The article is devoted to a comparative analysis of political and ideological processes that developed in Russia and Italy in the first two decades of the twentieth century. The typological similarity of the situation in both countries lies in the fact that the regimes connected one way or another with the socialist tradition came to power and managed to become legitimate. This happened, of course, not due to the sudden indoctrination of the bulk of the population. The regime established by Mussolini was not an alternative to the imaginary communist threat, but the Italian version of authoritarian dictatorship, whose character, potential orientation and ideology were largely determined by the international situation and the special psychological climate generated by the Bolsheviks coming to power in 1917 and the beginning of the “socialist experiment” ended with the creation of a totalitarian state. At the same time, an analysis of the nature of authoritarian regimes established in Russia and Italy is simply