Pietro Sandro Nenni (Italian: [ˈpjɛːtro ˈnɛnni]; 9 February 1891 – 1 January 1980) was an Italian socialist politician and statesman, the national secretary of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) and senator for life since 1970. He was a recipient of the Stalin Peace Prize in 1951. He was one of the founders of the Italian Republic and a central figure of the Italian political left from the 1920s to the 1960s.
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Early life and career
Nenni was born in Faenza, in Emilia-Romagna. After his peasant parents died, he was placed in an orphanage by an aristocratic family. Every Sunday, he recited his catechism before the countess and if he did well, he received a silver coin, which he recalled as "generous but humiliating".
In 1908, Nenni became editor of a republican paper in Forlì. The socialist paper in the town was edited at the time by Benito Mussolini, later the Fascist dictator of Italy. In 1909 he entered political life by joining the Italian Republican Party. Nenni was arrested in 1911 for his participation in a socialist protest against Italy's imperialistic war in Libya alongside Mussolini and was imprisoned for seven months.