Angelica Balabanova
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Angelica Balabanoff (or Balabanov, Balabanova; – ''Anzhelika Balabanova''; 4 August 1878 – 25 November 1965) was a Russian-Italian
communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
and
social democratic Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...
activist of
Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
origin. She served as secretary of the
Comintern The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internatio ...
from 1919 to 1920, and later became a political party leader in Italy.


Biography

Balabanoff was born into a wealthy family in
Chernigov Chernihiv (, ; , ) is a city and municipality in northern Ukraine, which serves as the administrative center of Chernihiv Oblast and Chernihiv Raion within the oblast. Chernihiv's population is The city was designated as a Hero City of Ukrain ...
,
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...
, where she rebelled against her mother's strictness. While attending the
New University of Brussels The New University of Brussels () was a private university active in Brussels, Belgium, between 1894 and 1919. Its origins were in the Free University of Brussels (1834–1969), Free University of Brussels, a Liberalism in Belgium, liberal instit ...
in Brussels, she was exposed to political radicalism. After graduating with degrees in philosophy and literature, she settled in Rome and began to organize immigrant workers in the
textile industry The textile industry is primarily concerned with the design, production and distribution of textiles: yarn, cloth and clothing. Industry process Cotton manufacturing Cotton is the world's most important natural fibre. In the year 2007, th ...
, joining the
Italian Socialist Party The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a Social democracy, social democratic and Democratic socialism, democratic socialist political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the longest-living parti ...
(''Partito Socialista Italiano''; PSI) in 1900. She became closely associated with
Antonio Labriola Antonio Labriola (; 2 July 1843 – 12 February 1904) was an Italian Marxist theoretician and philosopher. Although an academic philosopher and never an active member of any Marxist political party, his thought exerted influence on many pol ...
,
Giacinto Menotti Serrati Giacinto Menotti Serrati (; 25 November 1872 – 10 May 1926) was an Italian communist politician and newspaper editor. Biography He was born in Spotorno. He was a central leader of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), editor of the paper ''Avant ...
,
Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as Prime Minister of Italy, Prime Minister, became the dictator of Fascist Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 un ...
, and the party's founder
Filippo Turati Filippo Turati (; 26 November 1857 – 29 March 1932) was an Italian sociologist, criminologist, poet and socialist politician. Early life Born in Canzo, province of Como, he graduated in law at the University of Bologna in 1877, and particip ...
. She moved further to the left during the First World War, becoming active in the Zimmerwald Movement. During the war, she spent some time in exile in neutral Sweden, where she was affiliated with the
Left Left may refer to: Music * ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006 * ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016 * ''Left'' (Helmet album), 2023 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relativ ...
Socialist movement and became a close friend of Swedish Communist leaders
Ture Nerman Ture Nerman (18 May 1886, in Norrköping – 7 October 1969) was a Swedish socialist journalist, author, and political activist. He also wrote poems and songs. Nerman was a vegetarian and a strict teetotaler. Alcoholism was a major social pro ...
,
Fredrik Ström Otto Fredrik Ström (10 July 1880 – 23 November 1948) was a Swedish politician, editor and a prolific writer. He held a seat in the Riksdag from 1916 to 1921 and from 1930 to 1948.Lars BjörlinOtto Fredrik Ström Riksarkivet.se. Retrieved 22 A ...
,
Zeth Höglund Carl Zeth "Zäta" Konstantin Höglund (29 April 1884 – 13 August 1956) was a leading Swedish communist politician, anti-militarist, author, journalist and mayor (''finansborgarråd'') of Stockholm (1940–1950). Höglund can be credited as t ...
and
Kata Dalström Anna Maria Katarina "Kata" Dalström, née Carlberg (18 December 1858 – 11 December 1923), was a Swedish socialist and writer. She belonged to the leading socialist agitators and leftist writers in contemporary Sweden, and has been referred to a ...
. When the
Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...
