The Italian Communist Party (, PCI) was a
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
democratic socialist
Democratic socialism is a left-wing economic and political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self-mana ...
political party in Italy. It was established in
Livorno
Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of the Tuscany region of Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 152,916 residents as of 2025. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn ...
as the Communist Party of Italy (, PCd'I) on 21 January 1921, when it seceded from 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 ...
(PSI), under the leadership of
Amadeo Bordiga,
Antonio Gramsci
Antonio Francesco Gramsci ( , ; ; 22 January 1891 – 27 April 1937) was an Italian Marxist philosophy, Marxist philosopher, Linguistics, linguist, journalist, writer, and politician. He wrote on philosophy, Political philosophy, political the ...
, and
Nicola Bombacci. Outlawed during the
Italian fascist regime, the party continued to operate underground and played a major role in the
Italian resistance movement.
The party's peaceful and national road to socialism, or the
Italian road to socialism, the realisation of the communist project through democracy, repudiating the use of violence and applying the
Constitution of Italy
The Constitution of the Italian Republic () was ratified on 22 December 1947 by the Constituent Assembly of Italy, Constituent Assembly, with 453 votes in favour and 62 against, before coming into force on 1 January 1948, one century after the p ...
in all its parts, a strategy inaugurated under
Palmiro Togliatti but that some date back to Gramsci, would become the leitmotif of the party's history.
Having changed its name in 1943, the PCI became the second largest political party of Italy after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, attracting the support of about a third of the vote share during the 1970s. At the time, it was the largest
Communist party in the
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to various nations and state (polity), states in Western Europe, Northern America, and Australasia; with some debate as to whether those in Eastern Europe and Latin America also const ...
, with peak support reaching 2.3 million members in 1947, and peak share being 34.4% of the vote (12.6 million votes) in the
1976 Italian general election.
The PCI was part of the
Constituent Assembly of Italy and the Italian government from 1944 to 1947, when the United States ordered a removal from government of the PCI and PSI. The PCI–PSI alliance lasted until 1956; the two parties continued to govern at the local and regional level until the 1990s. Apart from the 1944–1947 years and occasional external support to the
organic centre-left (1960s–1970s), which included the PSI, the PCI always remained at the opposition in the
Italian Parliament
The Italian Parliament () is the national parliament of the Italy, Italian Republic. It is the representative body of Italian citizens and is the successor to the Parliament of the Kingdom of Sardinia (1848–1861), the Parliament of the Kingd ...
, with more accommodation as part of the
Historic Compromise of the 1970s, which ended in 1980, until its dissolution in 1991, not without controversy and much debate among its members.
The PCI included
Marxist–Leninists and
Marxist revisionists, with a notable
social-democratic faction being the ''
miglioristi''. Under the leadership of
Enrico Berlinguer
Enrico Berlinguer (; 25 May 1922 – 11 June 1984) was an Italian politician and statesman. Considered the most popular leader of the Italian Communist Party (PCI), he led the PCI as the national secretary from 1972 until his death during a te ...
and the influence of the ''miglioristi'' in the 1970s and 1980s, Marxism–Leninism was removed from the party statute and the PCI adhered to the
Eurocommunist trend, seeking independence from 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 ...
and moving into a democratic socialist direction. In 1991, it was dissolved and re-launched as the
Democratic Party of the Left (PDS), which joined the
Socialist International
The Socialist International (SI) is a political international or worldwide organisation of political parties which seek to establish democratic socialism, consisting mostly of Social democracy, social democratic political parties and Labour mov ...
and the
Party of European Socialists. The more radical members of the organisation formally seceded to establish the
Communist Refoundation Party
The Communist Refoundation Party (, PRC) is a Communism, communist List of political parties in Italy, political party in Italy that emerged from a split of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1991. The party's secretary is Maurizio Acerbo, who r ...
(PRC).
