Giuseppe Bastianini
Encyclopedia
Giuseppe Bastianini was an Italian
politician and diplomat. Initially associated with the hard-line elements of the fascist
movements he later became a member of the dissident tendency.
where he garnered a reputation as a member of the hard-line intransigenti wing of the movement. Following the seizure of power Bastianini was appointed head of the Fasci Italiani all'Estero, a movement aimed at co-ordinating the activities of Italian fascists not currently living in Italy. He called on members to seek to diffuse proper Italian fascist
ideas wherever they were living. This group gained a considerable following amongst Italian expatriate in the mid 1920s. Indeed in 1925 he submitted a report to the Fascist Grand Council claiming to have groups in 40 countries worldwide.
Bastianini's activities brought him into conflict with Italian diplomats, who felt that his movement was overtly politicising their work. For his part Bastianini called for a complete reform of the diplomatic service, insisting that the only true Italians were also fascists and that therefore all diplomats should be convinced fascists. In the end Benito Mussolini
pursued a middle ground by dismissing diplomats who had not declared for the National Fascist Party
but also limiting the power of Bastianini's movement, which was taking on many of the functions of foreign affairs for itself, to ideological instruction, sport and charity work by restoring power to the Italian consuls. Bastianini resigned from his position as head of the Fasci Italiani all'Estero in late 1926.
and as a consequence he was one of those who helped to convince Mussolini to delay entry into the Second World War, knowing that Roman Catholic Poland was a country admired by many Italians. It was around this time that he also served as ambassador to the United Kingdom
.
. In this role Bastianini oversaw the deportation of a number of the region's Jews, including many refugees fleeing the German-occupied areas of Yugoslavia
, to concentration camps in Italy. Bastianini also established a policy of Italianisation, changing place names from Croatian
to Italian
, insisting that the press had to publish in Italian and bringing in a number of teachers from Italy to take lessons in Dalmatian schools. To those Croats who resented the changes he offered one piece of advice: emigrate.
Bastianini would spend the latter part of his period as governor in conflict with elements of the Italian military, in particular Generals Quirino Armellini and Mario Roatta
. Armellini had concentrated his troops in Split, a move Bastianini feared would breed fear and resentment amongst the inhabitants. Roatta declared that the civilian administration must have no saw in troop deployment although he and Bastianini eventually reached a compromise whereby local authorities would be consulted before large scale troop movements. Bastianini also managed to secure the removal of Armellini, with whom he did not get along. Bastianini was recalled in January 1943 after a government reshuffle in Rome
and was replaced as governor the following month by Francesco Giunta
.
. Mussolini himself was the official Foreign Minister although his ill health and plethora of other roles meant that Bastianini effectively acted as minister. In his role he suggested two possible approaches that he felt could help to frustrate the Allied invasion of Italy
, although neither seemed likely to occur. On the one hand he felt that Mussolini could get Adolf Hitler
to negotiate a settlement with the Soviet Union
and that German
forces could then be redeployed in Italy, a tactic that he felt would force the western Allies to accept a compromise peace settlement. His other idea was for Mussolini to convicne Hitler to allow Italy to leave the war altogether and declare neutrality. Both suggestions however had no hope of success as Hitler would never be convinced and Mussolini had no desire to attempt to convince him. Bastianini sold the notion of Mussolini as the man who could end the war to the governments of Bulgaria
, Romania
and Hungary
as these minor Axis powers
were also desperate for an exit as they faced inevitable destruction at the hands of the advancing Red Army
.
Mussolini's refusal to even attempt to reason with Hitler at a meeting with the German dictator in June 1943 saw him challenged by Bastianini, Dino Alfieri
and General Vittorio Ambrosio
for his failure to try to get Italy out of the war. The incident damaged Mussolini's credibility and provided impetus to Dino Grandi
, who soon launched an attempt to oust Mussolini. Bastianini was present at the Fascist Grand Council meeting held on 25 July 1943 at which the mood was decidedly anti-Mussolini as Grandi made his play. Although he was not overly enthusiastic about the plot Bastianini stated that Mussolini had ruined Italy through his inaction and so gave Grandi his support. Nonetheless who refused to follow the likes of Giuseppe Bottai
in being openly condemnatory of Il Duce, preferring to continue to promote his aim of seeing Italy negotiating a separate peace as quickly as possible.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
politician and diplomat. Initially associated with the hard-line elements of the fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
movements he later became a member of the dissident tendency.
Early years
At a young age he became a local fascist leader in UmbriaUmbria
Umbria is a region of modern central Italy. It is one of the smallest Italian regions and the only peninsular region that is landlocked.Its capital is Perugia.Assisi and Norcia are historical towns associated with St. Francis of Assisi, and St...
where he garnered a reputation as a member of the hard-line intransigenti wing of the movement. Following the seizure of power Bastianini was appointed head of the Fasci Italiani all'Estero, a movement aimed at co-ordinating the activities of Italian fascists not currently living in Italy. He called on members to seek to diffuse proper Italian fascist
Italian Fascism
Italian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...
ideas wherever they were living. This group gained a considerable following amongst Italian expatriate in the mid 1920s. Indeed in 1925 he submitted a report to the Fascist Grand Council claiming to have groups in 40 countries worldwide.
