Russia’s Reactionary Policy in Italy, by Marie Louise Berneri (1944)
Article from ‘War Commentary: For Anarchism’, April 1944, London, UK
The Daily Worker on the 10th of March in an editorial declared:
“The mass strikes of the Italian people against the Nazi domination in North Italy represents one of the most significant developments of this crucial period of the war.
This movement of a nation overtops and dwarfs alike the ludicrous “Mussolini Neo-Fascists” that the Germans are trying to build up, and the court camarilla around Badoglio and King Victor Emmanuel.”
The recognition of Badoglio by Stalin came a few days later and even our English communists were left speechless for a few days. The embarrassment of the Italian Communist Party must have been even greater, for they were the loudest to proclaim at the Bari conference that Badoglio and the King must go. Now thanks to Stalin, Badoglio raises his crest, has completely forgotten that he was to resign when the Allied troops would occupy Rome and starts making plans full of confidence in the future.
The Italian masses will not have been altogether surprised. The relations between Soviet Russia and Fascist Italy have always been very cordial. Italian workers resented trade treaties being made between the two countries and they will not have easily forgotten that only a few days after Matteotti’s murder Mussolini was given a reception at the Russian Embassy.
This is how D. N. Pritt rather boastingly describes the relations between Russian and Italy after the rise of fascism.
“In June, 1929, General Balbo, commanding a squadron of hydroplanes, made an official visit to the Russian Black Sea ports, and in May, 1933, this was followed by the tour of a flotilla of Italian submarines which sailed to Batum; this latter visit, the first of its kind since the revolution, was made the occasion of Italo-Soviet demonstrations of friendship. Throughout this period, of course, Fascist Italy negotiated and signed commercial agreements with the U.S.S.R., and, like Germany, granted them considerable credit.
Italo-Soviet friendship was solemnly confirmed by the signing of the pact of the 2nd September; 1933, which is still in force, whereby Italy undertakes not to participate in any bloc or diplomatic understanding calculated to injure the interests of the Soviet Union.
On the 30th October, 1933, a Soviet flotilla went to Naples to return the visit of the Italian submarines to Batum in the previous May, and was welcomed with great cordiality; and in December of the same year, Litvinov visited Rome at the express invitation of the Duce himself. This visit was described in the Italian press as ‘an event of historic importance’.” (Light on Moscow, 1939.)
The Italian masses were well informed on the friendly relations which existed between Russia and Italy because the Italian Press gave them great publicity. Unfortunately for the Communist Party they were not so well informed as to the motives Moscow had and they were deprived of those ingenious explanations and dialectical justifications which accompany every twist and turn of the Comintern. An Italian Communist in exile explained the difficulties which confronted the Communists in Italy in understanding the various changes undergone by the Party. In an article published in the Communist magazine Stato Operaio, March-April 1943, he says:
“In Italy the best prepared comrades, from ideological point of view are those who have lived long years in prison . . . Unfortunately that culture (acquired in prison) is almost always without any links with life.
An example in this connection will explain the situation. In 1929 and ’30 were arrested in Italy, and severely condemned, some comrades who had taken part in the VIth Congress of the Communist International (which had taken place in the summer of 1928) and who knew perfectly the discussions and deliberations which had taken place there. In the various prisons where these comrades lived they gave to the other imprisoned comrades a report on the VIth Congress of the International, and this created, of course, long discussions. This went on for years. In 1935 just before and after the VIIth Congress in many Italian prisons the decisions of the VIth Congress were still discussed.
The line of the VIIth Congress, fixed in the historic speech of George Dimitrov, came therefore as a surprise, unexpected by many of those comrades who were completely unprepared to receive it. It created many difficulties and many ‘crises’ which were only overcome thanks to some stronger and better prepared comrades.
Let the comrades in exile think for a moment of the major political events of the last few years (policy of unity, of popular front; German-Soviet pact and the first imperialist phase of this war; Nazi aggression against the U.S.S.R. and policy of national unity, etc.) and of the difficulties that even the best comrades have had to overcome in order to understand the necessity of certain turns in the policy of the communist party even when they had all the material necessary for discussion. If they think of that they will not be at all surprised that such difficulties should. in Italy, be almost insuperable and that they are overcome, almost always, with the passing of time.”
This is indeed a frank and candid statement in the mouth of a communist; it shows the amount of propaganda and persuasion which has to be used inside the Party to prevent it from going to bits when a policy is adopted which goes against the will of the majority Though the Communist Party in Italy now has greater means of expression than it had during Mussolini’s dictatorship, it is doubtful if it will be able to talk its way out of Stalin’s recognition of Badoglio’s government.
The Italian people hate the King and Badoglio as architects in the building of the Fascist State. The fact that they have now become British and Russian Quislings can only increase the contempt the Italian masses have for them. The help given by Stalin to fascists in Italy will no doubt have great repercussions amongst working-class movements in this country. The French may wonder if a compromise is not going to be attempted between de Gaullists and Vichyites, the Belgians will expect a resuscitation of Leopold and the Rumanians will expect to see Stalin give King Carol (with his Madame Lupescu) his throne back.
M. L. B.