Opera Nazionale Balilla (ONB) was an Italian Fascist youth organization functioning, as an addition to school education, between 1926 and 1937 (the year it was absorbed into the Gioventù Italiana del Littorio, GIL, a youth section of the National Fascist Party).
It was named after Balilla, the moniker of Giovan Battista Perasso, a Genoese boy who, according to local legend, started the revolt of 1746 against the Habsburg forces that occupied the city in the War of the Austrian Succession. Perasso was chosen as the inspiration for his supposed age and revolutionary activity, while his presence in the fight against Austria reflected the irredentist stance taken by early Fascism, and Italy's victories in World War I.
Read more about Opera Nazionale Balilla: Origins, Structure, Character
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