Il Partito Comunista Italiano e “la lezione della Spagna”. Narrazioni e rappresentazioni tra 1944 e 1975

Authors

Giulia Bassi Università del Piemonte Orientale

Abstract

The Italian Communist Party and “the Lesson of Spain”. Narrations and Representations Between 1944 and 1975

The Spanish Civil War has been a reference point both in the public debate and in the contemporary political narratives. Among these, the echo of the Spanish struggle has developed and given life to several representations in the Italian Left discourse; particularly, the Italian Communist Party (ICP), whose several leaders had fought in the war, built the narrative of its postwar democratic strategy starting from the Spanish War and the Popular Front experience. More than the October Revolution, in fact, the Second Spanish Republic and the Civil War could offer to the party a political guarantee and legitimisation, validating the democratic choice of the “Svolta di Salerno” (1944). The essay, through an analysis of archival documents and the main party publications, intends to show the political and rhetorical strategies of this path, between 1944 and 1975, and mostly during the 1970s, with the “Eurocommunism” and the progressive collapse of the Francoist Spain.

Received: 19-11-2019

Admitted: 20-12-2019

Author Biography

Giulia Bassi, Università del Piemonte Orientale

Giulia Bassi is PhD for the University of Trieste and the University of Reading. Today is professor of contemporary history at the University of Parma and a research fellow at the University of Eastern Piedmont. He deals with political history and the history of twentieth century historiography with reference to the Marxist and communist tradition. On these topics he has written several articles and essays. Among his latest publications are mentioned Non è solo questione di classe. Il “popolo” nel discorso del Partito Comunista Italiano (1921-1991) (Viella, 2019) and Words of Power, the Power of Words. The Twentieth-Century Communist Discourse in International Perspective (EUT, 2019).