The Faces of Militancy: Palmiro Togliatti’s Propaganda Portraits (1948-1964)

Abstract

In the early post-war period, the Italian Communist Party (ICP), believing in collective values rather than in the cult of a charismatic individual, rejected any form of publicity centred on its leader, Palmiro Togliatti. However, the attempt on his life, in July 1948, triggered a cult which his party was happy to encourage. The present essay focuses on the use of the portrait as a means of promoting the leader. It will examine the posters and post-cards featuring his effigy that were produced by the ICP on the occasion of various events (for example Togliatti’s return to active political life after his attempted assassination, his 60th birthday, the 30th anniversary of the party’s foundation, the parliamentary election of 1953, Togliatti’s funeral) in order to show what image the party wished to project of its leader. The analysis of the visual sources of Togliatti’s portraits reveals the extent to which such imagery was dependent on that devised in the Soviet Union to celebrate Lenin and Stalin.