Antonio Gramsci

Life Period: 1891 - 1937

Born in 1891, Antonio Gramsci began working at the age of 12 in the local tax office. It would be around 1905 when Gramsci would be exposed to Socialist ideas, as his elder brother, who was serving in the military at the time, would send him Avanti! magazines (a news platform for the Italian Socialist Party). From the ages of 17 to 20, Gramsci would become more active in Sardinian regionalist politics, which is when he first reads Marx's writing. By 1913, he becomes directly involved with the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) and begins working full-time for both Avanti! and Il Grido del Popolo. He would then branch out and found his own newspaper called L'Ordine Nuovo in 1921. He would then spend two years in the Soviet Union, to then come back and be elected leader of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI). He would then be imprisoned in 1926 following the outlawing of his party by Benito Mussolini, who only supported fascist organizations. In his jail cell is where most of his writings were created and published. He would later die not long after being released from prison in 1937.