Palmiro TogliattiArticle Free Pass Palmiro Togliatti, (born
March 26, 1893, Genoa—died Aug. 21, 1964, Yalta, Ukrainian
S.S.R.), politician who led the Italian Communist Party for
nearly 40 years and made it the largest in western Europe. Born
into a middle-class family, Togliatti received an education in
law at Turin University, served as an officer and was wounded in
World War I, and became a tutor at Turin. In 1919 he helped
launch a left-wing weekly, L’Ordine nuovo (“New Order”), which
became a rallying point for the Communist wing that broke away
from the Socialist Party in 1921. Beginning in 1922 Togliatti
edited Il Comunista and in April 1924 became a member of the
Central Committee of the Communist Party. While he was attending
a meeting of the Communist International (Comintern) in Moscow
in 1926, the party was banned by Mussolini, and nearly all its
leaders except Togliatti were arrested. He remained in exile,
organizing clandestine meetings of the Italian Communist Party
at Lyon in 1926 and at Colog