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Socialism and Revisionism: the Power of Words in the Ideological Controversy between the Italian Communist Party and the Chinese Communist Party (Late 1950s-Early 1960s)
Samarani, Guido
Graziani, Sofia
2019
Abstract
In 1962, in the wake of the Sino-Soviet split, an ideological dispute broke out between
the Italian Communist Party (ICP) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and eventually
led to the interruption of bilateral relations. Togliatti’s idea of a transition to socialism
through democratic and peaceful means (the so-called via italiana al socialismo)
was at the core of the Chinese condemnation of the Italian Communist Party’s policy
as ‘revisionist’. Yet, divergences clearly emerged as early as 1959 when the ICP sent for
the first time a high-level delegation to China to officially meet the leaders of the CCP.
The joint document signed at the end of the visit was the result of a long process of
negotiation that disclosed not only the Chinese dissent towards the Italian positions on
‘peaceful coexistence’ and the via italiana al socialismo, but also the difficulties of reaching
a consensus over the terminology to be used and translated in Chinese. This chapter
will focus on the ICP-CCP dispute as seen through the analysis of language, considering
as main sources the Communist official press (Italian and Chinese), Italian and Chinese
leaders’ speeches and also some relevant archival documents. Our aim is to provide a
better and deeper understanding about the relations between politics and language in
the context of this controversy, which involved two political parties (the ICP and the
CCP), which were searching for their own autonomous road to socialism, albeit in very
different historical contexts.
Journal
Studi di Storia
Publisher
EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste
Source
Guido Samarani, Sofia Graziani, "Socialism and Revisionism: the Power of Words in the Ideological Controversy between the Italian Communist Party and the Chinese Communist Party (Late 1950s-Early 1960s)" in: "Words of Power, the Power of Words. The Twentieth-Century Communist Discourse in International Perspective", Trieste, EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste, 2019, pp.75-92
Languages
en
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internazionale
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