fascism

Every nation has its enfants terribles. Notorious enfants terribles are not personalities worthy of depositing their remains in national sanctuaries, nor celebrities worthy of burial mounds, statues, busts or memorial plaques. They have a reputation of the most insidious political “Fantômases” who are anchored in the collective memory as synonyms of criminals, betrayers, villains, or, in a better case, as calculating profit-makers willing to do anything for their own sake. These historical figures do not divide society as Philippe Pétain, Miklós Horthy or Jozef Tiso does. Except for the hard neo-fascist core no one dares to express an admiration for them. They left no positive political legacy, only a warning memento. Their public support, in a long run, had not exceeded a single-digit percentage level. However, even suffered electoral setbacks did not stop them from claiming to speak “on behalf of the nation” and putting themselves into the position of clairvoyant political messiahs who can exclusively secure a bright future for their country. The story of Alexander Mach, a wartime Slovak minister of interior, deputy prime minister, head of the Propaganda Office and head commander of the Hlinka Guard, is certainly one of them.
The biography tells the story of Alexander Mach with emphasis on his political career. The first chapter examines Mach´s childhood and influences which formed his worldview. Second chapter portrays Mach´s political rise from the beginning of the 1920s, his early contacts with fascism and the career of an opposition nationalist journalist and speaker in services of the Hlinka´s Slovak People´s Party. Third chapter analyzes Mach´s career peak framed by 1939 – 1945 period. During the World War II Mach was a politician who systematically enforced a radical solution of the Jewish question. It was Mach who, following the infamous Salzburg negotiations with Hitler in July 1940, together with prime minister Vojtech Tuka initiated a series of cruel anti-Jewish laws leading from the restrictions of economic and civil rights to adoption of the racial principle and, finally, to loss of basic human rights and deportations of Jews from Slovakia. Besides that, chapter pays attention mainly to Mach´s position on political scene of the Axis Slovak State, to his share on adopting of the National Socialism in Slovakia and to transformation of his political attitudes after 1943. Fourth chapter focuses on Mach´s postwar destiny as a prisoner of the American army in camps in occupied Germany, on his 1946/1947 trial in front of the National Court in Bratislava as well as on over two decades of his imprisonment. The last fifth chapter briefly sketches Mach´s comeback to ordinary life after May 1968 when he was granted an amnesty by President. 
The biography is based on sources from archives and libraries in Slovakia, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Austria and Hungary and completes almost a decade of research (interrupted by several hiatuses) which Anton Hruboň dedicated to researching the life story of Alexander Mach.

Full version available at: https://www.martinus.sk/?uItem=440785

The Hlinka Guard was a militia maintained by the Hlinka´s Slovak People´s Party (the only allowed Slovak political party during the existence of wartime independent Slovak State) in 1938 – 1945. The HG, following the footsteps of its pro-Nazi
„sisters“, had a strong influence on Slovak policy likewise the Iron Guard in Romania or the Arrow Cross Party in Hungary. Though the HG was officially subordinated to Hlinka´s Party it often acted like a sovereign political subject. Historians rightly consider the Guard to be a flagship of national socialism in Axis
Slovakia. Monograph focuses on its activities in era of German occupation of Slovakia (1944 – 1945) when HG´s competencies were markedly enhanced and it became a leading force of Slovak collaboration. The aim of book is to analyze the
HG´s role in context of Nazi occupational strategy in the wartime Europe.
Fascist, national socialist and related organizations have stood in focus of author´s interest since he started studying history. The passion gradually developed into his profiling research field. Out of all evolution phases of totalitarian regimes he is fascinated mainly by their ends – by dynamic periods defined by a short outburst and even faster downfall of political ultraradicalism; by periods which radically reshaped human nature and which, for many people, became a lifetime
trauma. History of the HG in last months of the Hlinka´s Slovak People Party´s regime is a „deep well“ of social phenomenons mentioned above.
The monograph is based on a very broad heuristics, especially on primary sources from Slovak, Czech and German archives. Documents were precisely synthesized, particularly with the help of analytical, comparative and analogical method.
Monograph does not seek to reflect history of the HG, „restarted“ after the outbreak of the Slovak National Uprising, as a baneberry but as a product of occupational strategy conducted under the auspicies of Berlin which had been tested in other European countries before.
Three main chapters (Politics, Military Deployment, Persecutions) discuss how Germany misused the HG for its own war goals. Thanks to an original framework the book might be useful for comparative purposes of fascist studies, history, politology or other social disciplines too.
Through these heuristic categories the monograph tries to explain domestic and international correlations and to answer the question what actually the HG was, which influences determined its character after transformation in Autumn
1944 and what memento it left in national history. The author reflects the question of collaboration with the Nazi regime, an effort to implement Nazi visions of Neuordnung in Slovakia, the future hypothetical destiny of Slovakia under the Hakenkreuz and the regime of ruling Hlinka´s Slovak People´s Party.
An innovative conception, in terms how the book reflects and interprets history of the HG in short period before the end of the WWII, attempts to conceptualize and contextualize the issue of collaboration, contrary to traditional or revisionist approaches which are still dominating in Slovak historiography.

