Umberto Elia Terracini ( Genoa, 27 July 1895 – Rome, 6 December 1983) was an Italian politician.

Biography

Early years

Terracini was born in Genoa on 27 July 1895 to a Jewish family originally from Piedmont. After completing his elementary education, Umberto attended a Jewish school, whose programs corresponded to the ministerial ones, except for the addition of the study of the language and the history of Israel; he did not derive any religious interest from his family or school, even though he regularly attended the synagogue. In those years, he began to attend the Civic Library, reading popular novels of authors like

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, Émile Zola and Eugène Sue. Before the beginning of World War I, he approached the Italian Socialist Party and in 1913 he was enrolled in the Faculty of Law of the University of Turin. Terracini immediately expressed his opposition to Italy's entry into the war. After a pacifist rally he held on 15 September 1916 he was arrested and sentenced to a month in prison. After release he was drafted and sent to the front in 1917 near Montebelluna. After the war Terracini resumed his studies graduating in 1919 and began his career as a lawyer. He also befriended

Antonio Gramsci Antonio Francesco Gramsci ( , , ; 22 January 1891 – 27 April 1937) was an Italian Marxist philosopher, journalist, linguist, writer, and politician. He wrote on philosophy, political theory, sociology, history, and linguistics. He was a ...

and Palmiro Togliatti, whom he worked as an aide for; the three of them would found ''

L'Ordine Nuovo ''L'Ordine Nuovo'' (Italian for "The New Order") was a weekly newspaper established on 1 May 1919, in Turin, Italy, by a group, including Antonio Gramsci, Angelo Tasca and Palmiro Togliatti, within the Italian Socialist Party. The paper was the ...

'' in 1919''.'' In 1921 Terracini, under Gramsci and Togliatti, contributed to the foundation of the

Communist Party of Italy The Italian Communist Party ( it, Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) was a communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current ...

. In September 1926, Terracini was arrested as an opponent of the

fascist regime Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...

and sentenced to 22 years of prison: he spent 11 years in jail and subsequently was held in confinement in Ponza and on Santo Stefano Island. He was freed by the partisans in 1943. In those years he expressed his opposition to the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.

Constituent Assembly

Terracini was elected Deputy and vice-president of the Constituent Assembly in 1946 and became president after the resignation of

Giuseppe Saragat Giuseppe Saragat (; 19 September 1898 – 11 June 1988) was an Italian politician who served as the president of Italy from 1964 to 1971. Early life Born to Sardinian parents, he was a member of the Unitary Socialist Party (Italy, 1922), Unita ...

the following year. He signed the Italian Constitution along with the Head of State Enrico De Nicola and the Prime Minister Alcide De Gasperi. President Enrico De Nicola sign the Italian Constitution 1947

President Enrico De Nicola sign the Italian Constitution 1947

Later years

Terracini was favorable to the alliance with the socialists in the Popular Democratic Front, and after the shooting on Togliatti in July 1948, he presented a no-confidence motion to the government led by the

Christian Democracy Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism. It was conceived as a combination of modern democratic ...

, which he believes has the moral and political responsibility on the attack to the Communist leader. Terracini was very critical with Nikita Khrushchev for his report on the war crimes committed by Stalin, which he argued the secretary of the CPSU was too soft with his predecessor. He supported the intervention of Soviet troops against the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.'' L'Unità'', 5 November 1956, page 7. Terracini confirmed his seat in the Senate of the Republic from 1948 until his death. He became the party's candidate for President of Italy at the 1962 elections and the 1964 elections, but was defeated by Antonio Segni first and then by

. During the 1970s he was very critical about the Historic Compromise between the Communist Party and the

. Terracini died in Rome on 6 December 1983, at the age of 88.

References

External links