Grieco, Ruggero

Born Aug. 19, 1893. in Foggia; died July 23, 1955, at Massa Lombarda. Figure in the Italian workers’ movement and one of the leaders of the Communist Party.

Grieco received a secondary education in agronomy. In 1912 he joined the Socialist Party and in 1921 took part in the founding of the Italian Communist Party. From 1921 he was a member of the party’s central committee and executive committee. In 1927 he became a member first of the party’s politburo and then of its leadership. From 1924 to 1926 he was a parliamentary deputy. Between 1926 and 1944 he was in exile; he was a member of the Foreign Center of the Italian Communist Party under the pseudonym Garlandi. In 1928 he became a candidate member and in 1935 a member of the Executive Committee of the Communist International. During World War II he worked in the radio system in Moscow, where he was in charge of broadcasts for Italy. After returning home he headed the agrarian committee of the party’s central committee and the propaganda section. He was editor of the magazine La riforma agraria (Agrarian Reform). In 1946 he was elected to the Constituent Assembly and in 1948 became a senator. He was a brilliant orator and publicist.