Communist Party (Italy)

The Communist Party of Italy (Italian: Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) was a major political party in Italy from 1921 to 1991.

Founded in Livorno following a split from the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), the PCI was a leading force in the Italian resistance movement during World War II. After the war, it became one of the largest communist parties in Western Europe, consistently achieving high vote shares in national elections.

Key figures in the party's history include Antonio Gramsci, one of its founders and influential Marxist theorist; Palmiro Togliatti, who led the party for many years after Gramsci's imprisonment and death; and Enrico Berlinguer, who introduced the concept of "Eurocommunism" in the 1970s. Eurocommunism sought a more independent and democratic path to socialism, distancing itself from the Soviet Union's model.

The PCI played a significant role in Italian politics, contributing to labor rights, social welfare programs, and anti-fascist movements. Despite its size and influence, the party never gained enough support to form a national government on its own. It frequently participated in coalition governments, particularly at the regional and local levels.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and internal debates about its future, the PCI underwent a process of transformation. In 1991, it was dissolved and replaced by two new parties: the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS), a social-democratic party, and the Communist Refoundation Party (PRC), which aimed to maintain a more orthodox communist ideology. The PDS eventually merged into what became the Democratic Party (PD), currently a major force in Italian politics.