The Perplexities of Italian Communism

On the first anniversary of Togliatti’s death, the Communist magazine Rinascita published a letter from his successor, Luigi Longo. Several months before he was mortally stricken in a Soviet sanitarium Togliatti informed his then deputy of the rapid worsening of his health and made him the new party leader. The purpose of this revelation was hagiographic: the average party member was to learn that its late chief had been so devoted to the movement that its welfare worried him even in his last hours on this earth. But, unexpectedly, Longi’s letter boomeranged.

“What contempt for the most elementary principles of democracy!” exclaimed the enemy press. The Communists had the nerve to change leaders ...