The Italian Communist Party 1921--1964: A profile

The following study has as its purpose the desire to identify what qualities have become characteristic of the present day Italian Communist Party and to relate historically their ideological and political genesis during the years from 1911 to 1964. The former date represents the year when the two most important leaders of the party began their intellectual preparation for future political careers the latter, the year the celebrated Yalta Memorandum was written by Palmiro Togliatti. It is hoped that this will contribute to an appreciation of the reasons why il Partito comunista italiano has succeeded in exercising a profound influence on all aspects of contemporary Italian national life and how it has attracted and retained the immense following it possesses among the Italian masses.The importance it attached to the cultural aspect of political and social transformation caused the Italian Communist Party to adopt with reluctance any dogmatic ideological postures in charting its political course and it did so only when political conditions made it imperative. Conversely, the party remained responsive to the exigencies of changing conditions in society which exacted political malleability and ideological heterodoxy in adapting to them. The party was to experience many changes of fortunes from the time of its founding in 1921, but the quality briefly mentioned above remained a constant feature of its political personality and in the end this was to prove to be its most valuable trait.While subject of this paper has meant that the time span covered is necessarily quite long, what follows is not intended to be an exhaustive study of Italian Communism. A profile ought to be detailed enough to suggest the whole character of the subject it depicts but it cannot be, by its nature, a full length portrait.The desire also is to trace the origins of the party's considerable reputation for intellectual competency to the ideological heritage left to it by Antonio Gramsci, one of the two great personalities of the party and the most eminent Marxist thinker produced in Italy during this century. Gramsci's thought is little known outside Italy. Even there, the greater part of his writings have been published posthumously only since the collapse of the Fascist regime which incarcerated him in order---to use the public prosecutor's words---"to prevent this mind from operating for twenty years." It is impossible to overlook Gramsci's ideas when discussing Italian Communism because they pervade the thinking of all his successors. Gramsci's Marxism is characterized not by a monophagous concentration on economics but rather by a profound attentiveness to the importance of culture and philosophy as both catalysts and media of social change. This has led the Italian Communist Party to place particular emphasis on the role of the intellectual in revolution. It was Gramsci's view that, in any society the intelligentsia provides the rational shield for the existing socio-political-economic order. Remove the protective veneer provided by the "mandarinate" and society will be exposed to the corrosive effects of whatever new ideals the disaffected intelligentsia champion against the old order.