Antonio Gramsci

Born on 22 January 1891 at Ales in the province of Cagliari, Sardinia, Antonia Gramsci was the fourth son of Francesco Gramsci, a clerk in the local registrar’s office at Ghilarza, and Giuseppina Marcias. His childhood was fraught with financial difficulties and he suffered from ill health and physical deformity. After completing his elementary education, in 1911, he won a scholarship from Turin University. At Turin, he came into contact with the Socialist Party and started writing for political papers like Il Grido del Popolo (The People’s Cry) and Avanti!. He soon rose to political prominence and in 1917 was elected to the Provisional Committee of the Socialist Party. On 1 May 1919, he along with Tasca, Terracini, and Togliatti, founded Ordine Nuovo (New Order), an organ of the Turin Communists. When the Italian Communist Party (PCI) was formed in 1921, Gramsci was elected to the central committee and the following year participated in the Second Communist International. While he was in Moscow, Mussolini’s Fascist Party seized power on 28 October 1922, and soon a warrant of his arrest was issued. Gramsci was entrusted by the party to maintain contacts between the PCI and the European Communist parties. He was elected deputy in the Veneto constituency and he returned to Italy as the leader of the PCI. In 1925, he participated in the fifth session of the Executive in Moscow and in 1926 he took part in the third congress of the PCI held at Lyons. His “Lyon’s Thesis,” which he wrote with Togliatti, and “Some Aspects of the Southern Question,” received critical acclaim. He became the Secretary General of the party. On 8 November 1926, despite his parliamentary immunity, he was arrested and after his trial by a special court in 1928, he was sentenced to twenty years, four months and five days in prison and was sent to a special prison in Turi. After many appeals, he could finally start writing from 1929. His health soon deteriorated and his sentence was reduced to twelve years and four months. His intellectual activities continued in prison but in 1933 he had his second serious health crisis. He was transferred to a clinic at Formia but his condition did not improve and further appeal for conditional freedom was made. He was taken to a private clinic in Fiesole and then to Rome. On 27 April 1937 he died of a cerebral hemorrhage. His remains lie at the Protestant cemetery in Rome.