Angelica Balabanoff
Encyclopedia
Angelica Balabanoff was a Jewish-Italian
communist
and social democratic
activist.
ideas while a University
student in Brussels
. She settled in Rome and began organizing workers in the textile industry
, joining the Italian Socialist Party
(PSI) in 1900, becoming closely associated with leaders such as Antonio Labriola
, Giacinto Menotti Serrati
, Benito Mussolini
(whom she instructed in Marxism
; contrary to popular myth, she was not Mussolini's lover) and Filippo Turati
.
She moved further to the left during the First World War
, becoming active in the Zimmerwald Movement
. During the war, she spent a lot of time in exile in neutral Sweden
, where she was affiliated with the Left
Socialist movement and became a close friend of the Swedish Communist leaders Ture Nerman
, Fredrik Ström
, Zeth Höglund
and Kata Dalström
.
Balabanoff joined the Russia
n Bolshevik Party in 1917 and was secretary of the Comintern
in 1919–1920, working with Vladimir Lenin
, Leon Trotsky
, Grigory Zinoviev
, Emma Goldman
and many others. She broke with the Bolsheviks and left Russia in 1922, siding with the Italian Socialists who joined Serrati
in his refusal to accept some of the obedience demanded by the Comintern.
group even after Serrati himself left it in order to rejoin the Communists. The rise of Fascism
led her to take refuge in Switzerland
. She moved to Paris
, and then to New York City
, returning to Italy after World War II
.
After 1947, Balabanoff sided with Giuseppe Saragat
after his refusal to accept the alliance of the PSI with the Italian Communist Party
, and she joined his Socialist Workers' Party, which became the Italian Democratic Socialist Party
(after including the United Socialist Party
).
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
and social democratic
Social democracy
Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
activist.
Revolutionary activities
Balabanoff was exposed to radicalRevolutionary
A revolutionary is a person who either actively participates in, or advocates revolution. Also, when used as an adjective, the term revolutionary refers to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavor.-Definition:...
ideas while a University
Université Libre de Bruxelles
The Université libre de Bruxelles is a French-speaking university in Brussels, Belgium. It has 21,000 students, 29% of whom come from abroad, and an equally cosmopolitan staff.-Name:...
student in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
. She settled in Rome and began organizing workers in the textile industry
Textile manufacturing
Textile manufacturing is a major industry. It is based in the conversion of three types of fibre into yarn, then fabric, then textiles. These are then fabricated into clothes or other artifacts. Cotton remains the most important natural fibre, so is treated in depth...
, joining the Italian Socialist Party
Italian Socialist Party
The Italian Socialist Party was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy founded in Genoa in 1892.Once the dominant leftist party in Italy, it was eclipsed in status by the Italian Communist Party following World War II...
(PSI) in 1900, becoming closely associated with leaders such as Antonio Labriola
Antonio Labriola
Antonio Labriola was an Italian Marxist theoretician. Although an academic philosopher and never an active member of any Marxist political party, his thought exerted influence on many political theorists in Italy during the early 20th century, including the founder of the Italian Liberal Party,...
, Giacinto Menotti Serrati
Giacinto Menotti Serrati
Giacinto Menotti Serrati was an Italian communist politician. He was born in Spotorno, near Savona and died in Asso, near Como....
, Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
(whom she instructed in Marxism
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
; contrary to popular myth, she was not Mussolini's lover) and Filippo Turati
Filippo Turati
Filippo Turati was an Italian sociologist, poet and Socialist politician.-Early life:Born in Canzo, province of Como, he graduated in law at the University of Bologna in 1877, and participated in the Scapigliatura movement with the most important artists of the period in Milan, publishing poetry...
.
She moved further to the left during the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, becoming active in the Zimmerwald Movement
Zimmerwald Conference
The Zimmerwald Conference was held in Zimmerwald, Switzerland, from September 5 through September 8, 1915. It was an international socialist conference, which saw the beginning of the end of the coalition between revolutionary socialists and reformist socialists in the Second International.-...
. During the war, she spent a lot of time in exile in neutral Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, where she was affiliated with the Left
Left Party (Sweden)
The Left Party is a socialist and feminist political party in Sweden, from 1967 to 1990 known as the Left Party – The Communists .On welfare issues, the party opposes privatizations...
Socialist movement and became a close friend of the Swedish Communist leaders Ture Nerman
Ture Nerman
Ture Nerman was a Swedish socialist. As a journalist and author, he was a well-known political activist in his time. He also wrote poems and songs.Nerman was a vegetarian and a strict teetotaler...
, Fredrik Ström
Fredrik Ström
Fredrik Ström was a Swedish Socialist politician and a prolific writer. He held a seat in the Riksdag from 1916 - 1921, and from 1930 - 1938....