broke out in 1917, Balabanoff travelled to Russia and joined the
Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...
. According to
Emma Goldman Emma Goldman (June 27, 1869 – May 14, 1940) was a Russian-born Anarchism, anarchist revolutionary, political activist, and writer. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europ ...
, she became disillusioned with the style of socialism in Russia and "had become rooted in the soil of Italy." Balabanoff told Goldman of her discomfort about temporarily living in the Narishkin Palace. She became secretary of the
Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
Third International The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internation ...
in 1919 and worked alongside Goldman,
Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...
and
Grigory Zinoviev Grigory Yevseyevich Zinoviev (born Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich Radomyslsky; – 25 August 1936) was a Russian revolutionary and Soviet politician. A prominent Old Bolsheviks, Old Bolshevik, Zinoviev was a close associate of Vladimir Lenin prior to ...
, as well as many others. This led her to become an open critic of
Bolshevism Bolshevism (derived from Bolshevik) is a revolutionary socialist current of Soviet Leninist and later Marxist–Leninist political thought and political regime associated with the formation of a rigidly centralized, cohesive and disciplined p ...
, and she left Russia in 1922, travelling back to Italy to reunite with her friend and comrade Giacinto Menotti Serrati. After Serrati abandoned the PSI for the
Communist Party of Italy The Italian Communist Party (, PCI) was a communist and democratic socialist political party in Italy. It was established in Livorno as the Communist Party of Italy (, PCd'I) on 21 January 1921, when it seceded from the Italian Socialist Part ...
(''Partito Comunista d'Italia''; PCdI) in 1924, she assumed control of his Maximalist group (''Massimalisti'') until the
Fascist Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural soci ...
authorities forced her into exile in Switzerland, where she edited ''
Avanti! ''Avanti!'' (; Italian interjection – 'come in!') is a 1972 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 pla ...
'' and became the secretary of the Paris Bureau. She had first encountered Mussolini, who at the time was still a socialist, while addressing a meeting in Lausanne; her impression of him was not flattering. "I had never seen a more wretched human being", she later wrote, "... he seemed more concerned with his inner turmoil than what I was saying." In 1930 the PSI split over the issue of whether or not to merge with the reformist socialists who had been expelled from the party eight years previously; as a maximalist, Balabanoff dissented from the leadership's desire for "fusion" and formed a new political grouping, the Italian Socialist Party (Maximalist) (''Partito Socialista Italiano Massimalista''; PSIm), which she led for the next six years. She later moved to Paris, then New York City before the outbreak of the Second World War. When the war ended, she returned to Italy and rejoined the PSI for a brief period, before once again breaking with it to follow
Giuseppe Saragat Giuseppe Saragat (; 19 September 1898 – 11 June 1988) was an Italian politician and statesman who served as President of Italy from 1964 to 1971. Early life Saragat was born on 19 September 1898 in Turin, Piedmont, Kingdom of Italy, to Sard ...
into the new anti-communist Italian Socialist Workers' Party (''Partito Socialista dei Lavoratori Italiani''; PSLI), which in 1951 merged with the
United Socialist Party United or Unified or Unitary Socialist Party may refer to: * Unified Socialist Party of Andalusia * United Socialist Party (Bolivia) * Unified Socialist Party (Burkina Faso) * Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia * Unified Socialist Party (France) ...
(''Partito Socialista Unitario''; PSU) to become the
Italian Democratic Socialist Party The Italian Democratic Socialist Party (, PSDI), also known as Italian Social Democratic Party, was a social-democratic political party in Italy. The longest serving partner in government for Christian Democracy, the PSDI was an important for ...
(''Partito Socialista Democratico Italiano''; PSDI).
Edmund Wilson Edmund Wilson Jr. (May 8, 1895 – June 12, 1972) was an American writer, literary critic, and journalist. He is widely regarded as one of the most important literary critics of the 20th century. Wilson began his career as a journalist, writing ...
, the noted American man of letters, considered her to be an accomplished poet in five languages (Russian, German, French, Italian, and English) and in 1943 wrote a very favorable article about her poetry in ''The Nation''.


