On 21 August 1964, the historic leader of the
Italian Communist Party,
Palmiro Togliatti died of
cerebral haemorrhage while vacationing with his companion
Nilde Iotti in
Yalta, then in the Soviet Union. According to some of his collaborators, Togliatti was travelling to the Soviet Union in order to give his support to
Leonid Brezhnev's election as
Nikita Khrushchev's successor at the head of
Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Togliatti was replaced by
Luigi Longo, a long-time prominent PCI member; Longo continued Togliatti's line, known as the "Italian road to
Socialism", playing down the alliance between the Italian Communist Party and the USSR. He reacted without hostility to the new left movements that sprang up in 1968 and, among the leaders of the PCI, was one of those most disposed to engage with the new activists, although he did not condone their excesses. Moreover,
Francesco De Martino, became the new Secretary of the
Italian Socialist Party, after the resignation of
Pietro Nenni, due to age. In 1965, the
SIFAR intelligence agency was transformed into the
SID following an aborted coup d'état,
Piano Solo, which was to give power to the
Carabinieri, at that time headed by general De Lorenzo. The difficult equilibrium of Italian society was challenged by a rising left-wing movement, in the wake of 1968 student unrest ("Sessantotto"). This movement was characterized by such heterogeneous events as revolts by jobless farm workers (Avola, Battipaglia 1969), occupations of Universities by students, social unrest in the large Northern factories (1969
autunno caldo, hot autumn). While conservative forces tried to roll back some of the social changes of the 1960s, and part of the military indulged in "sabre rattling" in order to intimidate progressive political forces, numerous left-wing activists became increasingly frustrated at social inequalities, while the myth of guerrilla (Che Guevara, the Uruguayan Tupamaros) and of the Chinese Maoist "cultural revolution" increasingly inspired extreme left-wing violent movements. Social protests, in which the student movement was particularly active, shook Italy during the 1969
autunno caldo (Hot Autumn), leading to the
occupation of the
Fiat factory in Turin. In March 1968, clashes occurred at La Sapienza university in Rome, during the "
Battle of Valle Giulia."
Mario Capanna, associated with the
New Left, was one of the figures of the student movement, along with the members of
Potere Operaio and
Autonomia Operaia such as (
Antonio Negri,
Oreste Scalzone,
Franco Piperno and of
Lotta Continua such as
Adriano Sofri. ==Parties and leaders==