View source for Opera Nazionale Balilla

{{short description|Italian Fascist youth organization}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2023}}
{{Infobox organization
|name         = '''''Opera Nazionale Balilla'''''
|image        = Emblem of ONB.svg
|image_border =
|size         = 180px
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|formation    = 1926
|dissolution  = 1937
|type         = [[Youth organization]]
|status       = [[Denazification|Defunct]], [[Constitution of Italy|illegal]]
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|region_served = [[Fascist Italy]]
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|main_organ   =
|parent_organization = [[National Fascist Party]]
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}}
'''Opera Nazionale Balilla''' (ONB) was an [[Kingdom of Italy|Italian]] [[Italian Fascism|Fascist]] [[youth organization]] functioning between 1926 and 1937, when it was absorbed into the [[Gioventù Italiana del Littorio]] (GIL), a youth section of the [[National Fascist Party]].
It takes its name from ''[[Balilla]]'', the nickname of Giovan Battista Perasso, a [[Genoa|Genoese]] boy who, according to local legend, started the {{ill|Revolt of Genoa (1746)|it|Rivolta di Genova|lt=revolt of 1746}} against the [[Habsburg monarchy|Habsburg]] forces that occupied the city in the [[War of the Austrian Succession]]. Perasso was chosen as the inspiration for his supposed age and revolutionary activity, while his presence in the fight against [[Austrian Empire|Austria]] reflected the [[Italia irredenta|irredentist]] stance taken by early Fascism, and Italy's victories in [[World War I]].
The Balilla creed echoed the [[Nicene Creed]]: "I believe in Rome the eternal, the mother of my country, and in Italy, her eldest daughter, who was born in her virginal bosom by the grace of God; who suffered through the barbarian invasions, was crucified and buried, who descended to the grave, and was raised from the dead in the nineteenth century, who ascended into heaven in her glory in 1918 and 1922 and who is seated on the right hand of her mother Rome; who for this reason shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the genius of Mussolini, in our Holy Father Fascism, in the communion of the martyrs, in the conversion of Italians and in the resurrection of the Empire."<ref>Quoted in R. Wolfson, Years of Change (London 1978), Ch. 11.</ref>
==Origins==
[[File:1932-pagella-balilla-copertina.jpg|thumb|200px|A 1932 Balilla [[report card]].]]
[[Nationalism|Nationalists]] in the years after the war thought of themselves as combating both [[Liberalism|liberal]] and domineering institutions created by [[Prime Minister of Italy|cabinets]] such as those of [[Giovanni Giolitti]], including traditional schooling. [[Futurism (art)|Futurism]], a revolutionary [[cultural movement]] which served as a catalyst for Fascism, argued for "a school for physical courage and [[patriotism]]", as expressed by [[Filippo Tommaso Marinetti]] in 1919. Marinetti expressed his disdain for "the by now prehistoric and troglodyte [[Ancient Greek]] and [[Latin]] courses", arguing for their replacement with exercise modelled on those of the ''[[Arditi]]'' soldiers ("[learning] to advance on hands and knees in front of razing [[machine gun]] fire; to wait open-eyed for a crossbeam to move sideways over their heads etc."). It was in those years that the first Fascist youth wings were formed ([[Avanguardia Giovanile Fascista]] in 1919, and Gioventù Universitaria Fascista, GUF, in 1922).
* ''Balilla'' (boys) and ''Piccole Italiane'' (girls) - ages 8 to 14
* ''Avanguardisti'' and ''Giovani Italiane'' - 14 to 18
In time, a section named ''Figli della Lupa'' ("Children of the She-Wolf", alluding to the myth of [[Romulus and Remus]]; ages 6 to 8) was added. (note: ''Balilla'' and ''Avanguardisti'' were both substructures of the ''Opera Nazionale Balilla''; the latter was not a separate organization.<ref>''[http://www.97legione.siena.it/L_2247_1926.html The "Balilla" organization for the physical and moral training of the young]'', article 5, law of 3 April 1926, No. 2247)</ref>
Between the ages of 18 and 21, young men and women would join additional groups of the ONB - ''Fasci Giovanili di Combattimento'' (''see [[Fasci di Combattimento]]'') and ''Giovani Fasciste'', respectively. Male students in all forms of [[higher education]] were enrolled in the GUF.
