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Il sarto di Ulm. Una possibile storia del Pci
Dal XX congresso del 1991, in cui fu decretata la morte del Partito comunista italiano, sono passati diciotto anni. Fu una morte deliberata, accelerata dalla volontà di un "nuovo inizio". Quel nuovo inizio non c'è stato. Al suo posto si è verificata la perdita di un patrimonio politico, organizzativo e teorico fra i più complessi e strutturati del panorama mondiale. Il Pci, dalla sua fondazione nel 1921 alla lotta partigiana, dalla svolta di Salerno del 1944 alla destalinizzazione del 1956, dal lungo Sessantotto al compromesso storico e all'occasione - mancata per sempre - dell'alternanza democratica, ha attraversato e segnato quasi un secolo di storia italiana. Un cammino che Lucio Magri ripercorre senza mai perdere di vista gli ineludibili, spesso fatali, nessi con gli eventi della scena politica internazionale. Negli anni sessanta il partito aveva raggiunto la propria maturità, era in piena ascesa ed era impegnato nell'ambizioso progetto della "via italiana al socialismo". E negli anni ottanta - nonostante inerzie e ritardi - le potenzialità riformatrici, l'influenza e il seguito di questa grande forza progressista erano ancora enormi. Perché allora nel congresso del 1991 prevalse quella decisione? Perché fu imposta una perdita tanto precipitosa quanto assoluta?
454 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
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October 24, 2022
This beautiful book is so much more and so much less than simply "a history of communism". It is the story of post-war Italy and the Cold War world. In this sense, it isn't really a book about communism at all, but a vibrant and insightful social history of Italy. In another sense, it is a rich description of the national and international setting in which Italian communism reached the heights of its prestige and significance. It isn't so much a book about the communist party, as a book about the world which shaped the party and which the party in turn shaped.
Lucio Magri draws upon his wealth of first hand experience and scholarly research to present us with a work of breathtaking scope. His writing style is at times buoyant and at times deeply melancholy, ebbing and flowing as if carrying the reader along with the tide of history itself. Magri is analytical, discursive and honest; re-opening and re-examining many closed political cases. His vast knowledge, wit and humility make for a work which is both illuminating and humane. If Magri asks us to think again about this period, he is leading us along wisely, without an axe to grind.
Magri's Italy is not the basket-case of Europe, but a swirling cauldron of democratic tension. His anguish at the hollowing out of the democratic potential of the system that followed the end of the Cold War is visceral. For those of us born to the "free" world of the victorious NATO alliance, it can be hard to understand that the fall of the Soviet Union did not mean the end of a tyranny; for millions of people it meant the end of real political agency, the end of struggle and the end of hope. Magri himself committed suicide in 2011, shortly after the death of his wife and completion of this book.
Although I read The Tailor of Ulm for pleasure, I found myself taking notes as I went along. In the best tradition of marxist historiography, Magri does not just explain what actually happened, but he helps to us develop a full and rich understanding of the social forces that drove events. Most significantly, Magri is trying to help us understand our own world and give us the tools to reclaim our agency within it. If the Tailor of Ulm is "the final cry of someone whose life belongs to a world that has gone forever", the text itself is burns with life for us in the present. It has everything to teach to those of us who, like Magri, still dream that mankind will, one day, learn to fly.
Lucio Magri draws upon his wealth of first hand experience and scholarly research to present us with a work of breathtaking scope. His writing style is at times buoyant and at times deeply melancholy, ebbing and flowing as if carrying the reader along with the tide of history itself. Magri is analytical, discursive and honest; re-opening and re-examining many closed political cases. His vast knowledge, wit and humility make for a work which is both illuminating and humane. If Magri asks us to think again about this period, he is leading us along wisely, without an axe to grind.
Magri's Italy is not the basket-case of Europe, but a swirling cauldron of democratic tension. His anguish at the hollowing out of the democratic potential of the system that followed the end of the Cold War is visceral. For those of us born to the "free" world of the victorious NATO alliance, it can be hard to understand that the fall of the Soviet Union did not mean the end of a tyranny; for millions of people it meant the end of real political agency, the end of struggle and the end of hope. Magri himself committed suicide in 2011, shortly after the death of his wife and completion of this book.
Although I read The Tailor of Ulm for pleasure, I found myself taking notes as I went along. In the best tradition of marxist historiography, Magri does not just explain what actually happened, but he helps to us develop a full and rich understanding of the social forces that drove events. Most significantly, Magri is trying to help us understand our own world and give us the tools to reclaim our agency within it. If the Tailor of Ulm is "the final cry of someone whose life belongs to a world that has gone forever", the text itself is burns with life for us in the present. It has everything to teach to those of us who, like Magri, still dream that mankind will, one day, learn to fly.
October 21, 2020
Lucio Magri had been a leading member of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) since the sixties. He has had political differences with the party line, leading to his expulsion and a splinter party, but he eventually gravitated back towards the party and was re-accepted into the fold. With The Tailor of Ulm, he sought to salvage any political lessons from the half-a-century existence of the largest communist mass party of Western Europe, which had by then dissolved itself for no tangible gains.
His breadth is ambitious. Though the PCI is the book's red thread and all questions revolve around its political choices and impact, Magri goes out of his way to explain the rise of the bolsheviks, the USSR, every Soviet leader, the rise of China, their conflicts and eventual split. The reader really gets a feel for the difficult decisions the Italian Party leadership had to take, for the 'groundedness' of a party, and the limited usefulness of abstract theory. I image that any marxist still stuck in 'anti-revionist' purity would get pretty frustrated and throw out the book by chapter three, though I too have my criticisms of the author's sometimes uncharitably idealistic viewpoints. Biggest gripe: the continuous hammering home of the 'fundamentally corrupted' nature of the USSR and the 'mistake' that Socialism in One Country was.
