Brian J Griffith

Thanks Richard! I found your very helpful weblog tutorial on using this SovDoc digital archive! And of course … your books on the Spanish Civil War! I’ll send a DM now.

Colleagues: Does anyone know what's going on with this "Documents of the Soviet Era" website?! It used to feature a navigable digital archive with Cheka documents, but now it appears as though there isn't any content? Spasiba!

sovdoc.rusarchives.ru/sections/org...

Our “Youthful Rebellion” lesson plan asks students to analyze the strategies by which the contemporary Italian far right promotes a sense of youthful rebellion and its connection to both rhetorical and physical political violence.

URL: www.wheremonstersareborn.com/lesson-3-you...

A giant Birra Moretti tasting pavilion. Udine, Italy (1902).

One of the intended purposes of monumental fascist architecture is to symbolize the omnipotence of the totalitarian state — citizens are made to feel small and powerless in the face of the state’s power.
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#PiazzaMatteotti
#Napoli

To end the siege on Gaza, to pull all of the illegal settlements out of the West Bank, and to bring fascist settlers to justice for their terrorism against the Palestinian people, since those crimes and countless other antagonisms caused October 7th.

Army veteran and US citizen arrested in California immigration raid warns it could happen to anyone A U.S. Army veteran arrested during an immigration raid at a California marijuana farm says he was sprayed with tear gas and pepper spray before being dragged from his vehicle on his way to work.

"George Retes, 25, who works as a security guard at Glass House Farms in Camarillo, said he was arriving at work on July 10 when several federal agents surrounded his car and — despite him identifying himself as a U.S. citizen — broke his window, peppered sprayed him and dragged him out."

… of Benito Mussolini’s twenty years as dictator of Fascist Italy. (The imposing modernist arch that was intended for the EUR ‘42 complex was never built, due to the outbreak of World War II. Instead, it was installed in Saint Louis in the 1960s.)

The Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana (Palace of Italian Civilization) in Rome’s EUR district (where the Central Archive is located). Intended as the architectural center piece for what would have been the 1942 World’s Fair, the so-called “square colosseum” is one of the most recognizable symbols …

Opinion | I’m a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It.

My NYT op-ed this morning
I’m a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/15/o...

I think Zohran Mamdani is proving an existential threat to mainstream Democrats because their entire operating philosophy hinges on progressives never actually winning these contested primaries.

… For this “crime” of disrespecting the “Leader,” Luigi was sent into political exile in Italy’s Deep South. Luigi survived WWII. Benito did not.

This is Luigi Cavagna. In March 1940, with World War II raging around him, Luigi got drunk at a bar in Milano. While in this state of intoxication, he tore down a framed picture of Benito Mussolini and threw it into a nearby canal. …

… ultranationalists. In 1935, Benito Mussolini attempted to balance the scales between Italy and Ethiopia by invading and occupying the latter. The occupation lasted until WWII, when the Italians were driven out of East Africa by the British.

There are vestiges of Italy’s colonial past scattered throughout the peninsula. In this case, Hotel Adua — named after the infamous Battle of Adua in 1896, when Italy’s colonial army was defeated by Ethiopia’s armed forces. The battlefield defeat was deeply embarrassing to Italy’s …

… to learn more about how the dictatorship used wine (and its shortages in popular taverns/saloons) to measure popular sentiment during WWII.

… alcohol sales licenses for what would have been the 1942 World’s Fair complex in Rome. Tomorrow I’ll explore the regime’s “situazione vinicola” (wine situation) spy files …

… (due to ongoing construction), but I’m also finding things that I didn’t anticipate I would want or need. I’m currently going through the EUR ‘42 files, since it appears as though many restauranteurs applied for …

Things in Rome between the Central Archive and the Pantheon. 🏛️ Research is going well. There are a few things that are not currently available for consultation …

... Americans beware. Trump is doing this right now in our country; he is referring to liberals, progressives, socialists, journalists, judges, and more as “enemies of the people.” Fascism is knocking at the door.

... the Leader’s ironclad will, conversely, is considered the solution to all of the country’s problems and “symptoms of decline.” ...

... The Leader Cult depends upon only one source of “truth,” which is viewed as the only pathway to peace and prosperity. Democracy, in all its messiness and uncertainties, is seen as poisonous to the national community; ...

... is just how dependent the dictatorship was on labeling everything outside of Fascism as “subversive” and “dangerous.” This discursive reduction of the margins of political debate is a telltale sign of an authoritarian political culture. ...

I’m working in the Italian fascist regime’s “political confinement” files today, looking for connections between working-class taverns/saloons, drunkenness, and antifascist speech/behavior. One thing that strikes me about the files in this collection ...

Okay now do the British Museum.

Freedom from kings.
Freedom from fascism.
Power to the people forever. ♥️

Happy Independence Day 🇺🇸

In Fascist Italy there was a popular saying which warned Italians that the Duce, or Leader, should never be questioned: “Mussolini is always right.”

LET'S GOOOOOOOOO!

No, this is not a description of modern Israeli colonial policy in Gaza or the West Bank. It is Francois de Menthon's "The Concept of War Crimes" presentation at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg in January 1946. Something to think about. 6/6

"...their labor potential. Means will be found to subject them. The treatment to which the occupied countries will be subjected is likewise related to this war aim." 5/