Editing Enrico Berlinguer (section)

== Secretary of the Italian Communist Party ==
Berlinguer's career was carrying him towards the highest positions in the party. After having held many responsible posts, he was elected in the [[1968 Italian general election]] for the first time a member of the country's [[Chamber of Deputies (Italy)|Chamber of Deputies]] in the electoral district of Rome. The following year, he was elected deputy national secretary of the party, the secretary being [[Luigi Longo]].<ref name="Expoitalyonline 2015"/> In this role, he took part in the [[1969 International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties]] in [[Moscow]], where his delegation disagreed with the official political line and refused to support the final report. Berlinguer's unexpected stance made waves, as he gave the strongest speech by a major Communist leader ever heard in Moscow.<ref name="Madonia 2022">{{cite web|last=Madonia|first=Mattai|date=3 March 2022|url=https://thevision.com/cultura/berlinguer-nato/|title=Berlinguer in Italia ha rivoluzionato il comunismo, non inchinandosi all'Urss e preferendo la Nato|website=The Vision|language=it|access-date=17 July 2023}}</ref> He refused to excommunicate the [[Chinese Communists]] and directly told [[Leonid Brezhnev]] that the [[Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia]], which he termed "the tragedy in [[Prague]]", had made clear the considerable differences within the international Communist movement on fundamental questions, such as national [[sovereignty]], [[socialist democracy]], and the freedom of culture.<ref name="Expoitalyonline 2015"/> This dissent, which was termed "the new course",<ref>{{cite journal|last=Höbel|first=Alexander|date=2007|title=Il contrasto tra Pci e Pcus sull'intervento sovietico in Cecoslovacchia. Nuove acquisizioni|journal=Studi Storici|language=it|volume=48|issue=2|pages=523–550|issn=0039-3037|jstor=20568021}}</ref> was followed by further condemnations in the 1980s.<ref name="Treccani 2011">{{cite web|url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/partito-comunista-italiano/|title=Partito comunista italiano|website=Treccani|language=it|date=2011|access-date=8 July 2023}}</ref>

Already a prominent leader in the party, Berlinguer was elected to the position of national secretary in 1972, when Longo resigned on grounds of ill health. At the party's thirteenth congress that elected him, Berlinguer said that he would be neither Togliatti nor Longo.<ref name="La Repubblica 2019">{{cite news|url=https://www.repubblica.it/dossier/cultura/enrico-berlinguer-35/2019/06/09/news/enrico_berlinguer_le_sue_citazioni_piu_celebri-228371486/|title=Enrico Berlinguer, le sue citazioni più celebri|work=La Repubblica|language=it|date=9 June 2019|access-date=8 July 2023}}</ref> In 1973, having been hospitalised after a car accident during a visit to the [[People's Republic of Bulgaria]], which is now widely considered an attempt on his life on orders from Moscow,<ref>[http://www.bulgaria-italia.com/bg/news/news.asp?body=1439 Chi Voleva Uccidere Berlinguier?] Bulgaria-Italy. 8 June 2005. Rome. Retrieved 10 January 2015.</ref> Berlinguer wrote three famous articles ("Reflections on Italy", "After the Facts of Chile", and "After the Coup [in Chile]") for the party's intellectual weekly magazine ''[[Rinascita]]''. In these, he presented the strategy of the [[Historic Compromise]], a proposed coalition between the PCI and the DC to grant Italy a period of political stability, at a time of severe economic crisis,<ref name="Bedeschi 2022">{{cite news|last=Bedeschi|first=Giuseppe|date=21 May 2022|url=https://www.ilfoglio.it/politica/2022/05/21/news/la-nato-di-berlinguer-uno-schiaffo-a-mosca-4021953/|title=La Nato di Berlinguer, uno schiaffo a Mosca|work=Il Foglio|language=it|access-date=17 July 2023}}</ref> and in a context in which, after ''[[Piano Solo]]'' and ''[[Golpe Borghese]]'' had been revealed, some forces were allegedly manoeuvering for a coup d'état in Italy.<ref name="Expoitalyonline 2015"/>

