Blackshirts
검은셔츠단
The paramilitary wing of Italy’s National Fascist Party, originally the squadrismo action squads and from 1923 an all-volunteer militia of the Kingdom of Italy under Fascist rule, the Voluntary Militia for National Security (MVSN). Its members wore black uniforms and swore an oath to Mussolini.
In depth
The uniform was modelled on that of the Arditi, Italy’s elite assault troops in the First World War. Its founders were nationalist intellectuals, former army officers and young landowners opposed to the peasants’ and farm labourers’ unions. It formed the main force of the March on Rome in October 1922, and in January 1923 Mussolini’s government turned the squads into a state militia paid from the national budget. Its divisions fought in the invasion of Ethiopia, the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War. After Mussolini’s fall in July 1943 it was merged into the Royal Army and disbanded. Hitler’s SA was modelled on it.