Evo jednog interesantnog tekstica o musoliniju...
Mussolini worked for MI5 agents
Benito Mussolini may be among history's most notorious fascistdictators, but evidence suggests he worked for British secret servicesduring World War I.
Historian Dr Peter Martland says MI5 records show it paid "Il Duce"£100 per week, about £5,000 today,to spread pro-war propaganda via hisnewspaper.
The Cambridge University academic made the discovery while studying the papers of former agent Sir Samuel Hoare MP.
However, Dr Martland believes Mussolini probably spent the cash on womanising.
"Mussolini was the ace womaniser and of course, he's spent most of it on his women," he suggests.
DrMartland said the payments were agreed in 1917, after Russia collapsedinto the Bolshevik revolution and Italy was "smashed" at the Battle ofCaporetto.
Fearing the war would be lost, Britain sent a team of 100 intelligenceofficers to Italy to "stiffen the backbone" of its industrial workingclasses, he said.
"These poor people are suffering in exactly the same way as theBritish working classes are; hyperinflation, food shortages and a pressthat is not necessarily pro-war," he said.
Mussolini'ssocialist publication, Il Popolo d'Italia, carried a key voice becauseit served the factory workers of Milan whose output was essential forthe war effort, Dr Martland said.
The tale came to light as the historian pored over 40,000 documents belonging to Sir Samuel.
Aprominent Conservative, Sir Samuel would go on to become foreignsecretary almost two decades later and in 1935 signed the pact thatwould give Mussolini - by then a bloody dictator - control overAbyssinia, the country that is now Ethiopia.
But back in 1917, said Dr Martland, the UK was pouring £4m per day into the war, so the sum paid to Mussolini was "petty cash".
"It works. It's good value for money. At that point he was what the British needed," said Dr Martland.
As for Il Duce's conversion from journalist to brutal fascist - "pure opportunism", the academic concluded.