1. Enrico Berlinguer described his alternative model of socialism, distinct from both the Soviet bloc and the capitalism practised by the Western bloc during the Cold War, as terza via.
50 Facts About Enrico Berlinguer
1. 2.
Enrico Berlinguer took a firm stand against terrorism after the kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro, and used the PCI's influence to steer Italian labour unions towards moderating wage demands to cope with the country's severe inflation rate after the 1973 oil crisis.
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The PCI remained in national opposition for the rest of Enrico Berlinguer's tenure, retaining a solid core of support at the 1983 Italian general election; its main strength from that point would remain at the regional and local level.
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One of the most important figures of the First Italian Republic, Enrico Berlinguer had an austere and modest but charismatic personality, and despite the difficulties that confronted the PCI during the Historic Compromise, he remained a popular politician, respected for his principles, conviction, and bold stands.
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Enrico Berlinguer characterised the PCI as an honest party in Italy's corruption-ravaged politics, an image that preserved the party's reputation during the Mani pulite corruption scandals.
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Enrico Berlinguer was characterised by Patrick McCarthy as "the last great communist leader in Western Europe", and remains identified with the causes of Eurocommunism, opposition to Soviet repression in Eastern Europe, and democratic change in Italy.
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The son of Mario Berlinguer and Maria "Mariuccia" Loriga, Enrico Berlinguer was born in Sassari on 25 May 1922, five months before the March on Rome orchestrated by Benito Mussolini and Italian fascists, to a noble Sardinian family in a notable cultural context, with family ties and political contacts that would heavily influence his life and career.
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Enrico Berlinguer's father was a socialist and anti-fascist; as many of his ancestors, he belonged to the Italian Freemasonry and was Great Master of the regular lodge of Sassari.
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Enrico Berlinguer's brother, Giovanni Berlinguer, was a medician and politician who died in 2015.
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Enrico Berlinguer's surname is of Catalan language origin, a reminder of the period when Sardinia was part of the dominions of the Crown of Aragon.
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Enrico Berlinguer was a second cousin of Francesco Cossiga, who was a leader of Christian Democracy and later became president of Italy, and both were relatives of Antonio Segni, another DC leader and president of Italy.
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Giovanni, very open and carefree, played boccette, carambola, and sometimes cards, Enrico Berlinguer instead preferred to read.
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About his adolescence, Enrico Berlinguer recalled the feeling of rebellion that was in him.
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Enrico Berlinguer was against everything: the state, religion, cliches, and social customs.
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In 1937, Enrico Berlinguer had his first contacts with Sardinian anti-fascists and formally entered the renamed Italian Communist Party in 1943, soon becoming the secretary of the Sassari section.
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Togliatti sent Enrico Berlinguer back to Sardinia to prepare for his political career; he met Benedetto Croce, and said that for a period he was a follower of his.
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Enrico Berlinguer was sent to Milan, and he was appointed to the central committee as a member in 1945.
18.
Enrico Berlinguer's career was carrying him towards the highest positions in the party.
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Enrico Berlinguer refused to excommunicate the Chinese Communists and directly told Leonid Brezhnev that the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, which he termed "the tragedy in Prague", had made clear the considerable differences within the international Communist movement on fundamental questions, such as national sovereignty, socialist democracy, and the freedom of culture.
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Already a prominent leader in the party, Enrico Berlinguer was elected to the position of national secretary in 1972, when Longo resigned on grounds of ill health.
21.
At the party's thirteenth congress that elected him, Enrico Berlinguer said that he would be neither Togliatti nor Longo.
22.
In 1973, having been hospitalised after a car accident during a visit to the People's Republic of Bulgaria, which is widely considered an attempt on his life on orders from Moscow, Enrico Berlinguer wrote three famous articles for the party's intellectual weekly magazine Rinascita.
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In 1973, Enrico Berlinguer went to Belgrade, the capital of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, to meet with Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito, with a view to further developing his relationships with the major Communist parties of Europe, Asia, and Africa.
