Leonida Bissolati (20 February 1857 in

Cremona Cremona (, also ; ; lmo, label= Cremunés, Cremùna; egl, Carmona) is a city and ''comune'' in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po river in the middle of the ''Pianura Padana'' ( Po Valley). It is the capital of the ...

– 6 May 1920 in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

) was a leading exponent of the Italian

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

movement at the turn of the nineteenth century.

Biography

He was born from the liaison of Paolina Bergamaschi, a nurse, with Stefano Bissolati, a priest who left the Church in 1859, at age 37, and later became director of Cremona's city library and a noted scholar. At birth the child was named Leonida Bergamaschi; his name was changed at age 18, when Stefano Bissolati legally adopted him (after marrying Paolina in 1868, five years after she had become a widow). With this family background, it is scarcely surprising that Leonida turned to leftist politics as a student at the University of

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different na ...

, where he earned his law degree at the age of 20. Returning to Cremona, he practiced law as an attorney and published many articles in journals and newspapers. In 1876 he was elected to the City Council of Cremona, at first in the ranks of the Radicals, then gradually moving closer to the Socialists. Altogether he served in the council for 18 years, notably by being in charge of Public Education. He married Ginevra Coggi, who soon fell chronically ill and died in 1894; later, his soulmate and companion was Carolina Cassola, whom he eventually married in 1913. From 1889 to 1895, Bissolati organized peasant demonstrations and the social struggle for better living conditions in the countryside. In 1889 he founded ''L'eco del popolo'' (The Echo of the People), which subsequently became the local organ in Cremona of the

Italian Socialist Party The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the longest-living parties of the country. Founded in Genoa in 189 ...

(PSI). He also published a partial translation of the ''

Communist Manifesto ''The Communist Manifesto'', originally the ''Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (german: Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei), is a political pamphlet written by German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Commissioned by the Comm ...

'' of

Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

and Engels. In 1896 he became director of ''

Avanti! ''Avanti!'' is a 1972 American/Italian international co-production comedy film produced and directed by Billy Wilder, and starring Jack Lemmon and Juliet Mills. The screenplay by Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond is based on Samuel A. Taylor's play, ...

'' (Forward!), the official organ of the PSI, relinquishing this post in 1903, only to resume it from 1908 to 1910. Meanwhile Bissolati was active as a legislator. In 1897 he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Parliament, representing the college of Cremona. His refusal to oppose the war on Turkey for the conquest of

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Suda ...

triggered his resignation as socialist Member of Parliament in February 1912; five months later he was expelled from the PSI. He promptly went on to found the Italian Reformist Socialist Party (''Partito Socialista Riformista Italiano''), with Ivanoe Bonomi (a future prime minister) and Angiolo Cabrini. Bissolati strongly advocated Italy's entry into

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

on the side of the Triple Entente, while his former socialist friends favored neutrality. He volunteered for the front and served with distinction, receiving a medal. Back in Rome, he served in two successive Italian Governments (those headed by Paolo Boselli and Vittorio Emanuele Orlando). He was responsible for supplying troops as well as for liaising between cabinet and the generals. At the end of the war, Bissolati supported the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference th ...

and

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...

's principle of self-determination in the settling of the new national borders. This infuriated the nationalists, bent on annexing to Italy sizeable areas inhabited by Germans and Slavs in the Northeast. Attacked from all sides, he resigned from the government and withdrew from politics in December 1918, although subsequently he met with

and urged that Italy not be given

Fiume Rijeka ( , , ; also known as Fiume hu, Fiume, it, Fiume ; local Chakavian: ''Reka''; german: Sankt Veit am Flaum; sl, Reka) is the principal seaport and the third-largest city in Croatia (after Zagreb and Split). It is located in Prim ...

or the Dalmatian Coast. He died in Rome of a post-operative infection. In August 2018, the regular Scottish Rite Masonic Lodge of Cremona commemorated Bissolati as one of his notable members. On 18 December 1974, the "Leonida Bissolati" Lodge, a Masonic center affiliated with the

Grand Orient of Italy The Grand Orient of Italy (GOI) ( it, Grande Oriente d'Italia) is an Italian masonic grand lodge founded in 1805; the viceroy Eugene of Beauharnais was instrumental in its establishment. It was based at the Palazzo Giustiniani, Rome, Italy from ...

and named in his honour, was founded in Cremona.

References

Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bissolati, Leonida 1857 births 1920 deaths Politicians from Cremona Italian Socialist Party politicians Italian Reformist Socialist Party politicians Government ministers of Italy Deputies of Legislature XIX of the Kingdom of Italy Deputies of Legislature XX of the Kingdom of Italy Deputies of Legislature XXI of the Kingdom of Italy Deputies of Legislature XXII of the Kingdom of Italy Deputies of Legislature XXIII of the Kingdom of Italy Deputies of Legislature XXIV of the Kingdom of Italy Deputies of Legislature XXV of the Kingdom of Italy Italian journalists Italian Freemasons