In "Reflections of Italy", Berlinguer explicitly cited the ''historic compromise'' and wrote: "The seriousness of the country's problems, the ever looming threats of reactionary adventures, and the need to finally open up to the nation a sure path of economic development, social renewal, and democratic progress make it ever more urgent and mature that we reach what can be defined as the great new 'historic compromise' between the forces that gather and represent the great majority of the Italian people."<ref name="La Repubblica 2019"/> By this, Berlinguer meant that it was illusory to believe that, even if left-wing parties had managed to reach 51 per cent of the votes and parliamentary representation, this would have guaranteed the life of a government that was the expression of that 51 per cent as opposed to the oppositional front at 49 per cent. Within this context, over a left-wing alternative, he proposed a democratic alternative that would have resulted in a collaboration between communists, socialists, and [[Christian democrats]].<ref name="Bedeschi 2022"/> This policy was not popular among the party and its base. It was not well received by Longo, who became the party's president in August 1972 and did not like the ''compromise'' phrasing. Among the working-class base, Berlinguer was asked in some meetings with workers whether there was no "risk of yielding to the bosses" or whether this policy did not "weaken the spirit of the Communists".<ref name="Bedeschi 2022"/>

=== International relations ===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-M1204-026, Berlin, Besuch Berlinguer bei Honecker.jpg|thumb|left|Berlinguer (left) with the [[East German]] leader [[Erich Honecker]] in 1973]]
In 1973, Berlinguer went to [[Belgrade]], the capital of the [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia]], to meet with Yugoslav president [[Josip Broz Tito]], with a view to further developing his relationships with the major Communist parties of Europe, Asia, and Africa.<ref name="Expoitalyonline 2015"/> In 1976, Berlinguer confirmed the autonomous position of the PCI vis-à-vis the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] (CPSU). Before 5,000 Communist delegates in Moscow, he spoke of ''pluralistic system'', which was translated by the interpreter as ''multiform'', and referred to the PCI's intentions to build "a socialism that we believe necessary and possible only in Italy".<ref name="Expoitalyonline 2015"/> In one of his speeches in Moscow, [[Igor Ponomariov]], [[Leonid Brezhnev]]'s closest collaborator, left the room visibly annoyed. In September 1976, during the [[Festa dell'Unità]] in Turin, [[Mikhail Gorbachev]], the then secretary of the Russian district of [[Stavropol]], having learned about his speeches in Moscow, asked to meet Berlinguer.<ref name="Sbaraglia 2022">{{cite web|last=Sbaraglia|first=Emiliano|date=25 May 2022|url=https://www.collettiva.it/copertine/italia/2022/05/25/news/berlinguer_compagno_di_vita-2132650/|title=Berlinguer, compagno di vita|language=it|website=Collettiva|access-date=17 July 2023}}</ref> In November 1977, upon the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the October Revolution, Berlinguer held another speech in Moscow titled "Democracy is a Universal Value".<ref>{{cite speech|last=Berlinguer|first=Enrico|date=3 November 1977|url=https://www.enricoberlinguer.it/enrico/scritti/la-democrazia-valore-universale/|title=La Democrazia è un valore universale. Discorso in occasione del 60° anniversario della Rivoluzione d'Ottobre|language=it|location=Moscow|access-date=8 July 2023|via=EnricoBerlinguer.it}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|last=Liguori|first=Guido|date=25 May 2022|url=https://jacobin.com/2022/05/enrico-berlinguer-italian-communist-party-pci|title=For Enrico Berlinguer, Communism Meant the Fullest Spread of Democracy|magazine=Jacobin|access-date=8 July 2023}}</ref>

When Berlinguer secured the PCI's condemnation of any kind of interference, the rupture with the Soviets was effectively complete, although the party still for some years received money from Moscow. Since Italy was suffering the interference of [[NATO]], the Soviets said it seemed that the only interference that the Italian Communists could not suffer was the Soviet one.<ref name="Expoitalyonline 2015"/> In an interview held on 10 June 1976 with ''[[Corriere della Sera]]'', Berlinguer declared that he felt "safer under NATO's umbrella".<ref>{{cite news|last=Mantovan|first=Michela|date=23 June 1998|url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/1998/giugno/23/Nato_sinistra_dal_rifiuto_Togliatti_co_0_98062312556.shtml|url-status=dead|title=Nato e sinistra, dal rifiuto di Togliatti all' 'ombrello' di Berlinguer|work=Corriere della sera|language=it|page=2|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100512113759/http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/1998/giugno/23/Nato_sinistra_dal_rifiuto_Togliatti_co_0_98062312556.shtml|archive-date=12 May 2010|access-date=17 July 2023}}</ref> Berlinguer's acceptance of NATO did not dent American suspicion of him; appearing on the cover of ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' on 14 June 1976, he was named "The Red Threat".<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19760614,00.html|title=Italy: The Red Threat|magazine=Time|date=14 June 1976|access-date=17 July 2023|at=Cover}}</ref> In a 1975 speech to Italy's Chamber of Deputies, Berlinguer had said that the Italian Communists had sympathy for the American people and wanted to cultivate a friendship with the United States but that the "respect for alliances does not mean that Italy has to keep its head down".<ref name="La Repubblica 2019"/> At the same time, he ruled out Italy leaving NATO on the grounds that unilateral exits of individual countries from the NATO or the [[Warsaw Pact]] would have disturbed the process of international [[détente]].<ref name="Bedeschi 2022"/>

