{"id":4248,"date":"2021-04-06T20:41:42","date_gmt":"2021-04-06T20:41:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vocilibereurss.fupress.net\/ignazio-silone\/"},"modified":"2021-12-26T07:04:44","modified_gmt":"2021-12-26T07:04:44","slug":"ignazio-silone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vocilibereurss.fupress.net\/en\/ignazio-silone\/","title":{"rendered":"Ignazio Silone"},"content":{"rendered":"[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” overlay_strength=”0.3″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”inherit” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” gradient_direction=”left_to_right” overlay_strength=”0.3″ width=”1\/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column_text]\n

Pescina, 1900\u2013Geneve, 1978<\/h4>\n
\"\"

Ignazio Silone in his study. Source: mangialibri.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

As a political and literary figure, Ignazio Silone, co-founder with Nicola Chiaromonte of the monthly magazine \u201cTempo presente\u201d<\/a> (Present Times), had important contacts with Russia and the Soviet Union both during his membership of the PCI (Italian Communist Party) and after his expulsion in 1931. During his life, Silone was subjected to continuous reassessment, speculation and judgement, a process that continued after his death. However, his contributions to disseminating expressions of Soviet dissent in the 1950s and 1960s in Italy is irrefutable (cf. Guagnelli 2012-2013).
\nHis articles published by the magazine edited by Chiaromonte demonstrate particular interest in the trial of Andrei Siniavskii and Iulii Dani\u0117l\u2019<\/a>, who Silone defended in 1966, as well as in the people of Hungary and Czechoslovakia as victims of Soviet invasion in 1956 e 1968 (cf. Silone 1956a, 1956b, 1966, 1968a, 1968b, 1968c). The ideological crisis Silone experienced in the 1920s, unresolved by his visit to the Soviet Union in 1927, deepened after the war, which convinced the writer to condemn every form of political coercion. In defending Soviet dissent, Silone confirmed his opposition to all dictatorial regimes (he had long been critical of Lenin\u2019s purges, cf. Larocca 2014). As Togliatti stated, he was far from being passive or indifferent. In 1968, when Soviet tanks entered Prague, Silone attacked the USSR repeatedly in \u201cTempo presente\u201d<\/a>, expressing solidarity and sympathy towards the Czech people (cf. Silone 1968a, 1968b, 1968c). Silone\u2019s anti-totalitarian position led him to join the international editorial committee of the tamizdat<\/em> magazine, \u201cKontinent\u201d<\/a>, (he was a member until n. 17 of 1978, the year of his death): his role as editor of Vladimir Maksimov\u2019s magazine, was a natural step in his intellectual development as he became increasingly committed to opposing every form of censure or violation of individual rights. In the article\u00a0Eshch\u00eb raz o pravde istorii <\/em>(Once again, on the truth of history) published in n. 2 of 1975 of\u00a0\u201cKontinent\u201d<\/a> (cf. Silone 1975), Silone underlined the necessity of recognising the historical crimes committed by the CPSU (citing the case of Kirov). Togliatti\u2019s PCI did not voice disapproval (cf. ibid<\/em>.).
\nIn 1940 Silone had severely criticised the political position of the Italian Communist Party in La fine di un concordato\u00a0<\/em>(The end of an agreement), for its subservience to the \u201cbureaucratic dictatorship\u201d of Stalin\u2019s regime (cf. Silone 1998). Silone\u2019s description and denunciation of the dark side of the Soviet regime offered an \u201cemergency exit\u201d, an alternative to the direction that he believed had been taken by Togliatti\u2019s party, which was one of the \u201csofter instruments employed by Muscovite terror against heretics of international communism\u201d (Silone 1969: 162).<\/p>\n

Giuseppina Larocca
\n<\/em><\/strong>[30th<\/sup> June 2021]\n

Translation by Tammy Corkish<\/p>\n

Bibliography<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n