History
Early years

The roots of the PCI date back to 1921, when the
I Congress of the Communist Party of Italy was held in Livorno on 21 January, following a split in the
XVII Congress of the Italian Socialist Party. The split occurred after the Congress of Livorno refused to expel the
reformist
Reformism is a political tendency advocating the reform of an existing system or institution – often a political or religious establishment – as opposed to its abolition and replacement via revolution.
Within the socialist movement, ref ...
group as required by the
Communist 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 Internationa ...
(Comintern). The main factions of the new party were L'Ordine Nuovo, based in Turin and led by
Antonio Gramsci
Antonio Francesco Gramsci ( , ; ; 22 January 1891 – 27 April 1937) was an Italian Marxist philosophy, Marxist philosopher, Linguistics, linguist, journalist, writer, and politician. He wrote on philosophy, Political philosophy, political the ...
, and the Maximalist faction led by
Nicola Bombacci.
Amadeo Bordiga was elected secretary of the new party.
The party was officially founded as the Communist Party of Italy – Section of the Communist International (''Partito Comunista d'Italia – Sezione dell'Internazionale Comunista''), since the Comintern was structured as a single world party according to
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 ...
's vision. In the
1921 Italian general election, the party obtained 4.6% of the vote and 15 seats in the country's
Chamber of Deputies
The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures.
Description
Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...
. At the time, it was an active yet small faction within the Italian political left, which was strongly led by the PSI, while on the international level it was
Soviet
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 ...
-led.
During its 2nd Congress in 1922, the new party registered 43,000 members. This was in part due to the entrance of almost the whole Socialist Youth Federation (''Federazione Giovanile Socialista''). The party adopted a slim structure headed by a Central Committee of 15 members, five of whom were also in the Executive Committee (EC), namely Ambrogio Belloni, Nicola Bombacci, Amadeo Bordiga (EC),
Bruno Fortichiari (EC),
Egidio Gennari
Egidio Gennari (20 April 1876 – 8 April 1942) was an Italian communist politician who was among the founders of Italian Communist Party. He served at the Italian Parliament between 1924 and 1926 when he was forced to leave Italy due to the rep ...
, Antonio Gramsci,
Ruggero Grieco (EC), Anselmo Marabini,
Francesco Misiano, Giovanni Parodi, Luigi Polano, Luigi Repossi (EC), Cesare Sessa, Ludovico Tarsia, and Umberto Terracini (EC).
Since its formation, the party strived to organise itself on some bases that were not a mere reproduction of the traditional parties' bases. It then took again some arguments that distinguished the battle within the PSI, namely the idea that it is necessary to form an environment fiercely hostile to bourgeois society and that is an anticipation of the future socialist society. The purpose of this was not considered utopian because already in this society, especially in production, some structures are born on future results. In the first years of the PCd'I, there was no official leader; the accepted leader, first of the faction/tendency and then of the party, was Bordiga (Left) of the
communist left current. Leaders of the minority currents were Angelo Tasca (Right) and Gramsci (Centre).
Conflict between factions
As a territorial section of Comintern, the PCd'I adopted the same program, the same conception of the party and the same tactics adopted by the II Congress in
Moscow
Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
of 1920. The official program, drawn up in ten points, began with the intrinsically catastrophic nature of the capitalist system and terminated with the extinction of the state. It follows in a synthetic way the model outlined by Lenin for the
Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks). For a while, this identity resisted, but the fast progress of the reaction in Europe produced a change of tactics in a democratic direction within the Bolshevik party and consequently within the Comintern. This happened in particular regarding the possibility, previously opposed, of an alliance with the social democratic and bourgeois parties. This provoked a tension in the party between the majority (Left) and the minority factions (the Right and the Centre) supported by the Comintern. The proposals of the Left were no longer accepted and the conflict between the factions became irremediable.
