Editing Antonio Gramsci (section)

==Life==
===Early life===
Gramsci was born in [[Ales, Sardinia|Ales]], in the [[province of Oristano]], on the island of [[Sardinia]], the fourth of seven sons of Francesco Gramsci (1860–1937) and Giuseppina Marcias (1861–1932).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G9WG-N9S5-C?i=383&owc=collection%2F1947719%2Fwaypoints&wc=9QMC-DPN%3A246870401%2C247596501%2C247598701%3Fcc%3D1947719&cc=1947719|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161109035734/https://familysearch.org/ark%3A/61903/3%3A1%3A3QSQ-G9WG-N9S5-C?i=383&owc=collection%2F1947719%2Fwaypoints&wc=9QMC-DPN%3A246870401%2C247596501%2C247598701%3Fcc%3D1947719&cc=1947719|url-status=dead|title=Italy, Oristano, Oristano. Civil Status (Tribunale), 1866–1940| website=[[FamilySearch]] |archive-date=9 November 2016}}</ref> Francesco Gramsci was born in the small town of [[Gaeta]], in the [[province of Latina]],  [[Lazio]] (today in the [[central Italian]] region of Lazio but at the time Gaeta was still part of [[Terra di Lavoro]] of [[Southern Italy]]), to  a well-off family from the southern Italian regions of [[Campania]] and [[Calabria]] and of [[Arbëreshë people|Arbëreshë]] (Italo-Albanian) descent.<ref name="IGS">{{cite web|url=http://www.internationalgramscisociety.org/igsn/news/n09_11.shtml|title=IGSN 9 – Nuove notizie sulla famiglia paterna di Gramsci|website=International Gramsci Society|access-date=15 March 2017|archive-date=5 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210305203901/http://www.internationalgramscisociety.org/igsn/news/n09_11.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iltorinese.it/italiani-origine-albanese-si-distinti-secoli/|title=Italiani di origine albanese che si sono distinti nei secoli|website=Il Torinese|language=it|access-date=5 May 2018|date=8 January 2016|archive-date=25 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210425204657/https://iltorinese.it/italiani-origine-albanese-si-distinti-secoli/|url-status=live}}</ref> Gramsci himself believed that his father's family had left [[Albania]] as recently as 1821.<ref name="Pipa234">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nkhiAAAAMAAJ&q=Italianized|title=The politics of language in socialist Albania|last=Pipa|first=Arshi|publisher=East European Monographs|year=1989|isbn=978-0-88033-168-5|location=Boulder, Colorado|page=234}} "I myself have no race. My father is of recent Albanian origin. The family escaped from Epirus after or during the 1821 wars &lt;of Greek Independence&gt; and Italianized itself rapidly." ''Lettere dal carcere'' (Letters from Prison), ed. S. Capriogloi & E Fubini (Einaudi, Turin, 1965), pp. 507–508."</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.internationalgramscisociety.org/igsn/news/n09_11.shtml|title=IGSN 9 – Nuove notizie sulla famiglia paterna di Gramsci|website=www.internationalgramscisociety.org|access-date=15 March 2017|archive-date=5 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210305203901/http://www.internationalgramscisociety.org/igsn/news/n09_11.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.albanianews.it/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Genealogia-dei-Gramsci.jpg|title=Genealogia dei Gramsci|access-date=15 November 2018|archive-date=26 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210426020900/https://www.albanianews.it/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Genealogia-dei-Gramsci.jpg|url-status=live}}</ref> The Albanian origin of his father's family is attested in the surname Gramsci, an Italianised form of ''Gramshi'', which stems from the definite noun of the placename [[Gramsh (municipality)|Gramsh]], a small town in central-eastern Albania.<ref name="Manzelli161">{{cite book|last=Manzelli|first=Gianguido|chapter=Italiano e albanese: affinità e contrasti|editor1-last=Ghezzi|editor1-first=Chiara|editor2-last=Guerini|editor2-first=Federica|editor3-last=Molinelli|editor3-first=Piera|title=Italiano e lingue immigrate a confronto: riflessioni per la pratica didattica, Atti del Convegno-Seminario, Bergamo, 23–25 giugno 2003|year=2004|publisher=Guerra Edizioni|isbn=978-8877157072|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MbsbAQAAIAAJ&q=Gramsh+o+Gramshi,+con+l%27articolo+determinativo+finale+in|page=161}} "Antonio Gramsci, nato ad Ales (Oristano) nel 1891, fondatore del Partito Comunista d'ltalia nel 1921, arrestato nel 1926, morto a Roma nel 1937, portava nel proprio cognome la manifesta origine albanese della famiglia (Gramsh o Gramshi, con l'articolo determinativo finale in -i, è il nome di una cittadina dell'Albania centrale)."</ref> Gramsci's mother belonged to a [[Sardinian people|Sardinian]] landowning family from [[Sorgono]], in the [[province of Nuoro]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kBmXoVa9HaYC&q=Antonio+Gramsci+albanian&pg=PA157|title=Antonio Gramsci: Architect of a New Politics|publisher=[[Louisiana State University Press]]|location=Baton Rouge|year=1990|isbn=978-0-8071-1553-4|page=157|first=Dante L.|last=Germino}}</ref> Francesco Gramsci worked as a low-level official,<ref name="IGS"/> and his financial difficulties and troubles with the police forced the family to move about through several villages in Sardinia until they finally settled in [[Ghilarza]].{{sfn|Hoare|Smith|1971|p=xviii}}