Through Gramsci, Togliatti, Longo, Berlinguer and the others, Magri brings to life various tactical disputes -- supporting the trade unions, striking roots in them or deplacing them? How to relate to the socialists? What about the social democrats? The international communist and socialist world? Above all, the PCI was very flexible in these matters, always prioritizing growing their political strength over any specific principle. My issue with the author, though, who is plenty critical of missteps and attributes any loss of morale and members to these, is that he seems to take for granted that the PCI was a multi-million member mass party. He simply accepts and reports this, but does not go deeper into the reasons why. I would have loved to have read about the atmosphere on the ground, among the militants and workers and families only tangentially involved, about the actions organised, cultural events,... But he does not share this with the reader. Consequently, the life of the PCI seems to mostly take place in the top echelons, who act autonomously from their organic base.
The political lessons I take away from this:
- precipitating their decline, the PCI had moved away from organizing their grassroots base towards a heavily electoral politics, and even as their voter base grew, their membership declined. Working in and through the parliament is a historical necessity for a CP in a democratic parliamentary country, but obviously once all hopes are invested in it, the line between a marxist party and a social-democratic one becomes very vague.
- the party led many successful struggles for partial victories (wages, legislation, educational reforms, etc), but did not manage to connect these to a broader goal of socialism. By the time the crises of the seventies and the neoliberal onslaught came along, the party did not have an answer ready other than holding ground - a position which even their base felt was untenable.
- Magri blames the PCI for not stimulating a Europe-wide left-wing coalition, as he intuits that only at this level the fight for socialism is possible.
- The difference between the first-generation cadres (steeled in the anti-fascist struggle and politically radical) and those who came after (with a more voluntaristic and pragmatic demeanor) caused real issues. A party must take care not to succumb under the weight of its own success.
His breadth is ambitious. Though the PCI is the book's red thread and all questions revolve around its political choices and impact, Magri goes out of his way to explain the rise of the bolsheviks, the USSR, every Soviet leader, the rise of China, their conflicts and eventual split. The reader really gets a feel for the difficult decisions the Italian Party leadership had to take, for the 'groundedness' of a party, and the limited usefulness of abstract theory. I image that any marxist still stuck in 'anti-revionist' purity would get pretty frustrated and throw out the book by chapter three, though I too have my criticisms of the author's sometimes uncharitably idealistic viewpoints. Biggest gripe: the continuous hammering home of the 'fundamentally corrupted' nature of the USSR and the 'mistake' that Socialism in One Country was.
Through Gramsci, Togliatti, Longo, Berlinguer and the others, Magri brings to life various tactical disputes -- supporting the trade unions, striking roots in them or deplacing them? How to relate to the socialists? What about the social democrats? The international communist and socialist world? Above all, the PCI was very flexible in these matters, always prioritizing growing their political strength over any specific principle. My issue with the author, though, who is plenty critical of missteps and attributes any loss of morale and members to these, is that he seems to take for granted that the PCI was a multi-million member mass party. He simply accepts and reports this, but does not go deeper into the reasons why. I would have loved to have read about the atmosphere on the ground, among the militants and workers and families only tangentially involved, about the actions organised, cultural events,... But he does not share this with the reader. Consequently, the life of the PCI seems to mostly take place in the top echelons, who act autonomously from their organic base.
The political lessons I take away from this:
- precipitating their decline, the PCI had moved away from organizing their grassroots base towards a heavily electoral politics, and even as their voter base grew, their membership declined. Working in and through the parliament is a historical necessity for a CP in a democratic parliamentary country, but obviously once all hopes are invested in it, the line between a marxist party and a social-democratic one becomes very vague.
- the party led many successful struggles for partial victories (wages, legislation, educational reforms, etc), but did not manage to connect these to a broader goal of socialism. By the time the crises of the seventies and the neoliberal onslaught came along, the party did not have an answer ready other than holding ground - a position which even their base felt was untenable.
- Magri blames the PCI for not stimulating a Europe-wide left-wing coalition, as he intuits that only at this level the fight for socialism is possible.
- The difference between the first-generation cadres (steeled in the anti-fascist struggle and politically radical) and those who came after (with a more voluntaristic and pragmatic demeanor) caused real issues. A party must take care not to succumb under the weight of its own success.
April 24, 2014
"A History of Communism" is far too vague for a subtitle. A more accurate one would be "Il Partito Comunista Italiano: Half a Century of Almost Succeeding"
January 4, 2021
I came into this book knowing next to nothing about the history of the Italian communist party or the author. I also thought the Tailor of Ulm were a general history of the PCI since the 20s to its collapse, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out it were focused on the post-war party until its dissolution from the standpoint of a dissident party leader. Lucio Magri brings in some personal anecdotes here and there although most of the books is straight forward history filled with details of the major events from the Togliatti-era to the historic compromise and the tragic collapse.
The reflections on the “historic compromise” of party-leader Enrico Berlinguer includes some valuable lesson for contemporary left populist parties. A compromise which weren’t fully thought out and were mostly a capitulation to electoral reformism and class compromise more than anything. Although Magri don’t mark the historic compromise as the beginning of the end of the party he describes it as a giant leap in the wrong direction which never got corrected. This leap defiantly betrayed the old Gramscian core of the membership and led the PCI from being one of the biggest independent communist parties to being just another opposition party in parliament.
Magris own role in the PCI is also quite fascinating as he was a part of the dissident “il Manifesto”-clique which led to his exclusion from the party in 1974. Although Magri later re-joined the Communist Refoundation party following a split in 1991, his role in the party were cut short as he explains in the last chapters which follows the last congresses and failures of both the communist opposition and the reformist leadership.
The last chapter of the book is a document titled “A New Communist Identity” which were supposed to be used by the opposition in one of the last congresses, but which ended up being scrapped. This last document is really a last-ditch attempt at reviving the PCI. In this document Magri describes in full the major difficulties of the party and a way forward that could begin the resurrection of an obsolete and unprincipled party. This last document together with certain personal anecdotes really captures both the tragedy of the once million-strong Italian communist movement as well as the tragedy of Lucio Magri as a political leader.
