La Russia sovietica con gli occhi dei viaggiatori fascisti: frattura come (parziale) integrazione

The travel notes by Fascist intellectuals in USSR are interesting not only because of their depiction of Soviet life, but also for the ideology expressed by the authors. The experience of travelling doesn’t seem to have changed their attitude towards the Soviet experiment, as they usually refer to cultural bias that can be found in essays by people who didn’t visited Russia. Thanks to a linguistic comparison of these texts (written in particular by Alvaro, Barzini, Cardarelli, Malaparte), I have tried to identify some interpretative models of the Soviet phenomenon, which are shared by the authors and reflect a stereotyped view of the “other”: theories about the character of Russian people; the presence of analogies between Soviet industry and American Fordism; similarities between fascism and communism. According to these models, Russia was usually seen by Fascists as a fracture with the West, which could have a positive or negative connotation. In a moment when Italy itself wanted to be opposed to the Western civilisation, the new Russian fracture with the West could mean an unexpected integration with Fascist Italy, whereas the similarities with the American model of economic growth were perceived as negative.