[[File:Former Gymnasium Carta Meloni in Santu Lussurgiu where Antonio Gramsci went in 1905 - 1907.jpg|thumb|Former Gymnasium Carta-Meloni in [[Santu Lussurgiu]], which Gramsci attended from 1905 to 1907]]
In 1898, Gramsci's father was convicted of [[embezzlement]] and imprisoned, reducing his family to destitution. The young Gramsci had to abandon schooling and work at various casual jobs until his father's release in 1904.{{sfn|Hoare|Smith|1971|pp=xviii–xix}} As a boy, Gramsci suffered from health problems, particularly a malformation of the spine that stunted his growth, as his adult height was less than 5 feet,<ref>Crehan, Kate (2002). ''Gramsci, Culture, and Anthropology''. University of California Press. p. 14. {{ISBN|0520236025}}.</ref> and left him seriously hunchbacked. For decades, it was reported that his condition had been due to a childhood accident—specifically, having been dropped by a nanny—but more recently it has been suggested that it was due to [[Pott disease]],<ref>Markowicz, Daniel M. (2011) "Gramsci, Antonio," in ''The Encyclopedia of Literary and Cultural Theory'', ed. Michael Ryan, {{ISBN|9781-405183123}}</ref> a form of [[tuberculosis]] that can cause deformity of the spine. Gramsci was also plagued by various internal disorders throughout his life.

Gramsci started secondary school in [[Santu Lussurgiu]] and completed it in [[Cagliari]],{{sfn|Santangelo|2021|p=216}} where he lodged with his elder brother Gennaro, a former soldier whose time on the mainland had made him a militant [[socialist]]. At the time, Gramsci's sympathies did not yet lie with socialism but rather with Sardinian autonomism,<ref>[http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/antonio-gramsci_%28Dizionario-di-Storia%29/ Antonio Gramsci, Dizionario di Storia Treccani] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160924034606/http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/antonio-gramsci_%28Dizionario-di-Storia%29/ |date=24 September 2016 }}. Treccani.it (8 November 1926). Retrieved on 24 April 2017.</ref> as well as the grievances of impoverished [[Sardinian people|Sardinian]] peasants and miners, whose mistreatment by the mainlanders would later deeply contribute to his intellectual growth.{{sfn|Hoare|Smith|1971|p=xix}}<ref>''Antonio Gramsci e la questione sarda'', a cura di Guido Melis, Cagliari, Della Torre, 1975</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thoughtco.com/antonio-gramsci-3026471|title=Why Antonio Gramsci Matters to Sociologists|website=ThoughtCo|access-date=29 June 2020|archive-date=15 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200615051237/https://www.thoughtco.com/antonio-gramsci-3026471|url-status=live}}</ref> They perceived their neglect as a result of privileges enjoyed by the rapidly industrialising [[Northern Italy]], and they tended to turn to a growing [[Sardinian nationalism]], brutally repressed by troops from the Italian mainland,<ref>[[Stuart Hall (cultural theorist)|Hall, Stuart]] (June 1986). "[https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/019685998601000202 Gramsci's relevance for the study of race and ethnicity] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231120115922/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/019685998601000202 |date=20 November 2023 }}". ''Journal of Communication Inquiry'' 10 (2), 5–27, Sage Journals</ref> as a response.<ref>{{in lang|it}} [http://ricerca.gelocal.it/lanuovasardegna/archivio/lanuovasardegna/2004/05/03/ST8PO_ST801.html Gramsci e l'isola laboratorio, ''La Nuova Sardegna''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210425221222/https://ricerca.gelocal.it/lanuovasardegna/archivio/lanuovasardegna/2004/05/03/ST8PO_ST801.html |date=25 April 2021 }}. Ricerca.gelocal.it (3 May 2004). Retrieved on 24 April 2017.</ref>

