Gramsci Photo Archive
Francesco Gramsci (1860-1937). Gramsci's father. Francesco, the son of a colonel in the Bourbon gendarmerie, was born in Gaeta in 1860 into a family of Albanian origins that had moved to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in 1821. In 1881 Francesco Gramsci left the Italian mainland for Sardinia to take up employment as a civil servant in Ghilarza.
To view full picture, click on image.
Gramsci’s mother, Giuseppina (1861-1932), holding her granddaughter, Mimma, the daughter of Gramsci’s sister Teresina.
Gramsci’s mother was born as Giuseppina Marcias in the city of Ghilarza in Sardinian in 1861. In 1883 she married Francesco. They subsequently moved to the city of Ales, where Gramsci was born in 1891.
This is a picture of Gramsci’s house in Ghilarza, Sardinia, taken sometime in the 1990s.
In 1897, Gramsci’s father was suspended from his job, arrested and given a prison sentence for alleged administrative abuses, so Gramsci’s mother and six brothers and sisters moved to Gramsci’s mother’s home city of Ghilarza.
Between 1905 and 1908, Gramsci attended the last three years of secondary school in Santu Lussurgiu, about 15 kilometers from Ghilarza. During the school year he stayed at a peasant’s house in Santu Lussurgiu. In the early years Gramsci manifested a bent for mathematics and science. Around 1905 he began to read socialist publications, including Avanti! which his older brother, Gennaro, used to send him from Turin where he was performing his military service.
Teresina Gramsci (1895-1976). Gramsci’s sister.
Throughout his twenties and thirties, until his arrest in 1926, Gramsci was politically active. In 1919, he helped found the socialist weekly L’Ordine Nuovo (the new order) in Turin. In 1920, he actively supported the workers’ movement to occupy factories in Turin and Milan. In 1921, he was one of the leading delegates to split from the Italian Socialist Party and help found the Communist Party of Italy (PCd’I). In 1922, he was appointed to represent the PCd’I in the Comitern.
In May 1922, Gramsci traveled to Moscow, and in June he became a member of the Comintern’s executive committee. He lived in Moscow until November 1923.
This picture was probably taken during the same period as the photo above.
While Gramsci was living in Moscow he met Julia Schucht (center), who eventually became his wife. This is a picture of the Schucht family when they lived in Rome.
Gramsci left Moscow for Vienna in November of 1923, and his wife Julia stayed in Moscow. Gramsci arrived in Vienna on December 3rd, and he did not return to Italy until May 1924. This is one of the only pictures showing Gramsci’s smile.
Tatiana Schucht (1887-1943) was Gramsci’s sister-in-law. She was the sister of Julia, Gramsci’s wife, and she lived in Italy until after Gramsci’s death.
In May 1924 Gramsci moved back to Italy, and in January 1925 he met Tatiana for the first time in Rome.
After Gramsci’s arrest in November 1926, Tatiana became a major supporter of a Gramsci’s emotional and physical wellbeing.
In the fall of 1925, Julia and Delio (Gramsci’s son) joined Gramsci in Rome. Gramsci and Julia had not seen each other since November 1923, and it was the first time Gramsci saw his son Delio.
Before Gramsci’s arrest in November 1926, his wife Julia returned to the Soviet Union to give birth to their second son, Giuliano. Giuliano was born in Moscow on August 30, 1926, a little more than two months before Gramsci’s arrest. Because of Gramsci’s imprisonment and early death, he never had the chance to meet Giuliano. This is a picture of Giuliano as a little boy with his schoolmates in Moscow, taken sometime in the 1930s.
On November 8, 1926, Italy’s fascist government arrested Gramsci and other Communist Party deputies, even though they were supposed to be protected by the rules of parliamentary immunity. Gramsci was placed in solitary confinement at the Regina Coeli prison in Rome.
Gramsci was held in Turi from July 19, 1928 to November 19, 1933. When he arrived at Turi, he received his prisoner’s identification number, 7047. In January 1929, he obtained permission to write in his cell. He planned to read systematically and to concentrate on certain topics. His book requests reflected these plans. In 1929 he started to write what are now known as his "prison notebooks."
Before starting to write his "prison notebooks," Gramsci outlined something resembling a study plan on the first two pages of an ordinary exercise book. On the top of the first page, he inscribed and underlined the title, "First Notebook" followed by the date of its inscription, "8 February 1929." The study plan consists of sixteen numbered items listed under the heading "Main Topics."
Piero Sraffa (1898-1983) was a leading Italian economist and friend of Gramsci’s. Along with Tatiana Schucht, Sraffa became a mainstay of Gramsci’s intellectual and material support while in prison. Sraffa managed to open an unlimited credit account for Gramsci at Sperling & Kupfer’s bookshop in Milan, so Gramsci could request reading materials while in prison.
This a directive from the Ministry of Justice to the warden of Turi prison granting Gramsci permission to read a number of books while in prison.
This is a cover of a pamphlet published by French novelist Romain Rolland. Under Gramsci’s name are the words "Those who are dying in Mussolini’s prisons." The pamphlet was translated and distributed in many countries.
In October 1933, because of his extremely poor health, Gramsci received authorization to leave the Turi prison and enter Giuseppe Cusumano’s clinic in Formia. Gramsci entered the clinic on December 17, but since he was still considered a prisoner, he was under police guard and close surveillance.
This is a picture of Gramsci while he was held at the Cusumano clinic in Formia. While in Formia, Tatiana Schucht visited Gramsci weekly, and he received visits from his brother Carlo and Piero Sraffa. Gramsci started reading again and after a while he resumed writing in his notebooks. He remained in Formia until August 24, 1935, at which time he entered the Quisisana clinic in Rome because of his deteriorating health.
Gramsci’s prison sentence expired on April 21, 1937, but while still a patient at the Quisisana clinic, he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage on the evening of April 25. Tatiana Schucht stayed at his bedside as Gramsci died early in the morning on April 27, 1937.
This is a picture of Tatiana Schucht standing beside Gramsci’s grave in the Non-Catholic Cemetery (or Protestant Cemetery) in Rome (circa 1938). After Gramsci’s death Tatiana moved back to Moscow.
This a picture of Gramsci’s grave taken in the mid- to late 1940s. The words at the bottom, in Latin, read "The ashes of Antonio Gramsci."
This is a picture of Gramsci’s son Delio (1924-1981) with his aunt Eugenia (1888-1972) and his mother Julia (1896-1980). The photo was taken in the early 1960s.