To the First Legion of Blackshirts Headed to the Russian Front
By Benito Mussolini
Legionaries!
A great honour and highest privilege awaits you, and I am sure you feel it in your souls, O volunteer fighters.
For twenty years the people of the world have been shaken by this question, this ironclad dilemma: Fascism or Bolshevism, Rome or Moscow. (Vibrant cheers).
This clash between the two worlds, which we desired and which we initiated in the now-distant years of the Fascist revolution, has come to an end. The drama has reached its fifth act. Deployment is now complete.
On the one hand Rome-Berlin-Tokyo; on the other London-Washington-Moscow. (Long jeers).
We have not even the slightest doubt about the outcome of this immense battle: we will win! (Loud applause). We will win, because history says that those people who represent the ideas of the past must lose against those who represent the ideas of the future.
Legionaries!
On the Russian front you will not only fight together with your German comrades, but also with Finns, Hungarians, Romanians, Slovaks and volunteers of other nations. I am confident that at all stops your behaviour will be beyond reproach and, during combat, you will commit yourself to extreme decision and the utmost energy. (The Legionaries shout: "Yes, Duce!"). During combat, he who hesitates falls.
These words of mine are the viaticum that accompanies you, an act of faith, an omen of victory.
Legionaries! Salute the King!
