Álvaro Cunhal
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Álvaro Barreirinhas Cunhal (pronounced [ˈalvɐɾu kuˈɲal]; Sé Nova, Coimbra, 10 November 1913 — Lisbon, 13 June 2005) was a Portuguese politician who served as secretary-general of the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) from 1961 to 1992. He was one of the most pro-Soviet of all western Europe communist leaders, often supporting USSR world policies, including the intervention in Czechoslovakia in 1968. He also showed initial support for the failed coup of August 1991.
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[edit] Life
Cunhal was born in Coimbra, the third child of Avelino Henriques da Costa Cunhal and wife Mercedes Simões Ferreira Barreirinhas. His father was a lawyer in Coimbra and Seia, and later on in Lisbon. His mother was a devout Catholic who whished her son had also become one. He also studied Law at the University of Lisbon, where he joined the PCP, then an illegal organization, in 1931. He visited the Soviet Union for the first time in 1935 to attend the Seventh World Congress of the Comintern in Moscow. He joined the Central Committee of the PCP in 1936 at the age of 22. His first arrest occurred in 1937.
While in jail, Cunhal submitted his final thesis on the topic of abortion and obtained his law degree (the jury included the future prime minister Marcello Caetano). He then taught for some months at Colégio Moderno, in Lisbon. Among his pupils was the future President of Portugal, Mário Soares, who would be one of his great political rivals after the revolution of 1974.
From 1941 to 1949 Cunhal was underground and became the de facto leader of the PCP. Arrested in 1949, he remained in jail until he made a spectacular escape from the Peniche prison in 1960. This escape had a wide impact. The government of António Salazar claimed that a Soviet submarine was near the Peniche coast waiting for Cunhal. In 1961, he was elected secretary-general of the PCP, following the death of Bento Gonçalves in the concentration camp for political prisoners of Tarrafal in Cape Verde. Cunhal lived in exile in Moscow, where his daughter by Isaura Maria Moreira named Ana Cunhal was born on December 25, 1960, and Paris until the Carnation Revolution of April 1974.
Back in Portugal, Cunhal took charge of the newly legalised PCP and led the party through the political upheavals which followed the revolution. He was minister without portfolio in several of the provisional governments which followed the revolution. A faction of army officers seen as aligned with the PCP dominated the post-revolutionary provisional governments, leading to accusations that the PCP was attempting to take power via the military. Cunhal, was largely responsible for the PCP's hardline attitude, particularly its hostility towards the Portuguese Socialist Party led by Soares, which prevented the formation of a united left.
Cunhal left his office in 1992, being succeeded by Carlos Carvalhas. Nevertheless, his voice remained important in the following years, and he consistently sided with the most orthodox wing of the PCP. He also revealed that under the pseudonym Manuel Tiago he had been the author of several neo-realistic novels. His drawings, made while in prison, were published, revealing his sensibility for the arts, as was also shown by his translation of King Lear by Shakespeare (edited in his last years, and originally written under the female pseudonym Maria Manuela Serpa).
Álvaro Cunhal died in Lisbon in 2005, after several years away from public eye. His funeral, on June 15, took place in Lisbon and was attended by about 250,000 people.[citation needed]
[edit] Works
- IV Congresso do Partido Comunista Português — O Caminho Para o Derrubamento do Fascismo.
- Duas intervenções numa reunião de quadros.
- Rumo à Vitória - As Tarefas do Partido na Revolução Democrática e Nacional.
- A Verdade e a Mentira sobre a Revolução de Abril.
- Acção Revolucionária, Capitulação e Aventura.
- O Partido Com Paredes de Vidro.
- A Revolução Portuguesa - O Passado e o Futuro.
- Fracasso e Derrota do Governo de Direita do PSD/Cavaco Silva.
- O 1º Governo PSD e a Resistência Democrática.
- Falência da Política de Direita do PS (1983-1985).
- Os Chamados Governos de Iniciativa Presidencial.
[edit] Manuel Tiago
Cunhal was also a fiction writer, with several novels under the pseudonym Manuel Tiago, which he recognized as his own only in 1995. He also made the drawings for the original edition of Soeiro Pereira Gomes' book Esteiros. He published the following books under the pseudonym of Manuel Tiago:
- Até Amanhã, Camaradas (adapted to television series in 2005).
- Cinco Dias, Cinco Noites (adapted to film in 1996).
- A Estrela de Seis Pontas.
- A Casa de Eulália.
- Lutas e Vidas. Um conto.
- Os Corrécios e outros Contos.
- Um Risco na Areia.
- Fronteiras.
[edit] Further reading
- Portuguese Comunist Party - Álvaro Cunhal.
- José Pacheco Pereira, Álvaro Cunhal — Uma biografia política, Temas & Debates, Lisbon, 1999, ISBN 972-759-150-7.
- The Guardian - Obituary.
