MUSSOLINI BENITO: (1883-1945) Italian Fascist Dictator of World War II. A very interesting and ...

MUSSOLINI BENITO: (1883-1945) Italian Fascist Dictator of World War II. A very interesting and unusual A.L.S., signed with his initial `B´, one page, to an Italian postcard, Gualteri, 6th June 1902, to his friend Sante Bedeschi, in Forli, in Italian. Mussolini, in his usual youth small writing, explains to his friend Bedeschi his plan of leaving Italy because of the poor salaries which do not permit him to live properly and that he will establish himself in Switzerland where he has got a job, stating in part `Carissimo Bedeschi, Forse non e la cartolina che tu desideravi, ma quando tu avrai la presente io saró con tutta probabilità non piu nella terra di Dante, ma nella terra di G.[uglielmo] Tell. Devi sapere che qui - dato il piu che pieno salario - non posso vivere. Aggiungi che stante i barbiri regolamenti che ci sgovernano non ho diritto ai mensili delle vacanze - Onde - piuttosto che riedere a pitoccare dalla famiglia - decisi di andare in Svizzera dove un amico mi ha trovato un posto qual magazziniere di una ditta in ferrareccie´ (Translation: "My very dear Bedeschi, Perhaps it's not the postcard you wanted, but when you will receive it I will most likely no longer be in the land of Dante, but in the land of G.[William] Tell. You must know that here - given the full salary - I cannot live. Add that given the barbaric regulations that rule us out, I am not entitled to monthly holiday payments - So - rather than go back to be maintained by my family - I decided to go to Switzerland where a friend found me a job as a warehouseman in a hardware stores company") Mussolini further states `Ho una leggera scorta di denaro, frutto di snodati risparmi...La citta dove vado e Ginevra. Il mio posto e sicuro, ma tu sai che a finanze e meglio partir bene agguerriti. Pagarti cio che ti devo mi torna oggi di sacrificio. Dei resto scrivimi subito e se non mi puoi risparmiare l´olocausto m´inchinero. Scrivimi subito ho detto perché la tua non mi potrebbe trovar piu a Gualtieri´ (Translation: "I have a small reserve of money, the result of extensive savings...The city where I'm going is Geneva. My place is safe, but you know that when it comes to finances it's better to start out well prepared. Paying you what I owe you is a sacrifice to me today. Besides, write to me immediately and if you can't spare me the holocaust, I will bow. Write to me immediately I said, because your letter could no longer find me in Gualtieri") Mussolini also adds to the heading a kind of post-scriptum he couldn´t find space at the conclusion of his letter, saying `La vigilia della partenza ti scriveró una lettera e ti diró le vicende qui passate. percepiró a Ginevra dalle 85 alle 90 lire mensili´ (Translation: "On the eve of the departure I will write you a letter and tell you what happened. I will receive in Geneva from 85 to 90 lire per month") Addressed to the verso in Mussolini´s hand, also bearing few postmarks. Including full letter transcription. Small overall age wear with a stain to the right bottom border. About G

As well as Mussolini, Sante Bedeschi was a school teacher, working at the Collegio Dalle Vacche in Forli at the time of the present letter.

Mussolini wrote the present letter the day before his departure to Switzerland. In love with a young married woman, repudiated for adultery, and in debt to close friends, Mussolini had decided to go into exile to earn a more comfortable living and repay his debts. This time, he did not go as far as Geneva, but stopped in the canton of Vaud then Berne where, arrested following a speech supporting the strikes, he was taken back to the Italian border.
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