=== Eurocommunism ===
In a 1975 speech for [[Dolores Ibárruri]], Berlinguer stated: "It is necessary that with audacity and intelligence we know how to free ourselves from any scholastic application of our doctrine understood as dogma, or from orientations that are no longer adequate to current experience and historical conditions, to walk towards new ways of advancing towards socialism."<ref name="La Repubblica 2019"/> That same year also saw the joint statement of Berlinguer and [[Santiago Carrillo]] of the [[Spanish Communist Party]], which said: "The Italian and Spanish Communists solemnly declare that — in their conception of a democratic advance towards socialism in peace and freedom — what is expressed is not a tactical attitude but a strategic conviction."<ref name="Bedeschi 2022"/> Berlinguer reiterated this feeling in a 1976 meeting in Moscow, where he said: "We are fighting for a socialist society which is the highest point in the development of all democratic achievements and guarantees respect for all individual and collective freedoms, religious freedoms and freedom of culture, art and science. We think that in Italy we can and must ... build a socialist society with the contribution of political forces, organisations, different parties, and that the working class can and must affirm its historical function in a pluralistic and democratic system."<ref name="Bedeschi 2022"/>

In 1977, at a meeting in [[Madrid]] between Berlinguer, Carrillo, and [[Georges Marchais]] of the [[French Communist Party]], the fundamental lines of [[Eurocommunism]] were laid out. A few months later, Berlinguer was again in Moscow, where he gave another speech that was poorly received by his hosts and published by ''[[Pravda]]'', the PCSU's [[official newspaper]], in a censored version.<ref name="Expoitalyonline 2015"/> About [[democracy]], Berlinguer said: "The experience gained has led us to the conclusion that democracy today is not only the ground on which the class adversary is forced to retreat, but it is also the historically universal value on which to found an original socialist society."<ref name="La Repubblica 2019"/> The years after Communists first joined the [[European Parliament]] in 1969 saw a process towards [[pro-Europeanism]] that culminated, for the [[1976 Italian general election]], in the candidacy within the PCI's electoral list of [[Altiero Spinelli]], the Italian father of [[European federalism]] and one of the [[founding fathers of the European Union]]. In the words of historian Antonio Varsori, the PCI interpreted the pro-European option as "an opportunity to overcome the division of the old continent and for the birth of a socialist, neutralist, and tendentially pro-Third World Europe".<ref>{{cite thesis|last=Di Donato|first=Michele|date=2013|url=https://arcadia.sba.uniroma3.it/bitstream/2307/4227/1/Pci%20e%20socialdemocrazie%20europee%20da%20Longo%20a%20Berlinguer.pdf|title=Pci e socialdemocrazie europee da Longo a Berlinguer|degree=PhD|language=it|location=Rome|publisher=Roma Tre University|page=14|access-date=17 July 2023}}</ref>