Highly recommend this to anyone interested in the PCI or Italian post-war history in general. There are also many lessons for contemporary leftists to draw from, including reflections on reformism, the 68 riots etc. Although the subtitle “A History of Communism” is misleading and a odd translation-choice of the original Italian subtitle “A Possible history of the PCI” this is still a great read. 4.5 stars
The reflections on the “historic compromise” of party-leader Enrico Berlinguer includes some valuable lesson for contemporary left populist parties. A compromise which weren’t fully thought out and were mostly a capitulation to electoral reformism and class compromise more than anything. Although Magri don’t mark the historic compromise as the beginning of the end of the party he describes it as a giant leap in the wrong direction which never got corrected. This leap defiantly betrayed the old Gramscian core of the membership and led the PCI from being one of the biggest independent communist parties to being just another opposition party in parliament.
Magris own role in the PCI is also quite fascinating as he was a part of the dissident “il Manifesto”-clique which led to his exclusion from the party in 1974. Although Magri later re-joined the Communist Refoundation party following a split in 1991, his role in the party were cut short as he explains in the last chapters which follows the last congresses and failures of both the communist opposition and the reformist leadership.
The last chapter of the book is a document titled “A New Communist Identity” which were supposed to be used by the opposition in one of the last congresses, but which ended up being scrapped. This last document is really a last-ditch attempt at reviving the PCI. In this document Magri describes in full the major difficulties of the party and a way forward that could begin the resurrection of an obsolete and unprincipled party. This last document together with certain personal anecdotes really captures both the tragedy of the once million-strong Italian communist movement as well as the tragedy of Lucio Magri as a political leader.
Highly recommend this to anyone interested in the PCI or Italian post-war history in general. There are also many lessons for contemporary leftists to draw from, including reflections on reformism, the 68 riots etc. Although the subtitle “A History of Communism” is misleading and a odd translation-choice of the original Italian subtitle “A Possible history of the PCI” this is still a great read. 4.5 stars
June 10, 2020
Just an odd duck of a book, not specific enough to be a great history, and doesn't really have much insidery details despite the author serving in positions of leadership. Worth it for the novelty of reading post world war 2 history from someone who took the soviet project seriously, which is not really something you get from much english writers-but yeah I still remain confused about how a large communist party essentially decided to dissolve itself to because an impotent liberal party.
November 6, 2024
Een dens, in alle richtingen kronkelend boek dat je op zijn manier toch meesleept. Het verhaal van de Italiaanse communisten tijdens de Koude Oorlog is er één van electorale successen, maar ook van twijfel, interne verstarring en onmacht om adequaat in te spelen op een veranderende maatschappij.
Ik heb The Tailor of Ulm met plezier gelezen (verrassend veel plezier voor een boek dat als "gortdroog" omschreven zou kunnen worden en dat het zeker niet van anekdotes moet hebben). Magri's boek is zo begeesterend omdat het een echte eerlijkheid uitstraalt, een weigering om het verleden te demoniseren óf te idealiseren. Dat zie je ook omdat hij je soms een glimp laat opvangen van zijn schrijf- en denkproces: voor deze paragraaf heb ik veel tijd nodig gehad, aan deze analyse heb ik getwijfeld, dit hoofdstuk was confronterend om te schrijven, een zware persoonlijke klap heeft mij hier onderbroken. De schijnbare droogheid is meer radicale ernst, de ernst van een schrijver wiens levensloop emotioneel vastgeklonken zat aan de PCI.
Het is moeilijk om uit dit boek de "lessen" voor de toekomst te trekken die de achterflap belooft. Magri maakt veel analyses die bestaan uit (zelf)kritische noten en bedenkingen maar zonder grootse conclusies. Dat is zowel een sterkte als een zwakte. Toch blijven een paar rode lijnen mij bij. In de periode na de Tweede Wereldoorlog wist de partij zich handig staande te houden ondanks het verstikkende beleid van de Cominform die de facto eiste dat elke communistische partij het Sovjetmodel overnam. De partijleiding was daar heel tactisch slim over, maar dit zorgde ook voor een zekere verkalking van de ideologie en werking. Lange tijd kon of wou de partij het oprechte streven naar meer democratie niet erkennen dat aanwezig was in bv. de Hongaarse opstand van 1956.
De omgang met de protestgolf van mei '68 was een voorbeeld van die rigiditeit. Weliswaar stond de PCI er opener tegenover dan de PCF in Frankrijk (wat ook niet zo moeilijk was). Maar de beweging werd alsnog te weinig naar waarde geschat en de steun eraan was halfslachtig en selectief. Zo nam de partij wel de basale eis van financieel toegankelijk onderwijs over, maar ze moest niet veel hebben van al de inhoudelijke kritieken op dat onderwijs of de manier waarop de vorm ervan het status quo bestendigde. Stromingen zoals Basaglia's radicale psychiatrie hadden weinig tot geen impact op de partij.
De verkramptheid was daarnaast merkbaar in de blijvende weigering om serieuze interne debatten toe te laten. Dat droeg er ook toe bij dat de partij nooit helemaal capteerde hoe drastisch de impact was van het wegtrekken van industrie van de imperialistische kernlanden naar het Zuiden; het karakter van post-industrialisme werd amper onderzocht doordat er zo hardnekkig aan oude leerstellingen werd vastgehouden.
De beruchtste periode in de PCI-geschiedenis is het Historisch Compromis in de jaren '70, toen de partij onder Berlinguer al haar zinnen zette op het meeregeren. De intentie was mooi: in de context van crisis de realisaties van de arbeidersbeweging veiligstellen en extreemrechts op afstand houden. Dit bracht ook een autonomere houding tegenover het Oostblok-socialisme met zich mee. Maar in een mum van tijd was de partij eigenlijk alleen nog gericht op appeasement van het politieke centrum. De PCI gooide haar kritiek op de NAVO overboord, liet zich op links inhalen door de liberalen over het scheidingsrecht (want dat verdedigen moest de katholieken maar eens afschrikken) en steunde zelfs een regering van alléén christendemocraten.
