Pietro Sandro Nenni (Italian:[ˈpjɛːtroˈnɛnni]; 9 February 1891 – 1 January 1980) was an Italiansocialist politician and statesman, the national secretary of theItalian Socialist Party (PSI) andsenator for life since 1970. He was a recipient of theLenin Peace Prize in 1951. He was one of the founders of the Italian Republic and a central figure of the Italianpolitical left from the 1920s to the 1960s.

Pietro Nenni
Pietro Nenni in 1963
Deputy Prime Minister of Italy
In office 4 December 1963 – 24 June 1968
Prime Minister	Aldo Moro
Preceded by	Attilio Piccioni
Succeeded by	Francesco De Martino
In office 21 June 1945 – 13 July 1946
Prime Minister	Ferruccio Parri Alcide De Gasperi
Preceded by	Palmiro Togliatti Giulio Rodinò
Succeeded by	Luigi Einaudi Randolfo Pacciardi Giuseppe Saragat
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office 12 December 1968 – 5 August 1969
Prime Minister	Mariano Rumor
Preceded by	Giuseppe Medici
Succeeded by	Aldo Moro
In office 18 October 1946 – 2 February 1947
Prime Minister	Alcide De Gasperi
Preceded by	Alcide De Gasperi
Succeeded by	Carlo Sforza
Secretary of theItalian Socialist Party
In office 16 May 1949 – 12 December 1963
Preceded by	Alberto Jacometti
Succeeded by	Francesco De Martino
In office 22 August 1943 – 1 August 1945
Preceded by	Giuseppe Romita
Succeeded by	Sandro Pertini
In office 18 April 1933 – 28 August 1939
Preceded by	Ugo Coccia
Succeeded by	Committee
Member of theSenate of the Republic
Life tenure 25 November 1970 – 1 January 1980
Appointed by	Giuseppe Saragat
Member of theChamber of Deputies
In office 8 May 1948 – 25 November 1970
Constituency	Rome (1948–1958) Milan (1958–1970)
Personal details
Born	9 February 1891 Faenza,Emilia, Italy
Died	1 January 1980 (aged 88) Rome, Italy
Political party	PRI (1909–1921) PSI (1921–1980)
Spouse	Carmen Emiliani ​ ​ (m. 1911; died 1966)​ [1]
Children	Giuliana Eva[2] Vittoria Luciana[1]
Profession	Journalist

Nenni was born inFaenza, inEmilia-Romagna. After his peasant parents died, he was placed in an orphanage by an aristocratic family. Every Sunday, he recited his catechism before the countess and if he did well, he received a silver coin, which he recalled as "generous but humiliating".^[3]

Nenni was affiliated with theItalian Republican Party. In 1908, he became editor of a republican paper inForlì. The socialist paper in the town was edited at the time byBenito Mussolini, later theFascist dictator of Italy. In 1909 he entered political life by joining the Italian Republican party. Nenni was arrested in 1911 for his participation in a socialist protest against Italy's imperialistic war in Libya alongside Mussolini and was imprisoned for seven months.^[4]

When theFirst World War broke out, Nenni advocated the intervention of Italy in the war. In 1915, he volunteered for theIsonzo front. After he was wounded and sent home, he became an editor of the republican paperMattine d'Italia. He defended Italy's participation in the war but tried not to alienate his socialist friends. In the last years of the war Nenni served at the front again.^[4]

When the war was over, Nenni founded, together with some disillusioned revolutionary ex-servicemen, a group called "Fascio", which was soon dissolved and replaced by a realFascist body.^[4] While the socialist Mussolini became a fascist, the republican Nenni joined the Socialist Party in 1921 after its split with the wing that would form theItalian Communist Party (PCI).

In 1923, after theFascistMarch on Rome, Nenni became the editor of PSI's official organ,Avanti!, and engaged inantifascist activism. In 1925 he was arrested for publishing a booklet on the fascist murder of Socialist leaderGiacomo Matteotti. When theAvanti offices were set aflame and the paper prohibited in 1926, he took refuge in France, where he became secretary of the PSI.