=== Historic Compromise ===
[[File:Craxi Berlinguer.jpg|thumb|Berlinguer with the [[Italian Socialist Party]] leader [[Bettino Craxi]]]]
Moving step by step, Berlinguer was building a consensus in the PCI towards a rapprochement with other components of society. After the surprising opening of 1970 toward conservatives and the still discussed proposal of the Historic Compromise, he published a correspondence with Monsignor [[Luigi Bettazzi]], the [[Bishop of Ivrea]]; it was an astonishing event since [[Pope Pius XII]] had [[excommunicated]] the communists soon after [[World War II]] and the possibility of any relationship between communists and Catholics seemed very unlikely. This act also served to counteract the allegation, commonly and popularly expressed, that the PCI was protecting leftist terrorists in the harshest years of terrorism in Italy. In this context, the PCI opened its doors to many Catholics and a debate started about the possibility of contact. Notably, Berlinguer's Catholic family was not brought in out of its strictly respected privacy.<ref name="Expoitalyonline 2015"/> In the [[1975 Italian regional elections]], the left-wing coalition led by the PCI added to [[Emilia-Romagna]], [[Tuscany]], and [[Umbria]] the regions of [[Piedmont]], [[Liguria]], [[Marche]], and [[Lazio]]. As a party, the PCI confirmed itself in the [[1975 Italian local elections]], which were held on the same day on 15–16 June, where it won 33.4% of the votes compared to the 35.3% of the votes of the DC. In June 1976, the PCI obtained what would be its best result in the party's history and gained 34.4% of the vote.<ref name="Treccani 2011"/>

In Italy, while a government of national solidarity was ruling, Berlinguer said that in an emergency government a strong and powerful cabinet to solve a crisis of exceptional gravity was needed. On 16 March 1978, [[Aldo Moro]], president of the DC, was kidnapped by the [[Red Brigades]], a [[Marxist–Leninist]] terrorist group, on the day that the new government was going to be sworn in before the [[Italian Parliament]]. During this crisis, Berlinguer adhered to the ''fronte della fermezza'' (front of firmness), refusing to negotiate with terrorists, who had proposed to liberate Moro in exchange for the release of some imprisoned terrorists. Despite the PCI's firm stand against terrorism, the Moro incident left the party more isolated. In June 1978, the PCI gave its approval and ultimately active support to a campaign against [[Giovanni Leone]], the then president of Italy who was accused of being involved in the [[Lockheed bribery scandal]], which resulted in his resignation. Berlinguer supported the election of the veteran socialist [[Sandro Pertini]] as president of Italy; his presidency did not produce the effects that the PCI had hoped for. In Italy, after a new president is elected, the government resigns. The PCI expected Pertini to use his influence in its favour but was instead influenced by other political leaders like [[Giovanni Spadolini]] of the PRI and [[Bettino Craxi]] of the [[Italian Socialist Party]] (PSI), and thus the PCI remained out of the government.<ref name="Expoitalyonline 2015"/> About Craxi, Berlinguer said: "The thing that worries me about Craxi is that sometimes it seems to me that he thinks only of power for power's sake."<ref name="La Repubblica 2019"/>

The Historic Compromise ended in 1979 when the PCI exited from the [[parliamentary majority]], amid negative electoral trends.<ref name="Treccani 2011"/> The policy was unpopular among its base and was criticised for its contradictions, such as how to start a path towards socialism through a compromise with the DC, which was not economically socialist and from 1947 onwards had always been considered by the PCI as its historical enemy, what would have been the most urgent socialist-leaning measures, and the fact that on those points Berlinguer remained vague.<ref name="Bedeschi 2022"/> Another contradiction was that, in the winter of 1976–1977, severe deflationary economic maneuvers were implemented and mostly hit the working class; before the Historic Compromise, the PCI would have defined those maneuvers as a sting to be fought firmly but now accepted it as part of a two-stage policy (first the recovery measures, then the reforms), which was similar to that adopted by the PSI in the [[Organic centre-left]] governments that the PCI had criticised. At the same time, the policy is praised for its uncompromising support of democracy and civil rights.<ref name="Bedeschi 2022"/>

Berlinguer continued with the policy on the grounds that the process of legitimising communists would be long (the United States were bitterly opposed even under [[Jimmy Carter]]), and that choosing the election route, in the middle of serious economic and terrorist crises, would favour the political right.<ref name="Bedeschi 2022"/> In early  1978, the Historic Compromise led to the contracted, recognised, and explicit" participation of the PCI in the majority government that would support [[Giulio Andreotti]]'s new cabinet that was defined as one of national solidarity.<ref name="Bedeschi 2022"/> The beginnings of this government were negative for the PCI because Moro had introduced personalities deeply disliked by Communists, in order to bring the whole DC to this agreement with the PCI, including the currents that opposed it, and Berlinguer thought of voting negative in a [[motion of confidence]].<ref name="Bedeschi 2022"/> Before this could happen, Moro was kidnapped and killed, and the PCI suffered losses in the [[1979 Italian general election]] held in June.<ref name="Bedeschi 2022"/>

