Socialism and Revisionism: The Power of Words in the Ideological Controversy between the Italian Communist Party and the Chinese Communist Party (Late 1950s-Early 1960s)

In 1962, in the wake of the Sino-Soviet split, an ideological dispute broke out between the Italian Communist Party (ICP) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and eventually led to the interruption of bilateral relations. Togliatti’s idea of a transition to socialism through democratic and peaceful means (the so-called via italiana al socialismo) was at the core of the Chinese condemnation of the Italian Communist Party’s policy as ‘revisionist’. Yet, divergences clearly emerged as early as 1959 when the ICP sent for the first time a high-level delegation to China to officially meet the leaders of the CCP. The joint document signed at the end of the visit was the result of a long process of negotiation that disclosed not only the Chinese dissent towards the Italian positions on ‘peaceful coexistence’ and the 'via italiana al socialismo', but also the difficulties of reaching a consensus over the terminology to be used and translated in Chinese. This chapter will focus on the ICP-CCP dispute as seen through the analysis of language, considering as main sources the Communist official press (Italian and Chinese), Italian and Chinese leaders’ speeches and also some relevant archival documents. Our aim is to provide a better and deeper understanding of the relations between politics and language in the context of this controversy, which involved two political parties (the ICP and the CCP) that were searching for their own autonomous road to socialism, albeit in very different historical and political contexts.