ABSTRACT
In the years since 1960, the Partito Comunista Italiano (PCI) evaluation of "il socialismo reale"—socialism as it actually has developed in the Soviet bloc and China—has evolved considerably. The Prague Spring and its suppression at the hands of Warsaw Pact troops in August 1968 did much to further the PCI's development of a critical perspective on "il socialismo reale." The explanation of that slowness is also at least in part the explanation of the PCI's success. Palmiro Togliatti was in many ways the pivotal figure of the preceding account, seemingly responsible for preserving at least a certain measure of PCI distinctiveness, even in the darkest days of the Cominform. The PCI leader made it abundantly clear that he hoped to preserve a united, albeit reformed, "socialist world." Togliatti's demise left the PCI in a difficult situation, since it lacked any other leader of even partly comparable international stature.
