Abstract

This essay analyses the birth and development of the left in the Pci from 1956 until the 1960s. It focuses on the variety and complexity of individuals and contributions within this political current: the innovative wing of the Cgil, the return to onsite factory negotiations, the critical reflection on the centre-left experience, the original research on structural reforms and the new economic growth model, the overcoming of the party's centralized and hierarchical structure, and the way out of collateralism with the Ussr. The Eleventh Congress of the Pci (1966) was to lead to both the apogee and the Diaspora of the Communist Left. The failed renewal of communist politics and the reaffirmed old tradition of the Pci were to be serious obstacles to the Italian communists' activity in the crisis and «great transformation» between the 1960s and 1970s.