Alfonso Leonetti and the Pci leadership from De-Stalinization to the Natta secretariat

Journal title ITALIA CONTEMPORANEA
Author/s Gabriele Mastrolillo
Publishing Year 2021 Issue 2021/296 Language Italian
Pages 25 P. 38-62 File size 225 KB
DOI 10.3280/IC2021-296002
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This article examines the relations that occurred between Alfonso Leonetti and the Pci from Leonetti’s readmission to the party (1962) to his death (1984). The party’s decision to assign Leonetti a new membership, after he had been expelled in 1930, took place two years after his return to Italy, in the context of destalinization, and was a first step towards the beginning of an intense dialogue with the main party executives. This dialogue dealt with Leonetti’s activity as a historian (revolving around the history of the Italian labor movement and its role in the party during the 1920s) and focused also on broader topics such as Stalinism and the "turn" of 1929-1930. While the first section of this article provides a concise study of Leonetti’s political activity in the 1920s and 1930s, the second part analyzes the readmission process, whereas the third part focuses on the collaboration between Leonetti and Palmiro Togliatti, who at the time was also engaged in studies about Antonio Gramsci and the labor movement. Finally, the fourth section of the article deals with the dialogue between Leonetti and some of the Pci’s main executives between the 1960s and the 1980s, such as Pietro Secchia, Giancarlo Pajetta, Giorgio Amendola, Enrico Berlinguer and Alessandro Natta.

Keywords: Alfonso Leonetti, Pci, Palmiro Togliatti, Antonio Gramsci, De-Stalinization, "Turn" of 1929-1930

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Gabriele Mastrolillo, Alfonso Leonetti e il gruppo dirigente del Pci dalla destalinizzazione alla segreteria Natta in "ITALIA CONTEMPORANEA" 296/2021, pp 38-62, DOI: 10.3280/IC2021-296002