Cesare Maria de Vecchi (14 November 1884 – 23 June 1959) was Governor of Italian Somaliland from 1923 to 1928 and Governor of the Aegean Islands under Italy from 1936 to 1940 and an initial leader of the Blackshirts.
Biography[]
Cesare Maria de Vecchi was born on 14 November 1884 in Casale Monferrato, Italy. He became a lawyer in Turin, Piedmont, and he joined the National Fascist Party during World War I, being pro-war. In 1921, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies, and he was one of the quadrumvirs who led the March on Rome in 1922, and he was responsible for ordering the 1922 Turin massacre of communists and unionists in Turin. From 1923 to 1928 he was the governor of the Aegean Islands and from 1936 to 1940 was Governor of the Aegean Islands, but by 1943 he was opposed to Benito Mussolini's government and agreed with Dino Grandi's proposition to remove him from power. The Salo Republic sentenced him to death as a result, so he fled to Argentina, returning to Italy only in 1949. Along with Rodolfo Graziani, he joined the Italian Social Movement, and he died in 1959.