Italy: Grey-Flannel Communism

Shouted a party member from the rear of the crowded ballroom: "Let's talk about Stalinists and anti-Stalinists!" The challenge shocked the 4,000 comrades who jammed Bologna's ornate 13th century Palazzo del Podestá. For as long as he could, the speaker, Italian Communist Boss Palmiro Togliatti, ignored the interruption and continued his prepared address on national politics. Just before he finished, Togliatti replied to the heckler: "We are for the socialist revolution, which has opened the road to a new society. This society has been built by the Soviet Union. Who built it—the...

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