Italian delegate at the Cominform founding who witnessed Stalin's telephone line, later turning from communist to anti-communist critic
"Stalin was its absolute master, without even condescending to put in an appearance. We were made conscious of this fact in the course of our debates by the existence of a direct telephone line between our Szklarska Poręba castle and the Kremlin." (1966 memoir)
An Italian communist politician and physician, he served as Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs in the postwar governments and as ambassador to Poland. As an Italian delegate to the 1947 Szklarska Poręba conference that founded the Cominform, his 1966 memoir became the most detailed eyewitness account of the proceedings, documenting Stalin's unseen control through a direct telephone line to the Kremlin and Zhdanov's pre-arranged attacks on the French and Italian parties for failing to seize power. He broke with the PCI in 1956 over the Soviet invasion of Hungary and spent his later decades as an anti-communist critic, founding the journal Corrispondenza Socialista.
Career Timeline
- 1926Joined the Italian Communist Party (PCI)
- 1932Sentenced to 10 years by the Fascist Special Tribunal
- 1937–1939Editor of La Voce degli Italiani in Paris
- 1944–1947Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs in the Bonomi, Parri, and De Gasperi governments
- 1945–1947Italian Ambassador to Poland
- 1947.09Italian delegate to the Szklarska Poręba conference that founded the Cominform
- 1948–1953Senator of the Italian Republic
- 1957Expelled from the PCI; co-founded Corrispondenza Socialista