Bastianini's activities brought him into conflict with Italian diplomats, who felt that his movement was overtly politicising their work. For his part Bastianini called for a complete reform of the diplomatic service, insisting that the only true Italians were also fascists and that therefore all diplomats should be convinced fascists. In the end Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
pursued a middle ground by dismissing diplomats who had not declared for the National Fascist Party
National Fascist Party
The National Fascist Party was an Italian political party, created by Benito Mussolini as the political expression of fascism...
but also limiting the power of Bastianini's movement, which was taking on many of the functions of foreign affairs for itself, to ideological instruction, sport and charity work by restoring power to the Italian consuls. Bastianini resigned from his position as head of the Fasci Italiani all'Estero in late 1926.
Diplomat
Somewhat inevitably following his drive to replace established diplomats with fascists Bastianini entered the diplomatic service himself. During the 1930s he was ambassador to PolandPoland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
and as a consequence he was one of those who helped to convince Mussolini to delay entry into the Second World War, knowing that Roman Catholic Poland was a country admired by many Italians. It was around this time that he also served as ambassador to the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
.
Dalmatia
In 1941 Bastianini was appointed governor of occupied DalmatiaGovernorship of Dalmatia
The Governorate of Dalmatia was a province of Italy, created in April 1941 from occupied Yugoslav territory annexed after the German blitzkrieg Invasion of Yugoslavia.-Characteristics:...
. In this role Bastianini oversaw the deportation of a number of the region's Jews, including many refugees fleeing the German-occupied areas of Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
, to concentration camps in Italy. Bastianini also established a policy of Italianisation, changing place names from Croatian
Croatian language
Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
to Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, insisting that the press had to publish in Italian and bringing in a number of teachers from Italy to take lessons in Dalmatian schools. To those Croats who resented the changes he offered one piece of advice: emigrate.
Bastianini would spend the latter part of his period as governor in conflict with elements of the Italian military, in particular Generals Quirino Armellini and Mario Roatta
Mario Roatta
Mario Roatta was an Italian general, Mussolini's Chief-of-Staff, and head of the military secret service.-SIM:From 1934 to 1936, Roatta headed up the Italian Military Intelligence Service .-Spain:...
. Armellini had concentrated his troops in Split, a move Bastianini feared would breed fear and resentment amongst the inhabitants. Roatta declared that the civilian administration must have no saw in troop deployment although he and Bastianini eventually reached a compromise whereby local authorities would be consulted before large scale troop movements. Bastianini also managed to secure the removal of Armellini, with whom he did not get along. Bastianini was recalled in January 1943 after a government reshuffle in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
and was replaced as governor the following month by Francesco Giunta
Francesco Giunta
Francesco Giunta was an Italian Fascist politician.-Early fascist career:Born in the Tuscan town of San Piero a Sieve, he started his career as a lawyer. He served as a machine gun captain in the World War I...
.
Foreign Ministry
He was appointed undersecretary at the Foreign Ministry in February 1943, effectively replacing Galeazzo CianoGaleazzo Ciano
Gian Galeazzo Ciano, 2nd Count of Cortellazzo and Buccari was an Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Benito Mussolini's son-in-law. In early 1944 Count Ciano was shot by firing squad at the behest of his father-in-law, Mussolini under pressure from Nazi Germany.-Early life:Ciano was born in...
. Mussolini himself was the official Foreign Minister although his ill health and plethora of other roles meant that Bastianini effectively acted as minister. In his role he suggested two possible approaches that he felt could help to frustrate the Allied invasion of Italy
Allied invasion of Italy
The Allied invasion of Italy was the Allied landing on mainland Italy on September 3, 1943, by General Harold Alexander's 15th Army Group during the Second World War. The operation followed the successful invasion of Sicily during the Italian Campaign...
, although neither seemed likely to occur. On the one hand he felt that Mussolini could get Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
to negotiate a settlement with the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and that German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
forces could then be redeployed in Italy, a tactic that he felt would force the western Allies to accept a compromise peace settlement. His other idea was for Mussolini to convicne Hitler to allow Italy to leave the war altogether and declare neutrality. Both suggestions however had no hope of success as Hitler would never be convinced and Mussolini had no desire to attempt to convince him. Bastianini sold the notion of Mussolini as the man who could end the war to the governments of Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
and Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
as these minor Axis powers
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
were also desperate for an exit as they faced inevitable destruction at the hands of the advancing Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
.
Mussolini's refusal to even attempt to reason with Hitler at a meeting with the German dictator in June 1943 saw him challenged by Bastianini, Dino Alfieri
Dino Alfieri
Edoardo Alfieri was an Italian fascist politician.Alfieri was born in Bologna. In 1911 he finished law studies and soon after joined the nationalist group formed by Enrico Corradini...
and General Vittorio Ambrosio
Vittorio Ambrosio
Vittorio Ambrosio was an Italian general who served in the Italo-Turkish War, World War I, and World War II...
for his failure to try to get Italy out of the war. The incident damaged Mussolini's credibility and provided impetus to Dino Grandi
Dino Grandi
Dino Grandi , Conte di Mordano, was an Italian Fascist politician, minister of justice, minister of foreign affairs and president of parliament.- Early life :...
, who soon launched an attempt to oust Mussolini. Bastianini was present at the Fascist Grand Council meeting held on 25 July 1943 at which the mood was decidedly anti-Mussolini as Grandi made his play. Although he was not overly enthusiastic about the plot Bastianini stated that Mussolini had ruined Italy through his inaction and so gave Grandi his support. Nonetheless who refused to follow the likes of Giuseppe Bottai
Giuseppe Bottai
Guiseppe Bottai was an Italian lawyer, economist, journalist, and member of the National Fascist Party of Benito Mussolini.-Fascism:...
in being openly condemnatory of Il Duce, preferring to continue to promote his aim of seeing Italy negotiating a separate peace as quickly as possible.