Umberto Terracini
{{Short description|Italian politician (1895–1983)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2024}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Umberto Terracini
| image = Umberto Terracini.jpg
| order = President of the Constituent Assembly
| predecessor = Giuseppe Saragat
| successor = Giovanni Gronchi
| term_start = 8 February 1947
| term_end = 31 January 1948
| order4 = Member of the Constituent Assembly
| term_start4 = 25 June 1946
| term_end4 = 31 January 1948
| constituency4 = Genoa
| order2 = Member of the Senate of the Republic
| term_start2 = 25 June 1953
| term_end2 = 6 December 1983
| constituency2 = Liguria (1953–1958)
Tuscany (1958–1983)
| term_start3 = 8 May 1948
| term_end3 = 24 June 1953
(Ex officio)As a member of the Constituent Assembly, he was automatically nominated senator.
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1895|7|27}}
| birth_place = Genoa, Kingdom of Italy
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|1983|12|6|1895|7|27}}
| death_place = Rome, Italy
| nationality = Italian
| party = Italian Communist Party
| spouse = {{marriage|Maria Laura Rocca|14 June 1948}}
| alma_mater = University of Turin
| profession = Lawyer
}}
Umberto Elia Terracini (27 July 1895 – 6 December 1983) was an Italian politician.
Biography
= Early years =
Terracini was born in Genoa on 27 July 1895 to a Jewish family originally from Piedmont.{{Cite news|date=1983-12-08|title=Umberto Terracini, 88, An Italian Communist (Published 1983)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/12/08/obituaries/umberto-terracini-88-an-italian-communist.html|access-date=2020-11-02|issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite web|title=senato.it - Scheda di attività di Umberto TERRACINI - IX Legislatura|url=http://www.senato.it/leg/09/BGT/Schede/Attsen/00002381.htm|access-date=2020-11-03|website=www.senato.it|publisher=Italian Senate}} After completing his elementary education, Umberto attended a Jewish school, whose programs corresponded to the ministerial ones, except for the addition of the study of the language and the history of Israel; he did not derive any religious interest from his family or school, even though he regularly attended the synagogue. In those years, he began to attend the Civic Library, reading popular novels of authors like Victor Hugo, Edmondo De Amicis, Émile Zola and Eugène Sue.{{Citation needed|date=November 2020}}
Before the beginning of World War I, he approached the Italian Socialist Party and in 1913 he was enrolled in the Faculty of Law of the University of Turin.{{Cite book|last=Martin|first=James|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JTJx_1tDSDYC&dq=%22Umberto+Terracini%22&pg=PA199|title=Antonio Gramsci: Intellectual and political context|date=2002|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-415-21748-4|language=en}} Terracini immediately expressed his opposition to Italy's entry into the war. After a pacifist rally he held on 15 September 1916 he was arrested and sentenced to a month in prison. After release he was drafted and sent to the front in 1917 near Montebelluna.{{Cite web |last=Agosti |first=Aldo |date=2019 |title=TERRACINI, Umberto in "Dizionario biografico" |url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/umberto-terracini_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/ |website=treccani.it |language=it}}
After the war, Terracini resumed his studies graduating in 1919 and began his career as a lawyer.{{Cite web|last=Sansonetti|first=Piero|date=2020-08-29|title=Le strane teorie del Fatto per giustificare il referendum: dalla dittatura all'abolizione del senato in Francia e Germania|url=https://www.ilriformista.it/le-strane-teorie-del-fatto-per-giustificare-il-referendum-dalla-dittatura-allabolizione-del-senato-in-francia-e-germania-149831/|access-date=2020-11-02|website=Il Riformista|language=it-IT}} He also befriended Antonio Gramsci and Palmiro Togliatti, whom he worked as an aide for; the three of them would found L'Ordine Nuovo in 1919. In 1921 Terracini, under Gramsci and Togliatti, contributed to the foundation of the Communist Party of Italy.{{Cite book|last=Klopp|first=Charles|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YhNfEBeutmsC&dq=%22Umberto+Terracini%22&pg=PA223|title=Sentences: The Memoirs and Letters of Italian Political Prisoners from Benvenuto Cellini to Aldo Moro|date=1999-01-01|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=978-0-8020-4456-3|language=en}} In September 1926, Terracini was arrested as an opponent of the fascist regime and sentenced to 22 years of prison: he spent 11 years in jail and subsequently was held in confinement in Ponza and on Santo Stefano Island.{{Cite book|last=Ginsborg|first=Paul|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cnGQBAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Umberto+Terracini%22&pg=PA15|title=A History of Contemporary Italy: Society and Politics, 1943-1988|date=2003|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-1-4039-6153-2|language=en}} He was freed by the partisans in 1943. In those years he expressed his opposition to the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.
= Constituent Assembly =
Terracini was elected Deputy and vice-president of the Constituent Assembly in 1946 and became president after the resignation of Giuseppe Saragat the following year.{{Cite web|last=Cangini|first=Andrea|date=2020-08-28|title=REFERENDUM, PERCHÉ NO/-23. M5S vuole un potere legislativo usurpato dall'esecutivo (di A. Cangini)|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.it/entry/referendum-perche-no-23-con-il-taglio-dei-parlamentari-il-m5s-vuole-arrivare-ad-abolire-il-parlamento_it_5f48aca1c5b64f17e13b9dfc|access-date=2020-11-02|website=L'HuffPost|language=it}}{{Cite web|last=Bertossi|first=Erika|date=September 1, 2020|title=Referendum taglio dei parlamentari, i NO: "La riforma agevolerebbe le formazioni politiche più potenti"|url=https://www.bolognatoday.it/politica/referendum-parlamentari-comitato-no-intervista.html|access-date=2020-11-02|website=BolognaToday|language=it}} He signed the Italian Constitution along with the Head of State Enrico De Nicola and the Prime Minister Alcide De Gasperi.
