Luigi Longo | |
|---|---|
 | |
| General Secretary of the Italian Communist Party | |
| In office 22 August 1964 – 16 March 1972 | |
| Preceded by | Palmiro Togliatti |
| Succeeded by | Enrico Berlinguer |
| Member of theChamber of Deputies | |
| In office 8 May 1948 – 16 October 1980 | |
| Constituency | Milan |
| Member of theConstituent Assembly | |
| In office 25 June 1946 – 31 January 1948 | |
| Constituency | Milan |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 15 March 1900 Fubine,Italy |
| Died | 16 October 1980(1980-10-16) (aged 80) Rome, Italy |
| Political party | PCI (1921–1980) PSI (before 1921) |
Luigi Longo (15 March 1900 – 16 October 1980), also known asGallo, was an Italiancommunist politician andgeneral secretary of theItalian Communist Party from 1964 to 1972. He was also the first foreigner to be awarded anOrder of Lenin.
Longo was born inFubine, in theprovince of Alessandria,Piedmont. As a student at thePolitecnico di Torino, he became active in the youth wing of theItalian Socialist Party (PSI), and engaged in politicalpropaganda from aMarxist perspective. He was a regular visitor to the offices ofL'Ordine Nuovo, the newspaper founded byAntonio Gramsci, and became acquainted with Gramsci andPalmiro Togliatti. In 1921, at theLivorno Congress of the PSI, he was one of the instigators of the split in the party, when supporters ofVladimir Lenin'sBolshevik line left to form the Italian Communist Party (PCI). He became a leading figure in the new PCI along with Togliatti, Gramsci and others.
Longo was a ferventanti-fascist, and, whenBenito Mussolini established hisFascist regime in Italy in 1922, he emigrated toFrance where he became one of the principal leaders of the PCI. In the same year, he was a member of a delegation to theComintern Congress inMoscow, where he met Lenin. He would return to Moscow several times in the years to come, with a specific expertise in political ideology, and was to meetJoseph Stalin and other members of theSoviet Union leadership. In 1933 he became a member of the Comintern's political commission. In 1934 he signed a joint action agreement between the PCI and the PSI.
Longo took part in theSpanish Civil War as an inspector of theRepublican troops in theInternational Brigades under the leadership ofRandolfo Pacciardi, and took thenom de guerreGallo. After the defeat of theSecond Spanish Republic byGeneral Franco, he returned to France.
Following the1940 invasion of France, theVichy-based collaborationist government was established underPhilippe Pétain. Longo was arrested and detained in aninternment camp atVernet from 1939 to 1941. There he made the acquaintance ofLeo Valiani, among other left-wing radicals. In 1941 he was handed over to the Italian fascist authorities and interned atVentotene. When Mussolinifell from power on 25 July 1943, Longo was released. After Mussolini regained control ofNorthern Italy (which he led as theItalian Social Republic), Longo took command of theGaribaldi Brigades, the communist forces in theItalian partisan resistance. Longo became deputy commander of theGruppo volontari per la liberta ("Group of Volunteers for Freedom"), and a close collaborator ofFerruccio Parri; in April 1945 Longo was one of the leading figures of the uprising in northern Italy. It was at Dongo on Lake Como on 28 April 1945 and whilst being escorted by the Garibaldi Brigade partisans that Mussolini and his mistressClaretta Petacci were executed; the extent to which Longo took part in the killings has been the subject of dispute by historians.
After the war, he was a member of the National Congress and in 1946 was elected to theConstituent Assembly. Also in 1946,Teresa Mattei chose the mimosa as the symbol ofInternational Women's Day[1] at the request of Longo.[2] He was subsequently elected, and repeatedly re-elected, to theItalian Chamber of Deputies on the PCI list and was a member of the party leadership. In 1964, after the death of Palmiro Togliatti, he became secretary of the PCI, declaring that he was "a secretary, not a boss". In this role, he continued Togliatti's line, known as the "Italian road toSocialism", playing down the alliance between the Italian Communist Party and the Soviet Union. He reacted without hostility to the new left movements that sprang up in 1968 and, among the leaders of the PCI, was one of those most disposed to engage with the new activists, although he did not condone their excesses.
In late 1968 Longo suffered astroke; although he partially recovered in the subsequent months, from February 1969 he was assisted in most decisions byEnrico Berlinguer acting as vice-secretary. In 1972 Longo resigned from the position of party secretary, supporting the choice of Berlinguer as his successor. From that year until his death, eight years later in Rome, he was honorary president of the PCI. In that capacity, he expressed his opposition to the "national solidarity" line the PCI was later to espouse.
Longo was also a prolific writer. He was the founder ofVie Nuove, a popular magazine of the Communist Party.[3]
| Election | House | Constituency | Party | Votes | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1946 | Constituent Assembly | Milan–Pavia | PCI | 46,298 |  YElected | |
| 1948 | Chamber of Deputies | Milan–Pavia | FDP | 76,725 | YElected | |
| 1953 | Chamber of Deputies | Milan–Pavia | PCI | 58,384 | YElected | |
| 1958 | Chamber of Deputies | Milan–Pavia | PCI | 40,480 | YElected | |
| 1963 | Chamber of Deputies | Milan–Pavia | PCI | 65,779 | YElected | |
| 1968 | Chamber of Deputies | Milan–Pavia | PCI | 80,080 | YElected | |
| 1972 | Chamber of Deputies | Milan–Pavia | PCI | 75,429 | YElected | |
| 1976 | Chamber of Deputies | Milan–Pavia | PCI | 110,569 | YElected | |
| 1979 | Chamber of Deputies | Milan–Pavia | PCI | 83,913 | YElected | |
| Party political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Secretary of the Italian Communist Party 1964–1972 | Succeeded by |
