Pietro Nenni

Pietro Sandro Nenni (February 9, 1891—Rome, January 1, 1980) was an Italian socialist politician, the national secretary of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) and lifetime Senator since 1970. He was a recipient of the Lenin Peace Prize in 1951.

[edit] Early life and career

Born in Faenza, Nenni was a pacifist journalist affiliated with the Italian Republican Party before World War I, but joined the Socialist Party in 1921, at the moment of its split with the wing that would form the Communist Party (PCI). In 1923 (after the Fascist March on Rome, he became the editor of PSI's official voice, Avanti!, and engaged in anti-Fascist activism before taking refuge to France. Nenni went on to fight with the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War, returning to Italy during World War II in order to fight in the resistance movement.

In 1944, he became the national secretary of the PSI, favoring close ties between his party and the PCI. This policy caused the Giuseppe Saragat-led anti-Communist wing of the PSI to leave and form the Workers' Socialist Party in 1947 (later merged into the Italian Democratic Socialist Party, PSDI). Nenni himself split with the PCI after Soviet Union's invasion of Hungary (in 1956). He formed a center-left coalition together with Saragat, Aldo Moro, and Ugo La Malfa, and favored a reunion with the PSDI.

Preceded by: Alcide De Gasperi	Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs 1946–1947	Succeeded by: Carlo Sforza
Preceded by: Giuseppe Medici	Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs 1968–1969	Succeeded by: Aldo Moro