Palmiro Togliatti - General Secretary of the Italian Communist Party: biography, personal life, memory

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:40

In addition to the well-known Volga city, in many settlements of the Soviet country there were streets named after this figure of the Italian and international communist movement. Palmiro Togliatti advocated not varnishing Soviet reality, giving people more freedom both in party life and in general on all issues, including politics, culture and art.

Early years

Palmiro Togliatti was born on March 26, 1893 in the ancient Italian city of Genoa. In the family of his parents - teachers, there was also an older brother Eugenio Giuseppe Togliatti, who became a famous mathematician. Palmiro studied well, after graduating from the Lyceum he easily entered the Faculty of Law at the University of Turin.

Soon the First World War began, but he was not drafted into the army, they gave him the opportunity to finish his studies. In his student years he became a supporter of revolutionary ideas, in 1914 he joined the Italian Socialist Party,becoming a loyal companion of Antonio Gramsci. After graduating from the university, when the deferment ended, in 1915 he was mobilized and sent to the front. For two years the young soldier was lucky, he happily avoided injury. However, he fell seriously ill and was demobilized. According to another version, he was discharged due to a serious injury.

Beginning of political activity

Returning to his hometown, Palmiro Togliatti again entered the university, only this time at the Faculty of Philosophy. However, he began to devote more and more time to political activities. The young socialist translated the works of Lenin and other documents of the Bolshevik Party. He closely followed the development of the revolutionary movement in Russia and actively promoted communist ideas. In 1919, together with Antonio Gramsci, he became one of the founders of the weekly newspaper New Order, around which a group of the most active supporters of communist ideas rallied. In the same year, he began working in the editorial office of the printed organ of the socialist party “Avanti!”

In January 1920 he became a member of the leadership of the city party section in Turin and the organizer of the first councils at the factories. In those years, Palmiro Togliatti actively advocated a closer connection with the movement of factory and factory councils. He was a strong supporter of a radical renewal of the socialist party. In the same year, he became the leader of the movement that advocated the capture of factories by workers.

At the origins of the communist movement

BAt the end of 1920, he participated in the creation of the communist section in the socialist party. When the "New Order" became the central printed organ of the communists, Palmiro Togliatti was appointed editor of this newspaper. He took a direct active part in the movement that led in January 1921 to the separation of a faction into a full-fledged Communist Party of Italy.

In the biography of Palmiro Togliatti, these years also saw the first arrests. From 1923 to 1925 he was arrested twice, in total he spent about 8 months in prison. Since 1926, he was delegated by the Italian Communist Party to the governing bodies of the Communist International, created in Moscow. He was personally acquainted through revolutionary activities with Benito Mussolini, who came to power in the country. Therefore, realizing what awaits Italy under the fascist dictator, he decided to emigrate.

Party leader

In 1926, after Gramsci's arrest, he became leader of the party and remained as General Secretary of the Italian Communist Party until his death. Together with his family, Togliatti moved to Moscow, where he began working in the Comintern. In 1927 he moved to Paris, from where it was easier to coordinate the work of the Italian communists in the fight against fascism. He actively fought against opportunism in the party, advocated the unity of all anti-fascist forces. He repeatedly visited various countries, coordinating the work of the Italian Communist Party in exile. He worked in Spain for two years during the civil war and was arrested upon his return to Paris.

After releaseleft for the USSR, where from 1940 to 1944 he worked under the pseudonym Mario Correnti on the Moscow radio broadcasting to Italy.

Democratic choice

After returning to Italy in 1944, he inspired the unity of all progressive forces in the fight against the fascist occupation. Under his direct leadership, the so-called "Salerno coup" was carried out. When the Communist Party advocated democratic reforms in the country, it abandoned the idea of establishing socialism by force of arms and disarmed its partisan detachments. All these measures made it possible to legalize the party and take part in the formation of the post-war structure of the country. From 1944 to 1946, he held various posts in the government of national unity of Italy (minister without portfolio, justice, deputy prime minister).

Under his leadership, the Italian Communist Party became the largest in the country. In the first post-war parliamentary elections, she came third with 104 votes in the Constituent Assembly. In the future, the communists were in power in many municipalities and had a great influence on public life. Politician Palmiro Togliatti has long held various positions in parliament and was one of the most respected party leaders in Italy.

First marriage

The first wife of the communist leader in 1924 was the weaver Rita Montagnara, who later became the leader of the women's movement in the country. They met at the editorial office of the New Order newspaper. The woman participated in the strike movement, but in general she was, according to her recollectionscontemporaries, very modest. Rita came from a well-known Jewish family in Italy, many of whose members were active participants in the revolutionary and labor movement. In 1925, the couple had a son, Aldo.

The family lived in Moscow for a long time, where they settled them in the Lux Hotel. Revolutionaries from all over the world lived here. The son went to a kindergarten at the hotel. About the personal life of Palmiro Togliatti of that period, they write that he may have been in a long-term love affair with his Soviet secretary Elena Lebedeva. It is authentically known that she regularly wrote reports about her boss to the NKVD and it was thanks to her that Tolyatti learned Russian.

Communist again

In 1948, Palmiro Togliatti divorced his wife for the sake of another fiery revolutionary, Nilde Iotti, who worked from 1979 to 1992 as chairman of the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Parliament. This is the longest term of holding a mandate. The new wife was 27 years younger than Togliatti. The couple adopted a seven-year-old girl, Marisa, the younger sister of the deceased worker.

When she grew up, she became a psychotherapist. Nothing was known about the eldest son until 1993, when journalists found him in one of the psychiatric clinics in Modena. By this time he had spent about 20 years in the hospital. Aldo began to be treated back in the Soviet Union.

Disagreements with the Soviet Communists

In 1964, at the invitation of the CPSU, Palmiro Togliatti and his wife came to rest in the Soviet Union. However, his main goal was to meet with General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev. He wanted to discuss very important issues for the world communist movement, including:

• about the conflict between the CPSU and the Chinese Communist Party, splitting the communist movement into two camps;
• unequal relations between socialist countries;
• exposure of the personality cult of Stalin, which became a strong blow to the communists around the world.

Knowing the critical attitude of the old communist, Khrushchev did not want to accept him. On the advice of an old Comintern comrade, Boris Ponomarev, Palmiro went to the Crimea, where he hoped to meet with the Soviet General Secretary.

Last days

During a visit to the pioneer camp "Artek" he had a stroke, a week later he died without regaining consciousness. The death of Palmiro Togliatti in the USSR caused a lot of gossip, the Italian communists wrote that he died after heated discussions with the Soviet leadership.

As evidence, they printed in the party newspaper a memorandum prepared by Togliatti for the meeting with Khrushchev. A few days later, this peculiar testament of the old communist was also published in the newspaper Pravda. In it, in particular, he insisted that it was wrong to write, as if everything was fine in the socialist countries and there were no problems. He called for a return to Leninist norms, which give greater personal freedom, remove restrictions and suppression of democracy.

Perhaps due to such an ambiguous roleSoviet leadership in the death of Palmiro Togliatti, his memory was immortalized by renaming the whole city. In addition, streets in major cities of the country were renamed in honor of the Italian Secretary General. By the way, in his homeland in several cities, including Rome and Bologna, there are also avenues and streets named after him.