Alberto Cianca Explained

Office:Minister without portfolio
Primeminister:Alcide De Gasperi
Successor:Emilio Lussu
Term Start:10 December 1945
Term End:19 February 1946
Birth Date:1 January 1884
Birth Place:Rome, Kingdom of Italy
Death Place:Rome, Italy
Nationality:Italian

Alberto Cianca (1 January 1884 – 8 January 1966) was an Italian journalist and anti-fascist politician. He edited several significant publications, including Il Mondo, and served in the Parliament and Senate.

Early life and education

Cianca was born in Rome on 1 January 1884. He had a bachelor's degree in law.[1]

Career

Cianca started his career as a journalist and worked as a parliamentary reporter for the Rome-based newspaper La Tribuna.[1] Then he worked for Secolo in Milan and later, he served as the editor-in-chief of Il Messaggero in Roma from which he resigned in 1921.[1] Then he worked for L'Ora.[1]

Cianca was the director of Il Mondo from its start in 1922 to its closure in 1926.[2] The paper was the most significant opposition publication against Fascist government of Benito Mussolini.[3] Cianca also edited another anti-fascist publication, Il Becco Giallo, a weekly satirical magazine.[1]

Exile

In 1927 Cianca left Italy to avoid from being arrested and settled in Paris.[3] There he edited some publications and involved in the establishment of an anti-Fascist resistance movement, Giustizia e Libertà.[1] [4] In the establishment of the Giustizia e Libertà he collaborated with Carlo Rosselli, Nello Rosselli, Emilio Lussu, Alberto Tarchiani, Fausto Nitti and Gaetano Salvemini.[4] [5] Cianca managed to resume the publication of Il Becco Giallo in Paris, and also, he and Carlo Rosselli edited a weekly publication of Giustizia e Libertà which was also entitled Giustizia e Libertà.[6] In fact, Rosselli was the editor of the weekly between 1934 and his death in 1937, and Cianca succeeded him in the post.[6]

When World War II broke out and France was occupied by Nazi German forces Cianca took refuge in the United States.[1] He involved in the establishment of the Mazzini Society in New York City in 1940 which was one of the antifascist organizations founded by Italian political exiles in the United States.[7] Cianca and his close ally Alberto Tarchiani were very active in the society dealing with its administrative operations.[7] Cianca was also named the president of the society's New York branch.[7] Following the end of the Fascist rule Cianca and other Italian exiles returned to Italy which led to the end of the Mazzini Society.[8]

Later years and death

Upon his return to Italy Cianca became the leader of the Action Party (PdA).[2] [3] He was a member of the National Council and a minister in the first cabinet of Alcide De Gasperi.[2] Cianca was among the few elected members of the Action Party to the Constituent Assembly in 1946 and also, the last secretary of the Action Party before its closure.[1] Then Cianca joined the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) and was elected a senator on its lists in the elections in 1953 and 1958.[2] [3]

Cianca served several times as the president of the board of arbitrators of Italian journalists.[1] He died in Rome on 8 January 1966.[2] [3]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Alberto Cianca. ANPI . 23 January 2022. it.
  2. Web site: Italian Senate. 23 January 2022. it. Cianca, Alberto.
  3. Encyclopedia: Cianca, Alberto. Treccani. it.
  4. Marion Roselli. Headliners: Alberto Tarchiani. Free World. 1945. 35. 31.
  5. Nicola Cacciatore. Missed connection: relations between Italian anti-fascist emigration and British forces in Egypt (1940–1944). Modern Italy. 2019. 24. 3. 265. 10.1017/mit.2019.3. 151240821.
  6. Michele Cantarella. Italian Writers in Exile: A Bibliography. Books Abroad. Winter 1938. 12. 1. 18,21. 40079114.
  7. Kent Fedorowich. 2005. 'Toughs and Thugs': The Mazzini Society and Political Warfare amongst Italian POWs in India, 1941–43. 1. Intelligence and National Security. 20. 154–155. 154767597. 10.1080/02684520500059486.
  8. Book: 2014. Francesco Durante. et. al.. Italoamericana: The Literature of the Great Migration, 1880-1943. New York. Fordham University Press. 9780823260645. 602.