===Turin===
In 1911, Gramsci won a scholarship to study at the [[University of Turin]], sitting the exam at the same time as [[Palmiro Togliatti]].{{sfn|Hoare|Smith|1971|p=xx}} At [[Turin]], he read literature and took a keen interest in [[linguistics]], which he studied under [[Matteo Bartoli]]. Gramsci was in Turin while it was going through industrialization, with the [[Fiat]] and [[Lancia]] factories recruiting workers from poorer regions. Trade unions became established, and the first industrial social conflicts started to emerge.{{sfn|Hoare|Smith|1971|p=xxv}} Gramsci frequented socialist circles as well as associating with Sardinian emigrants on the Italian mainland. Both his earlier experiences in Sardinia and his environment on the mainland shaped his worldview. Gramsci joined the [[Italian Socialist Party]] (PSI) in late 1913, where he would later occupy a key position and observe from Turin the [[Russian Revolution]].<ref>{{Cite web|url= https://www.rs21.org.uk/2017/06/23/revolutionary-reflections-the-legacy-of-antonio-gramsci/|title= The Legacy of Antonio Gramsci|first= Gian Luigi|last= Deiana|date= 23 June 2017|access-date= 5 May 2019|archive-date= 5 May 2019|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190505013148/https://www.rs21.org.uk/2017/06/23/revolutionary-reflections-the-legacy-of-antonio-gramsci/|url-status= live}}</ref>

[[File:Loggiato.jpg|thumb|left|The Rectorate at the [[University of Turin]], where Gramsci studied]]
Although showing a talent for his studies, Gramsci had financial problems and poor health. Together with his growing political commitment, these led to him abandoning his education in early 1915, at age 24. By this time he had acquired an extensive knowledge of history and philosophy. At university, he had come into contact with the thought of [[Antonio Labriola]], [[Rodolfo Mondolfo]], [[Giovanni Gentile]], and most importantly, [[Benedetto Croce]], possibly the most widely respected Italian intellectual of his day. Labriola especially propounded a brand of [[Hegelian]] Marxism that he labelled "philosophy of [[praxis (process)|praxis]]".{{sfn|Hoare|Smith|1971|p=xxi}} Although Gramsci later used this phrase to escape the prison censors, his relationship with this current of thought was ambiguous throughout his life.

From 1914 onward, Gramsci's writings for socialist newspapers such as ''Il Grido del Popolo'' ({{ill|The Cry of the People|it|Il Grido del Popolo}}) earned him a reputation as a notable journalist. In 1916 he became co-editor of the [[Piedmont]] edition of  [[Avanti! (Italian newspaper)|''Avanti!'']], the Socialist Party official organ. An articulate and prolific writer of political theory, Gramsci proved a formidable commentator, writing on all aspects of Turin's social and political events.{{sfn|Hoare|Smith|1971|p=xxx}} Gramsci was at this time also involved in the education and organisation of Turin workers; he spoke in public for the first time in 1916 and gave talks on topics such as [[Romain Rolland]], the [[French Revolution]], the [[Paris Commune]], and [[Feminism|the emancipation of women]]. In the wake of the arrest of Socialist Party leaders that followed the revolutionary riots in August 1917, Gramsci became one of Turin's leading socialists; he was elected to the party's provisional committee and also made editor of ''Il Grido del Popolo''.{{sfn|Hoare|Smith|1971|pp=xxx–xxxi}}

In April 1919, with Togliatti, [[Angelo Tasca]] and [[Umberto Terracini]], Gramsci set up the weekly newspaper ''[[L'Ordine Nuovo]]'' (The New Order). In October of the same year, despite being divided into various hostile factions, the PSI moved by a large majority to join the [[Third International]]. [[Vladimir Lenin]] saw the ''L'Ordine Nuovo'' group as closest in orientation to the [[Bolsheviks]], and it received his backing against the anti-parliamentary programme of a [[left communist]], [[Amadeo Bordiga]].<ref name=Kolakowski1>{{cite book |date=1978 |title=Leszek Kolakowski – Main Currents of Marxism – Its Rise, Growth and, Dissolution – Volume III – The Breakdown |url=https://archive.org/details/maincurrentsofma00kola/page/223 |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=[https://archive.org/details/maincurrentsofma00kola/page/223 223] |isbn=978-0-19-824570-4 }}</ref>

