The fatherland, the Italian nation and its role in the world

This chapter discusses the importance of the ‘national-patriotic’ symbology and expressive codes for all the competitors in the Italian political arena during the Cold War. In the struggle between pro-Soviet and anti-Communist fronts, both sides used Italian national myths and iconic unifying symbols, such as the image of Garibaldi, in order to present themselves as the ‘true’ Fatherland against their competitors, identified as the ‘fifth column’ and the ‘servants’ of ‘foreign imperialists’. However, after the disaster of fascist expansionism and the horrors of a war nobody wanted to repeat, in any case the claim of a renovated decisive role in the world could not be presented according to the words of militaristic nationalism. It was rather conjured with the promotion of peace against the menace of a new invasion and a subsequent global conflict.

Freedom and democracy

This chapter explains the importance of the values of freedom and democracy in the Cold War struggle between Italian Communists and anti-Communists. As soon as Cold War tensions broke down the ‘national unity’ of anti-fascist forces, both fronts claimed to be the exclusive representatives of ‘true’ democracy, and compared their competitor with the defeated fascist enemy. The Socialist-Communist alliance acquired the programme of ‘progressive’ (or ‘people’s’) democracy inspired by the experiments in Central-Eastern Europe, and made it the base for its opposition to the supposed Christian-Democratic ‘restoration’ of a new ‘reactionary clerical fascism’, along with the defense of the guarantees for parliamentary opposition established by the republican Constitution of 1948. The anti-Communist front, on its side, found strong unifying motifs in the description of Soviet dictatorship and the ‘sovietization’ of the countries occupied by the Red Army filtered beyond the Iron Curtain, and in their comparison with ‘totalitarian’ experiences lived by Italians in the past years.

Introduction

Basically there was only one problem, and they were completely agreed about it: to restore the authority of the State … They were ready to make every concession for this, although in different degrees. Colombi talked in a lukewarm fashion of reforms. Tempesti, when it was his turn, wholeheartedly professed a reverence for the religious beliefs of his colleague. The crisis [of government] might prove useful, a good step along the road to normality. It didn’t matter, although it was obvious, that to each this meant something different. The expression was the same and all that really mattered was that it should seem identical....

Religious and moral values

This chapter highlights the extent to which a radical and absolute struggle such as the Cold War opposition of Communists and anti-Communists involves the aspects of religious faith and moral values. The theological anti-Communism promoted by the Churches of Pius XI and Pius XII strongly influenced the perception of Communism in Italy. Communists were frequently seen as ‘godless’ sinners and immoral corruptors of the youth. Such common perception forced the Italian Communist Party to a reaction based on the claim of its full compliance to the inner spirit of the Christian message of charity and solidarity.

Systems and methods for political communication in post-war Italy

This chapter defines the channels used to elaborate and disseminate propaganda, and reconstructs a history of the circuits and the most significant materials used to create and disseminate language. It places the press and propaganda sections of parties and mass associations in the more complex context of the media and communication agencies that participated in the making of Italian political identities, such as major political newspapers, publications and exhibitions promoted by the government and by foreign embassies, and the popular press.

Towards a legitimation of prosperity?

This chapter deals with the consequences of post-WWII economic development on Italian political identities. The guarantee of economic growth in view of the prosperity of citizens became the main parameter for measuring the effectiveness of policy proposals. In Italy, the main political families presented the themes related to massive increases in production and living standards through the idealization of opposing models. The representations of the Soviet Union and the United States were the points of reference through which different socio-economic concepts surpassed their opponents’ criticism of their attitudes and offered a positive proposal regarding the demand for an assurance of prosperity throughout Italian public opinion. The different fortune of these foreign models of economic and civil development in Italy can be understood through a comparison of the treatment party press and popular magazines reserved for them. In spite of Communist efforts to present the Soviet ‘myth’ as an effective model of egalitarian and participated development, any comparison with the real success of the American way of life was impossible, and even Communists proved to be influenced, though with doubts and critics, by the emerging force of post-war ‘americanisation’