, Zeth Höglund
Zeth Höglund
Carl Zeth "Zäta" Konstantin Höglund was a leading Swedish communist politician, anti-militarist, author, journalist and mayor of Stockholm ....
and Kata Dalström
Kata Dalström
Katarina "Kata" Dalström , born Anna Maria Katarina Carlberg in a wealthy upper-class family, became one of Sweden’s leading socialist agitators and leftist writers of her time...
.
Balabanoff joined the Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n Bolshevik Party in 1917 and was secretary of the Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
in 1919–1920, working with Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
, Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
, Grigory Zinoviev
Grigory Zinoviev
Grigory Yevseevich Zinoviev , born Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich Radomyslsky Apfelbaum , was a Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet Communist politician...
, Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman was an anarchist known for her political activism, writing and speeches. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the twentieth century....
and many others. She broke with the Bolsheviks and left Russia in 1922, siding with the Italian Socialists who joined Serrati
Giacinto Menotti Serrati
Giacinto Menotti Serrati was an Italian communist politician. He was born in Spotorno, near Savona and died in Asso, near Como....
in his refusal to accept some of the obedience demanded by the Comintern.
Opposition to Stalinism and Fascism
She returned to Italy, where she led the MaximalistMaximum programme
In Marxist theory, a maximum programme consists of a series of demands which will achieve socialism.The concept of a maximum programme comes from the Erfurt Programme of the SPD, later mirrored by much of the Socialist International. The maximum is contrasted with a minimum programme of immediate...
group even after Serrati himself left it in order to rejoin the Communists. The rise of Fascism
Italian Fascism
Italian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...
led her to take refuge in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. She moved to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, and then to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, returning to Italy after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
After 1947, Balabanoff sided with Giuseppe Saragat
Giuseppe Saragat
Giuseppe Saragat was an Italian politician who was the fifth President of the Italian Republic from 1964 to 1971.Saragat was born in Turin, from Sardinian parents....
after his refusal to accept the alliance of the PSI with the Italian Communist Party
Italian Communist Party
The Italian Communist Party was a communist political party in Italy.The PCI was founded as Communist Party of Italy on 21 January 1921 in Livorno, by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party . Amadeo Bordiga and Antonio Gramsci led the split. Outlawed during the Fascist regime, the party played...
, and she joined his Socialist Workers' Party, which became the Italian Democratic Socialist Party
Italian Democratic Socialist Party
The Italian Democratic Socialist Party is a minor social-democratic political party in Italy. Mimmo Magistro is the party leader. The PSDI, before the 1990s decline in votes and members, had been an important force in Italian politics, being the longest serving partner in government for Christian...
(after including the United Socialist Party
United Socialist Party (Italy, 1949–1951)
The United Socialist Party was a social-democratic political party in Italy 1949-1951.On 1 May 1951 PSU fused with the Italian Socialist Workers' Party to give birth to the Italian Democratic Socialist Party ....
).
Works
- Il vostro Dovere in tempo di Elezioni: Alle Proletarie (Your Duty in Time of Elections: The Proletarian). Lugano: Cooperativa Tipografica Sociale, 1904.
- Neskol'ko slov ob agitatsii: Pis'mo-lektsiia (A Few Words on Agitation: Correspondence Lecture). Moscow: Gosudarstvennoe Izdatel'stvo, 1920.
- Ot rabstva k svobode: Obiazannosti i prava kommunistov v pervoi trudovoi respublike (From Slavery to Freedom: Duties and Rights of Communists in the First Laborers' Republic). Moscow: Gosudarstvennoe Izdatel'stvo, 1920.
- Svetloi pamiati Iakova Mikhailovicha Sverdlova. (The Blessed Memory of Iakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov). Moscow: Gosudarstvennoe Izdatel'stvo, 1920.
- Iz lichnykh vospominanii Tsimmerval'dtsa (Personal Reminiscences of the Zimmerwaldists). Leningrad-Moscow: Izdatel'stvo "Kniga," 1925.
- Erziehung der Massen zum Marxismus: Psychologisch-pädagogische Betrachtungen (Educating the Masses to Marxism: Psychological-Pedagogical Considerations). Berlin: Laub, 1927.
- Marx und Engels als Freidenker in ihren Schriften (Marx and Engels as Free-Thinkers). Berlin: Der Freidenker, 1930.
- Sozialismus als Weltanschauung (Socialism as a Worldview). Berlin: Dt. Freidenkerverband, c. 1932.
- Caduti per noi, caduti per voi (Fallen for Us, Fallen for You). New York: Edizione "La Fiaccola," c. 1935.
- My Life as a Rebel. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1938.
- Traitor: Benito Mussolini and his "Conquest" of Power. New York: G. Popolizio, c. 1942.
- Tears. Chicago: Jay Bass, 1943.
- Impressions of Lenin. Isotta Cesari, trans. Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 1964.
External links
- Angelica Balabanoff Internet Archive, Marxists Internet Archive, www.marxists.org/
- Uomini di Pace
- Ricordo di Angelica Balabanoff di Aldo Chiarle