Letter signed by Luís Carlos Prestes (1947)

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In 1947, communist leader Carlos Prestes thanks an admirer for his support of democracy.

Letter typed and signed by Luís Carlos Prestes to a communist party sympathizer. One page. In Portuguese. 20.6 cm x 24 cm. Rio de Janeiro, March 18, 1947. Excellent condition. Single piece.

extracts

(…) Thank you for your congratulations on the victory of our Party in the January 19 elections in São Paulo.

It is up to us, as patriots, to do our utmost to consolidate the victories won, fighting to rigorously enforce the Constitution and ensure Democracy in our land.

I am certain that he will be willing to help us in this task, approaching the Communist Party, whose ranks are open to all good Brazilians (…).

Luís Carlos Prestes (1898 – 1990), a person little known to most Brazilians, was, however, one of the most influential political figures in Brazil in the 20th century. Leader of the Communist Party of Brazil (PCB) for more than 50 years, he was persecuted throughout his life for trying to raise the population against the power of the ruling oligarchy and, through revolution, demand political and social reforms.

He formed the Coluna Prestes, with the purpose of traveling throughout Brazil to propagate lieutenant ideas, carrying out a 25,000 km march through the interior of the country, until 1927, when the group went into exile in Bolivia. Converted to Marxist ideology, he traveled to the former USSR and returned clandestinely to Brazil in 1935, married to the German Jewish communist Olga Benário. After leading the failed coup known as Intentona Comunista (1935), with the aim of overthrowing then-president Getúlio Vargas and installing a socialist government, he was arrested and his wife handed over to the Nazi police in Germany, where he died in a concentration camp. After the war, with a more democratic Brazil, Prestes became a senator, but was soon forced to go underground.

For Brazilians who have participated in left-wing political movements since the 1940s, this letter commemorating a victory in the 1947 elections, a decisive year, has a special historical value.