Magri plaatst wat vraagtekens tegenover het idee dat dit het onafwendbare "begin van het einde" was. In de jaren '80 piekte de PCI zelfs nog electoraal. Maar inmiddels was ook wel een interne rotting ingetreden. Het ledenaantal nam af, kwalitatieve en duurzame organisatie verzwakte, vorming en theoretische discussie werden steeds poverder. De val van het socialisme in het Oostblok werd aangegrepen voor een impulsieve partijvernieuwing die aan het eind van de dag gewoon op een partijliquidatie bleek neer te komen.
De appendix - of "envoi", zoals Magri het in een van zijn francofiele oprispingen noemt - is een tekst die hij in 1987 schreef, mijmerend over een nieuwe communistische identiteit. Die moest noch blijven steken in nostalgie en default-posities uit het verleden, noch ertoe leiden dat de PCI gewoon een zoveelste systeempartij werd. Ik vond deze tekst wat onbevredigend in de zin dat ze niet echt concreet programmatisch is. Maar de suggesties voor thema's die links moet opnemen zijn ook vandaag enorm pertinent: post-industriële versplintering, vervreemding, de consumptiemaatschappij, ecologie, de ondemocratische aard van politiek onder het kapitalisme.
Grote takeaways:
- links moet flexibel en ondogmatisch zijn, maar ook principieel; op een bepaald punt leiden concessies hooguit tot een kort electoraal momentum en vervolgens tot coöptatie door het systeem
- de partijvorm blijft nodig om zich te verenigen tegen het (evengoed eengemaakte) kapitaal, maar de partij moet de rol van andere sociale bewegingen respecteren in plaats van zichzelf arrogant als de enige voorhoede te zien, wat niet wegneemt dat ze actief moet engageren met die bewegingen
- we moeten veel grondiger herevalueren op welke manier het marxisme toegepast kan worden in een post-industriële maatschappij waar atomisering, werkloosheid en precaire interimjobs aan de orde van de dag zijn
- links moet voorbij een puur economisch platform durven te kijken en de maatschappij op alle fronten in vraag stellen
Ik heb The Tailor of Ulm met plezier gelezen (verrassend veel plezier voor een boek dat als "gortdroog" omschreven zou kunnen worden en dat het zeker niet van anekdotes moet hebben). Magri's boek is zo begeesterend omdat het een echte eerlijkheid uitstraalt, een weigering om het verleden te demoniseren óf te idealiseren. Dat zie je ook omdat hij je soms een glimp laat opvangen van zijn schrijf- en denkproces: voor deze paragraaf heb ik veel tijd nodig gehad, aan deze analyse heb ik getwijfeld, dit hoofdstuk was confronterend om te schrijven, een zware persoonlijke klap heeft mij hier onderbroken. De schijnbare droogheid is meer radicale ernst, de ernst van een schrijver wiens levensloop emotioneel vastgeklonken zat aan de PCI.
Het is moeilijk om uit dit boek de "lessen" voor de toekomst te trekken die de achterflap belooft. Magri maakt veel analyses die bestaan uit (zelf)kritische noten en bedenkingen maar zonder grootse conclusies. Dat is zowel een sterkte als een zwakte. Toch blijven een paar rode lijnen mij bij. In de periode na de Tweede Wereldoorlog wist de partij zich handig staande te houden ondanks het verstikkende beleid van de Cominform die de facto eiste dat elke communistische partij het Sovjetmodel overnam. De partijleiding was daar heel tactisch slim over, maar dit zorgde ook voor een zekere verkalking van de ideologie en werking. Lange tijd kon of wou de partij het oprechte streven naar meer democratie niet erkennen dat aanwezig was in bv. de Hongaarse opstand van 1956.
De omgang met de protestgolf van mei '68 was een voorbeeld van die rigiditeit. Weliswaar stond de PCI er opener tegenover dan de PCF in Frankrijk (wat ook niet zo moeilijk was). Maar de beweging werd alsnog te weinig naar waarde geschat en de steun eraan was halfslachtig en selectief. Zo nam de partij wel de basale eis van financieel toegankelijk onderwijs over, maar ze moest niet veel hebben van al de inhoudelijke kritieken op dat onderwijs of de manier waarop de vorm ervan het status quo bestendigde. Stromingen zoals Basaglia's radicale psychiatrie hadden weinig tot geen impact op de partij.
De verkramptheid was daarnaast merkbaar in de blijvende weigering om serieuze interne debatten toe te laten. Dat droeg er ook toe bij dat de partij nooit helemaal capteerde hoe drastisch de impact was van het wegtrekken van industrie van de imperialistische kernlanden naar het Zuiden; het karakter van post-industrialisme werd amper onderzocht doordat er zo hardnekkig aan oude leerstellingen werd vastgehouden.
De beruchtste periode in de PCI-geschiedenis is het Historisch Compromis in de jaren '70, toen de partij onder Berlinguer al haar zinnen zette op het meeregeren. De intentie was mooi: in de context van crisis de realisaties van de arbeidersbeweging veiligstellen en extreemrechts op afstand houden. Dit bracht ook een autonomere houding tegenover het Oostblok-socialisme met zich mee. Maar in een mum van tijd was de partij eigenlijk alleen nog gericht op appeasement van het politieke centrum. De PCI gooide haar kritiek op de NAVO overboord, liet zich op links inhalen door de liberalen over het scheidingsrecht (want dat verdedigen moest de katholieken maar eens afschrikken) en steunde zelfs een regering van alléén christendemocraten.
Magri plaatst wat vraagtekens tegenover het idee dat dit het onafwendbare "begin van het einde" was. In de jaren '80 piekte de PCI zelfs nog electoraal. Maar inmiddels was ook wel een interne rotting ingetreden. Het ledenaantal nam af, kwalitatieve en duurzame organisatie verzwakte, vorming en theoretische discussie werden steeds poverder. De val van het socialisme in het Oostblok werd aangegrepen voor een impulsieve partijvernieuwing die aan het eind van de dag gewoon op een partijliquidatie bleek neer te komen.