Bolshevisation

In 1923, some members of the party were arrested and put on trial for "conspiracy against the State". This allowed the intense activity of the Communist International to deprive the party's left-wing of authority and give control to the minority centre which had aligned with Moscow. In 1924–1925, the Comintern began a campaign of
Bolshevisation, which forced each party to conform to the discipline and orders of Moscow. During the clandestine conference held in Como to ratify the party leadership in May 1924, 35 of the 45 federation secretaries, plus the secretary of the youth federation, voted for Bordiga's Left, four for Gramsci's Centre, and five for Tasca's Right.
Before the Lyon Congress in 1926, the Centre won almost all the votes in the absence of much of the Left, who were unable to attend as a result of fascist controls and lack of Comintern support. Recourse to the Comintern against this evident manoeuvre had little effect. The PCd'I as conceived by the Left terminated. The organisation continued with the support of the Comintern and a new structure and leadership. In 1922, the newspaper ''
L'Ordine Nuovo'' was closed and in 1924 a new Centre newspaper, ''
l'Unità'', edited by Gramsci, was founded. The Left continued as a faction, principally functioning in exile. It published the newspaper ''Bilan'', a monthly theoretical bulletin.
In 1926, Bordiga and Gramsci were arrested and imprisoned on the island of
Ustica. In 1927,
Palmiro Togliatti was elected secretary in place of Gramsci. In 1930, Bordiga was expelled from the Comintern and accused of
Trotskyism
Trotskyism (, ) is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Russian revolutionary and intellectual Leon Trotsky along with some other members of the Left Opposition and the Fourth International. Trotsky described himself as an ...
. After
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...
dissolved the Communist International in 1943, the exiled members of the PCd'I in Moscow changed the party's name to the PCI on 15 May. Under this name, it reorganised in Italy and became a parliamentary party after the fall of Fascism.
Resistance to fascism
The party and its militants were actively involved in the resistance to
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 ...
's regime through clandestine action. They were well prepared for clandestine activity because of the structure of their organisation, and the fact that they had been victims of systematic repression by the authorities; more than three quarters of the political prisoners between 1926 and 1943 were communists. Throughout the dictatorship, the party was able to maintain and feed a clandestine network, distribute propaganda leaflets and newspapers, and infiltrate fascist unions and youth organisations. In 1935, the party led a campaign against the
Second Italo-Ethiopian War
The Second Italo-Ethiopian War, also referred to as the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, was a war of aggression waged by Fascist Italy, Italy against Ethiopian Empire, Ethiopia, which lasted from October 1935 to February 1937. In Ethiopia it is oft ...
. The party and communist partisans, among others, then went on to play a major role in the resistance movement that led to the
fall of the Fascist regime in Italy.
On 15 May 1943, the party changed its official name to the Italian Communist Party (''Partito Comunista Italiano''), often shortened to PCI. This change was not surprising as PCI started being used as the party's acronym around 1924–1925. This name change also reflected a change in the Comintern's role—it increasingly became a federation of national communist parties. This trend accelerated after Lenin's death and its new name emphasised the party's shift from an international focus to an Italian one. At the time, it was a hotly contested issue for the two major factions of the party. On one side, the Leninist preferred the single world party as it was internationalist and strongly centralised, while on the other side the Italians wanted a party more tailored to their nation's peculiarities and more autonomy.
After the fall of
Fascist Italy
Fascist Italy () is a term which is used in historiography to describe the Kingdom of Italy between 1922 and 1943, when Benito Mussolini and the National Fascist Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictatorship. Th ...
on 25 July 1943, the PCI returned to a formally legal status, playing a major role during the national liberation, known in Italy as ''
Resistenza'' (Resistance) and forming many partisan groups. In April 1944, after the ''Svolta di Salerno'' (
Salerno
Salerno (, ; ; ) is an ancient city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Campania, southwestern Italy, and is the capital of the namesake province, being the second largest city in the region by number of inhabitants, after Naples. It is located ...
's turning point), Togliatti, who had returned to Italy the month prior after 18 years of exile, agreed to cooperate with
King Victor Emmanuel III and his
prime minister of Italy
The prime minister of Italy, officially the president of the Council of Ministers (), is the head of government of the Italy, Italian Republic. The office of president of the Council of Ministers is established by articles 92–96 of the Co ...