In the course of tactical debates within the party, Gramsci's group mainly stood out due to its advocacy of [[workers' council]]s, which had come into existence in Turin spontaneously during the large strikes of 1919 and 1920. For Gramsci, these councils were the proper means of enabling workers to take control of the task of organising production, and saw them as preparing "the whole class for the aims of conquest and government".<ref>{{cite book |last=Steven |first=Mark |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fn-FEAAAQBAJ |title=Class War: A Literary History |date=9 May 2023 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-83976-069-3 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Fn-FEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA197 197]}}</ref> Although he believed his position at this time to be in keeping with Lenin's policy of "All Power to the Soviets",<ref>{{cite book | last=Femia | first=J. | title=The Machiavellian Legacy: Essays in Italian Political Thought |location = London | publisher=Palgrave Macmillan | year=1998 | isbn=978-0-230-37992-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KOmGDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA107 | access-date=2023-03-02 | page=107}}</ref> his stance that these Italian councils were [[communist]] rather than just one organ of political struggle against the bourgeoisie, was attacked by Bordiga for betraying a [[syndicalist]] tendency influenced by the thought of [[Georges Sorel]] and [[Daniel De Leon]]. By the time of the defeat of the Turin workers in spring 1920, Gramsci was almost alone in his defence of the councils.

===Communist Party of Italy===
[[File:Julia Schucht with sons 1930s.jpg|thumb|Julia Schucht with sons]]
The failure of the workers' councils to develop into a national movement convinced Gramsci that a [[Communist party]] in the [[Leninist]] sense was needed. The group around ''L'Ordine Nuovo'' declaimed incessantly against the PSI's centrist leadership and ultimately allied with Bordiga's far larger abstentionist faction. On 21 January 1921, in the town of [[Livorno]] (Leghorn), the [[Communist Party of Italy]] ({{Lang|it|Partito Comunista d'Italia}}, PCd'I) was founded. In opposition to Bordiga, Gramsci supported the ''[[Arditi del Popolo]]'', a militant anti-fascist group which struggled against the [[Blackshirts]]. Gramsci would be a leader of the party from its inception but was subordinate to Bordiga, whose emphasis on discipline, centralism and purity of principles dominated the party's programme until the latter lost the leadership in 1924.{{sfn|Hoare|Smith|1971|p=xlvi}} In 1922, Gramsci travelled to Russia as a representative of the new party. Here, he met Julia Schucht (Yulia Apollonovna Schucht, 1896–1980), a young [[Jewish]]<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii102/articles/antonio-gramsci-jnr-my-grandfather|title=My Grandfather|first=Antonio Gramsci|last=Jnr|date=1 December 2016|journal=New Left Review|issue=102|pages=68–75|via=New Left Review}}</ref> violinist whom he married in 1923 and with whom he had two sons, Delio (1924–1982) and Giuliano (1926–2007).<ref>[http://www.antoniogramsci.com/moglie_figli.htm Picture] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070614104957/http://www.antoniogramsci.com/moglie_figli.htm |date=14 June 2007 }} of Gramsci's wife and their two sons at the Italian-language [http://www.antoniogramsci.com Antonio Gramsci Website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020802000537/http://www.antoniogramsci.com/ |date=2 August 2002 }}.</ref> Gramsci never saw his second son.<ref>Crehan, Kate (2002). ''Gramsci, Culture, and Anthropology''. University of California Press. p. 17. {{ISBN|0520236025}}.</ref>

[[File:Antonio Gramsci commemorative plaque Moscow.jpg|thumb|left|200px|A commemorative plaque for Gramsci in [[Mokhovaya Street]] 16, Moscow. Translated, the inscription reads: "In this building in 1922–1923 worked the eminent figure of international communism and the labour movement and founder of the Italian Communist Party, Antonio Gramsci."]]
The Russian mission coincided with the advent of fascism in Italy, and Gramsci returned with instructions to foster, against the wishes of the PCd'I leadership, a [[united front]] of leftist parties against fascism. Such a front would ideally have had the PCd'I at its centre, through which Moscow would have controlled all the leftist forces, but others disputed this potential supremacy, as socialists had a significant, while communists seemed relatively young and too radical. Many believed that an eventual coalition led by communists would have functioned too remotely from political debate, and thus would have run the risk of isolation.

In late 1922 and early 1923, [[Benito Mussolini]]'s government embarked on a campaign of repression against the opposition parties, arresting most of the PCd'I leadership, including Bordiga. At the end of 1923, Gramsci travelled from Moscow to [[Vienna]], where he tried to revive a party torn by factional strife. In 1924, Gramsci, now recognised as head of the PCd'I, gained election as a deputy for the [[Veneto]]. He started organizing the launch of the official newspaper of the party, called {{Lang|it|[[L'Unità]]}} (Unity), living in Rome while his family stayed in Moscow. At its Lyon Congress in January 1926, Gramsci's theses calling for a united front to restore democracy to Italy were adopted by the party.