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In 1976, Enrico Berlinguer confirmed the autonomous position of the PCI vis-a-vis the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
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In November 1977, upon the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the October Revolution, Enrico Berlinguer held another speech in Moscow titled "Democracy is a Universal Value".
26.
When Enrico Berlinguer secured the PCI's condemnation of any kind of interference, the rupture with the Soviets was effectively complete, although the party still for some years received money from Moscow.
27.
Enrico Berlinguer supported the election of the veteran socialist Sandro Pertini as president of Italy; his presidency did not produce the effects that the PCI had hoped for.
28.
Enrico Berlinguer continued with the policy on the grounds that the process of legitimising communists would be long, and that choosing the election route, in the middle of serious economic and terrorist crises, would favour the political right.
29.
The beginnings of this government were negative for the PCI because Moro had introduced personalities deeply disliked by Communists, in order to bring the whole DC to this agreement with the PCI, including the currents that opposed it, and Enrico Berlinguer thought of voting negative in a motion of confidence.
30.
Enrico Berlinguer personally took part in electoral campaigns in the provinces and local councils.
31.
In November 1980, Enrico Berlinguer declared in Salerno that the idea of a possible Historic Compromise had been put aside, and it would be replaced with the idea of the Democratic Alternative to both the real socialism of the East and the then social democracy of the West.
32.
In 1981, Enrico Berlinguer said that, in his personal opinion, the progressive force of the October Revolution had been exhausted.
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Enrico Berlinguer continued to underline the necessary link between democracy and socialism, which was followed by a strong commitment on the issues of nuclear disarmament and detente.
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Enrico Berlinguer's last major statement was a call for the solidarity among the leftist parties.
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Enrico Berlinguer's death took place six days before the 1984 European Parliament election in Italy.
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Enrico Berlinguer's death remains controversial due to the fact he was taken back to the hotel to rest and an ambulance was called only two hours after he first fell ill.
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Enrico Berlinguer tied his death to that of Aldo Moro.
38.
Enrico Berlinguer often used to give his children tutoring lessons, including after a political meeting was concluded, on topics like Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and pre-Socratic philosophers but never in a forceful way; he did not expect them to follow his path in politics.
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Enrico Berlinguer said that they "must be able to make their choices freely, without any prejudice".
40.
Enrico Berlinguer once left in the middle of a lunch with party members to watch a Juventus match.
41.
Outside of politics and his passion for football, which he played as a child with his brother, Enrico Berlinguer played Rummy and loved the sea and sailing.
42.
Enrico Berlinguer was a lover of ballet and opera, the last one he had seen was Wagner's Parsifal in Rome.
43.
Apart from philosophical and ideological readings, such as Gramsci's mistica and the modern Machiavellian Prince, Enrico Berlinguer was an avid reader of novels; before his death, he last finished reading one by Marguerite Yourcenar.
44.
Enrico Berlinguer was a fan of Roberto Benigni, about whom he said that he made him laugh even before he said his jokes, and iconic is the photo of him, laughing in Benigni's arms at the Villa Borghese Festival.
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Enrico Berlinguer was described as reserved, "bashful, probably shy", and not much was known about his private life, including his music preferences, whether Bach or Wagner, when he was alive.
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Enrico Berlinguer has been described in many ways but was generally recognised for political coherence and courage, together with a rare personal and political intelligence.
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The fact that Enrico Berlinguer went down in history for preaching austerity, in Pier Paolo Pasolini's terms expressed as a warning in 1974 that "true fascism is the consumer society", is seen as a testament to his durature legacy and thinking.
48.
The acceptance of NATO is generally seen as evidence of the genuine autonomy of the PCI's position, and Enrico Berlinguer was seen in declassified CIA documents as the strongest critic of Soviet actions, such as their role in suppressing the Prague Spring of 1968, which was a turning point.
49.
Besides making him the protagonist of the movie Enrico Berlinguer, I Love You, Benigni appeared with Enrico Berlinguer during a public political demonstration of the PCI, of which he was a sympathiser.
50.
An il Giornale nuovo article after his death proposed the psychological thesis that Enrico Berlinguer was not really loved but that people were forced to admire him and recognise his virtues.