Truman's bombs and De Gasperi's hooked-nose: images of the enemy in the Communist press for young people after 18 April 1948

Abstract

With the elections of 18 April 1948, for Italian Communists the prospect of coming to power in the short term vanished. In the aftermath of the elections, the sustained confrontation of the Cold War at the international level and the unfavourable political context in Italy deeply shaped the tone and content of the Communist press, including the educational magazines for young militants. This article deals with the representations of the political enemies in the press for young Communists between 18 April 1948 and the electoral campaign against the legge truffa in 1953. Attention is paid to how the Communist press portrayed, in particular by visual means, the different subjects that made up the ruling anti-Communist bloc: the US government; Christian Democrats; the Catholic Church; and, finally, the Italian business world. In particular, the analysis underlines the relevance that a ‘nation-’ and ‘gender-’ related discourse had in the construction of political enemies.

Keywords:

• Italian Communism
• political enemies
• visual culture
• youth
• gender
• Cold War

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to Megan Barford, Matthew Broad and Matthew Worley for their comments on a previous version of this article, and to the organisers of the conference Feindkonstruktionen im Kalten Krieg. Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven auf eine brisante zeithistorische Phase (University of Bremen, 25–27 February 2010), where an earlier paper based on this research was presented.

Notes

Notes

1. On Communist pedagogy see Bellassai (2000, 321–59); Sanzo (2003).

2. Segreteria della FGCI, circular letter 0777/4, [n.d.] in Istituto Gramsci Rome (IGR), Archivio del Partito Comunista Italiano (APCI), Fondo Mosca, Comm.ne giovanile e FGCI 1948/1953, mf. 233, f. 16.

3. Letter by Silvano Peruzzi to Luigi Longo, October 27, 1951, in IGR, APCI, FGCI, 1951, mf. 341, cc. 0596-0624.

4. On Vie Nuove see Gundle (2000, 38–41, 68–70).

5. Togliatti intervened on the issue in response to a letter by the Communist novelist Gianni Rodari. Rodari had urged his comrades to refrain from abstract condemnations of comic strips, for this attitude would have alienated young people from Communist youth press and organisations. See also Meda (2007, 249–54); Sanzo (2003, 255–83).

6. On the ‘emotional’ impact of cartoons in representing the enemy see Satjukow and Gries (2004, 42).

7. The magazine published a list of its cartoonists only from late 1952. Among them were Michele Majorana, Claudio Astrologo, Veniero Canevari, Claudio Menatti, Luciano Viti and Vittorio Vighi (Patt, 9 November 1952).

8. Boris Yefimov (1899/1900–2008) was one of the most famous Soviet cartoonists. Yefimov had a Jewish background, which from the 1920s he hid by changing his family name. In the early 1950s he was twice awarded the Stalin prize (Martin 2008). A whole page was devoted to some of his vignettes in Patt (25 March 1951).

9. On the influence of Soviet foreign policy on the PCI, before and after 1947, see Aga Rossi and Zaslavsky (2007). On the impact of the establishment of the Cominform see Pons (1999, 189–234).

10. See Vittoria (1992, 11–26). On Andrei Zhdanov see Boterbloem (2004).

11. See also Mariuzzo (2010).

12. On the recurrence of this technique see Burke (2001, 136); Ventrone (2005, 4).

13. For examples of Fascist racist anti-Americanism see Pompei (2004, 137–44).

14. On Communist representations of the USSR see Flores (1991).

15. On Italy see Capussotti (2005, 49–55); more generally Pells (1993, 67–83).

16. For an analysis of some other representations of De Gasperi in Italian popular magazines see Marsili (1998, 250–53).

17. See Galimi (2005, 427–37). For a selection of Fascist racist caricatures see Centro Furio Jesi (1994, 147–70).

18. See also Di Marco (2008, 66–67).

19. See the posters reprinted in Romano and Scabello (1975).

20. In Italian popular culture, the Befana is an old witch who brings gifts to children on the night of 6 January.

21. On the myth of Stalin in the PCI see Gozzini and Martinelli (1998, 463–64).

22. For an example of this approach see Togliatti's report at the 6th Congress of the PCI (January 6–10, 1948) (Togliatti 1974, 148–62).

23. For some examples of anticlerical caricatures see Mojetta (1975).

24. Many years later, in 1990, Montanari changed his tune in the ‘Chi sa parli’ article which lit the touch-paper of the ‘triangle of death’ debate over the post-war killings of Fascists in Emilia Romagna. On this occasion Magnani was praised for his attempts to bring a ‘democratic line’ to the PCI of Reggio Emilia. See Montanari (1998).