Angelo Tasca (19 November 1892 – 3 March 1960) was an Italian politician, writer and historian. Born in Moretta, in the

Piedmont Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...

region of Italy, he was a founding member of 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 ...

but was expelled in 1929 for his opposition to

Stalinism Stalinism (, ) is the Totalitarianism, totalitarian means of governing and Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union (USSR) from History of the Soviet Union (1927–1953), 1927 to 1953 by dictator Jose ...

and supporting the

Right Opposition The Right Opposition () or Right Tendency () in the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) was a label formulated by Joseph Stalin in Autumn of 1928 for the opposition against certain measures included within the first five-year plan, an oppos ...

Nikolai Bukharin Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin (; rus, Николай Иванович Бухарин, p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj ɪˈvanəvʲɪdʑ bʊˈxarʲɪn; – 15 March 1938) was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and Marxist theorist. A prominent Bolshevik ...

. Having experienced persecution by the Fascist regime in Italy, he took refuge in France in 1926 and gained citizenship in 1936. After joining the

French Section of the Workers' International The French Section of the Workers' International (, SFIO) was a major socialist political party in France which was founded in 1905 and succeeded in 1969 by the present Socialist Party. The SFIO was founded in 1905 as the French representativ ...

in 1934, he worked as a writer for the newspaper ''

Le Populaire ''Le Populaire'' is a major independent daily newspaper in Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal ...

''. Tasca joined the exiled

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 ...

(PSI) and supported the

POUM The Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (, POUM; , POUM) was a Spanish communist party formed during the Second Spanish Republic, Second Republic and mainly active around the Spanish Civil War. It was formed by the fusion of the Trotskyism, Tro ...

during the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

. After the signing of the

Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, officially the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and also known as the Hitler–Stalin Pact and the Nazi–Soviet Pact, was a non-aggression pact between Nazi Ge ...

in August 1939 and the consequent resignation of Pietro Nenni, he became one of three joint leaders of the PSI. After the

Fall of France The Battle of France (; 10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign (), the French Campaign (, ) and the Fall of France, during the Second World War was the German invasion of the Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembourg and the Net ...

, he aligned himself with the pro-German

Vichy Government Vichy France (; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was a French rump state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II, established as a result of the French capitulation after the defeat against ...

. He held an official position under Paul Marion in the Ministry of Information. He was arrested in September 1944 after the Liberation of France and was charged with

collaborationism Wartime collaboration is cooperation with the enemy against one's country of citizenship in wartime. As historian Gerhard Hirschfeld says, it "is as old as war and the occupation of foreign territory". The term ''collaborator'' dates to the 19th c ...

but was released only a month later after it emerged that he had secretly worked with a Belgian anti-fascist network since 1941. After the war, Tasca worked for various newspapers, was a consultant for

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

, and maintained an

anti-communist Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when th ...

/ anti-Stalinist position during the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

. In 1960, Tasca died in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. His daughter,

Catherine Tasca Catherine Tasca (; born 13 December 1941 in Lyon) is a French politician of the Socialist Party (France), Socialist Party (PS) who served as a member of the Senate of France, representing the Yvelines department from 2004 to 2017, including as t ...

, was France's

Minister of Culture A culture minister or a heritage minister is a common cabinet position in governments. The culture minister is typically responsible for cultural policy, which often includes arts policy (direct and indirect support to artists and arts organiza ...

from 2000 to 2002 and a senator from 2004 to 2017 for the

French Socialist Party The Socialist Party ( , PS) is a Centre-left politics, centre-left to Left-wing politics, left-wing List of political parties in France, political party in France. It holds Social democracy, social democratic and Pro-Europeanism, pro-European v ...

Works

* ''I valori politici e sindacali dei Consigli di fabbrica'', Libreria editrice dell'Alleanza coop. Turin 1920. * ''I Consigli di fabbrica e la rivoluzione mondiale. Relazione letta all'assemblea della Sezione socialista torinese le sera del 13 aprile 1920'', Libreria editrice dell'Alleanza coop. Turin 1921. * ''L'unità socialista'', Imp. ouvrière, Nancy 1937. * ''La Naissance du fascisme'', Gallimard, Paris 1938. Italian translation: ''Nascita e avvento del fascismo'', La Nuova Italia, 1950 and 1995 and Casa editrice Giuseppe Laterza & figli, 1965. * ''Due anni di alleanza germano-sovietica. Agosto 1939-giugno 1941'', La Nuova Italia, Firenze 1951. * ''In Francia nella bufera'', Guanda, Modena-Parma 1951. * ''La Guerre du papillon, 1940-1944'', Les Iles d'or, Paris 1954. * ''Le Pacte germano-soviétique. L'histoire et le mythe'', Éditions Liberté de la Culture, Paris 1954, Italian translation: ''Il patto germano-sovietico. La storia e la leggenda'',edited by M. Millozzi, Edizioni Università di Macerata, Macerata 2009. * ''Autopsia dello stalinismo'', Edizioni di Comunità, Milano, 1958.

References

External links

* Angelo Tasca
''The Russo-German Alliance: August 1939 – June 1941''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tasca, Angelo 1892 births 1960 deaths People from the Province of Cuneo Italian emigrants to France Italian Communist Party politicians French people of Italian descent Italian Socialist Party politicians People of Vichy France Italian anti-fascists