My doctoral dissertation examines the experiences of the Italian volunteers in the Waffen-SS troops using in-depth interviews with former volunteers as the main primary source. This phenomenon, even if significant in size (depending on the source, some 15 000-20 000 Italian men volunteered in the Waffen-SS), has been hitherto largely unknown to historical research. The available literature on the Italian volunteers, mainly written by military history enthusiast journalists and methodologically weak, concentrates mainly on the combat operations and military organization, and offers a rather stereotypical profile of the volunteers.

My dissertation does not aim to reconstruct the military history of the different divisions of the Waffen-SS in which Italian volunteers operated but instead to examine the subjective, private and intimate experience of the volunteers in order to understand the motivations, attitudes, beliefs and cultural and family background, as well as their political ideas. The main objective of my doctoral dissertation is to discover the ideological precepts of the volunteers’ political credo. As the last phase of fascism and its ideology, often defined as the “Germanisation” or “Nazification” of fascism, is still the object of wide academic debate, a better understanding of the volunteers’ ideology also contributes to deepening overall knowledge of the nature of this last phase.

The theoretical frame of my dissertation lies in oral history, in particular in the postmodernist approach to oral history, through which I reconstruct the volunteers’ ideology. In-depth interviews with former volunteers are the main primary source, but multiple data collection methods have been adopted. Phone interviews and correspondence with the volunteers have also been considered as primary sources. In addition to interviews and correspondence, family archives consisting of diaries, correspondence with the volunteers’ relatives and photographic material have also been collected and examined. An ethnographic observation of the volunteers’ domestic spaces has been conducted during the in-depth interviews, and photo self-elicitation techniques have been used in cases where the volunteers were willing to share their photographs.

An exhaustive portrait of the ideological structure of the volunteers has been obtained, as well as of the cultural and social origins of the values that contributed to the rise and adoption of this ideology. Further, the volunteers’ motivations to enlist have been clearly reconstructed, together with their cultural, political, social and military backgrounds. The results of the research are particularly relevant both for comprehension of the Italian phenomenon of volunteering in the Waffen-SS and for the reconstruction of the ideological dynamics of the last phase of fascism. The volunteers’ political and ideological system, which can be defined as the Italian SS-fascist ideology, disagrees strongly with the vaguely described ideological profile offered by previous studies that describe volunteers as generically “super-fascist”. The research also offers the opportunity for a deeper understanding of the final fascist ideological trajectory, currently defined, not without a certain level of approximation, as the “Germanisation” or “Nazification” of fascist ideology.

The international study of fascism has, over the last 25 years, experienced considerable consolidation. Inspired by influential theoretical publications of Roger D. Griffin and others, a new sub-discipline, “comparative fascist studies,” has emerged that proceeds from a largely common conceptualization of fascism. It explicitly includes and particularly promotes the cross-cultural, as well as inter-epochal investigation into ultra-nationalisms outside Central and Western Europe after the year 1945. The concepts, approaches and hypotheses of this new sub-discipline are well-suited to be applied to the study of inter-war and post-Soviet right-wing radicalism in Eastern Europe. However, before comprehensive classification and informative comparison becomes possible, the putative fascist phenomena of Eastern Europe need more thorough descriptive analysis, field research, and empirical investigation by researchers, in the region.

