In the harshest phase of the Cold War between the end of the Second World War and the death of Stalin, the Italian Communist Party, in line with the orientation of international communism, stuck to a model of militancy forged in the 1930s and based on the submission of individual choices and behaviour to the rules dictated by the party. This claim was never fully realized: the discipline operated by the party was not a one-way process, and had to deal with the cultural, familial, existential and affective factors that make up each individual’s life. However, the case of the communist leader Emilio Sereni shows how the higher up in the organizational structure one went, the more the identification of the individual with the party intensified, through a logic that affected even the most intimate sphere of feelings and family relationships.
Nella fase più dura della guerra fredda, tra la fine della seconda guerra mondiale e la morte di Stalin, il Partito Comunista Italiano, in linea con gli orientamenti del comunismo internazionale, si attenne a un modello di militanza forgiato negli anni Trenta, basato sulla sottomissione delle scelte e dei comportamenti individuali alle regole dettate dal partito. Tale pretesa non si realizzò mai pienamente: la disciplina di partito non fu un processo a senso unico. Essa dovette fare i conti con i fattori culturali, familiari, esistenziali e affettivi che sono a fondamento della vita di ogni individuo. Il caso del dirigente comunista Emilio Sereni mostra tuttavia come più si salisse nella struttura organizzativa, più si intensificasse l’identificazione tra individuo e partito, attraverso una logica che finiva per toccare anche la sfera più intima dei sentimenti e delle relazioni familiari
‘A class struggle fought within ourselves’. Party morality and subjectivity in Cold War Italian Communism / Guiso, Andrea. - In: JOURNAL OF MODERN ITALIAN STUDIES. - ISSN 1354-571X. - 29:4(2024), pp. 1-19. [10.1080/1354571X.2024.2381941]
‘A class struggle fought within ourselves’. Party morality and subjectivity in Cold War Italian Communism
Andrea Guiso
2024
Abstract
In the harshest phase of the Cold War between the end of the Second World War and the death of Stalin, the Italian Communist Party, in line with the orientation of international communism, stuck to a model of militancy forged in the 1930s and based on the submission of individual choices and behaviour to the rules dictated by the party. This claim was never fully realized: the discipline operated by the party was not a one-way process, and had to deal with the cultural, familial, existential and affective factors that make up each individual’s life. However, the case of the communist leader Emilio Sereni shows how the higher up in the organizational structure one went, the more the identification of the individual with the party intensified, through a logic that affected even the most intimate sphere of feelings and family relationships.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.