Al servizio di una rivoluzione globale? I comunisti italiani e il colonialismo (1926-1956)

This research focuses on the policy of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) regarding the colonial question, understood as the set of positions on Italian and European colonialism, the 'missions' organized by the party in specific colonial contexts, and the representation of colonialism in relation to these experiences. The chronological span extends from 1926 – the year of the Lyon Congress, where the party first elaborated Lenin's positions on the colonial question in the Italian context – to 1956 – when the PCI's VIII Congress marked a crucial political turning point, recognizing the 'polycentrism' of the socialist camp and elaborating the 'Italian way to socialism'. The work is structured in four parts. The first part analyzes the theoretical development of the PCI on the colonial question in the second half of the 1920s, then moves on to the reconstruction of two episodes that constitute a concrete manifestation of this development – Spano's missions in Egypt in 1935-36 and Barontini, Ukmar, and Rolla's mission in Ethiopia in 1939-40. Subsequently, it examines the activity of Italian militants in the Tunisian Communist Party (PCT) and the reorganization of the anti-fascist movement in Tunisia undertaken with the contribution of leaders sent by the PCI's foreign center, namely Velio Spano and Giorgio Amendola, between 1938 and 1939. The research then reconstructs the work carried out by Italian communists during World War II in Vichy-controlled Tunisia and, subsequently, in the years following liberation, up to 1950. Moving to Somalia and Eritrea, the focus shifts to the emergence of communist sections and groups formed by Italian soldiers and former colonists in territories of the former empire occupied by the British. Similar to the previous section, in this one dedicated to the Horn of Africa, the relationship with indigenous populations and nationalist movements is one of the main lenses through which the historiographical reconstruction is approached. Additionally, the positions of the PCI regarding the fate of former colonies during debates preceding the ratification of the 1947 Peace Treaty are analyzed. Finally, the last part concentrates on the PCI's attitude towards the major decolonization movements in North Africa in the first half of the 1950s.