People of the Revolution and the USSR

Giacinto Menotti Serrati

Giacinto Menotti Serrati

Italian Socialist leader who took his party into the Comintern but refused to expel the reformists, causing the Livorno split of 1921

He moved the Socialist Party left during the war and led it into the Comintern, but in 1921 refused to break with reformists as the Communists split away.

Born in Spotorno, he became a central leader of the Italian Socialist Party and in 1914 succeeded the ousted Mussolini as editor of Avanti!. He pushed the party left during the war, joined the Zimmerwald movement and after the October Revolution led the PSI into the Comintern. At the Second Congress of 1920 he sat on the presiding committee and was elected to the Executive, but in 1921 he rejected the principle of breaking with the reformists and stayed at the head of the Socialist Party as the Communists split away. In 1924 he led the party’s left wing into the Communist Party, and in 1926 died of heart failure on his way to an underground party meeting.

Career timeline
  • 1914Succeeded Benito Mussolini as editor of the Socialist paper Avanti!.
  • 1920Served on the Comintern's Second Congress presiding committee and was elected to its Executive Committee.
  • 1921Opposed breaking with the reformists and remained head of the PSI as the Communist Party split away.
  • 1924Led the PSI left into the Communist Party and was elected to its Central Committee.

Ivanoe Bonomi

Ivanoe Bonomi

A reformist politician who organized compromises between fascism's fall and the monarchy

In June 1943, he secretly urged the king to dismiss Mussolini, appoint Badoglio, and break Italy's alliance with Germany.

Ivanoe Bonomi was a politician who moved from reformist socialism into the center of Italian liberal parliamentary politics. His record during fascism's rise included insufficient resistance and support for Mussolini's government, a compromise that later shaped criticism of his leadership. From 1942 he reconnected anti-Fascist forces, secretly urging King Victor Emmanuel III in 1943 to dismiss Mussolini and appoint Pietro Badoglio, then chairing the six-party Committee of National Liberation. He subsequently managed the difficult transition among the monarchy, the resistance, and the Allies, helping carry Italy toward postwar parliamentary institutions.

Career timeline
  • 1893Joined the Italian Socialist Workers' Party
  • 1909Elected to the Chamber of Deputies as a Socialist
  • 1912Helped found the Italian Reformist Socialist Party
  • 1916–1919Minister of Public Works in the Boselli and Orlando cabinets
  • 1921–1922Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Italy
  • 1942–1943Organized an underground anti-Fascist paper and opposition contacts
  • 1943–1944Chair of the Committee of National Liberation
  • 1944–1945Prime Minister of Italy during the liberation
  • 1948–1951First President of the Senate of the Republic