Emilio Sereni (13 August 1907 – 20 March 1977) was an Italian writer, politician and historian.

Biography

Born into a Jewish family of anti-fascist intellectuals, Sereni graduated from the Liceo Terenzio Mamiani in Rome. Brother of the

Zionist Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...

and socialist Enzo Sereni, co-founder of the

kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...

Givat Brenner, and of Enrico Sereni, a scientist linked to the

anti-fascist Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were op ...

movement ''

Giustizia e Libertà Giustizia e Libertà (; ) was an Italian anti-fascist resistance movement, active from 1929 to 1945.James D. Wilkinson (1981). ''The Intellectual Resistance Movement in Europe''. Harvard University Press. p. 224. The movement was cofounded by ...

'', who committed suicide at a young age. In 1926, Sereni joined the

Italian Communist Party 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 ...

and one year later he graduated in

agronomy Agronomy is the science and technology of producing and using plants by agriculture for food, fuel, fiber, chemicals, recreation, or land conservation. Agronomy has come to include research of plant genetics, plant physiology, meteorology, and ...

Portici Portici (; ) is a town and municipality (''comune'') of the Metropolitan City of Naples in the region of Campania in Italy. It has 51,351 inhabitants. Geography Portici lies at the foot of Mount Vesuvius on the Bay of Naples, about southeast of ...

, starting shortly after a work of proselytism in the Neapolitan area, where he met

Giorgio Amendola Giorgio Amendola (21 November 1907 – 5 June 1980) was an Italian writer and politician. He is regarded and often cited as one of the main precursors of the Olive Tree. Born in Rome in 1907, Amendola was the son of Lithuanian intellectual and ...

. In 1930 he went to

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 ...

and came into contact with

Palmiro Togliatti Palmiro Michele Nicola Togliatti (; 26 March 1893 – 21 August 1964) was an Italian politician and statesman, leader of Italy's Italian Communist Party, Communist party for nearly forty years, from 1927 until his death. Born into a middle-clas ...

. Returning to Italy in September of the same year, he was arrested and sentenced by the Special Tribunal for the Defense of the State to twenty years, then reduced to 15 for the accumulation of penalties. Amnestied in 1935, Sereni fled to Paris with his wife Xenia Silberberg, known by the name of Marina, and their daughter Lea; there, he was responsible for cultural work and served as editor-in-chief of the magazines ''Stato Operaio'' and ''La voce degli italiani''. After returning to Italy and once again being discovered in 1943, he was sentenced to 18 years for "subversive association". A year later Sereni managed to escape and settled in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

, where the party assigned him the task of directing the office of agitation and propaganda. After having played an important role in the

Italian resistance movement The Italian Resistance ( ), or simply ''La'' , consisted of all the Italian resistance groups who fought the occupying forces of Nazi Germany and the fascist collaborationists of the Italian Social Republic during the Second World War in Italy ...

as a representative, together with

Luigi Longo Luigi Longo (15 March 1900 – 16 October 1980), also known as Gallo, was an Italian communist politician and general secretary of the Italian Communist Party from 1964 to 1972. He was also the first foreigner to be awarded an Order of Lenin. E ...

, of the Communist Party in the

National Liberation Committee for Northern Italy The Committee of National Liberation for Northern Italy (, CLNAI) was set up in February 1944 by Partisan (military), partisans behind Nazi Germany, German lines in the Italian Social Republic, a German puppet state in Northern Italy. It enjoyed t ...

and as a member of the insurrectionary committee set up in April 1945, Sereni joined the central committee of the PCI in 1946 (where he would remain until 1975). He was twice minister under

Alcide De Gasperi Alcide Amedeo Francesco De Gasperi (; 3 April 1881 – 19 August 1954) was an Italian politician and statesman who founded the Christian Democracy party and served as prime minister of Italy in eight successive coalition governments from 1945 t ...

: first as Minister for Post-War Assistance, and then as

Minister of Public Works This list indicates government departments in various countries dedicated to public works or infrastructure. See also * Public works * Ministry or Board of Public Works, the imperial Chinese ministry overseeing public projects from the Tang ...

. From 1948 until 1963, he served as a member of the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

. During the

Hungarian revolution of 1956 The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 4 November 1956; ), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was an attempted countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the policies caused by ...

, he joined the party leadership in siding with the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. From its founding in 1963, Sereni was an editor of the magazine '' Critica marxista''. A

polyglot Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...

, Sereni knew

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

, English, French,

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

, and several dead

cuneiform Cuneiform is a Logogram, logo-Syllabary, syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. Cuneiform script ...

languages such as Akkadian, Sumerian and Hittite. Among his theoretical and historical works are ''Il capitalismo nelle campagne'' ("Capitalism in the Countryside"), ''Il Mezzogiorno all'opposizione'' ("Mezzogiorno in the Opposition"), ''La questione agraria nella rinascita nazionale italiana'' ("The Agrarian Question in the Italian National Rebirth") and ''La rivoluzione italiana'' ("The Italian Revolution"); altogether, his bibliography contains 1071 writings, the first dating back to 1930. Sereni donated his archive to the Alcide Cervi Institute in

Gattatico Gattatico ( Reggiano: , or ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Reggio Emilia in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna. As of 28 February 2023 the comune had a population of 5,668. Geography The municipality is located about west ...

, of which he was a founder. Together with his wife Xenia Silberberg, Sereni was the father of the writer Clara Sereni. His daughter narrated Sereni's political and family history in the historical novel ''Il gioco dei regni'' ("The Play of Kingdoms"), published by Giunti in 1993.

References

1907 births 1977 deaths Exiled Italian politicians Ministers of public works of Italy {{Italy-politician-stub