=== Domestic policies and views ===
[[File:Enrico Berlinguer 1970.jpg|thumb|left|Berlinguer in the 1970s]]
During the 1970s, the PCI governed many Italian regions, sometimes more than half of them. Notably, the regional governments of [[Emilia-Romagna]] and [[Tuscany]] were concrete proof of PCI's governmental capabilities. In this period, Berlinguer turned his attention to the exercise of local power to show that "the trains could run on time" under the PCI. He personally took part in electoral campaigns in the provinces and local councils. While other parties sent only local leaders, this helped the party to win many elections at these levels.<ref name="Expoitalyonline 2015"/> In the June 1975 regional elections, the PCI's gap from the DC, which had been 10% points in the [[1970 Italian regional elections]], narrowed to less than two per cent at 1.8%, the PCI having jumped to 33.4% after a surge of 6.2%, while the DC fell to 35.2%, with a loss of 3.6%.<ref name="Bedeschi 2022"/> In the June 1976 national elections, the PCI continued to grow at 34.4%; while the DC recovered and achieved 38.7%, the minor parties had dropped, and there were no longer the numbers for [[centrist]] governments.<ref name="Bedeschi 2022"/> About the future, in an interview in June 1981 to ''Moby Dick'', the monthly of the Sicilian FGCI, Berlinguer said: "We save ourselves and move forward if we act together and not just one by one."<ref name="La Repubblica 2019"/>

In a 1980 interview with [[Oriana Fallaci]], Berlinguer said: "We are communists. We are communists with originality and peculiarity, distinguishing ourselves from all the other communist parties: but we are communists, we remain communists."<ref name="La Repubblica 2019"/> About [[fanaticism]], he told Fallaci: "I don't throw rants at anyone, I don't like to hurl curses, curses are expressions of fanaticism and there is too much fanaticism in the world."<ref name="La Repubblica 2019"/> That same year, he stated on ''Tribuna politica'' that [[communism]] is "the just transformation of society".<ref name="La Repubblica 2019"/> In an interview in 1981 with [[Eugenio Scalfari]] of ''[[la Repubblica]]'', Berlinguer outlined the ''questione morale'', or moral question.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.repubblica.it/politica/2016/07/28/news/questione_morale_berlinguer-144942852/|title='I partiti? Solo potere e clientela'. Così Berlinguer lanciò l'allarme|work=La Repubblica|language=it|date=28 July 2016|access-date=8 July 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Carbonara|first=Stefano|date=19 February 2022|url=https://www.monopolitrerose.it/politica/enrico-berlinguer-la-questione-morale|title=Enrico Berlinguer. La questione morale|work=Monopoli tre rose|language=it|access-date=8 July 2023}}</ref> He said: "Today's parties are above all machines of power and ''[[Clientelism|clientela]]''."<ref name="La Repubblica 2019"/> About the moral question, he added: "The moral question has existed for some time, but it has now become the first and essential political question because the recovery of trust in the institutions, the effective governance of the country, and the stability of the democratic regime depend on its solution."<ref name="La Repubblica 2019"/> About [[capitalism]], he said: "We think that the capitalist type of economic and social development is the cause of serious distortions, of immense costs and social inequalities, of enormous waste of wealth."<ref name="La Repubblica 2019"/>