, the Marshal
Pietro Badoglio
Pietro Badoglio, 1st Duke of Addis Abeba, 1st Marquess of Sabotino ( , ; 28 September 1871 – 1 November 1956), was an Italian general during both World Wars and the first viceroy of Italian East Africa. With the fall of the Fascist regim ...
. After the turn, the PCI took part in every government during the national liberation and constitutional period from June 1944 to May 1947. Their contribution to the new Italian democratic constitution was decisive. The Gullo decrees of 1944, named after
Fausto Gullo, sought to improve social and economic conditions in the countryside. During Badoglio and
Ferruccio Parri's cabinets, Togliatti served as the
Deputy Prime Minister of Italy. During the Resistance, the PCI became increasingly popular, as the majority of partisans were communists. The
Garibaldi Brigades, promoted by the PCI, were among the more numerous partisan forces.
Post-war years
The PCI took part in the
1946 Italian general election and the
1946 Italian institutional referendum
An institutional referendum (, or ) was held by universal suffrage in the Kingdom of Italy on 2 June 1946, a key event of contemporary Italian history. Until 1946, Italy was a kingdom ruled by the House of Savoy, reigning since the unification ...
, campaigning for a republic. In the election, the PCI was third, behind
Christian Democracy
Christian democracy is an ideology inspired by Christian social teaching to respond to the challenges of contemporary society and politics.
Christian democracy has drawn mainly from Catholic social teaching and neo-scholasticism, as well ...
(DC) and the PSI, gaining almost 19% of votes and electing 104 members of the
Constituent Assembly of Italy. The popular referendum resulted in the replacement of the monarchy with a republic, after 54% of the votes were in favour and 46% against.
Luciano Canfora saw the Salerno Turn and 1944 as a rebirth of the PCI, and said "the PCI had gradually followed a path which required it, as a historical task, to occupy the space of social democracy in the Italian political panorama."
As part of the
May 1947 crises, the PCI was excluded from government.
Alcide De Gasperi, the DC leader and prime minister of Italy, was losing popularity, and feared that the
leftist coalition would take power. While the PCI was growing particularly fast due to its organising efforts supporting sharecroppers in
Sicily
Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...
,
Tuscany
Tuscany ( ; ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of 3,660,834 inhabitants as of 2025. The capital city is Florence.
Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, artistic legacy, and its in ...
, and
Umbria
Umbria ( ; ) is a Regions of Italy, region of central Italy. It includes Lake Trasimeno and Cascata delle Marmore, Marmore Falls, and is crossed by the Tiber. It is the only landlocked region on the Italian Peninsula, Apennine Peninsula. The re ...
, movements that were also bolstered by the reforms of
Fausto Gullo, the
Italian Minister of Agriculture.
On 1 May, the nation was thrown into crisis by the
Portella della Ginestra massacre, in which eleven leftist peasants (including four children) were murdered at an
International Workers' Day
International Workers' Day, also called Labour Day in some countries and often referred to as May Day, is a celebration of Wage labour, labourers and the working classes that is promoted by the international labour movement and occurs every yea ...
parade in
Palermo
Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...
by
Salvatore Giuliano and his gang. In the political chaos that ensued, the United States government engineered the expulsion of all left-wing ministers from the cabinet on 31 May. The PCI would not have a national position in government again. De Gasperi did this under pressure from the United States Secretary of State,
George Marshall, who had informed him that
anti-communism
Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism, communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and it reached global ...
was a pre-condition for receiving American aid,
and Ambassador
James Clement Dunn, who had directly asked de Gasperi to dissolve the parliament and remove the PCI.
