Antonio Gramsci

Gramsci co-founded the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in Livorno, splitting from the Socialist Party. He became a leading theorist, advocating for a Marxist revolution in Italy and opposing Fascism.

Gramsci was arrested by Mussolini's Fascist regime and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Despite his poor health, he used his imprisonment to write the Prison Notebooks, a foundational work of Marxist theory.

While in prison, Gramsci began writing the Prison Notebooks, a collection of essays on hegemony, ideology, and political theory. The notebooks, smuggled out and published posthumously, became a cornerstone of Western Marxism.

Gramsci died in a Rome clinic shortly after his release from prison, due to complications from tuberculosis and other ailments. His death cut short his intellectual work, but his ideas continued to influence leftist thought globally.