In a 1981 interview to ''[[Critica marxista]]'', Berlinguer outlined the difference from other parties. He said: "Our main difference from the others is that we Communists do not give up working and fighting for a radical transformation of society and the construction of a society of free and equal people. They would like left-wing parties that would limit themselves to correcting some flaws in the current system: we are not that type of party and we never will be."<ref>{{cite news|last=Marras|first=Gian Nicola|date=16 June 2014|url=https://www.manifestosardo.org/la-diversita-berlinguer/|title=La diversità di Berlinguer|work=Il Manifesto Sardo|language=it|access-date=8 July 2023}}</ref> In the same interview, he reiterated: "We do not give up building a 'society of free and equal', we do not give up leading the struggle of men and women for the production of the conditions of their lives."<ref name="La Repubblica 2019"/> He stated that this was the main difference from social democrats and other socialists, and said that "they put the commitment to change the given structure between parents, leading them to the obfuscation and loss of their own ideal and political autonomy. Our difference from social democracy lies in the fact that we communists will never give up that transforming commitment.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mafai|first=Miriam|date=1996|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w_jQbE6zAT4C|title=Dimenticare Berlinguer: la sinistra italiana e la tradizione comunista|language=it|location=Rome|publisher=Donzelli Editore|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=w_jQbE6zAT4C&pg=PA80 80]|isbn=978-88-7989-291-9}}</ref> About other Communist parties, he said: "Our main 'anomaly' compared to several other communist and workers' parties is that we are convinced that in the process towards this goal we must remain — and we will remain — faithful to the method of democracy. The 'assault on heaven' — this beautiful image of Marx — is not for us Italian communists a project of irrationalistic climbing to the absolute."<ref name="La Repubblica 2019"/> In a speech delivered by Berlinguer at the FGCI congress held in Milan in 1982,<ref>{{cite web|last=Romeo|first=Ilaria|date=2 April 2021|url=https://www.collettiva.it/copertine/italia/2021/04/02/news/enrico_berlinguer-976246/|title=Enrico Berlinguer ai giovani: se vi impadronite del sapere, se lottate con lavoratori e oppressi, il vecchio ordine non avrà scampo|website=Collettiva|language=it|access-date=8 July 2023}}</ref> he said: "If young people organise themselves, take over every branch of knowledge, and fight with the workers and the oppressed, there is no escape for an old order founded on privilege and injustice."<ref name="La Repubblica 2019"/>

In an article written for ''Rinascita'' on 6 December 1982,<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Berlinguer|first=Ernico|date=6 December 1982|url=https://www.enricoberlinguer.it/enrico/scritti/partito-societa-anni80/|title=Partito e società nella realtà degli anni '80|magazine=Rinascità|language=it|access-date=8 July 2023|via=EnricoBerlinguer.it}}</ref> titled "Party and Society in the Reality of the 1980s", Berlinguer said: "There can be no inventiveness, imagination, creation of the new if you start by burying yourself, your history and reality."<ref name="La Repubblica 2019"/> In an interview in 1983 with [[Ferdinando Adornato]], he said about communism that "scientists are discussing more about the ''sole dell'avvenire'' [the establishment of socialism] today than the communists."<ref name="La Repubblica 2019"/> That same year, in an interview with Giovanni Minoli about the [[labour movement]], he stated: "We refuse to let the usual ones pay, the workers, the popular masses. And we believe that if there must be sacrifices, and everyone must contribute proportionately, they must contribute to achieving certain goals, not to make the country go backwards."<ref name="La Repubblica 2019"/> In his last rally, held on 7 June 1984, before his death, Berlinguer said: "We are convinced that the world, even this terrible, intricate world of today, can be known, interpreted, transformed, and put at the service of man, his well-being, his happiness. The test for this goal is a test that can worthily fill a life."<ref name="La Repubblica 2019"/> During his final rally, held just days later in [[Padua]], he stated: "Everyone work, house by house, company by company, street by street, in dialogue with the citizens, with trust for the battles we have waged, for the proposals we are presenting, for what we were and are. It is possible to win new and wider support for our lists, for our cause, which is the cause of peace, freedom, work, the progress of our civilisation!"<ref name="La Repubblica 2019"/><ref>{{cite web|last=Romeo|first=Ilaria|date=7 June 2023|url=https://www.collettiva.it/rubriche/buona-memoria/2023/06/07/news/il-testamento-di-berlinguer-3110053/|title=Il testamento di Berlinguer|work=Collettiva|language=it|access-date=8 July 2023}}</ref>

