“must be able to make their choices freely, without any prejudice”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
Figure timeline
Enrico Berlinguer
Enrico Berlinguer was an Italian politician and statesman who was the most popular leader of the Italian Communist Party (PCI). He led the PCI as the national secretary from 1972 until his death during a tense period of Italian history, which was marked by the Years of Lead and social conflicts, such as the Hot Autumn of 1969–1970. Berlinguer was born into an upper-class family; his father was a s…
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
politics · Italian communist politician (1922–1984) · politician · also Enrico Berlinguer, Berlinguer
Born 25 May 1922 · Died 11 June 1984 · Q164995
50 published statements · 0 followers
See & hear
Photos & media
9 photos · 1 audio
🔊 How to say “Enrico Berlinguer”
Listen
It-Enrico Berlinguer 2
Media from Wikimedia Commons, hotlinked at the source under its own licence — see each file for author and terms.
Live now
In the news
Pulling headlines from trusted outlets — this usually takes a few seconds
Checking the wires…
Feed scan
These are live links, not archived citations — they only join the timeline once a collect run verifies and archives them.
Live pulse
Recent highlights
Most recent outstanding titles, awards, and quotes
- Quote
- Quote
2026· 4 entries
“The experience gained has led us to the conclusion that democracy today is not only the ground on which the class adversary is forced to retreat, but it is also the historically universal value on which to found an original socialist society.”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
“The thing that worries me about Craxi is that sometimes it seems to me that he thinks only of power for power”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
Il Sussidiario: Chi erano i genitori di Enrico Berlinguer: papà avvocato e politico | “La morte di mamma ci ha segnati”
- #news
- #headline
2025· 3 entries
La Nazione: Enrico Berlinguer. Parole, luoghi, memoria in mostra a Firenze
- #news
- #headline
Il Sussidiario: Enrico Berlinguer, gli ultimi giorni in “Prima della fine”/ 41 anni fa la morte del “riformista morale”
- #news
- #headline
Ansa: Cagliari omaggia Enrico Berlinguer e il suo impegno per la pace
- #news
- #headline
2024· 5 entries
HuffingtonPost Italia: Enrico Berlinguer e i fondamentali per la sinistra del nuovo millennio
- #news
- #headline
Internazionale: La grande ambizione di raccontare Enrico Berlinguer
- #news
- #headline
Corriere della Sera: Enrico Berlinguer, un film e quel che resta della sinistra, dopo di lui
- #news
- #headline
Repubblica: Nella palestra politica di Enrico Berlinguer s’impara l’arte della pazienza
- #news
- #headline
Il Foglio: Enrico Berlinguer, un mito che va bene per tutti: ognuno ha la sua versione
- #news
- #headline
2015· 1 entry
His brother, Giovanni Berlinguer, was a medician and politician who died in 2015.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #life
- #family
1984· 2 entries
Died 1984-06-11.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #death
“We are convinced that the world, even this terrible, intricate world of today, can be known, interpreted, transformed, and put at the service of man, his well-being, his happiness. The test for this goal is a test that can worthily fill a life.”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
1983· 2 entries
Career landmark: member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Republic (1983–1984).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #milestone
With Ferdinando Adornato, he said about communism that "scientists are discussing more about the sole dell'avvenire [the establishment of socialism] today than the communists
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1982· 2 entries
“There can be no inventiveness, imagination, creation of the new if you start by burying yourself, your history and reality.”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
Said: "If young people organise themselves, take over every branch of knowledge, and fight with the workers and the oppressed, there is no escape for an old order founded on privilege and injustice
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1981· 3 entries
“We save ourselves and move forward if we act together and not just one by one.”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
With Eugenio Scalfari of la Repubblica, Berlinguer outlined the questione morale, or moral question
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Berlinguer said that, in his personal opinion, the progressive force of the October Revolution had been exhausted
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1980· 2 entries
“We are communists. We are communists with originality and peculiarity, distinguishing ourselves from all the other communist parties: but we are communists, we remain communists.”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
The PCI publicly condemned the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and Moscow then immediately sent Georges Marchais to Rome to try to bring Berlinguer into line; he was received with perceptible coldness
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1979· 3 entries
Career landmark: member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Republic (1979–1983).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Career landmark: Member of the European Parliament (1979–1984).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #milestone
When the PCI exited from the parliamentary majority, amid negative electoral trends
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1977· 2 entries
Risked his life when, not following the recommendation by relatives and sailors, he went out by boat because he could not return to Stintino for safety reasons
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
At a meeting in Madrid between Berlinguer, Carrillo, and Georges Marchais of the French Communist Party, the fundamental lines of Eurocommunism were laid out
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1976· 3 entries
Remain the highest for any Italian left-wing or centre-left party both in terms of votes and vote share, and the party's results in 1984, just after his death, remain the best result for an Italian left-wing party in Eur
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Berlinguer confirmed the autonomous position of the PCI vis-à-vis the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU)
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Career landmark: member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Republic (1976–1979).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #milestone
1975· 2 entries
And 34% of the vote in the 1976 Italian general election, its highest share of the vote and number of seats
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
“It is necessary that with audacity and intelligence we know how to free ourselves from any scholastic application of our doctrine understood as dogma, or from orientations that are no longer adequate to current experience and historical conditions, to walk towards new ways of advancing towards socialism.”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
1974· 1 entry
That "true fascism is the consumer society", is seen as a testament to his durature legacy and thinking
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1973· 2 entries
Berlinguer went to Belgrade, the capital of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, to meet with Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito, with a view to further developing his relationships with the major Communist part
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Having been hospitalised after a car accident during a visit to the People's Republic of Bulgaria, later claimed to have been an attempted assassination orchestrated by Moscow, Berlinguer wrote three famous articles ("Re
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1972· 2 entries
Career landmark: member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Republic (1972–1976).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #milestone
When Longo resigned on grounds of ill health
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1969· 2 entries
Berlinguer reiterated the need to "deepen the knowledge of the reality of the socialist countries
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Saw a process towards pro-Europeanism that culminated in the 1976 Italian general election with the candidacy within the PCI's electoral list of Altiero Spinelli, the Italian father of European federalism and one of the
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1968· 2 entries
Career landmark: member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Republic (1968–1972).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Was elected to Italy's Chamber of Deputies, and he became the leader of the PCI in 1972; he remained a deputy until his death in 1984
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1957· 1 entry
As a member of the central school of the PCI, he abolished the obligatory visit to the Soviet Union, including political training there, which had been necessary for admission to the highest positions in the PCI
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1950· 1 entry
Became president of the World Federation of Democratic Youth, an international anti-fascist youth organisation
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1949· 1 entry
Was named national secretary of the FGCI, a post he held until 1956
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1946· 1 entry
Togliatti became the national secretary (the highest political position) of the PCI and called Berlinguer to Rome, where his talents let him enter the national leadership two years later in 1948; at the age of 26, he was
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1937· 1 entry
Berlinguer had his first contacts with Sardinian anti-fascists and formally entered the renamed Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1943, soon becoming the secretary of the Sassari section
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1922· 2 entries
Born 1922-05-25.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #birth
The son of Mario Berlinguer and Maria "Mariuccia" Loriga, Enrico Berlinguer was born in Sassari on 25 May 1922, five months before the March on Rome orchestrated by Benito Mussolini and Italian fascists, to a noble Sardinian family in a notable cultural context, with family ties and political contacts that would heavily influence his life and career.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #life
- #family