Luís Carlos Prestes was a communist Brazilian political soldier who led two movements:the march called “Coluna Prestes” (1924-1927) and the “Communist Intent” (1935).
Founder of the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) and President of Honor of the National Liberation Alliance (ALN), he was considered one of the greatest revolutionary leaders in Latin America, and became known as the "Knight of Hope", since during Coluna Prestes he fought for the democracy and social justice.
In 2012, in a contest held by SBT and the BBC, Luís Carlos Prestes was elected one of the 100 greatest Brazilians of all time.
Biography of Luís Carlos Prestes
Luís Carlos Prestes was born in Porto Alegre, capital of Rio Grande do Sul, on January 3, 1898. Son of Antonio Pereira Prestes, an army officer, and Leocádia Pereira Prestes. He lost his father very early, studied at Colégio Militar, and later studied Engineering at Escola Militar do Realengo, in Rio de Janeiro, graduating in 1909.
After the dissolution of the Marcha Prestes movement in 1927, the politician remained in exile in Bolivia (where he began to study Marxism) and in Argentina. In 1931, he left for the Soviet Union, where he worked as an engineer and furthered his studies in Marxism-Leninism.
In the Soviet Union he met his future wife, the German Jewish militant of the Communist International (IC), Olga Benário, with whom he had a daughter, born in prison, since Olga was deported (2 months pregnant) in 1936, at the behest of Getúlio, to Nazi Germany and, later, killed in the gas chamber, in 1942, in the Bernburg concentration camp. The couple's daughter, Anita Leocádia Prestes, was later rescued by her paternal grandmother, Dona Leocádia Prestes.
Back in Brazil, in 1935, he participated in the founding of the Aliança Libertadora Nacional (ALN), an anti-fascist and anti-imperialist organization, against the government of Getúlio Vargas, where he was acclaimed and elected President of Honor.
During the attempted coup against the Vargas government, which became known as the “Communist Intent” (“Communist Uprising of 1935” or “Red Revolt of 35”), Luís Carlos Prestes was arrested, where he remained until 1945.
With the end of the Estado Novo (1937 to 1945) and the Vargas Era, when he got out of prison, he held the position of Senator for the Federal District, from 1946 to 1948.
In 1950, he met his second wife, Maria Prestes, with whom he had 7 children. Other events made him live in hiding, such as the Cold War (which broke out in 1945), the 1964 coup, with the establishment of the military regime in the country.
He remained in exile in the Soviet Union until 1979, when he received an amnesty and returned to Brazil. He died in Rio de Janeiro, on March 7, 1990, aged 92.
The Prestes Column
The Prestes Coluna or Miguel Costa-Prestes Coluna, represented a great march (about 25 thousand km) carried out in the interior of Brazil, during 1924-1927, traveled by the lieutenants (of which Luís Carlos Prestes stands out as a leader in the southern movement).
This march took place during the period known as the Old Republic, with the aim of overthrowing the president (at the time Artur Bernardes from Minas Gerais) and, finally, the coffee oligarchies that took over the country's political and economic scene.
To learn more:
- Prestes Column
- Old Republic
- Tenentism
Quotes by Luís Carlos Prestes
- “It is not sad to fail, it is worse not to try to win .”
- “I'm a revolutionary communist, please .”
- “There are no conditions for the reactionary coup. If the scammers try, they will have their heads cut off .”
- “Although Marxism does not give me the gift of prophecy, it is easy to predict that measures will not work .”
- “It is in the latifundia and in the bad distribution of territorial property, the main cause of the misery and ignorance of our people .”
To learn more, read also:
- Communism
- Marxism
- New Status
- Era Vargas
- Cold War