Arthur Lehning Buonarroti's Ideas on Communism and Dictatorship

At the University of Pisa, where he studied law, Buonarroti had been acquainted with the 18th century social philosophers especially Helvetius, Mably, Rousseau and Morelly, who had moulded his social and political ideology. When the French Revolution broke out he was among the most courageous protagonists to defend its ideas: "J'attendais depuis longtemps le signal, il fut donne". In October 1789 he left his native Tuscany, "ivre de l'amour de la liberte, epris de la courageuse entreprise des Francais, indigne contre la tyrannie, et las de l'inquisition et des persecutions du despotisme", as he said later in his defence at Vendome. In Corsica he published an Italian paper in defence of the French Revolution, the Giornale Patriottico , and in November 1790 he obtained a post in the administration of the island as head of the "Bureau des domaines nationaux et du clerge". In this capacity he had to deal with the administration and sale of landed property. The rural economy of the island was based on a nearly equal distribution of very small holdings, there were hardly any labourers, and there existed a strong tradition of common interests and collective rights. In his Survey of Corsica Buonarroti wrote: "La communalite des biens semble garantir partout au pauvre le sentiment