In the
1948 Italian general election, the party joined the PSI in the
Popular Democratic Front (FDP) but was defeated by the DC. The United States government provided support to anti-PCI groups in the election, and argued that should the PCI win, the
Marshall Plan and other aids could be terminated. It spent $10–20 million on anti-communist propaganda and other covert operations, much of it through the
Economic Cooperation Administration of the Marshall Plan, and then laundered through individual banks. Fearful of the possible FDP's electoral victory, the British and American governments also undermined their campaign for legal justice by tolerating the efforts made by Italy's top authorities to prevent any of the alleged
Italian war criminals from being extradited and taken to court.
The denial of Italian war crimes was backed up by the Italian state, academe, and media, re-inventing Italy as only a victim of
Nazism
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was fre ...
and the post-war
Foibe massacres.
The party gained considerable electoral success during the following years and occasionally supplied external support to the
Organic centre-left governments, although it never directly joined a government. It successfully lobbied
Fiat
Fiat Automobiles S.p.A., commonly known as simply Fiat ( , ; ), is an Italian automobile manufacturer. It became a part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in 2014 and, in 2021, became a subsidiary of Stellantis through its Italian division, Stellant ...
to set up the
AvtoVAZ (Lada) car factory in 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 ...
(1966). The party did best in
Emilia-Romagna
Emilia-Romagna (, , both , ; or ; ) is an Regions of Italy, administrative region of northern Italy, comprising the historical regions of Emilia (region), Emilia and Romagna. Its capital is Bologna. It has an area of , and a population of 4.4 m ...
, Tuscany, and Umbria, where it regularly won the local administrative elections, and in some of the industrialised cities of
Northern Italy
Northern Italy (, , ) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. The Italian National Institute of Statistics defines the region as encompassing the four Northwest Italy, northwestern Regions of Italy, regions of Piedmo ...
. At the city government level during the course of the post-war period, the PCI demonstrated in cities like
Bologna
Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...
and
Florence
Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025.
Florence ...
their capacity for uncorrupt, efficient and clean government. After the
1975 Italian local elections, the PCI was the strongest force in nearly all of the municipal councils of the great cities.
From the 1950s to the 1960s

The Soviet Union's brutal suppression of the
Hungarian Revolution of 1956 created a split within the PCI. The party leadership, including
Palmiro Togliatti and
Giorgio Napolitano (who in 2006 became
President of Italy), regarded the Hungarian insurgents as counter-revolutionaries as reported at the time in ''
l'Unità'', the official PCI newspaper.
Giuseppe Di Vittorio, chief of the communist trade union
Italian General Confederation of Labour (CGIL), repudiated the leadership position, as did prominent party member
Antonio Giolitti and
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 ...
national secretary
Pietro Nenni, a close ally of the PCI. Napolitano later hinted at doubts over the propriety of his decision. He would eventually write in ''From the Communist Party to European Socialism. A Political Autobiography'' (''Dal Pci al socialismo europeo. Un'autobiografia politica'') that he regretted his justification of the Soviet intervention but quieted his concerns at the time for the sake of party unity and the international leadership of
Soviet Communism. Giolitti and Nenni went on to split with the PCI over this issue. Napolitano became a leading member of the ''
miglioristi'' faction within the PCI that promoted a
social-democratic direction in party policy.
In the mid-1960s, the
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy of the United State ...
estimated the party membership to be approximately 1,350,000, or 4.2% of the working age population, making it the largest Communist party in per capita terms in the capitalist world at the time and the largest party at all in the whole of Western Europe with the
Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together w ...
. United States government sources said that the party was receiving $40–50 million per year from the Soviets when their investment in Italy was $5–6 million.
Although the PCI relied on Soviet financial assistance more than any other Communist party supported by Moscow, declassified information shows this to be exaggerated.
According to the former
KGB
The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...
archivist
Vasili Mitrokhin
Vasili Nikitich Mitrokhin (; March 3, 1922 – January 23, 2004) was an archivist for the Soviet Union's foreign intelligence service, the First Chief Directorate of the KGB, who defected to the United Kingdom in 1992. Mitrokhin first offer ...
