MOSCOW, October 1 (RAPSI) – Italian dictator Benito Mussolini’s book "The Third Way" has been declared extremist by a Russian court, regional prosecutors reported Tuesday.
The ruling by a court in the West Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk was apparently a symbolic move, since the federal law on combating extremism already classifies the works of Italy and Germany’s fascist leaders as extremist.
Last month, investigators initiated a probe into reports of "The Third Way" being sold in several Moscow bookstores, along with an early novel by Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels titled "Michael." Both books were published and distributed to stores by the Algoritm publishing house.
A criminal case into inciting hatred has been opened, and the Prosecutor General's Office has issued an official warning to the bookstores currently selling the book.
"The Third Way" is a translated version of Mussolini's book "My Life" and his essay "The Doctrine of Fascism" collected in one volume. The book deals with his rise to power in Italy and the ideas behind his political ideology.
In a similar move to the latest ruling, in December 2012, a Moscow court added Nazi ideologist Alfred Rosenberg's books, "The Myth of the Twentieth Century" and "Memoirs" to the list of extremist literature banned from publication and sale. Adolf Hitler's “Mein Kampf” is also banned as extremist in Russia.
