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.
Activities and affiliations
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
Related historical events
- 1947–1948The Marshall Plan and the Cold WarItalian delegate at the Cominform foundingIn 1947, he attended the Szklarska Poręba conference as Italy's delegate.
- 1956The Hungarian RevolutionCommunist opponent of the Soviet suppressionIn 1956, he broke with the PCI over its support for suppressing the Hungarian Revolution.
Break with the PCI after the Hungarian Revolution and socialist journalism
Reale broke with the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1956 over its support for the suppression of the Hungarian Revolution. Treccani records that he resigned from the party that year and thereafter took a sharply critical position toward it. A later account close to the events describes his dissent as explicit after the Hungarian crisis, and links the break to the party's line and its loyalty to the Soviet Union. The Neapolitan provincial party secretariat denounced him for “bourgeois deviationism” and expelled him. Reale then moved toward socialist and social-democratic politics and, in 1957, founded the weekly Corrispondenza Socialista with Giuseppe Averardi. The journal drew PCI workers, political refugees, and Italian and foreign intellectuals, and continued for more than a decade. His departure was not simply an organizational change: the Hungarian crisis became the occasion for a political break over the relationship between the communist movement and socialist rights.