De appendix - of "envoi", zoals Magri het in een van zijn francofiele oprispingen noemt - is een tekst die hij in 1987 schreef, mijmerend over een nieuwe communistische identiteit. Die moest noch blijven steken in nostalgie en default-posities uit het verleden, noch ertoe leiden dat de PCI gewoon een zoveelste systeempartij werd. Ik vond deze tekst wat onbevredigend in de zin dat ze niet echt concreet programmatisch is. Maar de suggesties voor thema's die links moet opnemen zijn ook vandaag enorm pertinent: post-industriële versplintering, vervreemding, de consumptiemaatschappij, ecologie, de ondemocratische aard van politiek onder het kapitalisme.
Grote takeaways:
- links moet flexibel en ondogmatisch zijn, maar ook principieel; op een bepaald punt leiden concessies hooguit tot een kort electoraal momentum en vervolgens tot coöptatie door het systeem
- de partijvorm blijft nodig om zich te verenigen tegen het (evengoed eengemaakte) kapitaal, maar de partij moet de rol van andere sociale bewegingen respecteren in plaats van zichzelf arrogant als de enige voorhoede te zien, wat niet wegneemt dat ze actief moet engageren met die bewegingen
- we moeten veel grondiger herevalueren op welke manier het marxisme toegepast kan worden in een post-industriële maatschappij waar atomisering, werkloosheid en precaire interimjobs aan de orde van de dag zijn
- links moet voorbij een puur economisch platform durven te kijken en de maatschappij op alle fronten in vraag stellen
June 29, 2023
I must start by confessing and explaining myself that this book took me so long because of the depth of the writing, and as such I had to take a break. Returning to it made me appreciate it all the more.
Magri’s book is far more than a ‘history of communism’. Tailor of Ulm is a thorough and beautifully written history of Italy and its democracy following the Second World War, seen through the eyes of a dissident communist intellectual. Magri is able to poetically and analytically chart the new Italian democracy, the changing character of the PCI, and the geopolitics of the Cold War with passion and criticism.
The final chapter, which consists of a section of a report written by Magri in the 1980s is fascinating in its relevance to any reader today engaged in left wing politics, trade unions and social movements.
Frankly I am struggling to put all my thoughts to words. I cannot recommend this book enough.
Magri’s book is far more than a ‘history of communism’. Tailor of Ulm is a thorough and beautifully written history of Italy and its democracy following the Second World War, seen through the eyes of a dissident communist intellectual. Magri is able to poetically and analytically chart the new Italian democracy, the changing character of the PCI, and the geopolitics of the Cold War with passion and criticism.
The final chapter, which consists of a section of a report written by Magri in the 1980s is fascinating in its relevance to any reader today engaged in left wing politics, trade unions and social movements.
Frankly I am struggling to put all my thoughts to words. I cannot recommend this book enough.
January 26, 2021
The PCI is a fascinating phenomenon: a Stalinist / Eurocommunist party that was able to organize millions of people over decades and win more than 30% of votes in elections.
Magri's book is full of interesting thoughts. Yet I found it ultimately frustrating. The PCI was founded as a revolutionary party fighting for the dictatorship of the proletariat. Yet Magri finds such a strategy so ridiculous that he doesn't even bother to refute it. The idea that communist partisans, in control of large parts of Italy after liberation, could have done anything other than hand power back to the bourgeoisie, appears to be totally inconceivable for him.
So the whole book is a history of the development of Italian capitalism after 1945, and what the PCI could have done in each situation to increase its share of the votes, form a "left government," and pass meaningful reforms that increase the democratic and social rights of workers. This is nothing more than good old social democratic reformism, and it doesn't help at all to dress it up in Gramscian terms.
The PCI has passed into the dustbin of history, after its leaders transformed it into a rotten liberal outfit modeled after the US Democratic Party. Magri doesn't want to acknowledge that this was an inevitable result of the party's strategic orientation to administer and reform capitalism. There is a wealth of detail in the book, but its analysis is almost comically shallow.
Magri's book is full of interesting thoughts. Yet I found it ultimately frustrating. The PCI was founded as a revolutionary party fighting for the dictatorship of the proletariat. Yet Magri finds such a strategy so ridiculous that he doesn't even bother to refute it. The idea that communist partisans, in control of large parts of Italy after liberation, could have done anything other than hand power back to the bourgeoisie, appears to be totally inconceivable for him.
So the whole book is a history of the development of Italian capitalism after 1945, and what the PCI could have done in each situation to increase its share of the votes, form a "left government," and pass meaningful reforms that increase the democratic and social rights of workers. This is nothing more than good old social democratic reformism, and it doesn't help at all to dress it up in Gramscian terms.
The PCI has passed into the dustbin of history, after its leaders transformed it into a rotten liberal outfit modeled after the US Democratic Party. Magri doesn't want to acknowledge that this was an inevitable result of the party's strategic orientation to administer and reform capitalism. There is a wealth of detail in the book, but its analysis is almost comically shallow.
December 3, 2021
This is, to my knowledge, one of the few books discussing the post-war PCI at length. It is interesting, as the author was a dissident Marxist however not from the current of 68, instead a defender of Togliatti and Gramsci without being dogmatic. This makes the book quite biased - but it was a well-deserved perspective from my more critical view of the PCI.
The book is largely not a proper 'history' account, despite its title, but instead it jumps between the years, looking at external and internal issues and looking at how certarin strategies, tactics, etc. caused the fall of the PCI. However, this isn't an issue on its own - it is that the book, for me, lacked a red thread of sorts, I never knew exactly where it felt it wanted to go, it jumps were unhelpful, etc. And, when you read the end of the book, one question is unanswered: why the PCI collapse? why did it turn to reformism? Answers it does not provide at all really, unfortunately. It remains a descriptive work at large - never becoming largely analytical.
Nonetheless, it is worth a read for an account of the PCI, what it tried, why it tried some things, etc.