File:President Enrico De Nicola sign the Italian Constitution 1947.jpg signs the Italian Constitution on 27 December 1947. Terracini is at the far right.]]
= Later years =
Terracini was favourable to the alliance with the socialists in the Popular Democratic Front, and after the shooting on Togliatti in July 1948, he presented a no-confidence motion to the government led by the Christian Democracy, which he believes has the moral and political responsibility on the attack to the Communist leader.{{Citation needed|date=November 2020}}
Terracini was very critical with Nikita Khrushchev for his report on the war crimes committed by Stalin, which he argued the secretary of the CPSU was too soft with his predecessor.{{citation needed|date=July 2022}} He supported the intervention of Soviet troops against the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.L'Unità, 5 November 1956, page 7.
Terracini confirmed his seat in the Senate of the Republic from 1948 until his death. He became the party's candidate for President of Italy at the 1962 elections and the 1964 elections, but was defeated by Antonio Segni first and then by Giuseppe Saragat.{{Citation needed|date=November 2020}}
During the 1970s he was very critical of the Historic Compromise between the Communist Party and the Christian Democracy.
Terracini died in Rome on 6 December 1983, at the age of 88.
Electoral history
| class=wikitable style="width:55%; border:1px #AAAAFF solid" |
| width=12%|Election
!width=23%|House !width=34%|Constituency !width=5% colspan="2"|Party !width=12%|Votes !width=12%|Result |
|---|
| 1946
|Genoa–Imperia–La Spezia–Savona |bgcolor="{{party color|Italian Communist Party}}" | |PCI |73,186 |{{nowrap|{{tick|15}} Elected}} |
| 1953
|bgcolor="{{party color|Italian Communist Party}}" | |PCI |47,172 |{{tick|15}} Elected |
| 1958
|bgcolor="{{party color|Italian Communist Party}}" | |PCI |68,314 |{{tick|15}} Elected |
| 1963
|bgcolor="{{party color|Italian Communist Party}}" | |PCI |82,715 |{{tick|15}} Elected |
| 1968
|bgcolor="{{party color|Italian Communist Party}}" | |PCI |87,809 |{{tick|15}} Elected |
| 1972
|bgcolor="{{party color|Italian Communist Party}}" | |PCI |103,322 |{{tick|15}} Elected |
| 1976
|bgcolor="{{party color|Italian Communist Party}}" | |PCI |113,894 |{{tick|15}} Elected |
| 1979
|bgcolor="{{party color|Italian Communist Party}}" | |PCI |110,930 |{{tick|15}} Elected |
| 1983
|bgcolor="{{party color|Italian Communist Party}}" | |PCI |108,661 |{{tick|15}} Elected |
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- Files about his parliamentary activities (in Italian): [http://legislature.camera.it/chiosco.asp?cp=1&position=Assemblea%20Costituente\I%20Costituenti&content=altre_sezioni/assemblea_costituente/composizione/costituenti/framedeputato.asp?Deputato=1d28550 Constituent Assembly]
- Files about his parliamentary activities (in Italian): [http://www.senato.it/leg/01/BGT/Schede/Attsen/00002381.htm I], [http://www.senato.it/leg/02/BGT/Schede/Attsen/00002381.htm II], [http://www.senato.it/leg/03/BGT/Schede/Attsen/00002381.htm III], [http://www.senato.it/leg/04/BGT/Schede/Attsen/00002381.htm IV], [http://www.senato.it/leg/05/BGT/Schede/Attsen/00002381.htm V], [http://www.senato.it/leg/06/BGT/Schede/Attsen/00002381.htm VI], [http://www.senato.it/leg/07/BGT/Schede/Attsen/00002381.htm VII], [http://www.senato.it/leg/08/BGT/Schede/Attsen/00002381.htm VIII], [http://www.senato.it/leg/09/BGT/Schede/Attsen/00002381.htm IX], Legislature
{{commons}}
{{S-start}}
{{s-off}}
{{S-bef|before=Giuseppe Saragat}}
{{S-ttl|title=President of the Constituent Assembly|years=1947–1948}}
{{S-aft|after=Giovanni Gronchi
as President of the Chamber of Deputies}}
{{S-end}}
{{President of Italian Chamber of Deputies}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Terracini, Umberto}}
Category:20th-century Italian Jews
Category:Politicians from Genoa
Category:Italian anti-fascists
Category:Italian Communist Party politicians
Category:Italian prisoners and detainees
Category:Italian resistance movement members
Category:Jewish Italian politicians
Category:University of Turin alumni
Category:Senators of Legislature I of Italy
Category:Senators of Legislature II of Italy
Category:Senators of Legislature III of Italy
Category:Senators of Legislature IV of Italy
Category:Senators of Legislature V of Italy
Category:Senators of Legislature VI of Italy
Category:Senators of Legislature VII of Italy