, Longo and other PCI leaders became alarmed at the possibility of a coup in Italy after the Athens Colonel coup in April 1967 that led to the
Greek junta. These fears were not completely unfounded as there had been two attempted coups in Italy,
Piano Solo in 1964 and
Golpe Borghese in 1970, by military and
neo-fascist groups. The PCI's
Giorgio Amendola formally requested Soviet assistance to prepare the party in case of such an event. The KGB drew up and implemented a plan to provide the PCI with its own intelligence and clandestine signal corps. From 1967 through 1973, PCI members were sent to
East Germany
East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...
and Moscow to receive training in clandestine warfare and information gathering techniques by both the
Stasi
The Ministry for State Security (, ; abbreviated MfS), commonly known as the (, an abbreviation of ), was the Intelligence agency, state security service and secret police of East Germany from 1950 to 1990. It was one of the most repressive pol ...
and the KGB. Shortly before the
1972 Italian general election, Longo personally wrote to
Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (19 December 190610 November 1982) was a Soviet politician who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964 until Death and state funeral of Leonid Brezhnev, his death in 1982 as w ...
asking for and receiving an additional $5.7 million in funding. This was on top of the $3.5 million that the Soviet Union gave the PCI in 1971. The Soviets also provided additional funding through the use of
front organisations providing generous contracts to PCI members.
Leadership of Enrico Berlinguer

In 1969,
Enrico Berlinguer
Enrico Berlinguer (; 25 May 1922 – 11 June 1984) was an Italian politician and statesman. Considered the most popular leader of the Italian Communist Party (PCI), he led the PCI as the national secretary from 1972 until his death during a te ...
, the PCI deputy national secretary and later secretary general, took part in the international conference of the communist parties in Moscow, where his delegation disagreed with the official political line and refused to support the final report. Unexpectedly to his hosts, his speech challenged the communist leadership in Moscow. He refused to excommunicate the
Chinese Communist Party
The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...
and directly told Brezhnev that the
Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia
On 20–21 August 1968, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four fellow Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, the Polish People's Republic, the People's Republic of Bulgaria, and the Hungarian People's Republic. The ...
, which he called "the tragedy in Prague", had made clear the considerable differences within the communist movement on fundamental questions, such as national sovereignty, socialist democracy, and the freedom of culture. At the time, the PCI, which had absorbed the PSI's left-wing, the
Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity, so strengthening its leadership over the Italian left, was the largest communist party in a
capitalist state
The capitalist state is the state, its functions and the form of organization it takes within capitalist socioeconomic systems.Jessop, Bob (January 1977). "Recent Theories of the Capitalist State". ''Soviet Studies''. 1: 4. pp. 353–373. Th ...
, garnering 34.4% of the vote in the
1976 Italian general election.
Relationships between the PCI and the Soviet Union gradually fell apart as the party moved away from Soviet obedience and
Marxist–Leninist orthodoxy in the 1970s and 1980s and toward
Eurocommunism and the
Socialist International
The Socialist International (SI) is a political international or worldwide organisation of political parties which seek to establish democratic socialism, consisting mostly of Social democracy, social democratic political parties and Labour mov ...
. The PCI sought a collaboration with the socialist and Christian democracy parties, a policy known the
Historic Compromise. The
kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro, the DC leader, by the
Red Brigades in May 1978 put an end to any hopes of such a compromise. The compromise was largely abandoned as a PCI policy in 1981. The
Proletarian Unity Party merged into the PCI in 1984.
During the
Years of Lead, the PCI strongly opposed the terrorism and the Red Brigades, who in turn murdered or wounded many PCI members or trade unionists close to the PCI. According to Mitrokhin, the party asked the Soviets to pressure the
StB, Czechoslovakia's State Security, to withdraw their support to the group, which Moscow was unable or unwilling to do.
This, along with the
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until it dissolved in 1991. During its existence, it was the largest country by are ...
, led to a complete break with Moscow in 1979. In 1980, the PCI refused to participate in the international conference of Communist parties in Paris; cash payments to the PCI continued until 1984.