The book is largely not a proper 'history' account, despite its title, but instead it jumps between the years, looking at external and internal issues and looking at how certarin strategies, tactics, etc. caused the fall of the PCI. However, this isn't an issue on its own - it is that the book, for me, lacked a red thread of sorts, I never knew exactly where it felt it wanted to go, it jumps were unhelpful, etc. And, when you read the end of the book, one question is unanswered: why the PCI collapse? why did it turn to reformism? Answers it does not provide at all really, unfortunately. It remains a descriptive work at large - never becoming largely analytical.
Nonetheless, it is worth a read for an account of the PCI, what it tried, why it tried some things, etc.
April 6, 2021
Magri starts his history of the Italian Communist Party with the proposition that for all of its mistakes, and its slow development of an internal democratic culture, the PCI represented the best attempt after WW2 to chart a democratic path to socialism.
A perpetual dissident within the party, who was expelled in the late 1960s for helping to found the journal _il manifesto_, and rejoined the party right before its dissolution, Magri focuses heavily on his critiques but also at the promise of the party.
In his lengthy discussion of Italy's "long 1968," Magri criticizes the party for underestimating, and later turning away from, the youth revolt. But he also digs deep to show how the Party's trade union work, often led by members on the Party left, helped set the stage for the "hot autumn," and helped turn that rebellion into concrete gains in the factories -- like winning the right for factory workers to take paid time to participate in political education.
Magri offers a strong and thoughtful critique of the attempt to strike a "historic compromise" with the Christian Democrats in the 1970s. But he also shows a side of the picture I was not aware of: how, after the compromise failed, Berlinguer himself attempted to lead a left turn in the party, that was cut short by his tragic death. Berlinguer personally invited Magri and his expelled comrades to rejoin the PCI in 1984 shortly before he died.
The book ends with a reprint of a long essay Magri wrote in the late 1980s, arguing for the continuing relevance of the communist project in Italy. He talks about the ecological crisis, the reordering of work and the weakening of union power, the hollowing out of democracy, and the continued need for a party to serve as "the collective intellectual" for workers and the oppressed. It reads like it could be written today.
After he finished writing this extraordinary book, deeply saddened by the long illness and death of his partner, Magri felt like he had nothing left to contribute toward the renewal of the left. Every one who wants to work toward democratic socialism should read what he has left us.
A perpetual dissident within the party, who was expelled in the late 1960s for helping to found the journal _il manifesto_, and rejoined the party right before its dissolution, Magri focuses heavily on his critiques but also at the promise of the party.
In his lengthy discussion of Italy's "long 1968," Magri criticizes the party for underestimating, and later turning away from, the youth revolt. But he also digs deep to show how the Party's trade union work, often led by members on the Party left, helped set the stage for the "hot autumn," and helped turn that rebellion into concrete gains in the factories -- like winning the right for factory workers to take paid time to participate in political education.
Magri offers a strong and thoughtful critique of the attempt to strike a "historic compromise" with the Christian Democrats in the 1970s. But he also shows a side of the picture I was not aware of: how, after the compromise failed, Berlinguer himself attempted to lead a left turn in the party, that was cut short by his tragic death. Berlinguer personally invited Magri and his expelled comrades to rejoin the PCI in 1984 shortly before he died.
The book ends with a reprint of a long essay Magri wrote in the late 1980s, arguing for the continuing relevance of the communist project in Italy. He talks about the ecological crisis, the reordering of work and the weakening of union power, the hollowing out of democracy, and the continued need for a party to serve as "the collective intellectual" for workers and the oppressed. It reads like it could be written today.
After he finished writing this extraordinary book, deeply saddened by the long illness and death of his partner, Magri felt like he had nothing left to contribute toward the renewal of the left. Every one who wants to work toward democratic socialism should read what he has left us.
Read
June 18, 2022It’s very odd for me to read about these sort of topics. The PCI, and perhaps more its echo, forms a fundamental part of my identity, and to read about its history, particularly from someone who participated in it directly, is in a way to discover my roots. Perhaps that’s what draws me so strongly to this history: rootless cosmopolitan that I am, I find in the story of the PCI evidence that I emerged from something, something not altogether horrible. My interest, I guess, is purely bourgeois and individualistic, some sort of imagined nostalgia for what was a way of life in which proto-Davids might have participated.
I need to read much, much more about this strange giraffe of a party.
I need to read much, much more about this strange giraffe of a party.
November 29, 2020
"Democracy is not alive without a collective sovereign, and that collective sovereign cannot exist in the form of an atomized multitude, a jumbled mix of impulses and cultures: fragmentation is not pluralism but disguised uniformity." (p. 415)
Those words, surprisingly salient and enduring today, were intended in 1987 for the ears of the Eighteenth Congress of a fast-crumbling PCI (Partito Comunista Italiano). The death of Berlinguer and the irreversible trend toward the collapse of "actually existing socialism" were hastening the self-liquidation of a major political force in Italy, by then more a proud manifestation of tradition than a platformed party. So concludes a winding, often joyous but equally melancholy, account of an essential piece of Italian history by a self-described active party member with "a certain influence" on the political currents of the times.
Magri writes with the judiciousness of a simultaneous insider and outsider, demonstrating lifelong commitment to the tenets of the PCI without verging into idealism or unconditional loyalty to the party apparatus itself--he was also a dissident, after all. He puts forth the foundational vision of the ‘people’s party’ as a sort of organic, ever-evolving social and political entity woven into webs of solidarity and struggle, and how it lived up to this expectation and how it did not. There is also the intriguingly singular Italian character of the party, from its theoretical roots in Gramsci to its navigation of the intersection of mass movements, Catholicism, and the dual presence of backwardness and modernity. The party at its best: not a militaristic, intolerant faction, but “a real community linked by ideas, feelings and common experiences” of the antifascist struggle.
