Leonardo Zanier: un comunista italiano nella Svizzera della guerra fredda

A card-carrying member of the Federazione Giovanile Comunista Italiana (Italian Communist Youth Federation) during his adolescence, Leonardo Zanier left the PCI between 1954 and 1957, when he chose the path of emigration and went to Zurich. As a heterodox communist, he became passionate about the cause of the migrant working class and a militant in various Italian associations; he also became president of the Free Colonies and opened the first ECAP-CGIL office in Zurich. He reconnected with the PCI and its militants who were most involved in the factories and working-class neighbourhoods of the canton, taking on the consequences of a choice he made, which was particularly conflictual due to the tense climate of the Cold War. This paper retraces Zanier’s biography with the aim of writing a page in the history of Italian communists abroad, their networks, organisations and conflicts.