The article addresses debates within the historiography of Italian Fascism that were engendered by R. De Felice’s works. R. De Felice argued that the Fascists’ rise to power was largely due to accelerated modernization of Italian society after the First World War. The author focuses on the following issues debated in historiography: the intellectuals’ impact on politics; definitions of Fascism; the Fascist regime’s “betrayal” of the Fascist movement’s ideals; the role of violence and the “consensus” in the relations of Italian society and the Fascist regime; Fascism’s role in nation-building Risorgimento, the Fascist regime’s crisis and fall. The author also discusses the problems of post-fascist transit. The survey of the current historiography of Fascism allows for determining salient questions in research on Fascism and outlining new directions of study.