=== Break with the Soviet Union and the Democratic Alternative ===
In 1980, the PCI publicly condemned the [[Soviet invasion of Afghanistan]], and Moscow then immediately sent [[Georges Marchais]] to Rome to try to bring Berlinguer into line; he was received with perceptible coldness.<ref name="Expoitalyonline 2015"/> The break with the Soviets and other Communist parties became clear when the PCI did not participate in the 1980 International Conference of Communist Parties held in [[Paris]]. Instead, Berlinguer made an official visit to [[China]].<ref name="Expoitalyonline 2015"/> In November 1980, Berlinguer declared in Salerno that the idea of a possible Historic Compromise had been put aside, and it would be replaced with the idea of the Democratic Alternative to both the [[real socialism]] of the East and the then [[social democracy]] of the West.<ref name="Expoitalyonline 2015"/><ref>{{cite conference|last=Ciofi|first=Paolo|title=Un nuovo socialismo. La terza via oltre il modello sovietico e la socialdemocrazia. Enrico Berlinguer|conference=Convegno di Futura Umanità per i 100 anni dalla fondazione del PCI|language=it|date=2021|quote=Comunista italiano e perciò rivoluzionario democratico, Berlinguer fu un grande innovatore. La questione che egli tuttora ci propone, non cancellando il significato e il valore della rottura storica rappresentata dalla rivoluzione russa dell'Ottobre 1917 e dai successivi percorsi aperti nel mondo, è quella di un'altra prospettiva, di un altro modello di società, di un altro socialismo rispetto a quelli fino ad allora conosciuti, il modello sovietico e il modello socialdemocratico.|trans-quote=An Italian communist and therefore a democratic revolutionary, Berlinguer was a great innovator. The question that he still proposes to us, without erasing the meaning and value of the historical rupture represented by the Russian Revolution of October 1917 and the subsequent paths opened up in the world, is that of another perspective, of another model of society, of another socialism than those known until then, the Soviet model and the social-democratic model.}}</ref>

In 1981, Berlinguer said that, in his personal opinion, the progressive force of the October Revolution had been exhausted.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Brogi|first=Alessandro|date=2011|title=Review of Berlinguer e la fine del comunismo|journal=Journal of Cold War Studies|volume=13|issue=4|pages=274–278|doi=10.1162/JCWS_r_00158|issn=1520-3972|jstor=26924076|s2cid=57563642}}</ref> The PCI criticised the [[martial law in Poland]] and soon the PCI's split with the CPSU became definitive and official, followed by a long polemic between ''Pravda'' and ''[[l'Unità]]'' (the official newspaper of PCI), not made any milder after an October meeting with [[Cuba]]n leader [[Fidel Castro]] in [[Havana]];<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://archivio.panorama.it/archivio/Un-giorno-io-Berlinguer-e-Fidel|title=Un giorno io Berlinguer e Castro|magazine=Panorama|language=it|date=22 November 2014|access-date=17 July 2023}}{{dead link|date=September 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Lecis|first=Vindice|date=26 November 2016|url=http://www.fuoripagina.it/2016/11/26/parla-antonio-rubbi-quando-con-berlinguer-incontrammo-fidel-castro-quellattrazione-straordinaria-e-gli-scontri-tra-i-due-leader/|title=Parla Antonio Rubbi: quando con Berlinguer incontrammo Fidel Castro. Quell'attrazione straordinaria (e le divergenze) tra i due leader|website=Fuoripagina|language=it|access-date=17 July 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Minuti|first=Gioia|date=29 May 2018|url=https://it.granma.cu/mundo/2018-05-29/fidel-invito-enrico-berlinguer-a-cuba-nellottobre-del-1981|title=Fidel invitò Enrico Berlinguer a Cuba nell'ottobre del 1981|work=Granma|language=it|access-date=17 July 2023}}</ref> the PCI joked that they succeeded where the [[CIA]] failed when Berlinguer closed the hand of Castro's security chief in the door of a [[GAZ Chaika]] who let out a single stoic moan (''[[l'Unità]]''{{'}}s Havana correspondent  recalled that "a sinister noise of broken bones" was heard) before being hospitalised but the episode did not spoil Berlinguer's visit.<ref>{{cite news|last=Feltri|first=Mattia|date=5 December 2016|url=https://www.lastampa.it/esteri/2016/12/05/news/quando-berlinguer-disse-un-abisso-coi-paesi-dell-est-1.34778111/|title=Quando Berlinguer disse: 'Un abisso coi Paesi dell'Est'|work=La Stampa|language=it|access-date=17 July 2023}}</ref> Nonetheless, his last years were marked by attempts for unity among the national and international political left.<ref name="Expoitalyonline 2015"/> He also continued to underline the necessary link between democracy and socialism, which was followed by a strong commitment on the issues of [[nuclear disarmament]] and [[détente]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|last=|first=|date=2011|url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/partito-comunista-italiano_%28Dizionario-di-Storia%29/|title=Partito comunista italiano|encyclopedia=Dizionario di Storia|language=it|volume=|location=Rome|publisher=Institute of the Italian Encyclopedia|access-date=16 July 2023}}</ref>