The Opera Nazionale Balilla was established by law as an institution under the control of the Ministry of National Education in 1926.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Miller|first=James W.|date=1938|title=Youth in the Dictatorships|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0003055400035231/type/journal_article|journal=American Political Science Review|language=en|volume=32|issue=5|pages=965–970|doi=10.2307/1948232|issn=0003-0554}}</ref> Initially, membership was voluntary, but it was later made compulsory for boys between the ages of 6 and 18 and girls between the ages of 8 and 14.<ref name=":0"/> In 1936, a pre-Balilla kindergarten was established for children under the age of 6.<ref name=":0"/> ONB members were required to study military science and Italian history.<ref name=":0"/>
While the National Balilla Institution was founded as an ''Ente Morale'', in 1929 it was placed under the power of the Ministry of National Education, with the Head of the Government's related power devolving to the Minister of National Education.<ref>''Abstracts from the Royal-Decree-Law of November 14'', 1929, No. 1992</ref> In 1935 a veteran National Fascist Party politician [[Araldo di Crollalanza]] was named the president of ONB.<ref>{{cite news|title=Araldo di Crollalanza nel ricordo della bella politica|work=Secolo d'Italia|date=11 May 2012
|url=https://www.secoloditalia.it/2012/05/araldo-di-crollalanza-nel-ricordo-della-bella-politica/|access-date=14 January 2022}}</ref>
==Character==
[[File:Ballilla-Italian Fascist Children's Organisation.png|thumb|Boys in Balilla uniform, 1936]]
[[File:Giovane Balilla.jpeg|thumb|200px|A young ''balilla'' in [[Piazza Venezia]].]]
The organization surpassed its purpose as a cultural institution that was intended to serve as the ideological counterpart of school, and served as a [[paramilitary]] group (training for future assignments in the [[Italian Army]]), as well as education in the career of choice, technology (including post-school courses for legal adults), or education related to home and family (solely for the girls). It carried out [[indoctrination]] with a message of Italian-ness and Fascism, training youths as "''the fascists of tomorrow''". During the years following its creation, ONB was left without real competition, as the regime banned all other [[youth movement]]s - including scouting and the Roman [[Catholic Church]] group ''Gioventù Italiana Cattolica'' (which was forced to limit its activities).
Moreover, the ONB took charge of all activities initiated by schools, and pressured teachers to enlist all students. Aside from the usual "''Fascist Saturdays''", children would spend their summers in [[Summer camp|camps]] (which included the national-level ''Campi [[Duce|Dux]]'', reunions of ''Balilla'' and ''Avanguardisti'').
Male children enrolled wore a [[uniform]] adapted from that of the [[Blackshirts]]: the eponymous black shirt, the [[Fez (clothing)|fez]] of ''Arditi'' tradition, grey-green trousers, black [[fasces]] emblems, and [[Azure (color)|azure]] bandanas (i.e.: in the [[National colours|national colour]] of Italy). During military exercises, they were armed with a scaled-down version of [[Royal Italian Army]] [[Carcano|service rifle]], ''Moschetto Balilla''<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.il91.it/balilla.html|title=fucile 91 balilla|website=il91.it}}</ref> (the rifles were replaced with replica versions for the ''Figli della Lupa'').
Balilla units were also established in [[Malta]], then a [[Malta Colony|British colony]], by [[Nationalist Party (Malta)|Maltese nationalists]]. These were disbanded with the advent of the Second World War.{{Citation needed|date=October 2022}}
==Casa del Balilla==
The local headquarters of the Balilla groups were called Casa del Balilla. Many of them were purpose-built in the [[Rationalism (architecture)|Italian rationalist]] style.
==See also==
* [[Hitler Youth]]
* [[Levente (organization)|Levente Associations]]
* [[National Youth Organisation (Greece)]]
* [[Fascist Male Academy of Physical Education]]
== References ==
<references />
==External sources==
{{Commons category|Balilla (Fascism)|Opera Nazionale Balilla}}
* [http://histclo.com/youth/youth/org/nat/ita/natit.htm Italian Fascist Youth Groups]
==Bibliography==
* Carlo Galeotti, Achille Starace e il vademecum dello stile fascista, Rubbettino, 2000 ISBN 88-7284-904-7
* Carlo Galeotti - Benito Mussolini ama molto i bambini..., Galeotti editore, 2022
*Giorgio Vecchiato, Con romana volontà, Marsilio, 2005
* Carlo Galeotti, Saluto al Duce!, Gremese, 2001.
* Carlo Galeotti, Credere obbedire combattere, Stampa alternativa, 1996.
* P. Cavaleri, Eravamo tutti Balilla, Mursia, Milano ISBN 978-88-425-3594-2
* Mariella Colin, I bambini di Mussolini. Letteratura, libri, letture per l'infanzia sotto il fascismo, Editore La Scuola (collana Saggi), 2012 ISBN 978-88-350-3062-1
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Italian fascism]]
[[Category:Youth organizations established in 1926]]
[[Category:Organizations disestablished in 1937]]
[[Category:1926 establishments in Italy]]
[[Category:1937 disestablishments in Italy]]
[[Category:Youth wings of fascist parties]]