Anton Hruboň´s monograph reveals one of fascism´s faces in interwar Slovakia. The book is based on a very broad heuristic footing but also finds an original methodological tool for interpreting fascism. The author´s approach reflects international debates on fascism within past decades and brings a new insight on the phenomenon of fascism – a syncretism of traditional and constructivist approach – which provide inspiration for other comparative case studies. Hruboň expresses his scepticism of constructivist abstractions as
a “totalising” heuristic tool on the field of fascist studies. He admits that constructivism has brought fresh air into discussion on generic fascism, yet considers it as too narrowing and distant from the social reality due vague terms that the scholars of this approach tend to favor. Focusing on the modern theory by Roger Griffin, the foremost expert on fascism, as well as Griffin´s critics, the author provides a basic analysis of current
debates, especially in the Anglophone world, which have sparked static debates on general methodological problems concerning fascism much more than German historiography.
Hruboň productively combines theoretical and empirical approaches and provides a well-balanced and readable account on the history of the National Fascist Community (Národná obec fašistická – NOF), the most significant fascist party in interwar Slovakia (as well as Czechoslovakia). Drawing on Griffin´s work, he analyses the NOF´s ideology, but refuses to argue only party´s ideological aspect. Based on an archival research Hruboň notices its minor successes, failures and turbulences in
a wider historical perspective, letting the reader dive into the paradigmas of the Czechoslovak politics and their European milieu.
The NOF was founded in March 1926 as a result of a merger process of minor nationalistic movements. Though it has often been considered to be a “Czech party”, its fascist representatives always emphasized the
party´s nationwide and Slavic character. The party was rooted mainly in the Czech lands, but from the beginning the fascists tried to expand their member base in Slovakia as well. Their initial position was not the best. In the second half of the
1920s right-wing parties like Hlinka´s Slovak People´s Party (Hlinkova slovenská ľudová strana – HSĽS), the Republican Party of Agricultural and Smallholder People (so-called agrárna strana) or the Slovak National Party (Slovenská národná strana) had a stable number of supporters. The NOF, expressing similar nationalistic values, had been attempting to draw the electorate of these traditional parties to its side. For many years, this effort did not yield success. The Fascists were failing to find
an appropriate program that could reach a notable response within the Slovak society. Fascists´ radical ideas counted on dissolving all political parties and parliament; suppressing German, Hungarian and especially Jewish influence in politics, economy and public life; fundamental reforms of the state administration, etc. The inexplicit ideology of the NOF, lacking the accent on Slovak question, failing to clarify their attitude towards the question of autonomy for Slovakia proved to be one of the main reasons why fascists never gained more support than just little over 2 percent in 1935 general elections.
In the core chapter of the monograph, Hruboň analyses the curve of the NOF´s dynamics in the late 1920s and 1930s and highlights the main determinants of the party´s advances and setbacks. In 1938, after the HSĽS forced the Czechoslovak government to recognize autonomy for Slovakia, the Ľudáks became the mainspring of Slovak politics for the following seven years. Given the circumstances the NOF, after an
agreement of its leaders, was dissolved – or by their words, “willingly merged” with the HSĽS. This act meant the end of an “authentic fascism” in the twentieth century Slovakia.

En la década de 1930 la Iglesia continuó el ambicioso proyecto de la recristianización de la sociedad, que buscaba a influir decididamente en la cultura y la política. La oportunidad de reescribir la Constitución dirigió la Iglesia a no organizar un partido confesional, sino a Liga Católica Electoral, para apoyar los candidatos que se comprometiesen con las demandas católicas, independientemente de sus asociaciones políticas. Esta posición se ha debilitado la capacidad de reaccionar frente del crecimiento exponencial de las extremas políticas. Al principio de 1935, la iglesia se ve ante la necesidad de tener que mantener su apartidismo y, al mismo tiempo, discernir una actitud ante el avanzar de las extremas sobre el clero y los laicos. Entonces permitiendo a la participación política de los que no estaban directamente involucrados en la administración de la Iglesia en el AIB, se ha abierto también la posibilidad del fascismo transformar el catolicismo.

The paper analyzes the influence of Italian fascism in interwar Slovakia. Drawing on newest methodological approaches author debates how the fascist " essence " modernized the ideologies, programs and political culture of conservative, nationalistic and Christian traditionalistic political parties in Slovakia. Based on archival research in Italian archives, the article also discusses Rome´s political interests in Czechoslovakia, mainly the support of nationwide and minor pro-fascist movements from Italian fascist regime in the 1920s and 1930s.

To this day, Slovak historiography, humanities and social sciences have
not sufficiently adopted newest methodological tools based on international debates on European Fascism, which enable to reflect its national varieties (including the Slovak one) from transnational and comparative perspective. This contribution attempts to steer up the discourse on Fascism in Slovakia as well as in the Central Europe on the background of remarks and critical comments to Jakub Drábik´s groundbreaking monograph Fašizmus. The paper summarizes Slovak historiography´s perception of Fascism in the last decades with emphasis on unsuccessful quests for definition of this term and conceptual framework. After that, an author portrays Drábik´s book as a possibility for a methodological turn within the comparative fascist studies in Slovakia – a subgenre, which still lacks broader audience among Slovak scholars. Last but not least, the contribution explains, why and in which way it is important for History as a discipline to work with the concept of generic fascism as defined by Roger Griffin and the New Consensus/New Wave, and why it is useful for analytical purposes in regard to modern Slovak history and contemporary social practice.

Mussolini's Fascists staged their "March on Rome" in 1922 and bluffed their way to power.

GERMAN / DEUTSCH Mit dem inszenierten „Marsch auf Rom“ tricksten sich Mussolinis Faschisten 1922 an die Macht.