Of course, the bulk of the book is a recounting of the twists and turns, betrayals and failures besetting this remarkable experiment and its attempts to bridge the gap between (or lie on the extremes of) pragmatism and ideals. Analysis of PCI events are interspersed with sections on the international situation--mostly concerning the Soviets--somewhat justifying the broadness of the title “A History of Communism” and lending a cohesiveness to the story of Italy’s particular 20th century. Beneath, or perhaps woven into, all of Magri’s sometimes over fastidiousness about party secretaries, congresses, referendums and tax policy, however, are glimmers of hope for the future and wry observations about the achievements of the PCI, incremental though they remain. He leaves us with an excerpt from a congressional resolution he penned, an absolute highlight. Despite it being written before the fateful dissolution of the party, it rings truer than ever today, challenging us to imagine beyond the frameworks of consent-based politics and individualist, ultimately self-destructive consumption and toward the vibrant, collectively realized democracy that has so far only existed in our dreams.
Those words, surprisingly salient and enduring today, were intended in 1987 for the ears of the Eighteenth Congress of a fast-crumbling PCI (Partito Comunista Italiano). The death of Berlinguer and the irreversible trend toward the collapse of "actually existing socialism" were hastening the self-liquidation of a major political force in Italy, by then more a proud manifestation of tradition than a platformed party. So concludes a winding, often joyous but equally melancholy, account of an essential piece of Italian history by a self-described active party member with "a certain influence" on the political currents of the times.
Magri writes with the judiciousness of a simultaneous insider and outsider, demonstrating lifelong commitment to the tenets of the PCI without verging into idealism or unconditional loyalty to the party apparatus itself--he was also a dissident, after all. He puts forth the foundational vision of the ‘people’s party’ as a sort of organic, ever-evolving social and political entity woven into webs of solidarity and struggle, and how it lived up to this expectation and how it did not. There is also the intriguingly singular Italian character of the party, from its theoretical roots in Gramsci to its navigation of the intersection of mass movements, Catholicism, and the dual presence of backwardness and modernity. The party at its best: not a militaristic, intolerant faction, but “a real community linked by ideas, feelings and common experiences” of the antifascist struggle.
Of course, the bulk of the book is a recounting of the twists and turns, betrayals and failures besetting this remarkable experiment and its attempts to bridge the gap between (or lie on the extremes of) pragmatism and ideals. Analysis of PCI events are interspersed with sections on the international situation--mostly concerning the Soviets--somewhat justifying the broadness of the title “A History of Communism” and lending a cohesiveness to the story of Italy’s particular 20th century. Beneath, or perhaps woven into, all of Magri’s sometimes over fastidiousness about party secretaries, congresses, referendums and tax policy, however, are glimmers of hope for the future and wry observations about the achievements of the PCI, incremental though they remain. He leaves us with an excerpt from a congressional resolution he penned, an absolute highlight. Despite it being written before the fateful dissolution of the party, it rings truer than ever today, challenging us to imagine beyond the frameworks of consent-based politics and individualist, ultimately self-destructive consumption and toward the vibrant, collectively realized democracy that has so far only existed in our dreams.
April 25, 2013
Here is the first page:
At one of the crowded meetings held in 1991 to decide whether or not to change the name of the Italian Communist Party, a comrade posed this question to Pietro Ingrao: "After everything that has happened and all that is now taking place, do you still believe the word “communist” can be used to describe the kind of large, democratic mass party that ours has been, and is, and which we want to renew so as to take it into government?" Ingrao, who had already laid out in full the reasons for his dissent and proposed that an alternative course be taken, replied—not altogether in jest—with Brecht’s famous parable of the tailor of Ulm. This 16th-century German artisan had been obsessed by the idea of building a device that would allow men to fly. One day, convinced he had succeeded, he took his contraption to the Bishop and said: "Look, I can fly". Challenged to prove it, the tailor launched himself into the air from the top of the church roof, and, naturally, ended up in smithereens on the paving stones below. And yet, Brecht’s poem suggests: a few centuries later men did indeed learn to fly. (...)
And here is the rest of the Introduction:
http://newleftreview.org/II/51/lucio-...
An amazing book about the Italian Left from a heterodox perspective
At one of the crowded meetings held in 1991 to decide whether or not to change the name of the Italian Communist Party, a comrade posed this question to Pietro Ingrao: "After everything that has happened and all that is now taking place, do you still believe the word “communist” can be used to describe the kind of large, democratic mass party that ours has been, and is, and which we want to renew so as to take it into government?" Ingrao, who had already laid out in full the reasons for his dissent and proposed that an alternative course be taken, replied—not altogether in jest—with Brecht’s famous parable of the tailor of Ulm. This 16th-century German artisan had been obsessed by the idea of building a device that would allow men to fly. One day, convinced he had succeeded, he took his contraption to the Bishop and said: "Look, I can fly". Challenged to prove it, the tailor launched himself into the air from the top of the church roof, and, naturally, ended up in smithereens on the paving stones below. And yet, Brecht’s poem suggests: a few centuries later men did indeed learn to fly. (...)
And here is the rest of the Introduction:
http://newleftreview.org/II/51/lucio-...
An amazing book about the Italian Left from a heterodox perspective
May 30, 2015
Quote: "La borghesia produttiva, industriale e agraria, delegittimata politicamente dalle connivenze col fascismo ma forte del suo potere economico, era pur sempre in gran parte, come avevevano visto Gramsci o Gobetti o Dorso, oltre che conservatrice illiberale e in buona parte cialtrona e parassitaria."
February 22, 2014
less then it should be and could be.
January 12, 2020
Very thoughtful history of the PCI, which once boasted 1.5 million members.
June 28, 2020
a long-winded apologia for popular frontism
September 19, 2017
Il sarto di Ulm- Una storia possibile del PCI
"Il sarto di Ulm" è il saggio che Lucio Magri scrisse con grande lucidità e passione prima di decidere di porre fine alla sua esistenza ed è un racconto della lunga storia del Partito Comunista Italiano di cui fu testimone attivo e protagonista in non poche occasione.
Sal suo punto di vista privilegiato Magri ebbe l'opportunità di conoscere retroscena e fatti inediti di cui si serve per rendere il libro ancora più interessante e illuminante.
