Introduction – Italian Communist Party: History of the PCI (1921–1991)

Pier Paolo Pasolini, by defining the PCI as "a country within the country," has, in my point of view, grasped the most significant aspect of the life of Western Europe’s largest and most important Communist Party.

The Italian Communist Party has always been a constant and decisive presence in the history of 20th-century Italy. Indeed, from the moment of its birth until its disappearance, the PCI was a Party that, for better or for worse, left its mark on all the major events in Italian history. During Fascism, it was the only party to be present clandestinely in Italy and to try to oppose, albeit with very limited means, a Regime that otherwise, within national borders, would have been unchallenged. Moreover, the hegemonic role of the PCI during the Resistance cannot be questioned by anyone. And finally, for over forty years the PCI and the DC were the main protagonists of that Italian democracy which, although with different roles, they both contributed to founding and developing.

Therefore, if a positive historical judgment can be rightly given to the DC, the main governing party, the same treatment must be reserved for its antagonist, the PCI, which, despite enduring the conditioning of the Soviet Union in many phases of its existence, continually played a leading role in Italian politics and can be considered to all intents and purposes "another important part of the Country." Otherwise, the reason why the DC itself, with the end of the PCI, ceased to exist would not be explained. And indeed, although Tangentopoli put the final nail in the coffin of the party of the "crusader shield," the DC died only after having concluded its main task, which was to bar the doors of government to the communists. Corruption in Italian politics was a recurring theme throughout the 80s, as demonstrated by the insistence on the “moral question” by a clean leader like Berlinguer, but Tangentopoli, with all its consequences, could only start after the "communist danger" had been defeated.

The PCI was also an important, and in some cases irreplaceable, reference point in the individual histories of millions of women and men of our Country. An immense community, a Party-country that extended throughout the country of Italy and in which "being comrades" and having the PCI membership card in one's pocket constituted an inalienable right of citizenship. In any Italian locality where they found themselves, even the most remote, a PCI comrade could go to a Party section to ask for help or simply to socialize. This is a story that could be told by many southerners who emigrated to the north, to whom the PCI often provided the first welcome and, and this is certainly the most important thing, acted to make them feel “less alone.” And how many other stories could have been told by the farm labourers of Cerignola, whom the Party taught "not to take off their hat in front of the employer" and to demand, with dignity, respect for their rights, thus making them "citizens." When this story ended, many felt orphaned and countless people, families, and friendships were no longer the same. But precisely because this story is over, it could be told. And despite the obvious limitations, it could be told in its entirety, from beginning to end.

I have tried to do this with the work carried out, and the works of those who, in previous years, spent a lot of time of their lives writing about the history of this Party have certainly been invaluable to me. Among these, the greatest of all, the unattainable reference point who unfortunately had to leave his work incomplete, was Spriano, but important contributions also came from Agosti, Galli, Colarizi, regarding the history of Italian politics, and, why not, from Pistillo from San Severo. Why deny that without their commitment a “relatively systematic” work of reconstruction of the national history of the PCI would have been unattainable?