In 1926, [[Joseph Stalin]]'s manoeuvres inside the Bolshevik party moved Gramsci to write a letter to the [[Comintern]] in which he deplored the opposition led by [[Leon Trotsky]] but also underlined some presumed faults of the leader. Togliatti, in Moscow as a representative of the party, received the letter, opened it, read it, and decided not to deliver it. This caused a difficult conflict between Gramsci and Togliatti which they never completely resolved.<ref>Vacca, Giuseppe (2012). ''Vita e pensieri di Antonio Gramsci''. Turin: Einaudi.</ref>

===Imprisonment and death===
[[File:Antonio Gramsci Grave in Rome01.jpg|thumb|right|180px|Gramsci's grave at the [[Protestant Cemetery, Rome|Cimitero Acattolico]] in Rome]]
On 9 November 1926, the Fascist government enacted a new wave of emergency laws, taking as a pretext an alleged attempt on Mussolini's life that had occurred several days earlier. The Fascist police arrested Gramsci, despite his [[parliamentary immunity]], and brought him to the Roman prison ''[[Regina Coeli (prison)|Regina Coeli]]''. At his trial, Gramsci's prosecutor stated: "For twenty years we must stop this brain from functioning."{{sfn|Hoare|Smith|1971|p=lxxxix}} He received an immediate sentence of five years in confinement on the island of [[Ustica]], and the following year he received a sentence of 20 years' imprisonment in [[Turi, Apulia]], near [[Bari]].

Over 11 years in prison, his health deteriorated. Over this period, "his teeth fell out, his digestive system collapsed so that he could not eat solid food{{nbsp}}... he had convulsions when he vomited blood and suffered headaches so violent that he beat his head against the walls of his cell."{{sfn|Hoare|Smith|1971|p=xcii}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Garrett|first=Paul Michael|date=4 July 2018|chapter=Thinking with Antonio Gramsci|title=Social Work and Social Theory|publisher=Policy Press|pages=103–122|doi=10.51952/9781447341925.ch006|isbn=978-1-4473-4192-5}}</ref> An international campaign, organised by [[Piero Sraffa]] at [[Cambridge University]] and Gramsci's sister-in-law Tatiana, was mounted to demand Gramsci's release.{{sfn|Jones|2006|p=25}} In 1933, he was moved from the prison at Turi to a clinic at [[Formia]];{{sfn|Hoare|Smith|1971|p=xciii}} he was still being denied adequate medical attention.{{sfn|Hoare|Smith|1971|p=xciv}} Two years later, he was moved to the Quisisana clinic in Rome. He was due for release on 21 April 1937 and planned to retire to Sardinia for [[convalescence]], but a combination of [[arteriosclerosis]], [[pulmonary tuberculosis]], [[high blood pressure]], [[angina]], [[gout]], and acute [[gastric disorders]] meant that he was too ill to move.{{sfn|Hoare|Smith|1971|p=xciv}}

Gramsci died on 27 April 1937, at the age of 46. His ashes are buried in the [[Cimitero Acattolico]] in Rome. By moving Gramsci from prison to hospital when he became very ill, the Mussolini regime was attempting to avoid the accusation that it was his incarceration that caused his death. Nevertheless, his death was linked directly to prison conditions.{{Sfn|Ebner|2011|ps=Ebner says that Mussolini "stage-managed the cases of prominent anti-Fascists like Gramsci" (p. 150) but that, in fact, the regime "rarely granted freedom to leading Communist Party militants" (p. 144). Liberal critics of Mussolini's imprisonment policies likened such policies to "dying a slow death" (p. 105). On Mussolini's pretence of having a benign regime see in particular Chapter 5, "The Politics of Pardons".|pp=76, 105, 144, 150}} Gramsci's grandson, Antonio Jr., speculated that Gramsci had been working with the Soviet government to facilitate a move to Moscow, but changed course as the political climate in Russia [[Moscow Trials|intensified]] in 1936.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Gramsci Jr.|first=Antonio|date=1 December 2016|url=https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii102/articles/antonio-gramsci-jnr-my-grandfather|title=Antonio Gramsci, Jnr, My Grandfather|magazine=New Left Review|issue=102|access-date=8 July 2023|archive-date=26 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230926194457/https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii102/articles/antonio-gramsci-jnr-my-grandfather|url-status=live}}</ref>