Il titolo del libro richiama un racconto di Bertolt Brecht che parla di un sarto ossessionato dal pensiero del volo umano che si ingegna a studiare un metodo per volare e quando si ritiene pronto si presenta davanti al vescovo di Ulm per provare quanto affermava. Il vescovo gli chiede di provare saltando dalla finestra e naturalmente lo sventurato artigiano si schianta al suolo. La morale del racconto è che se il povero sarto non riuscì a volare in seguito gli uomini ci riuscirono, utilizzando nuovi metodi e anche se il comunismo non riuscì ad affermarsi in Russia non c'era l'impossibilità assoluta ad avere successo nel futuro.
Il sofferto libro di Magri invece sembra suggerire una visione diversa. Pur essendo molte volte critico nei confronti della dirigenza comunista Magri è cosciente delle difficili condizioni in cui si è trovata la sinistra italiana nel dopoguerra, stretta tra l'incudine dell'influenza americana e il martello del Socialismo reale sovietico.
Su tutto il libro aleggia la sofferenza ed il vero e proprio dolore per la svolta di Occhetto che nel 1991 pose fine alla storia del partito che secondo Magri poteva ancora essere un punto di riferimento importante per i progressisti italiani.
"Il sarto di Ulm" è il saggio che Lucio Magri scrisse con grande lucidità e passione prima di decidere di porre fine alla sua esistenza ed è un racconto della lunga storia del Partito Comunista Italiano di cui fu testimone attivo e protagonista in non poche occasione.
Sal suo punto di vista privilegiato Magri ebbe l'opportunità di conoscere retroscena e fatti inediti di cui si serve per rendere il libro ancora più interessante e illuminante.
Il titolo del libro richiama un racconto di Bertolt Brecht che parla di un sarto ossessionato dal pensiero del volo umano che si ingegna a studiare un metodo per volare e quando si ritiene pronto si presenta davanti al vescovo di Ulm per provare quanto affermava. Il vescovo gli chiede di provare saltando dalla finestra e naturalmente lo sventurato artigiano si schianta al suolo. La morale del racconto è che se il povero sarto non riuscì a volare in seguito gli uomini ci riuscirono, utilizzando nuovi metodi e anche se il comunismo non riuscì ad affermarsi in Russia non c'era l'impossibilità assoluta ad avere successo nel futuro.
Il sofferto libro di Magri invece sembra suggerire una visione diversa. Pur essendo molte volte critico nei confronti della dirigenza comunista Magri è cosciente delle difficili condizioni in cui si è trovata la sinistra italiana nel dopoguerra, stretta tra l'incudine dell'influenza americana e il martello del Socialismo reale sovietico.
Su tutto il libro aleggia la sofferenza ed il vero e proprio dolore per la svolta di Occhetto che nel 1991 pose fine alla storia del partito che secondo Magri poteva ancora essere un punto di riferimento importante per i progressisti italiani.
December 6, 2025
The book is ok. its clearly written by a PCI Marxist as its certainly not Leninist. The big issue with the PCI was that it was too happy at only being second place in Italian politics however this is understandable as it was leaps and bounds more popular than the other Western European Communist parties however that is because it became a social democratic party (the fact that Achille Occhetto was able to take over the party and that the Migliorismo faction was even allowed to be formed in the first place shows this).
overall the book is ok and i would recommend it if you can buy it for less than €15
overall the book is ok and i would recommend it if you can buy it for less than €15
May 23, 2024
Magri has written an estimable history of the Partito Comunista Italiano (the Italian Communist Party), which was known as the largest Communist party in Europe, and also at times the most popular party in Italy. Having participated in the history in which he documents, Magri offers a quite unique perspective on the turn of events, and with a keen sense of Marxist historiography shows how the party ebbed and flowed with the turns of both Italian and world history. Magri is also quite a good writer—this book was overall a good read.
June 9, 2021
Magri's history of the Italian Communist Party is excellent, and certainly benefits from his perspective as someone who was directly involved in its postwar history, and as a member of 'il manifesto' who was both involved but also critical of the party, as well as forced outside of it at certain points. The text can be quite dense at points, but this is definitely worth battling through, and compliments well other texts that focus more on the history of extra-parliamentary communist movements in Italy. All in all, a must read book for anyone interested in the history of communist movements in 20th Century Italy.
July 2, 2025
A very in-depth history of not just a Party, but a movement, from the end of the war until its collapse in the 90s, with some mention of its successors. Covered also are the trends in the world, and the international Communist Movement, particularly in the CPSU. Ends with his own thesis for a Party Congress that was never used. Excellent read whatever knowledge you have of the PCI, and the Congress Thesis alone is worth a look.
December 1, 2024
Very good book overal. Very honest review of Lucio. Just unforgivable what kind of mistakes the PCI did. It makes me trust my own party a lot more. We don't do this kind of mistakes anymore. But the dangerous of reformism are always around the corner. This book should be a good testemony about this.
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February 8, 2025Really enjoyed this one as a reflection on the global communist movement of the twentieth century and also as an overview of the specificities of Italian communism and the PCI. I just wish that the use of bibliography and footnote references was more prolific, so the reader could use that as a developing source to study the theme.
January 5, 2021
Good history - don’t think I agreed with the analysis all the time but it’s always well considered and presented thoughtfully. Ends up containing a lot of Soviet history as well, though that probably makes sense and helps show how large the USSR loomed to any 20th c communist party.
January 30, 2024
Beautifully written and thought provoking investigation into one of the most important Communist experiences of the 20th Century. Makes a concerted effort to show that the sad end of the PCI was far from guaranteed.
June 30, 2020
3/4 boring history book, redeemed by more theoretical last quarter
May 6, 2024
An interesting personal history from a member of the PCI, but at times a bit opaque in terms of what party policies are actually being debated.
May 26, 2024
4.5, commovente
June 23, 2025
A rigorous and insightful account of communism from the Italian perspective.
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