Pietro Ingrao (30 March 1915 – 27 September 2015) was an Italian politician and journalist who participated 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 ...

. For many years, he was a senior figure in 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 ...

(PCI).

Biography

Ingrao was born at Lenola, Lazio, in the

province of Latina The province of Latina () is a province in the Lazio region of Italy. Its provincial capital is the city of Latina. It is bordered by the provinces of Frosinone to the northeast and by the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital to the northwest. ...

. As a student, he was a member of GUF (Gruppo Universitario Fascista) and won a "Littoriale" for culture and art. Ingrao joined the PCI in 1940 and took part in 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 ...

resistance during

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 ...

. After the war, he was an important representative of the left-wing, more explicitly Marxist–Leninist tendency in the party. This led him to frequently express his political differences with Giorgio Amendola, leader of the tendency that was more orientated towards

social democracy 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 ...

. Ingrao was a member of 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 ...

continuously from 1950 to 1992. From 1947 to 1957, he was editor-in-chief of the party newspaper ''

L'Unità (; English: "the Unity") is an Italian newspaper, founded as the official newspaper of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1924. It was supportive of that party's successor parties, the Democratic Party of the Left, Democrats of the Left, a ...

''. The tensions between Ingrao's and Amendola's vision became sharper throughout the first half of the 1960s. According to Lucio Magri, Ingrao was portrayed by his detractors as a utopian dreamer who refused any temporary compromise with the center-left, but incorrectly so. In fact, Ingrao acknowledged the value of reforms on the "road to socialism", but he found the vision of Amendola and Longo to be devoid of a long-term strategic plan. Magri adds that Ingrao's dissent was important "because it meant that a 'non-dogmatic, non-

Stalinist Stalinism (, ) is the totalitarian means of governing and Marxist–Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1927 to 1953 by dictator Joseph Stalin and in Soviet satellite states between 1944 and 1953. Stalinism in ...

' Left was present for the first time within a Communist party". During the Eleventh Party Congress (1966), Ingrao openly criticized Longo's refusal to allow public debate, which made him popular with a part of the participants. However, it also led to the party leadership demonizing him as a factionalist; Ingrao later recalled that the leading cadres retained a cold posture in their seats and declined to shake his hand afterwards. Mario Alicata denounced Ingrao's statements as harmful to party unity. Magri clarifies that Ingrao's aim was not to challenge

democratic centralism Democratic centralism is the organisational principle of most communist parties, in which decisions are made by a process of vigorous and open debate amongst party membership, and are subsequently binding upon all members of the party. The co ...

(Ingrao himself later voted for the expulsion of the faction around ''

il manifesto (; English: "the manifesto") is an Italian daily newspaper published in Rome, Italy. While calling itself " communist" and broadly left-wing, it is not connected to any political party A political party is an organization that coordin ...

''), but to return to democratic centralism as it was originally conceived by

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 ...

. This vision entailed a more transparent process of argument and a party democracy that was not limited only to occasional congresses. Ingrao was the first Communist to become president of the

Italian Chamber of Deputies The Chamber of Deputies () is the lower house of the bicameral Italian Parliament, the upper house being the Senate of the Republic (Italy), Senate of the Republic. The two houses together form a perfect bicameral system, meaning they perform ...

, a position he held from 1976 to 1979. After PCI's then-secretary Achille Occhetto, in what was called the ''Svolta della Bolognina'', decided to change the party's name, Ingrao became his main internal opponent. In the PCI's 20th Congress of 1991, he joined 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 ...

majority in its successor, the

Democratic Party of the Left The Democratic Party of the Left (, PDS) was a democratic-socialist and social-democratic political party in Italy. Founded in February 1991 as the post-communist evolution of the Italian Communist Party, the party was the largest in the A ...

(PDS), but soon left the group. After the 2004 European Parliament election in Italy, he abandoned the PDS and adhered as an independent to the more hardline successor to the old PCI, 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 ...

. Ingrao wrote a number of poems and political essays. His most important work is ''Appuntamenti di fine secolo'' ("Rendez-Vous at the End of the Century"), which was published in 1995 in collaboration with Rossana Rossanda. He was an atheist. He married , who died in 2003. Ingrao died on 27 September 2015, at the age of 100.''Addio a Pietro Ingrao, morto a Roma lo storico dirigente del Pci''
''

La Repubblica (; English: "the Republic") is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper with an average circulation of 151,309 copies in May 2023. It was founded in 1976 in Rome by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso (now known as GEDI Gruppo Editoriale) and l ...

'', 27 September 2015.

Electoral history

References

Sources

External links