Nenni had worked in Paris as a correspondent of the Avanti in 1921 and had become acquainted withLéon Blum,Marcel Cachin,Romain Rolland andGeorges Sorel. During his Parisian exile, Nenni made a decisive contribution to the survival of the Italian Socialist Party, which had moved abroad, and he worked for an alliance between the various anti-fascist parties which had been driven into exile. In 1935, he helped lead the Italian opposition to Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia. Nenni went on to fight with theInternational Brigades in theSpanish Civil War. He was the co-founder and the political commissar of theGaribaldi Brigade. After the defeat of theSpanish Republic and the victory of GeneralFrancisco Franco he returned to France. In 1943, he was arrested by the Germans inVichy France and then imprisoned in Italy on the island ofPonza.

Nenni's third daughter,Vittoria, was active in theFrench resistance. She was captured and deported toAuschwitz, where she was murdered on 15 July 1943, aged 28.^[5] After being liberated in August 1943, he returned to Rome to lead the Italian Socialist Party, which had been reunified as theItalian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity. After the surrender of Italy with theAllied armed forces on 8 September 1943, he was one of the political officials of theNational Liberation Committee, the underground political entity ofItalian Partisans during the German occupation.

In 1944, Nenni became the national secretary of the PSI again, favoring close ties between his party and the PCI. After the Liberation, he took up government responsibilities, becoming Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Constituent Assembly in the government ofFerruccio Parri and the first government ofAlcide De Gasperi. He was Minister for the Constitution, and in October 1946 he became Minister for Foreign Affairs in the second De Gasperi government.

The close ties between the PSI and the PCI caused theGiuseppe Saragat-led anti-communist wing of the PSI to leave and form theItalian Socialist Workers' Party in 1947 (later merged into theItalian Democratic Socialist Party, PSDI). During the early stage of the cold war he opposed Italy's entry into NATO fearing that it could drag the country into a war between the two Superpowers and reignite the Italian civil war and instead favoured a policy of Neutrality. In 1951 he was awarded theStalin peace prize.

In 1956, Nenni broke with the PCI afterSoviet Union'sinvasion of Hungary.^[6] He returned the award and donated the Prize money ($25,000) to the International red Cross.^[3] Subsequently, he slowly led his party into supporting membership of theNorth Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and he sought co-operation with the leading party, the Christian Democrats.

In the early 1960s, Nenni facilitated an "opening to the centre-left" enabling coalition governments between the PSI and the Christian Democrats and leading the socialists back into office for the first time since 1947.^[7] He formed a centre-left coalition with Saragat,Aldo Moro andUgo La Malfa, and favored a reunion with the PSDI. From 1963 to 1968 he was Deputy Prime Minister in the three successive governments led by Moro and in December 1968 he became Minister for Foreign Affairs in the first government ofMariano Rumor, but resigned in July 1969, when the center-left alliance collapsed.^{[citation needed]}

Although the reunification attempts between the socialists and Giuseppe Saragat's breakaway Social Democrats resulted in the formation of a joint listUnified PSI–PSDI, both parties fared poorly in the 1968 Italian general election. In 1969, a disillusioned Nenni virtually retired andFrancesco De Martino took his place.^[8] He resigned as head of the PSI and was made asenator for life in 1970 and in 1971 he ran unsuccessfully forPresident of Italy. He died in Rome on 1 January 1980. She is commemorated in the writings ofCharlotte Delbo.^{[citation needed]} He was an atheist.^[9]

• Where the Italian Socialists Stand, Pietro Nenni, Foreign Affairs, January 1962
• Address given by Pietro Nenni on the military intervention in Czechoslovakia, Rome, 29 August 1968
• Newspaper clippings about Pietro Nenni in the20th Century Press Archives of theZBW