Legacy

Balabanoff is a major character in the 1993
RAI (), commercially styled as since 2000 and known until 1954 as (RAI), is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many terrestrial and subscription television channels a ...
Italian language production "Il Giovane Mussolini", portrayed by
Susanne Lothar Susanne Lothar (15 November 1960 – 21 July 2012) was a German film, television and stage actress. Her work included collaborations with Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke. She was married to fellow actor Ulrich Mühe, with whom she frequently ...
. Balabanoff is memorialized in
Judy Chicago Judy Chicago (born Judith Sylvia Cohen; July 20, 1939) is an American feminist artist, art educator, and writer known for her large collaborative art installation pieces about birth and creation images, which examine the role of women in history ...
's ''
The Dinner Party ''The Dinner Party'' is an installation artwork by American feminist artist Judy Chicago. There are 39 elaborate place settings on a triangular table for 39 mythical and historical famous women. Sacajawea, Sojourner Truth, Eleanor of Aquitaine, ...
''. A street in the urban area of Colli Aniene in Rome has been named after her.


Works

* ''Il vostro Dovere in tempo di Elezioni: Alle Proletarie'' (Your Duty in Time of Elections: to the Proletarian Women). Lugano: Cooperativa Tipografica Sociale, 1904. * ''Neskol'ko slov ob agitatsii: Pis'mo-lektsiia'' (A Few Words on Agitation: Correspondence Lecture). Moscow: Gosudarstvennoe Izdatel'stvo, 1920. * ''Ot rabstva k svobode: Obiazannosti i prava kommunistov v pervoi trudovoi respublike'' (From Slavery to Freedom: Duties and Rights of Communists in the First Laborers' Republic). Moscow: Gosudarstvennoe Izdatel'stvo, 1920 / Milano, Avanti!, 1921. * ''Svetloi pamiati Iakova Mikhailovicha Sverdlova.'' (To the Blessed Memory of Iakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov). Moscow: Gosudarstvennoe Izdatel'stvo, 1920. * ''Iz lichnykh vospominanii Tsimmerval'dtsa'' (from the Personal Reminiscences of the Zimmerwaldists). Leningrad-Moscow: Izdatel'stvo "Kniga," 1925. * ''Erziehung der Massen zum Marxismus: Psychologisch-pädagogische Betrachtungen'' (Educating the Masses to Marxism: Psychological-Pedagogical Considerations). Berlin: Laub, 1927. *''Erinnerungen und Erlebnisse'', Berlin, E. Laubsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1927. * ''Marx und Engels als Freidenker in ihren Schriften'' (Marx and Engels as Free-Thinkers in their Writings). Berlin: Der Freidenker, 1930. *''Wesen und Werdegang des italienischen Faschismus'', Wien, Hess & Co., 1931. *''Memorie'', Milano-Parigi, Avanti!, 1931. * ''Sozialismus als Weltanschauung'' (Socialism as a Worldview). Berlin: Dt. Freidenkerverband, c. 1932. * ''Caduti per noi, caduti per voi'' (Fallen for Us, Fallen for You). New York: Edizione "La Fiaccola," c. 1935. * ''My Life as a Rebel.'' London: Hamish Hamilton, 1938. * ''Traitor: Benito Mussolini and his "Conquest" of Power.'' New York: G. Popolizio, c. 1942 / (''Il traditore Mussolini'') Roma-Milano, Avanti!, 1945. * ''Tears.'' New York, E. Laub / Chicago: Jay Bass, 1943. *''Ricordi di una socialista'', Roma, De Luigi, 1946. * ''Impressions of Lenin.'' Isotta Cesari, trans. Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 1964 (''Lenin visto da vicino'', Roma, Opere nuove, 1959). *''La mia vita di rivoluzionaria'', Milano, Feltrinelli, 1979.


References


Sources

*


External links


Angelica Balabanoff
Russians in Italy, russinitalia.it
Angelica Balabanoff Internet Archive
at Marxists Internet Archive

at the Vassar College Archives and Special Collections Library
Jewish Women's Archive page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Balabanoff, Angelica 1878 births 1965 deaths People from Chernihiv People from Chernigovsky Uyezd 20th-century Ukrainian Jews Emigrants from the Russian Empire to Sweden Emigrants from the Russian Empire to Italy Soviet emigrants to Italy Italian people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent Bolsheviks Italian Socialist Party politicians Italian Democratic Socialist Party politicians Jewish socialists Italian autobiographers Italian Comintern people Executive Committee of the Communist International