Gramsci, Antonio (1891–1937)

Born in Ales in the province of Cagliari in Sardinia, Antonio Gramsci was a writer, social theorist, and founding member of the Communist Party of Italy. Influenced by the writings of Karl Marx, Benedetto Croce, Niccolò Machiavelli, and others, Gramsci came to create noteworthy and influential writings on cultural hegemony, civil society, and educational theory. These writings would later have a significant impact on the theoretical work and political activity of people like Louis Althusser, Perry Anderson, Edward Said, and other writers and activists of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Gramsci was noted in elementary and secondary school for his brilliance and aptitude, for which he received a scholarship in 1911 to attend the University of Turin, a place where he would rethink and sharpen his views on the socialist and radical ideas he first learned from his older brother Gennaro. While at Turin, the young Gramsci not only immersed himself in a variety of courses in the social sciences and humanities, taking a particular interest in linguistics and the work of Antonio Labriola, Giovanni Gentile, and Benedetto Croce, but he also became deeply involved in the trade unions of Turin. Along with friend Angelo Tasca, Gramsci later joined the Socialist Party of Italy (PSI).

In 1915, Gramsci left school due to unrelenting health problems. However, he managed to continue writing a column for the Turin socialist newspaper Avanti! and for Il Grido del Popolo. Among his most popular writings for Avanti! was “Men or Machines?” which called for educational reform in Italy, and the “Revolution Against Capital,” a short but influential essay on the Bolshevik Revolution, a revolution with which he identified closely although not uncritically. During this time, Gramsci also gave talks on various topics ranging from the writings of Karl Marx to the historical significance of the French Revolution and the Paris Commune. Following the revolutionary riots of 1917, Gramsci became a leading Italian socialist.

While enhancing his position as a socialist leader, Gramsci continued with his journalistic career, establishing along with Angelo Tasca and others the socialist weekly L'Ordine Nuovo: Rassegna Settimanle di Cultura Socialista in 1919. L'Ordine was a popular and important medium for the radical left in Italy, which was dedicated to providing commentary on global affairs, of which Gramsci was a central contributor. Meanwhile, Gramsci became a staunch critic of the rise of Italian fascism and a firm supporter of the workers councils that were established following a sereies of strikes in Turin. For Gramsci, the workers councils offered the best possible means for workers to take control of production and limit their exploitation. However, by 1920 the Turin workers were defeated and as a result Gramsci was forced to seek alternative avenues of popular resistance.

At the PSI's Congress of 1921, Gramsci aligned himself with former adversary Amadeo Bordiga and the communist minority within the PSI. Following the congress, Bordiga, Gramsci, and others established the Communist Party of Italy (PCI) in Livorno of which Gramsci quickly became an important and influential member.

As a member of the PCI, Gramsci became the Italian delegate to the Communist International and lived in Moscow from May 1922 to November 1923 where he met Julka Schucht, a member of the Russian Communist Party, whom he later married. Following his stay in Moscow, Gramsci was elected to the chamber of deputies and launched the official organ of the PCI, L'Unità. He later assumed the position of general-secretary of the PCI and tried, somewhat unsuccessfully, to revive a PCI torn by factional strife. Further, he sought to establish a radical leftist united front in order to confront and defeat the rising state of fascism. However, many Italians remained skeptical of Gramsci's efforts, worrying that a united front would lead to communist domination and socialist subordination within the front.

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