13 Facts About Luigi Longo

Luigi Longo, known as Gallo, was an Italian communist politician and general secretary of the Italian Communist Party from 1964 to 1972.

Luigi Longo was the first foreigner to be awarded an Order of Lenin.

Luigi Longo was a regular visitor to the offices of L'Ordine Nuovo, the newspaper founded by Antonio Gramsci, and became acquainted with Gramsci and Palmiro Togliatti.

Luigi Longo became a leading figure in the new PCI along with Togliatti, Gramsci and others.

Luigi Longo was a fervent anti-fascist, and, when Benito Mussolini established his Fascist regime in Italy in 1922, he emigrated to France where he became one of the principal leaders of the PCI.

Luigi Longo took part in the Spanish Civil War as an inspector of the Republican troops in the International Brigades under the leadership of Randolfo Pacciardi, and took the nom de guerre Gallo.

Luigi Longo was arrested and detained in an internment camp at Vernet from 1939 to 1941.

Luigi Longo became deputy commander of the Gruppo volontari per la liberta, and a close collaborator of Ferruccio Parri; in April 1945 Luigi Longo was one of the leading figures of the uprising in northern Italy.

Luigi Longo was elected, and repeatedly re-elected, to the Italian Chamber of Deputies on the PCI list and was a member of the party leadership.

Luigi Longo 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 Luigi Longo suffered a stroke; although he partially recovered in the subsequent months, from February 1969 he was assisted in most decisions by Enrico Berlinguer acting as vice-secretary.

In 1972 Luigi Longo resigned from the position of party secretary, supporting the choice of Berlinguer as his successor.

Luigi Longo was the founder of Vie Nuove, a popular magazine of the Communist Party.