Dissolution
Achille Occhetto became general secretary of the PCI in 1988. At a 1989 conference in a working-class section of Bologna, Occhetto stunned the party faithful with a speech heralding the
Revolutions of 1989
The revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, were a revolutionary wave of liberal democracy movements that resulted in the collapse of most Communist state, Marxist–Leninist governments in the Eastern Bloc and other parts ...
, a move now referred to in Italian politics as the ''svolta della Bolognina'' (Bolognina turning point). The collapse of the Communist governments in the Eastern Europe led Occhetto to conclude that the era of Eurocommunism was over. Under his leadership, the PCI dissolved and refounded itself as the
Democratic Party of the Left, which branded itself as a progressive left-wing and
democratic socialist
Democratic socialism is a left-wing economic and political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self-mana ...
party. A third of the PCI membership, led by
Armando Cossutta, refused to join the PDS, and instead seceded to form the
Communist Refoundation Party
The Communist Refoundation Party (, PRC) is a Communism, communist List of political parties in Italy, political party in Italy that emerged from a split of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1991. The party's secretary is Maurizio Acerbo, who r ...
.
Popular support
In all its history, the PCI was particularly strong in
Central Italy, in the Red Regions of
Emilia-Romagna
Emilia-Romagna (, , both , ; or ; ) is an Regions of Italy, administrative region of northern Italy, comprising the historical regions of Emilia (region), Emilia and Romagna. Its capital is Bologna. It has an area of , and a population of 4.4 m ...
,
Marche
Marche ( ; ), in English sometimes referred to as the Marches ( ) from the Italian name of the region (Le Marche), is one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. The region is located in the Central Italy, central area of the country, ...
,
Tuscany
Tuscany ( ; ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of 3,660,834 inhabitants as of 2025. The capital city is Florence.
Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, artistic legacy, and its in ...
, and
Umbria
Umbria ( ; ) is a Regions of Italy, region of central Italy. It includes Lake Trasimeno and Cascata delle Marmore, Marmore Falls, and is crossed by the Tiber. It is the only landlocked region on the Italian Peninsula, Apennine Peninsula. The re ...
, as well as in the industrialised cities of
Northern Italy
Northern Italy (, , ) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. The Italian National Institute of Statistics defines the region as encompassing the four Northwest Italy, northwestern Regions of Italy, regions of Piedmo ...
. The party's municipal showcase was
Bologna
Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...
, which was held continuously by the PCI from 1945 onwards. Amongst other measures, the local PCI administration tackled urban problems with successful programmes of health for the elderly, nursery education and traffic reform, while also undertaking initiatives in housing and school meal provisions.
Communist administrations at a local level helped to aid new businesses while also introducing innovative social reforms. From 1946 to 1956, the Communist city council built 31 nursery schools, 896 flats, and 9 schools. Health care improved substantially, street lighting was installed, new drains and municipal launderettes were built and 8,000 children received subsidised school meals. In 1972, the then-mayor of Bologna,
Renato Zangheri, introduced a new and innovative traffic plan with strict limitations for private vehicles and a renewed concentration on cheap public transport. Bologna's social services continued to expand throughout the early and mid-1970s. The city centre was restored, centres for the mentally sick were instituted to help those who had been released from recently closed
psychiatric hospital
A psychiatric hospital, also known as a mental health hospital, a behavioral health hospital, or an asylum is a specialized medical facility that focuses on the treatment of severe Mental disorder, mental disorders. These institutions cater t ...
s, handicapped persons were offered training and found suitable jobs, afternoon activities for schoolchildren were made less mindless than the traditional ''doposcuola'' (after-school activities), and school programming for the whole day helped working parents.
The electoral results of the PCI in general (
Chamber of Deputies
The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures.
Description
Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...
) and
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...
elections since 1946 are shown in the chart above.
