Álvaro Cunhal (10 November 1913 – 13 June 2005) was a Portuguese Revolutionary writer, politician and one of the major opponents of the Fascist regime Estado Novo. An important figure of Marxism in Portugal, he’s also considered the basis for the movement and the ideology in Portugal, but also having a timid attitude and a quite reserved personality, being described by multiple Biographical Authors as “The man who does not want to be a subject to biography”, that demonstrates the will to know the movement better than to know those who support it. Despite this, his fight against totalitarianism is well-known as well as his constant support to the proletariat and the party (which he was secretary-general from 1961 to 1991), having dwelt with torture and imprisonment, while protecting the idea above all.
Born in Coimbra, Sé Nova in 10th of November 1913, he spend some of his childhood in Seia. His family moved to Lisboa where he would attend lyceum Pedro Nunes, although, later he went to lyceum Camões.
Having graduated High School, he attended Law School at University of Lisbon where he initiated his revolutionary activity while also participating in the student associative movement, having been elected in 1934 the representative of the students in the University Senate. Was a member of the Youth Federation of the Portuguese Communists, elected their secretary-general in 1935, while also being member of the Portuguese Communist Party since 1931 and in 1935 he integrated the cadre of Clandestine Militants.
Arrested in 1937, 1940 – After which he participated in the reorganization of the Portuguese Communist Party of 1940/41 and it’s elected member of the Secretariat in 1942, position he held until 1949 where he was again arrested. He spent the whole 50’s in fascist prisons, taken to court, he criticized the dictatorship and defended the Party. Found guilty, he spent the next eleven years in jail, in which eight were spent in complete isolation – Without never losing the track of time. Being transferred from Lisbon’s Penitentiary to the prison-fortress of Peniche, he escaped with the help of other important Communists Militants.
The period between the beginning of the 60s until the Carnation Revolution is intense. He Integrated, once again, the Secretariat of the Central Committee, where he was elected Secretary-General of the Portuguese Communist Party in March 1961. He intervened directly when the direction was to go with right-wing parties and for the battle against the right-wing opportunism. Gave a decisive analysis of the National situation, in the description of the fascist regime, in plotting the orientation, in definition of tasks and in the brilliant political direction of the party, creating opportunities for the Revolution of April and its development, and after the Revolution, after almost forty years of struggle underground or in prison, he developed political action through the conditions that the Revolution gave.
Was a minister in the first four Provisional Governments and was elected Deputy for the constituent Assembly in 1975, between 1975-1987 for the Assembly of the Republic and was also a member of the State Council between 1982-1992. His intervention in the development phase of the revolutionary process and later in the defense of the conquests of the revolution reached by the counter-revolutionary process, it’s profoundly marked by the evaluation and the stimulus to the role of the struggle of the proletariat.
Died at the Age of 92, in 13th of June 2005. Within his funeral, thousands came, a tribute of the party, of the workers, of those who desire freedom above all, to which Álvaro Cunhal dedicated his entire life.