KEYWORDS / SCHLAGWÖRTER
Ästhetisierung, Bewegung, Demokratie, Duce, fascismo, Faschismus, Film, Frankreich, Gewalt, Gewerkschaften, Großbritannien, Hitlerputsch, Italien, Journalismus, Marsch auf Rom, Medien, Mostra della Rivoluzione fascista, Mussolinismo, Nationalismus, Nationalsozialismus, Öffentliche Meinung, Personenkult, Presse, Propaganda, Propagandaministerium, Rechtsextremismus, Risorgimento, Ritual, Sozialismus, Straßenterror, Symbolik, Syndikalismus, Terrorismus, Vereinigtes Königreich, Volksempfänger, Zeitungen

ORGANISATIONEN: Fasci d’azione rivoluzionaria, fasci di combattimento, Faschistische Partei, Istituto Luce, Partito Nazionale Fascista, Schwarzhemden, Sozialistische Partei Italiens (PSI), Squadrismo, Squadristen, Squadristi

PERSONEN: Italo Balbo, Gustave Le Bon, Gabriele D’Annunzio, Cesare Maria De Vecchi, Emilio De Bono, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Adolf Hitler, Giacomo Matteotti, Benito Mussolini, Friedrich Nietzsche, Georges Sorel, Viktor Emanuel III (Vittori Emanuelle III)

PUBLIKATIONEN: Avanti, Il Popolo d’Italia
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The aim of this article is to problematize one of the most audacious tenets of the new consensus, namely the revolutionary character of fascism, by linking together the experience of the state of siege and the emergence of the fascist movement in interwar Romania. It tries to do so by drawing on the philosophical underpinnings of the paradigm of the state of exception developed by Giorgio Agamben and Walter Benjamin’s critique of law and violence. In a first part my aim is to present the main arguments espoused in defending the view according to which fascist movements were professing an authentic revolutionary radical politics. Secondly, I will turn towards legal critique and to the work of Giorgio Agamben in order to build a topography of the relation between law and the force of state. In a third part I will focus on the uses and the historical meaning of the state of siege in post-World War 1 Romania. Finally, I shall investigate the emergence of the fascist movement in Romania as a politico-cultural product entailed by the state of exception.

The Romanian Constitution of 1923 continues to be regarded by historians, political theorists and lawyers as a landmark legal and political artefact in the development of Romanian liberal constitutionalism. Drafted and approved at the wake of the Great War, it will arguably dominate the Romanian politico-juridical landscape of the interwar until the turn to authoritarianism in 1938. As an embodiment of a rather fragile consensus between the main social and political forces of the time, the constitution also attempts at instituting and regulating a new body politic following the emergence of an ‘unified’ Romania. In this sense, added to its normative character, the Constitution could also be regarded as a salientsymbolic structure in framing the process of nation-building and in shaping the politico-legal subjectivities of the interbellum.

However, at a closer look, one informed by a historical gaze sensitive to the dynamics of the context, the Constitution of 1923 appears to a lesser extent a regulative and stabilizing normative structure. Notwithstanding the democratic commitments fuelling the constitutional project, one cannot overlook the tensions traversing its framework as well as its limits. The focus of my presentation is questioning the ways in which the socio-political context of the early interwar period both limited and undermined the constitutional pledges by challenging the traditional meaning of legality and thus opening way to the authoritarian turn and the fascist takeover at the end of 1930s.

Firstly, I will try to underline the legacy of the experience of the Great War in terms of constitutional practice and political action, by focusing on the challenges to the notion of sovereignty. Secondly, I will concentrate on the use of the martial law and of the suspension of the legal employed by the Romanian government as a response to social dissent during the 1920s, a practice which overtly destabilized the constitutional project. Finally, my aim is to inquire about the raise of fascist and far-right challenges to liberal constitutionalism as attempts at radicalizing the already existent tension between constitutional promise and constitutional practice.

The 1936 Criminal Code, also known as the Charles II Code, is still regardedas an influential legal text by the interpretive community in Romania. Though having been in force for a relative short period of time — that is, until 1969 —it significantly shaped the legal mind of jurists during one of the most troubled ages in recent history. Its entry into force came at a moment where the political spectrum shifted towards a more authoritarian stand opening thesuccession of dictatorships which befell Romania during the last century. At the same time, the 1936 Code marks a specific point in the history of legal thought, namely the dissolution of the classic categories of legality and the insinuation of the state of exception in state’s functioning.

This paper tries to analyse the dynamics at work between state violence andlegality in the context of the Fascist takeover in Romania. Departing from a close reading of the notion of “crime against the state” proposed by the Code, I attempt to present it as a failed response to the political reality it tried to contain. In doing so, I will operate two theoretical interventions. Firstly, I propose an intellectual situation of the concepts used by the Code, both in the 1930s legal milieu and in the cultural debates of the time. Secondly, while drawing on the foucauldian concept of “security dispositive”, I will evaluate the role of this normative structure with regard to historical violence. In this manner, I understand to offer a genealogical reading of the indistintion between law and force specific to the state of exception