Election results
Italian Parliament
European Parliament
Regional elections
Leadership
* Secretary:
Antonio Gramsci
Antonio Francesco Gramsci ( , ; ; 22 January 1891 – 27 April 1937) was an Italian Marxist philosophy, Marxist philosopher, Linguistics, linguist, journalist, writer, and politician. He wrote on philosophy, Political philosophy, political the ...
(1926),
Camilla Ravera (1927–1930),
Palmiro Togliatti (1930–1934),
Ruggero Grieco (1934–1938),
Palmiro Togliatti (1938–1964),
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 ...
(1964–1972),
Enrico Berlinguer
Enrico Berlinguer (; 25 May 1922 – 11 June 1984) was an Italian politician and statesman. Considered the most popular leader of the Italian Communist Party (PCI), he led the PCI as the national secretary from 1972 until his death during a te ...
(1972–1984),
Alessandro Natta (1984–1988),
Achille Occhetto (1988–1991)
* President:
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 ...
(1972–1980),
Alessandro Natta (1989–1990),
Aldo Tortorella (1990–1991)
* Leader in the
Chamber of Deputies
The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures.
Description
Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...
:
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 ...
(1946–1947),
Palmiro Togliatti (1947–1964),
Pietro Ingrao (1964–1972),
Alessandro Natta (1972–1979),
Fernando Di Giulio (1979–1981),
Giorgio Napolitano (1981–1986),
Renato Zangheri (1986–1990),
Giulio Quercini (1990–1991)
* Leader in 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 ...
:
Mauro Scoccimarro (1948–1958),
Umberto Terracini (1958–1973), Edoardo Pema (1973–1986),
Gerardo Chiaromonte (1983–1986), Ugo Pecchioli (1986–1991)
* Leader in the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...
:
Giorgio Amendola (1979–1980),
Guido Fanti (1980–1984), Giovanni Cervetti (1984–1989), Luigi Alberto Colajanni (1989–1991)
Symbols
File:Liste 1924 - 19.svg, 1921–1945
File:Logo Partito Comunista Italiano 1946.svg, 1945–1951
File:Logo Partito Comunista Italiano.svg, 1951–1991
Notes
References
Further reading
* Aldo Agosti, "The Comintern and the Italian Communist Party in Light of New Documents," in Tim Rees and Andrew Thorpe (eds.), ''International Communism and the Communist International, 1919–43.'' Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998.
* Luigi Cortesi, ''Le origini del PCI.'' Laterza, 1972.
* Franco Livorsi, ''Amadeo Bordiga.''
Editori Riuniti, 1976.
*
Paolo Spriano, ''Storia del Partito Comunista Italiano'', vol. I ''Da Bordiga a Gramsci'',
Einaudi, 1967.
* ''La nascita del Partito Comunista d'Italia (Livorno 1921)'', ed. L'Internazionale, Milano 1981.
* ''La liquidazione della sinistra del P.C.d'It. (1925)'', L'Internazionale, Milano 1991.
* ''La lotta del Partito Comunista d'Italia (Strategia e tattica della rivoluzione, 1921–1922)'', ed. L'Internazionale, Milano 1984.
* ''Il partito decapitato (La sostituzione del gruppo dirigente del P.C.d'It., 1923–24)'', L'Internazionale, Milano 1988.
* ''Partito Comunista d'Italia'', ''Secondo Congresso Nazionale – Relazione del CC'', Reprint
Feltrinelli, 1922.
External links
Historical Archive of the Communist Left with hundreds of documents of PCd'Iat
marxists.org
sinistra.net Online Archive of the Communist LeftWebsite on the history of the Italian Communist Party The Italian Road to Socialism, an interview by Eric Hobsbawm with Giorgio Napolitano; translated by John Cammett and Victoria DeGrazia
{{authority control
1921 establishments in Italy
1991 disestablishments in Italy
Antonio Gramsci
Comintern sections
Defunct communist parties in Italy
Democratic socialist parties in Europe
Formerly banned communist parties
Italy–Soviet Union relations
Political parties disestablished in 1991
Political parties established in 1921