Yet Milan was the birthplace of Fascism. It was where Mussolini announced the creation of the Fascist movement in 1919. It was also the birthplace of the first blackshirt squad, which developed out of Mussolini’s personal bodyguard, and the site of Mussolini’s headquarters, known as Il Covo (the Den, or Hideout). He kept a flag over his desk that depicted a skull with a Fascist dagger in its mouth. Fascism stood for violence as a way of moving history forward.